High School Days: London, East Coast, NY, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic & the Bahamas

Leaving behind the family vacations, or at least mixing them with more travel opportunities, began when I entered high school. I traveled a lot, now that I think of it.
Grade nine - Dad and I went for a six day theatre tour in London England - we stayed in Picadilly Circus (the same hotel he stayed in in the 70's when he was rescued from Serbia by the British general who smuggled him back to London). We explored, enjoyed the rain and went to the theatre. We saw 'An Inspector Calls', Blood Brothers, The Lion King, ok and one other which I forget.

I also spent a week in Quebec performing with my high schools dance theatre workshop.
That same summer we took a family roadtrip out to PEI. We spent a night in Montreal, a couple days in old Quebec city and then New Brunswick and PEI. (yes I saw Anne of Green Gables House - yes, all my dreams came true).

Grade 10 - Family vacation to the Dominican Republic - a change in our traveling style, but for my first time at a resort I rather enjoyed it. Different when you're only 15 - more playing board games by the pool, eating fries and getting sun burned. (how unappreciative).
Plus yet another week performing with the dance workshop - this time in New York. Although we performed right downtown Manhattan, we stayed in Queens and we didn't really see any of the tourist attractions. And so... in

Grade 11 - we went back. Shayda, Mom and I spent Thanksgiving Weekend in New York City. Mostly this involved shopping. I also returned to Costa Rica this year with the grade 11 world citizenship class. We spent two weeks working in a tiny village, revamping their community center and spending time with the locals.

Grade 12 - As the teaching assistant for the grade 11 class I got to go on the service trip again - this time to the Bahamas. We spent one week working in an AIDS hospice, and the next doing a literacy and moral education program in a primary school.

Photo Submission: Costa Rica and Belize

Costa Rica - the next family trip after Mexico was a one-week family fun filled vacation through Costa Rica. We made it through the rain forests down to the pacific coast. The highlights probably being our construction of crab zoos on the beach and zip lining through the rain forest canopy.










Belize - one of my favourite places that I've visited, Belize was beautiful and jam packed with adventures. Starting on Ambergris Cay we spent Christmas snorkeling and swimming and exploring the island via golf cart (which I crashed). Next we settled down in a lodge in the rain forests where dad and I went on a rafting trip. The highlight though was our next stop at Cave's Branch - spending nights in small cabins in the jungle and the days going caving. One day we entered on inner tubes, the next by repelling. We also spent the millennium here listening to a mariachi band on the deck with other guests, including some crazies our parents befriended and had us refer to as uncles. After a day on the coast to the south we decided to return for more caving (encouraged by the escape of a rapist in the area that had our mother a little on edge). Finally we found time for a day trip to Guatemala to see Tikal - the largest ancient mayan ruins. We saw the view of the opening scene of Star Wars here. And Ben and I took this awesome photo - check it out - you need to enlarge it to truly appreciate the timeliness of this shot, and the moral dilemma that went into capturing it.

Arizona, Mexico and Iceland

While I was home this weekend cleaning out my room I found the journals I wrote on every family trip. I hate journaling, but seem to have been quite a clever kid :P
Here's a few excerts:

Arizona 1997 ... obviously an exciting adventure for me... I kept track of our daily actions, horses names, and the things I learned. I also kept an incredibly detailed inventory of everything I bought and how much it cost. like i said - clever.

Mexico ... when I really want to emphasize something - I add diagrams.
The sentence that is incomplete at the top was: "We met 2 people working for Kellogs. They asked us our favourite cereal, I said fruit loops because I know thats kellogs and I like it"
me @ 10 years = clever

 Iceland ... thats my writing - I was 8. nough said

(Ben and I at the Grand Canyon)