2 Engineers Retired

Panoramic shot of Old Town from the Basilica The bucket list.   Always lurking there in the back of your mind, with a “someday” attached to it.   Now my bucket list does not include any airplane (or even bungie) jumps but it does have places in the world that I would like to see.  Someday ... Well this year an amazing bucket list item happened for me.  I (along with a friend) took a trip to the Galapagos.  In my mind the Galapagos and Africa are the two stand out animal destinations in the world.  Africa for mammals (and more) and Galapagos for reptiles and birds. To get there one must first get to Ecuador.  In our case we went via Miami and from Miami I traveled on to Quito.  (My friend opted for Guayaquil).  Quito is the capital of Ecuador and has the distinction of being the second highest capital in the world at 9350 ft above sea level (assuming you count La Paz as Bolivia’s capital – if you go with ...

Christmas decorations in the halls of Parliment Here we are.  In Ottawa.  For the winter.  For a very, very cold winter as it turns out. After last year in sunny Spain the cold is particularly, well, noticeable… We decided that Ottawa would be our location of choice during the winter of 2017/2018 because this is the last year of our son’s university education (we think) and it seemed fitting to stay in country, and close enough.  We managed to get the exact same apartment this time as we did 2 years ago which is terrific.  We know where everything is and could jump right into life in our capital. Ottawa is a very beautiful city with wonderful government buildings, the Rideau canal and our beloved, near-by Byward market area.  We even managed a visitor right off the bat since a mutual friend had an important birthday.  As the seat of operations for the country it can be interesting to do some activities that relate to the government...