Though I hate Air Canada and avoid them when possible, I’m still a Prestige Something Something member.
How should I spend my 63,000+ air miles?
Save up for 75,000 for Asia, Australia or New Zealand?
Category: travel
whoever plays in Vegas, stays in Vegas
Vegas is hot.
National Geographic says …
Las Vegas – National Geographic Adventure Magazine
Downside?
You MUST have your own vehicle to get to the good stuff. The traffic is horrendous. Locals avoid the “strip” … unless they work there.
Banff Mountain Film Festival WORLD TOUR
I love this event.
The Banff Mountain Film Festival is on the road across North America and around the world. Whether you are an experienced mountaineer or an armchair adventurer, this event is for everyone. Don’t miss the excitement!
The Tour Schedule is linked from the home page – World Tour: Mountain Culture at The Banff Centre
The event sponsors are prominently mentioned — OK, it’s a commercial — in the second half of the video. But it’s still worth watching. This is the kind of TV commercial I like.
Click PLAY or watch the promo trailer on YouTube.
Calgary: January 15 – 20, 2008 and April 5 & 6, 2008
(via besthike.com)
Sandos Caracol resort – Playa del Carmen
My parents, brother Rob and partner Yvonne are off today to a 5 star all-inclusive resort. Almost 1000 rooms.
Sandos Caracol: Beach and spa hotels, all inclusive services for family in ours hotels.
Me, … I much prefer to stay in snowy Calgary walking Pete the Jack Russell.
Air Canada Winter Getaway Pass
My least favourite airline is getting great press. And making money.
This traveller just sent them $1060.
I purchased something called a Western Winter Getaway Flight Pass (2 month).
I can fly free any Tuesday, Saturday or Sunday from January 8 through Tuesday March 04, 2008. From most Western Canadian cities to Western American cities to which Air Canada flies.
It’s good value for me. Though inevitably I will have to fly back to Canada merely to turn around next day and fly South again. Air Canada does not fly between U.S. destinations and the Pass is not valid on their partners.
Fine print:
Available only to Canadian residents with a valid address, Aeroplan membership and PIN number at time of purchase and during the entire validity period.
… Flight credits can be used only on Air Canada, Air Canada Jazz and Air Canada regional partners with Air Canada flight numbers. Codeshare flights operated by United Airlines and United Express are excluded
… Flight credit booking changes are subject to availability; a $75 CA fee per direction, plus taxes, applies to booking changes and cancellations
This pass is only available until December 2, 2007.
More information – Air Canada Flight Passes
book – A Piano in the Pyrenees
I am on a reading listening binge. (Thanks to Audible.com and hours each day on my bike with a Nano.)
A Piano in the Pyrenees: The Ups and Downs of an Englishman in the French Mountains
What? He’s not the world’s most famous skateboarder.
He’s Antony Gordon Hawksworth, better known as Tony Hawks, English comedian, author and philanthropist.
I loved his first book — Round Ireland with a Fridge and somewhat liked his second book — Playing the Moldovans at Tennis.
Piano is his fourth book. And it is excellent. I love the amusing, understated British humour.
A Brit out of his element in rural France after impetuously buying a house. Brilliant.
PS
A guy named Dave Nicoll also liked Round Ireland with a Fridge. Inspired, he decided to travel round the WORLD with a fridge.
Kelly and Lexi – Honeymoon photos
Lexi and Kelly were married this past summer in Whitehorse, Yukon. We had a terrific time there. THANKS.
Today Lexi posted some photos to Facebook, including this one from their kayak trip on the Inside Passage right after their wedding.
Sitka, Alaska: Facebook | Alexia McKinnon’s Photos – Honeymoon #1 – more photos
Yup, Lexi married this guy … and later in the Fall took a second trip to Hawaii.
After a great day of snorkeling at Hanauma Bay: Facebook | Alexia McKinnon’s Photos – Honeymoon # 2 Hawaii – more photos
Looks wonderful.
Shewchuks in Jamaica
Downtown Ronnie posted a few holiday pics on Facebook.
Kate was propositioned (or something) by these guys:
Ron Shewchuk’s Photos – Jamaica I
book – All the Pretty Horses
For some reason I thought I’d like All the Pretty Horses, the award winning novel by Cormac Mccarthy.
That would be wrong.
… The plot is simple enough. John Grady Cole, a 16-year-old dispossessed Texan, crosses the Rio Grande into Mexico in 1949, accompanied by his pal Lacey Rawlins. The two precocious horsemen pick up a sidekick–a laughable but deadly marksman named Jimmy Blevins–encounter various adventures on their way south and finally arrive at a paradisiacal hacienda where Cole falls into an ill-fated romance. …
The writing is excellent. But the plot plods and has nothing more to redeem it than tired “folk wisdom of uneducated cowboys” cuteness. The last time that engaged me, Clint Eastwood was a young man.
Thumbs down.
I bought it as an audio book. But since no one has (yet) come up with a convincing enough neologism to claim the prize, I cannot VERBalize what I did with Pretty Horses.
… “ristened” … GAK.
beautiful thermal geology in Pamukkale, Turkey
Katrina sent me photos of a famous formation in Turkey. For hundreds of years tourists have used them as hot springs. Of course people were damaging the geology. They are protected now.
Hierapolis-Pamukkale was made a World Heritage Site in 1988.
larger original – flickr
more interesting photos of Pamukkale, Turkey
Pamukkale, meaning “cotton castle” in Turkish, is a natural site and attraction in south-western Turkey in the Denizli Province.
…
The effect of this natural phenomenon leaves thick white layers of limestone and travertine cascading down the mountain slope resembling a frozen waterfall. …
Pamukkale is a famous tourist attraction of Turkey. Tourists travel from the coast of Antalya and the Aegean Sea to Pamukkale, it is also recognized as a World Heritage Sites together with Hierapolis. Only a few other places in the world resemble it, including the Mammoth Hot Springs in the USA and Huanglong in Sichuan Province of China (another UNESCO World Heritage Site).
