Yes, Warden Wendy...that's the "official" name of a woman park ranger here in Canada! And with a name like Wendy, how can you go wrong? Granted I have just a wee bit of a bias!! But in my humble opinion Warden Wayne and Wendy sound a lot better to me than Ranger Rick and Rhoda! But enough about Warden Wendy, the excitement of the day was seeing a BLACK BEAR!!! Along our travels from Banff en route to Jasper, in the Jasper National Park, we were ever-so-fortunate to see a BLACK BEAR! Granted, the furry creature only looks like a dot [View Full Entry]

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Oregon is awesome! It smells like camping and donuts! Okay, it doesn't really smell like donuts, but Portland has one of the most unusual donut shops I have every visited--VooDoo Doughnuts. They have some unique flavors there, in fact I tried one encrusted with Oreos and drizzled with peanut butter. Yum! You can even get married there! Check it out yourself: http://voodoodoughnut.com/ I had a great time exploring the winding roads and some amazing scenery, traversing almost 400 miles with my rental car in one day! I ventured east to see Multnomah Falls, the second tallest year round [View Full Entry]

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When we last left off Chris & I were heading to Dingle and the Ring of Kerry. The Ring of Kerry was scratched from the itinerary due to time constraints. The weather was fabulous as we made our way from Limerick to the Dingle peninsula. En route we took the scenic drive through the Connor Pass, the highest mountain pass in Ireland. Through the narrow and winding one lane roads we drove arriving in Dingle. We wandered about the town which has a dolphin, Fungie, as the town mascot! In fact you can even take a boat ride to make a [View Full Entry]

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Driving in Ireland has been quite an experience!! Not only do you drive on the opposite side of the road here, but also the opposite side of the car! And if that does not shake up one's driving world there are the round-a-bouts!!! The round-a-bouts are everywhere instead of a traffic light or overpass. Think of them like a giant circle which can have several off-shoots (aka exits at home). So you must enter every round-a-bout you encounter and there are MANY! You have to yield to enter and then cautiously and carefully calculate where to exit. While Fitch & I [View Full Entry]

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Hola! Happy New Year again to all of you! I hope you all had fun and festive celebrations.! After our last installment, we took a boat across Laguna de Arenal to reach our transport which curved around and around and around on bumpy terrain with shear drops of unknown depth which made me gasp repeatedly! Happily we arrived in the cloud forest where we toured the rain forest with a local guide. And although I feared the swaying bridges I decided to embrace my fears and try ziplining! Why not, it's a new year for new things, right? It was breathtaking!! [View Full Entry]

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Hola! Greetings and an early Happy New Year!! Although there were some major bumps in the travel adventures of Wendy Wanderer and her Companion Chris (thanks mom!), including a canceled flight, we were able to arrive in Costa Rica as scheduled. Miraculously!! We spent the first two days in San Jose, which is nothing special, although the warm, sunny weather was welcomed after the horrid weather we experienced last week. Yesterday we arrived in Arenal, where we are staying at a fabulous hotel with a breathtaking view of the volcano. And we were so fortunate to see the volcano, which [View Full Entry]

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Yes, it is true, I am the stalker!! So this is the saga. I am in Vancouver, traveling around the city with my friend Lawrence, and I tell him about this place I have heard about that has not 31 flavors, but 218 flavors of gelato!! It's true and factual! So we make an extensive trek, not because it is far, but because we encounter one of the most unhelpful people here in Canada. Actually he might be the only unhelpful one, as people in Canada are exceptionally nice (see Nicki, I have found my place!!). Super uber nice...it's unbelievable how [View Full Entry]

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Hola from Mexico City--the epicenter of action packed adventure! As I send you this virtual postcard of sorts, the weather is just perfect...lovely in every way. The entire city is in full bloom, as the trees, called jacarandas, are dotted with small purple flowers. They are so pretty, I have remarked on them daily since we arrived two days ago. They are a fond remembrance of the time spent in Tokyo during cherry blossom season with my dear cousin! :) Where to begin? Well, both Brenda (of Brazil fame) and I had a rough spell due to the altitude, but alas, [View Full Entry]

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Happy New Year to Everyone!! Greetings from Puerto Rico (which interesting enough is not in Central America as my travel blog states, rather is is a commonwealth of the United States)!! At present I am on a small island just east of the main island of Puerto Rico where the weather is blissfully warm and sunny. Our adventures thus far have been spectacular!! Yesterday we took a 10 seater plane from San Juan to Vieques and saw an awesome arial views of the ocean and lush landscape. After landing we found our inn and took our rented jeep out for some [View Full Entry]

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Greetings from warm, sunny Cairns (pronounced "cans")! We arrived here late this afternoon, around 4 pm, and were pleasantly surprised by the landscape. The warmer weather we were expecting...and eagerly awaiting...but the landscape reminds me a lot of the island of Kauai in Hawaii. There are lush, rolling moutainous hills and palm trees here (Although surprisingly, there were palm trees in both Sydney and Melbourne also.) Awesome!! Plus we were fortunate to get a hotel room, after the beds were "unzipped" (I guess that's their way of making a bed into two small beds. :), with an ocean v [View Full Entry]

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