Last time I visited Vancouver was almost 15 years ago in a former life as an IT professional and part of a weekend trip from Microsoft Redmond country near Seattle. I couldn’t really recall much from that visit aside from

Visions of Cancun Mexico : Pyramids
Cancun isn’t all white sand beaches and clear blue water. Within a couple of hours drive are some world-class pre-Columbia ruins of the Mayan culture, the Chichen Itza Maya Pyramids and the Tulum seaside Walled City. If you’ve never visited

Visions of Cancun Mexico : Beaches
The Cancun area offers some spectacular beaches and sea-related attractions. Booking a flight to another destination (in Canada! from Chicago!), I noticed peculiar pricing that made Cancun Mexico one of the cheapest stopovers. Although it was completely out of the

Visions of Saint Petersburg : Russia
Nothing prepared me for Russia. I had absolutely no idea what to expect, and the main reason I decided to go visit was because a flight I was taking with Aeroflot on the way to my destination offered a very

Visions of Munich : Germany
Following short visits to Cologne and Frankfurt, I made my way to Munich as the last city on the current tour. Cologne was rather small, Frankfurt was somewhat commercial/industrial, but Munich… Munich was exactly what I was hoping for. I

Visions of Guadalajara : Mexico
During one of the cold storms of Illinois I felt like I had no choice but to run away and warm up during the weekend. The visit to Mexico City left a lasting impression on me and so I was

Visions of Rome: Italy
In the last year I’ve had the pleasure of stopping over in Rome on three different occasions. The first couple of times it was only for a day or two, one of those with circumstances beyond my control when my

Visions of Cologne: Germany
In my recent academic tour of Europe I made my first ever visit to Germany. Although Cologne is not considered a very big tourist attraction compared to some of the other German wonders, I wanted to visit the local university

Visions of Los Angeles : California
A conference at Long Beach provided the much needed escape from the mid-western ice cold winter, and a chance to revisit the wonderful city of Los Angeles. Some people dislike L.A. for all sorts of reasons, but I’m sure that

Visions of Phoenix : Arizona
Looking to warm up in south-western US, I made a stop to visit Phoenix Arizona and experience some of the infamous desert scenery. Although I only made a stop for a couple of days, and those were around Christmas time