Banff - May 12-14, 2017

Jan and I accompanied Robyn, Scott and Scarlett to Banff to babysit while they went to Kat's wedding.  Banff was less high end commercial than when I remember from years ago.  We had a great time.

Anaheim - May 9-11, 2017

After a thrilling game six 7-1 victory by the Oilers, Greg and I decided to go to Anaheim to watch game 7 in person.  It was a blast.

We left Tuesday morning and arrived in Anaheim around 6 pm.  I rented a car for $70 but on our arrival the attendant asked if we would consider an upgrade.  For an extra $60 we could get a Mercedes or a Dodge Charger.  I asked about a convertible.  It was about $200 - we agreed and then when the paperwork was complete, it came out to $280 US with taxes etc.  We declined and went with the Charger.  We checked in at the Extended Stay America by the Honda Center and then went to meet Dan Barnes and Mark Spector at Paul's Cocktails - a dive bar they frequent when down here. We had a beer, but no one showed so we went back to the hotel and ate around there.

On Wednesday, we ent for breakfast and then to Disneyland.  Greg had never been before and was like a kid in a candy store.  We lined up for pictures with Donald Duck, Darth Vader and Chewbacca. We went on the Haunted House, Splash Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise and Tiki Room.  We had a great day and then went for lunch in Downtown Disney.

We then went to JT Schmidt across from Honda Center and it was packed with Oiler fans.  WE had a great time with a few beers.  We went to the game and there were a lot of Oiler fans.  In fact, GO OILERS GO was chanted throughout the building on several occasions.  While the end result was not what we hoped, the experience was fantastic.

We left on Thursday morning and arrived home that night.

Nashville March 17-24, 2017

The last of our trips for awhile.  We met Barb and JP and Lil and Rene in Nashville.  We spent most of our time at the Nashville Palace drinking beer, eating fried bologna sandwiches and succotash and listening to great country music.  We wen to the Grand Ole Opry twice.  We saw:  Jeannie Sealy, Ryan Kinder, Mike Snider, The Whites, Holly Williams, T Graham Brown, Connie Smith, Jesse McReynolds, Wade Hayes, Riders in the Sky, Natalie Hemby (she has written some great songs for others), the O'Connor Band, Luke Combs, Kristian Bush (From Sugarland), Smithfield, Chris Janson (amazing) Ricky Skaggs and Trace Adkins.  Front row for both shows.  Trace sang a song about getting old and at the end he pointed to me and said "You know what I mean".  We also went to Memphis (about 4 hours) to visit Graceland.  It was great to see, but the house is actually quite small (smaller than our house).  The memorabilia is now housed in a brand new plaza across the street.  Great trip.  One of my favourites.

San Diego March 8-12, 2017

Jan and I went to San Diego for a Brendon Burchard conference.  Mostly conference again but we enjoyed some Mexican food downtown and went for walks along the seawall each morning.  The conference was fantastic - very rejuvenating.

Austin, Texas March 2-5, 2017

Jan, Robyn, Scarlett, Randi and I went to Austin to attend our Mastermind conference.  It was mostly business but had great BBQ at Coopers (brisket, sausage, ribs, peach cobbler) and spent an evening listening to music downtown.

Vancouver - February 20-22, 2017

I went to Vancouver to attend my first Strategic Coach session to strategize about what’s most pressing in our business right now and gain new insights from people in other industries and other parts of the world.  It was a great day and I came away with some great tools to move forward.  
Looking forward to the next session in June.

La Penita - January 27 - February 7, 2017

The last part of our trip was spent doing some shopping, relaxing and eating.

We went to a couple of tile stores in La Penita to pick out new tile for our bathroom and kitchen.  The bathroom reno with include replacing the tile in the shower (walls and floor), the bathroom floor and the counter.  Also new toilet, sink and taps.  The kitchen reno replaces the tile on the counters and backsplash with new sink and taps as well as tile under the kitchen cupboards.  Total cost $2000 (about $600 in labour).

Roger and Gail took us into Puerto Vallarta with them and we shopped at Costco, Walmart, Liverpool (a department store) and home depot.  On the way back, we stopped in La Cruz at our favourite restaurant Masala and had tuna steak.  Mmmmmmmmm.

We went to Chacala one day and visited with Todd and Nadine again.  What a great little place!

We had some dinners with Roger and Gail at Irma's and Vista Guayabitos (also with Randy and Theresa).  We ate again at Gigio's.

Helma and Gaylord and May and John both had us over for dinner to their condos on separate nights. It was great getting to know them.

The last couple of days were spent getting the condo ready for the reno (it will happen while we are gone over the summer) and getting the condo ready for not being there.  Things we are learning:

1. You need to place Easy Dry packets everywhere.  These are moisture absorbers which are necessary because of the high humidity in the summer.

2. You need to unplug everything because of power surges during the rainy season and remove batteries from everything as they will corrode.

Our house cleaner, Claudia, still comes every 2 weeks and cleans while we are away and to check on things.

We arrived back home to -27. Oh well, it is supposed to be +2 by the weekend.