Tony Wilson

tonywilsonslo

I am a software engineer, but love to travel.



Travel Blog Posts


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tonywilsonslo
August 1st 2011

What we need is MORE SCIENCE! There were many choices for our day in Vancouver. It was B.C. day so everything was running on holiday hours. Michelle decided she wanted to go to Science World so we found our way across town to South Vancouver after breakfast. Science World is another great hands on science museum. The thing that set it apart from others (especially for Michelle) was the hourly shows and demonstrations. She saw five shows including one on bubbles where she was picked to help out on stage. She also saw the fire show, an illusion show, a dinosaur game show and one called Surprise Science. Yes folks, we spent over 5 hours in that museum. I won't feel guilty about saying no to the children's museum for some time to come. :) Tonight ... read more



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tonywilsonslo
July 31st 2011

Vancouver Pride Parade 2011 It seems like every group participated in the parade today. From banks and grocery stores to public officials and city groups, everybody wanted to be a part of the 2.5 hour long parade. There were some interesting floats, lots of underwear, and a few strategically placed band-aids. Michelle enjoyed herself and didn't ask too many questions. The rest of the day was very low key as we all caught up on some rest. Tomorrow is our last day in Vancouver before we head out on the cruise. Michelle is getting pretty excited and spent a good part of the evening looking at the Disney cruise web site. She'll have the whole layout memorized before we ever set foot on the ship.... read more



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tonywilsonslo
July 30th 2011

On the Train Again.... We were up and out early this morning to say goodbye to Seattle and catch a 7:40 train to Vancouver, BC. The trip did not take too long and was nice and relaxing. We did find out about the Vancouver Festival of Lights starting that evening with a giant fireworks display put together by a group from China. After lunch, some laundry and dinner we headed out into the city to find a place to watch the fireworks. The main grandstand was at English Bay Beach but fireworks being and aerial deal we could see them from many places along the bay. We found a good spot not too far from our hotel and settled in to wait for the show to start. There were a ton of people and hundreds of ... read more



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tonywilsonslo
July 29th 2011

West Coast Trip 2011 - Day 6 Did we miss anything? Our last day in seattle and Tony got a chance to see some of the sights. Michelle and Anne went looking for a replacement windbreaker downtown. They did not find one but at one point they ended up in Nordstroms and found a great outfit and headband for Michelle instead. After lunch everyone went to the Expirence Music Project and Sci-Fi Museum at Seattle Center. There was a great exhibit on the science and design behind the movie Avatar. Anne even got to play around with the motion tracking software and act in a scene from the movie. Michelle created her own plant for Pandora. The rest of the museum was pretty cool. They had some hands on music booths where you could try out ... read more



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tonywilsonslo
July 28th 2011

Lions and Tigers and Buses, Oh My! Everyone was tired enough to get a late start today. Anne and Michelle decided to brave the bus and visit the zoo. The Woodlend Park Zoo had some really great exhibits, easily rivaling the SF and Oakland zoos. Michelle's favorite part (after the bus ride with the bus that bent in the middle) was the bird encounter. Inside the aviary there were a bunch of parakeets and cockateels and the zoo sold little bunches of millet glued to a popscicle stick. If you held out your stick near a bird it would eat the seed and maybe even perch on the sick or your hand. The zoo had great gorilla, oragutang, and wolf habitats and was working on building a new habitat for the big cats and bears. A ... read more



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tonywilsonslo
July 27th 2011

Science and Theater (The only mystery was where to eat) We did a bit more walking today but Michelle and I had a blast. We walked with Tony to the Amazon campus and stoppped at Portage Bay for a more substantial breakfast. They had a great toppings bar for breakfast. Whipped cream, maple syrup, brown sugar, nuts, and fresh berries of all kinds were available for your oatmeal and pancakes. It reminded me of how my great grandmother would have a slice of pie just so she could have a big mound of whipped cream on it. After breakfast we walked to the Pacific Science Museum. The PSM is a collection of 5 buildings each dedicated to a differnt kind of science. There were exhibits on phisics, animals, bugs, space, cloning, genetics, big numbers, addiction and ... read more



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tonywilsonslo
July 26th 2011

Welcome to Seattle Michelle's first choice in Seattle was the Children's Museum. Seattle has a huge 22,000 sq ft Children's museum with tons of things to do. We spent almost 5 hours there with only a quick break for lunch. Her first stop was the life sized erector set in the construction room. Her tunnel was very nice. We also went bird watching, visited far off cities, worked behind the scenes in a theater, made sandwiches, created with clay, explored physics and constructed with Legos. Not bad for a children's museum. After the Children's Museum we rode the monorail to downtown Seattle. From the station we walked to the city library to read some books and use the computers. The Library had a challenge to find a green sheep somewhere in the children's section. Michelle decided ... read more



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tonywilsonslo
July 25th 2011

On the Train - aaaaalllll daaaaay The sleeper car has been very nice, much better than coach. There has been some beautiful scenery as we pass through Northern California, Oregon and Washington. Trees, lots and lots of trees. It's been a low key day with the main excitment being meals in the dinning car. They are included in the sleeper car price so we get to order anything we want. When we stopped at Klamath Falls Michelle and Anne worked off some energy by racing up and down the platform. Michelle won everytime. We also managed to make up the 90 minutes we lost at the begining of the trip and arrived in Seattle a little bit early. A trip to Whole Foods, a good night's sleep and Michelle and Anne be ready to explore Seattle ... read more



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tonywilsonslo
July 24th 2011

Packing, Packing, Wine and Train You have to start packing sometime. So what if it's the day you leave. Our train was scheduled to leave at 4:45 PM so we had plenty of time. Fortunatly for us we are getting pretty expirenced at packing. This year's trip had so many parts we are lucky we don't have any restrictions on luggage. By the time we finished we had 6 bags plus a personal item each. Good thing Michelle is getting old enough to wheel her own bag. We were all ready to go by 3 PM. A quick stop for some frozen yogurt and we were on our way. We kept an eye on the train status all day since it can be late. Up until we left the house it was still on time. By ... read more



Day 6 - Berlin to Marburg

Published: July 14th 2010Europe » Germany » Berlin » Berlin
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tonywilsonslo
July 14th 2010

Day 6 - Berlin to Marburg After a couple of days of walking and heat we were ready to sit in the car awhile. Today's trip was a little less scenic but we had some destinations in mind so we took the autobahn rather than driving through the back roads. First we headed back to the Harz mountains to see the Rubeland Caves near Elbingerode. We passed by on our way to Berlin but didn't have time to stop. The cave we toured was called Baumannhohle, or Bauman's cave. It was discovered in the 1600s and has been toured and excavated since then. The tour was in German but one of the guests helped us out by translating some of the bits. While we were in Rubeland we had lunch at a cafe inside a ... read more






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