Ryan and Debi

Tag: travel

  • Scotland Adventure – Day 3 – Cuillin Hills

    My colleague who recommended that I go hiking in Scotland recommended that I go to the Cuillin Hills.  These “hills” are widely regarded as the most rugged terrain in all of Scotland and are located on the Isle of Skye.  Considering that they are only about 3,000 feet in elevation, I didn’t believe they could…

  • United Kingdom – Ben Nevis

    After the prior day’s travails, I slept in pretty late for me – 9:00 am.  I was debating whether or not I should hike Ben Nevis, the tallest mountain in the UK, given the poor condition of my heels, but this was the primary mountain I came to climb. Physically, I wasn’t sore from the…

  • Scotland Adventure – Day 1 – the Pap of Glencoe

    I spent July 3rd through the 6th in London at an academic conference.  With my airfare covered by my university, and having made two prior trips to England for conferences, I thought it might be fun to extend this trip by a few days to see more of the United Kingdom.  I asked Debi if…

  • an interesting conception of love

    During my spring break I went to the Cherokee Nation to volunteer with students.  During that trip we had several people come talk to us about Cherokee culture.  One of those speakers said something that stuck with me.  He explained that there is no word in Cherokee that translates into the word “love.”  He said…

  • beignets at Cafe Dumond

    Despite having been to New Orleans at least twice before, neither Debi or I had ever had a beignet.  So, we made a special trip to Cafe Dumond before driving back to Tampa to pick up some beignets.  Toren and Debi loved them: Me?  I thought they were okay, but a little too sugary for…

  • the Audobon Zoo

    We took Toren to the zoo while we were there.  It’s a nice zoo; very large.  But Toren didn’t seem extremely interested, though it could have been lack of sleep. He did get his picture taken with the Buddha: To entertain Toren on the ride up we put Star Wars – The Clone Wars on…

  • dinner and a movie

    While we did spend a fair amount of time at the conference, we also found time to sneak out with Toren to see some of New Orleans.  We caught a movie at the aquarium… Well, Debi and I did.  Toren was so exhausted from not taking a nap that he fell asleep about 5 minutes…

  • beach in Sandestin

    In early April Debi and I had a conference in New Orleans where we presenting a poster with one of my students.  Since both of us were going, we decided it would be easiest to rent a car and drive to take Toren with us.  To break up the drive, which is about 11 hours,…

  • Oklahoma City Memorial

    In March I traveled with a group of students to Oklahoma to volunteer during spring break.  On the last day the volunteer trips typically include an excursion.  While we were volunteering with the Cherokee Nation, which is closer to Tulsa, we decided to use our excursion day to travel to Oklahoma City to see the…

  • UAE Trip – Day 11

    I probably don’t need to include this day in the trip report, but I’m going to use it to reflect a little bit, so I’ll include it. As noted in my last post, my flight from Dubai left at 1:30 am on the 14th, arriving in Frankfurt around 5:30am.  I had a 7 hour layover…