Travels

We enjoyed a couple of days in Canmore, Alberta, and some cross country skiing at Lake Louise, in Banff National Park. There was lots of fresh snow and sunshine, and the mild temperature was wonderful. Lake Louise is one of our favorite places in the Canadian Rockies.

Lake Louise December 2017

There are now 68 members in Marilyn’s family. She is the eldest, the matriarch, and the youngest is just two months old. Her five siblings and 16 nieces and nephews and their families live in seven locations, so we travelled from place to place to visit 44 of them.

Alberta December 2017

Marilyn and four of her University of Alberta classmates have a tradition of getting together for brunch in Calgary every New Year’s Day. This time only two attended, as one was in bed with a cold and another felt that driving on the icy roads would be too treacherous.

Alberta December 2017

We were in Tampa, Florida for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Conference - and while John was in meetings, Marilyn toured St. Pete’s, the cultural capital of Florida with its 32 museums. The Dale Chihuly Collection was stunning.

St. Petersburg November 2017

After the ASME meeting, we visited a friend in Sarasota and got caught up on what’s happened in our lives during the ten years since we last spent some time together. We walked on the beach - on white sand, like we’ve never seen before - anywhere.

Sarasota November 2017

We spent time in Tampa with Al Barrett and his wife Gail. Al is the founder of the Threads of Hope Sewing School in Kenya. We’ve known him since 2005 (our first summer in Kenya), but only through e-mail and phone calls. One of our Masai students just finished the tailoring course at his school, and now she wants to set up her own small sewing business. Her church in Bissil has a space for her to work in - so all she needs to get started is a sewing machine and some supplies and some textiles.

Tampa November 2017

We visited our Maryknoll Missioner friend Russ in Phnom Penh. Maria, another Maryknoll Missioner, teaches history at a university there and she had given her students a treasure hunt as an assignment. We went in a tuk tuk on the same treasure hunt to see the sights. Russ, who set up the St. John Bosco Education Trust, transferred to Cambodia a year ago after being in Kenya for 15 years.

Phnom Penh September 2017

Then we went to Siem Reep and Angkot Wat, a UN Historical Site, where we walked a lot and went up and down lots of stairs and in and out of lots of temples built in the 12th century. One million people lived there then- and 100,000 of them worked to build these stone structures - with the help of 40,000 elephants who moved the huge stones. These temples were lost in the trees, whose roots found their way through crevices in order to survive.

Cambodia September 2017

Our next stop was Hanoi, where we stayed in the old section. The young people there drive motorbikes, dress fashionably Western, enjoy coffee at Starbucks and like to practice speaking English. There are many new high-rise buildings next to three or four story tube houses - some from the French era.

Viet Nam September 2017

The movie “Indochine” is why we wanted to see the 2000 mountain islands in Ha Long Bay. It is also a UN Historical Site, as well as one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. We were so blessed, as it was low season and we had our “Indochine Sails” boat (the Valentine) all to ourselves.

Viet Nam September 2017