Walking: the profession of Chris and Laura Beauchamp, our new full-time job. The morning air was cold and a thin layer of snow covered the ground. We headed for the British Museum but it was 8:15 am and it didn’t open until 10:00 am. Instead we walked to the Covent Garden Market. The market was just starting to unravel. Again, we were too early. So, we walked. We walked towards the river, along a place called Sommerset House, which was also closed and we kept walking up a street full of theatres with huge billboards and signs that would probably be flashing with life and entising the crowd, but they too were closed. So, we walked. By now we were already quite cold. Chris didn’t have mittens or a scarf, but even with those I was getting chilled to the bone. To warm-up we found a coffee shop in front…Continue Reading
For the past two days I’ve been hungry every three hours. They only fed us twice on the Thomas Cook flight from Vancouver to London, so by the time we got here in London we were famished and hadn’t slept all night. I could tell this was going to be one of the longer days of my life. We landed at Gatwick Airport, which is a good 40 minutes away from the center of London. After a few minutes of confusion trying to buy a train ticket in a country where they speak the same language as us, we couldn’t help but chuckle at our rusty travel skills and the thought of doing the same thing in Turkey or India. 24 pounds later we were on the train. 40 minutes later we were at Victoria train station in London. We started walking in the direction of our hostel and the…Continue Reading
As promised, here are some of the photos we got in Vancouver. We’re in London now, and after walking for about 10 hours yesterday (we estimated about 14km), we have a ton of photos from here already, but first things first. Although it is my intent to write more once we get a bit more used to life on the road, for now I think I’ll let the pictures do (most of) the talking.  
Hey all, Just a quick post to let you know we’ve made it safely to London. My battery is about to die. I’ll post some photos of Vancouver soon. Chris  
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For the past few days I’ve been working far more furiously than you would think someone who is technically unemployed would be. But working for yourself on a freelance basis can be like that and I’m happy to have the work. I also have a couple of other projects to wrap-up, so I’m not out of it yet. But, earlier tonight I did finish the major phase of a web design project I’ve been doing for a client of mine (who’s also become a friend), and if you’re checking out this site you should check his out too. Allan Gallant will be billing himself the Airplane Guy, offering a range of school outreach programs to students right in the classroom. He’s been involved in aviation and aviation education for virtually his entire life, most recently having been in charge of education programs at the Calgary Aerospace Museum. Laura and I…Continue Reading
It costs 22 Canadian bucks for an adult to visit the Vancouver aquarium but it’s worth it. They take remarkably good care of their tanks and creatures of all shapes and sizes. Ever seen a Beluga whale? How about  sea horses or a prehistoric fish that’s about 6 feet long and 1.5 feet wide? If you haven’t then you need to go the Vancouver Aquarium. I thoroughly enjoyed the way the aquarium presented their written material. The descriptions were short and memorable. They also have some awesome interactive exhibits such as video sequences that you can control the speed of, in order to see just how fast the reflexes are of different creatures. I had the best time learning random facts like there are 24 species of Piranha but only 3 species even pose a threat to humans and that’s only if you wade through a shallow pond of water…Continue Reading
Front and center is Dale and Des's beautiful daughter Isla!
Fresh mussels. Shrimp.  Steak. Asparagus. Broccoli. Zucchini. I love food. Des, Dale, myself and Chris all did different tasks to create an amazing dinner at the Millers’ place. The next day we went to Dale’s parents house (also Millers) for dinner. Margie whipped up a fantastic red meat pasta sauce which we washed down with two red wines: “Gnarly” and “Gnarlier”. I preferred the “Gnarlier”. After dinner Mr. Miller brought out the Scotch and Port. We ended the evening with a crash course, delivered by Chris, on how to clean your camera sensor.  
Only 10 more days. Now I’m getting excited. Woo-hoo!!!! We had a huge turkey and ham dinner with Chris’ aunts, uncles, mom and dad. Son and dad bonded with Uncle Dave over a game of snooker. Dad won.  
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After a grueling overnight in the G-hound, we finally made it south to warmer climes. We’ve been in my parent’s adopted hometown of Sorrento, B.C. now for about three days, and I tell you, retirement living has never had it so easy. It’s about 4 degrees celsius, which is downright balmy for a Canadian January, and the lake views and mountain vistas are easy enough to take. We had a late Christmas get together with the Aunts and Uncles here down at the retirement park’s club house, and it was a chance once again for my Old Man to prove he’s better at pool than pretty much any one else I’ve ever met. He’s also better at shuffleboard than his son, but in fairness, he has about 40 years on me. We did a couple of group shots, but I’ll just put up the best one. In the other ones…Continue Reading
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Grand Prairie… um? Chris and I had an enjoyable time hanging out with family and going swimming with the kids (our nieces and nephews).  We also had a lovely visit with Brian Brake one evening and got to see the gorgeous house he managed to renovate almost entirely in the first two months of being here. He’s not one to sit around. Brian, my former boss from The Military Museums, is now living up here to start work on building a dinosaur museum! It should be completed in two years.  It will be a fantastic attraction featuring Alberta’s dinosaur bone bed with the most bones per square meter. Essentially, it’s a mass grave of dinosaurs. Currently they are calling it the River of Death and Discovery Dinosaur Center. Very cool!  
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Today is our last day in the North. Around lunch time (in about 3 hours), we’ll be taking a bus to a place called Dawson Creek, where we’ll catch another one to Kamloops, B.C. This’ll be the longest Greyhound ride of our Canadian leg, and all told we’ll be in Greyhound’s nasty clutches for about 18 hours. It makes me shudder, but we have no choice. At least we’ll be leaving this snowy tundra behind. Luckily, we’ve also had the pleasure of spending the last week or so visiting with my sister Kelli and her family. It’s always nice to see the kids, even though they seem to be giving her a bit more grief than usual by not always doing what they’re told. We did a lot with them, including getting to attend Kindergarten for Delaney’s Special Helper Day. That was pretty cool. We also brought a late haul…Continue Reading
Chris and I had a good visit with friends and my family in Edmonton. We saw Avatar in the IMAX theatre. It was entertaining and imaginative. Besides that, we sat around eating, drinking,watching T.V. and chatting. It’s been a good trip so far, without any mishaps. Surprisingly it’s not entirely stress free. I think the “not having an income”, and perhaps the “not having a home” takes some getting use to on the stress cells. My left eyeball has a very irritating twitch, something that only happened to me at work when I was stressed out. Um? I primarily attribute my eye twitch to the stress of money management. On the plus side, I paid off my credit card! However that leaves us with a lot less funds for everything else. This is a challenging exercise, but when we’re full into our trip, I’m sure I’ll pick-up the ways and…Continue Reading