Preparations for a Bikepacking Adventure

**** This page is subject to updates ***** This year has been extremely frustrating. With most international travel all but canceled, due to COVID-19 quarantines and a high infection rate, I needed to come up with something that seemed reasonable responsible, while giving me a sense of accomplishment. I've lived in Minnesota for 20 years now and have never left the cities. So I decided that this would be the year to do so, except not by car but by bike. It may seem quite a bit ambitious but if successful, it will give me a great sense of not…

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2017: A Travel Year in Review

While traveling around Australia in November of last year, I came across some airfare that I knew wouldn't last long. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines had just recently announced that they would begin flying 3x weekly between Amsterdam and Minneapolis, in addition to the 3x daily flights operated by Delta. As part of their introduction of service they had a fare sale for much of Europe. Having visited a fair number of European countries over the years I thought long and hard about a place that I wanted to visit, that I could get to easily. In the end, I choose…

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A Day of Spotting at Zürich Airport

While I was in Europe traveling around Bulgaria I was invited to join a colleague of mine to her wedding in Konstanz, Germany. This was a great opportunity and it meant flying into Zurich Airport. I planned it so that I would have the day at the wedding, one day in Liechtenstein and then almost a half of day of spotting at Zurich Airport. Here are a few of the shots I managed to snag while there. Zurich is a spotters paradise as for 5 Swiss Francs, you can go out onto the observation deck which provides a spectacular location…

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Travel Plans to Italy

Recently a friend of mine at work wanted to travel to Europe for the first time but was unsure if she wanted to go alone. With my love of travel I said that I would be willing to go with her. Her destination in mind was Italy; specifically, Tuscany. Last week on Thursday I managed to find airfare to Rome for the both of us for just under $700 each, out of Minneapolis. This has been a pretty good year for airfare (who knows how long these types of fares are going to last). So now we have some planning…

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4th of July over Minneapolis

I haven't shot the fireworks in several years and thought I would try to shoot from a vantage point that provided a beautiful backdrop of the Minneapolis skyline. Although the cityscape was beautiful, it's not really the ultimate spot for viewing fireworks. Yet, here are a few of my favorites from my adventure.

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Birthday Present for 2017: LATAM Boeing 787-9 5th Freedom Flight

For some people this may not seem like a very appealing idea, however, for my birthday this year I am doing a whirlwind trip from Amsterdam to Amsterdam, via Madrid and Frankfurt, for my 38th birthday. Why you might ask? As an aviation enthusiast I like to do things that are a little different. For instance, flying LAN from Sydney, Australia to Auckland, New Zealand or Garuda Indonesia from London to Amsterdam. Well, one of the other more interesting routes is flying the South American carrier, LATAM (formerly LAN Airliens & TAM Airlines until they merged). As a 5th freedom…

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2016: A Travel Year in Review

This year turned out to have quite a bit more travel than I had originally thought I would. I wasn't sure I was going to actually be able to do any personal travel due to some surgery I had done in the end of March. In February I went off to Melbourne, Florida for some refresher training on a system that we use at work. I spent about 3 glorious days in the city of Melbourne. The weather was definitely nicer than in Minnesota in the winter, but it wasn't actually the greatest for Florida! Still.... it was on the…

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FP: Australia: When you look into my eyes …

When I look into your eyes. A Western Lowland Gorilla gives me one of the most intense gazes I've ever seen. It's almost as if I could look into his soul.

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