Crime Stoppers International Training Conference

I am in Halifax this week at the annual Crime Stoppers International Training Conference. 


I left London on Sunday morning at 11:30 and took the train to Toronto. Even though the train was only about 10 minutes late leaving London, somehow it managed to be 40 minutes late arriving in Toronto, leaving me little time to get to Billy Bishop Airport and catch my flight. I arrived at the airport with only 5 minutes until the scheduled departure time for my flight. Somehow I got lucky. The luggage had all been loaded and a special trip was required to get my suitcase on the plane, however, the plane had not started boarding. 

I flew Porter Airlines. They allow you 2 pieces of checked luggage (no charge), they feed you!!!!, they use real glass for the drinks (I understand that if they are serving a full meal, it is served on china), the seats are leather and there is actually some legroom!!


The Halifax airport is almost an hour outside of the city. Volunteers from the local Crime Stoppers program drove us into town - as a car was filled, off we would go.

Downtown Halifax is very interesting - you can get almost anywhere downtown by means of indoor "pedways". The four of us from London are staying at the Halifax Delta which is connected by pedway to the World trade and Conference centre where the programs are being held.


So far, the conference has been quite interesting and informative. It has also been exhausting!! One more day and then it's time to try the trip back home.

Another Trucking Week

I actually thought that Graham might be home today - 1 day early. He's been to Indiana and to Massachusetts so far. Two trips - what he normally does in a week. Instead, he's on his way to Petersburg, Virginia!!!! This means that it will likely be Later Saturday or perhaps early Sunday morning when he finally gets home.

I still hate trucking, however, this does allow me to spend extra time working on my jewelry. I am starting to sell some of my pieces - just a few sales right now, but they are increasing. While it is hard to part with some of the pieces, it is nice to be making some money from this business.

I've started a slide show of some of my work. For those who want to see more, please check out my store on Etsy: 

http://www.etsy.com/shop/NancysBeadArtistry

I Hate Trucking

As most of you know, Graham returned to driving a truck in April - not because he wanted to, but because we needed him to. So far, it hasn't been too bad - he leaves Monday morning and is usually home sometime on Friday. That is, until this week's comedy of errors.


He started Monday off as usual - delivering his load from last week (in North York). Then he waited, and waited, and waited. Finally, at 6:00 he was sent to Mitchell for a pickup first thing Tuesday morning for delivery in Massachusetts. Flash forward to Tuesday morning - the order that he is supposed to pickup doesn't exist! Again with the waiting and finally back to Cambridge to pick up a load going to ...... (wait for it)......... Fargo, North Dakota. Do you know how far away that is????? In case you don't, it is almost 1800 km - EACH WAY!


Now, this story isn't done yet. Finally, he arrives in Fargo late Wednesday - too late to deliver that day. The load is delivered Thursday morning and he picks up the first half of a return load somewhere in Minnesota on Thursday, however, is too late to pick up the second half. There he is, waiting again. Come Friday morning - the company where he is supposed to pick up denies any knowledge of his pick-up. Apparently it took a few hours to sort that one out (there was no pick-up there) and off he was sent to his second pickup #2. When I talked to him at 9:00 last night, he was still waiting to get loaded!!! Guess when he's going to get home - somewhere in the wee small hours of tomorrow morning. What a comedy of errors.


THIS IS TRUCKING and I hate it!!!!!!!!

Muir Woods and The Coastal Highway

We considered Wednesday our last day of "freedom" prior to the start of the convention. We wanted one day of relaxation before getting down to work.

We chose to spend our final sightseeing day visiting Muir Woods, which is the last large stand of coastal redwoods left in California. redwoods are a close relative of the sequoia, however, they are taller than sequoias. They are not nearly as big in diameter. The redwoods in Muir Woods are at least as old as 1000 years - please note the picture of the cross-section. This tree fell in 1909 and based on the "story of the rings", the tree was "born" in the year 909. These trees can even withstand fire and continue to grow.

Many of the trees have strange-looking growths on them. These grotesque growths are called burls and are full of seeds - when these pods burst open, a small forest of baby redwoods begins to grow at the foot of the mother tree.

When we were finished at Muir Woods we decided to drive part of the northern coastal highway. Like the city of San Francisco, the fog rolls in and out all along the highway.The scenery is breathtaking. I can't imagine living here and being able to surround myself with this scenery day in and day out.

Yosemite

On Tuesday, we made the drive to Yosemite National Park. On the drive there, we discovered that, in California, this sign, truly means "Curves Ahead". As we drove higher and higher into the mountains, the road became a series of back and forth curves - so much so that we were able to look back and see where we had been.The road was a little scary - nothing between us and the edge and a straight drop down.


The day was beautiful - sunny and mid 60's temperature. Imagine our surprise to find about a foot of snow on the ground in the park despite the beautiful, sunny, warm day

On the Road Again

Time for the February ACN convention.We are back in California this year, in San Jose this time. San Jose is only about 30 miles from San Francisco,m a city that I have always wanted to see, so we decided to come down early and do some sight seeing. I am totally "blown away" by the unexpected beauty that is part of this area and this state - it is more than just a pretty face.

We flew down on Saturday , finally arriving at our hotel about 10:00 Saturday evening, California time!!

Sunday was a rest and get ready day.

Monday we spent the day doing a 47 mile self-guided driving tour of San Francisco. You know those movies that you watch where people are driving up and down impossibly steep and long hills and you think to yourself "hmmm, looks like some camera funny-stuff". Believe me, there is absolutely NO "funny-stuff" involved. All I could think about as we drove through some of those neighbourhoods where the streets are really as steep as thet look was that there is NO WAY that you could build a city like this somewhere where it snows - you would not be able to get up and down those hills. San Francisco is a very unique and beautiful city and those hills just add to it's charm. It is a city of contrasts. The downtown area is very modern (so are the people). In the core of the city, most of the available housing appears to be town homes. One thing that has struck us here is that people do not seem to have enough room for their cars. They have a garage (whether they have a car in it or not is anybody's guess), they have 2 cars in the driveway and then the streets are lines with parked cars!

Anyway, during this tour there were several times when it appeared that we had left the city - beautiful parks and green spaces - then we would turn a corner and would be back in the middle of the city again. We just had to ndrive over the Golden Gate bridge - it is as amazing as it always appears in film and pictures. I will post a bit of a slide show of our tour. San Francisco is everything that I had imagined it would be and more.

New Orleans

Seems that it's about time that I got around to this!!!!! We actually did make it to New Orleans!! Like just like just about everywhere else that we went, New orleans was colder than we would have liked it - especially when walking the dogs first thing in the morning and last thing at night!!

Someone forgot to tell us that the Sugar Bowl was being played in the Silverdome on New Year's Day and that meant that getting to downtown New Orleans on New Year's Eve would be absolutely impossible. Disappointing as we had hoped to spend the evening in the French Quarter. We ended up spending the evening in a small casino about 10 miles out of downtown. There we soon discovered that New Orleans has "Saint Fever"!!!!! Even the dealers were all wearing Saints' jerseys.

We actually arrived in Covington, which is on the north shore of Lake Pontchatrain on New Year's Eve at about 6:00. To get into downtown New Orleans, we had to cross the causeway across Lake Pontchatrain - this causeway is 22 miles long. What a feat of engineering!! Again we stayed at our favourite - Residence Inn. Since most of our activities in the Big Easy were not  "dog-friendly", we were able to leave the dogs in their crates in the bedroom and housekeeping was still able to clean the rest of our suite (they were, however, quite appalled that we would consider making our own bed!!)

We spent time at the New Orleans Riverwalk - quite different from the San Antonio Riverwalk. This one is a mall on the Mississippi River - just when you think that you've hit the end, there is another bend, a few more stairs and a whole other level to explore. We took a carriage ride through the French Quarter - just about froze to death doing it. The carriages are pulled by mules in New Orleans. Our mule's name was Pumpkin and our guide was David, a born and bred native resident of New Orleans.

We found it more difficult to put in full days in new Orleans because our hotel was so far away from the city and we couldn't leave the dogs for long periods of time. Generally we would make the trip into the city just once a day and find something else to do (like relaxing) the rest of the time.

All too soon, Monday arrived and it was time to head home so that we would be back in time for Jamie's surgery on Wednesday morning. We packed up the car and the dogs and managed to get home from New Orleans in just 2 days with a stop in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

It was an amazing trip and as hectic as it was, I would do it all again. We certainly saw some awesome scenery and witnessed the site of some heartrending history. We also took time out to play.

Back in Time

Today, we started the day at The Alamo. Although there is actually very little left of the mission, there is enough to touch your heart and bring a lump to your throat. The mission chapel still stands as well as part of what is called the longhouse. Unfortunately, much of what is still in place is indoors and photograpthy is not allowed. Throughout the site are flags from the states and the countries where the Alamo defenders came from. Surprisingly they came from Denmark, England, Ireland, Germany and Scotland. Many, many states contributed to the last defense of the Alamo. There was also a gentleman named John, a black freedman. The entire compound is a very fitting memorial to the 13 days that the garrison of approximately 200 men held out against overwhelming odds.

Next we headed for the Riverwalk. For those who have never heard of the Riverwalk, it is a beautiful walkway designed in downtown San Antonio which follows a loop created in the San Antonio River. The walk encompasses restaurants and small stores and some beautiful greenery and landscaping. The pictures of the small knobbly looking trees are part of the root system of cypress trees. In some places, they look like a forest of little people. At night, right now, during the holiday season, all of the trees and bridges are draped with Christmas lights which twinkle constantly. The stores and restaurants are all decorated beautifully for the holiday season.

The weather today -- sunny and 12 degrees!! This evening, we ate on the patio of a restaurant called The Salt Grass Steak House. Graham was in his shirt sleeves and I just had a sweater on.

Tomorrow we are off to New Orleans. Another day in the car, but, a beautiful city at the end.

Life is Interesting in Texas

For the second time on our trip, we woke up this morning to snow on the ground and our car - nothing like last week in Flagstaff though and we were soon on our way.

Another 9 hour day on the road. Life is interesting in Texas. The first thing we discovered this morning shortly after leaving El Paso -- the speed limit on the Interstates in Texas is 80 mph!!!!! According to Graham, driving at 80 mph is pretty scary. Next, we discovered that there are a lot of mountains in Texas and that a lot of the Interstate has been blasted out of sheer rock. There are palm trees and massive cactus everywhere. The trees are full of leaves, except for the dead trees - they are full of tumbleweeds.

Arrived in San Antonio safe and sound, despite the fast speed limit!

Flagstaff to El Paso

Strictly a travel day -- 9 hours on the road traveling from Flagstaff, Arizona to El Paso, Texas. A long day, but we are half way to our next objective which is San Antonio.

The interesting part of our drive occurred shortly after it became dark. The driver in front of us narrowly missed hitting a deer that darted into the road in front of him (her). Shortly after that , Graham murdered the tumbleweed that came rushing out of the darkness at us!! He did manage to miss the second one that camenout of the darkness shortly after.

Grand Canyon

With sadness we left Las Vegas this morning and headed back to Arizona -- the site of the blizzard on our way to Vegas. The closer we got to Flagstaff, the deeper the snow. It took us about 5 hours to finally reach the Grand Canyon. Because of the one hour time change, we arrived in time to watch the shadows of the sun climb the canyon walls. Again some absolutely spectacular scenery. The walkways at the canyon were covered with snow and we watched several people tumble on the ice. Getting to the edge of the observation areas was quite tricky, but well worth the effort.

Regrettably, because of the time it takes to get to the canyon, it was too late to take advantage of the scenic drives or other overlooks.

After leaving the Canyon, we headed back to Flagstaff for the night -- none of the snow has melted!!!

Valley of Fire

Dedicated in 1935, Valley of Fire is Nevada's oldest State Park. It is located only 50 miles northeast of Las Vegas. The rough floor and jagged walls of the park contain brilliant formations of eroded sandstone and sand dunes more than 150 million years old. These features, which are the centerpiece of the park's attractions, often appear to be on fire when reflecting the sun's rays. The park is located in the Mojave Desert of southern Nevada.

Wow!!!!!!! A day filled with colour. The hype is right -- the rocks look like they are on fire. The slide show basically says it all -- please enjoy.

This evening we returned to the strip. We tried to visit The Flamingo, however, the parking lot was full so.... back to Harrah's. The thing that kept us returning to Harrah's us single deck blackjack -- you actually get to touch your cards!!! A very interesting game in which the odds should belong to the players. This time, I did alright while Graham lost a little. All in all, out time in Las Vegas has been full of fun and stunning beauty. We will be back!