There's Just No Gettin' Around It...Dinosaurs Are COOL!

Cool...but I'm still glad they're gone.

It's unlikely that international visitors to Western Canada would miss an opportunity to visit what is likely the Mecca of the dinosaur world; the Royal Tyrrell Museum. We first visited the museum in 1986 shortly after it opened. Back then it wasn't “Royal” yet, but it was still very impressive. Since we wanted to give the museum a chance to a add something new before we visited again, we hung on for about 30 years until we went back for another look, Sure enough, it was MUCH better this time, and worthy of the addition of the Royal appellation to the name.

The Royal Tyrrell Museum nestled in the badlands of Southern Alberta.

Travelers that find themselves anywhere in the vicinity of the town of Drumheller in the "badlands" of Southern Alberta would find it well worth their time to keep about 3 or 4 hours free for a trip back in time...way back. Admission is only $18 for adults, which would barely get you a burger and fries in a sit-down restaurant these days, and I guarantee you'll remember your day at Tyrrell long after you've forgotten a good burger.

Dramatic diorama-style staging of the first gallery gets you in the mood to learn more about this prehistoric world.

The museum features ten galleries, and the first (Cretaceous Alberta) is brilliantly executed in a way that sets the stage and builds anticipation for the rest of your exploration of the 121,000 square feet of spectacular displays. It features an up close and personal meeting with our very own local cousin of the T. Rex, the enormous top-of-the-food chain predator; Albertosaurus.

  In Cretaceous Alberta "objects in the mirror may be closer than they appear..."

After you leave the “you are there” realism of the first gallery, we visit a well presented historical retrospective of the museum's development and the astounding and significant finds from the region.

One of the most important T. Rex skeletons ever found.

While there are some special exhibits (like the T. Rex shown above) that will change from time to time, there will be a similar gallery to gallery flow for future visitors. That flow is not random, and the thoughtful arrangement adds to the pleasure of exploring the museum.

Truly impressive Triceratops skull.

We next get a look into the working “Preparations Lab” where you can see real work being done on the remains of these long dead creatures. If you've ever imagined yourself on your knees in the field as an archaeologist, scraping at an exposed dinosaur leg bone and then brushing away the sand with a fine paintbrush, the preparations lab will give you a look at how it really happens.

The Preparations Lab, where the real work takes place.

The next gallery, the “Lords of the Land” is in some ways the most beautiful and moving of them all. Here dinosaur bones are raised to the level of art, and are presented as such. This dark and beautiful room presents the displays as if they were sculptures or paintings, sometimes complete with frames. Here you will see a graceful and beautiful Velociraptor that is literally “put up on a pedestal,” and while beautiful, you'll be glad that nobody has actually cloned them back to life as explored in “Jurassic Park.” (A nice creature to visit, but I wouldn't want them to live here.)

The beautifully displayed remains of Velociraptor are raised to the level of art.

The gallery's centerpiece is J.B. Tyrrell's initial big find, the Albertosaurus, and the gorgeous “Black Beauty,” a rare black colored skull of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. (Note to geneticists: If you ever really do develop the ability to re-introduce these things...DON'T!)

Tyrrell's "big" find - Albertosaurus.

Heading up the ramp to the second level, we move on to the “Burgess Shale” where we see an ingenious “all around you” depiction of the bizarre and almost alien creatures that lived in the area of the Canadian Rocky Mountains more than 500 million years ago. While generally fist-sized in their real lives, here we see them as many times that size in order to let us feel as if we are swimming among them in an ancient otherworldly sea. Even the floor is glass so we see the animals below us as if we were floating in the water above them.

The bizarre creatures of the "Burgess Shale" gallery. Hmm...maybe with a little garlic butter?

A wonderful surprise to us was the small but beautifully crafted “Devonian Reef.” More a display than a gallery, it offers us a look at the underwater world of the Devonian period when the badlands of today were covered by an enormous tropical sea. Using a “dry for wet” technique, we get the benefit of seeing a most realistic presentation without any of the peskiness of having to deal with any actual water.

The "Devonian Reef" display is a realistic underwater scene.

Scuba divers will note that the changes in the creatures that inhabit our world's reefs over the eons have been much less dramatic than those on land. They will also note that the museum did a good job of depicting what the surface of the ocean looks like when you're below it.

Prehistoric calamari.

Small, but important, the "Terrestrial Paleozoic" gallery then takes you “...through over 200 million years in ten paces.” Covering the period during which life was moving out of the ocean and onto dry land, this part of Earth's past boasted dragonflies the size of actual dragons. (Well, not quite, but their wingspans were more than 2 feet).

A dragonfly the size of an eagle.

Here a happy childhood memory was crushed when I learned that one of my favorite dinosaurs, the sail-backed Dimetrodon wasn't even really a dinosaur at all, but a “mammal-like reptile.” However, without this guy, we might not have our dogs and cats today, as Dimetrodon and his like gave rise to modern mammals. I wonder if it barked?

Dimetrodon's "sail" may have been for body temperature regulation - a combination solar panel & radiator.

The next gallery, “Triassic Giant” offers the museum visitor a unique opportunity to walk around the remains of a truly enormous sea creature from our past, an Ichthyosaur (properly known as “Shonisaurus Sikanniensis”). Measuring 69 feet (21 meters) in length, the portion of the fossilized remains that were recovered are laid out on the floor atop a painted black outline of the original size and shape of the living creature.

This is how the "Triassic Giant" looked when it was still swimming around.

This is the largest known marine reptile to have existed, and like the baleen whales of today, was a filter feeder. There is something about this cleverly designed room that underscores the true sense of scale when viewing this fossil that other galleries and displays do not. Despite its apparent simplicity it was a most memorable part of our visit.

The gallery provides a real sense of scale for the viewer.

Easily missed near the exit to the “Triassic Giant” gallery is the entrance to a beautiful and restful tour through the “Cretaceous Garden.” A greenhouse of sorts, the garden features what is billed as “Canada's largest collection of prehistoric plant relatives.” This provides the viewer with an opportunity to imagine the desert-like landscape that surrounds the museum today as the lush, tropical, shallow sea and marshland that existed when the fossils showcased at Tyrrell lived and breathed. Even the pest control is all natural here, employing toads, salamanders, and ladybugs instead of ten-syllable chemicals. Don't miss this warm and humid walk through the past, especially if you're visiting during a cold time of year.

A "relative" of a prehistoric flower.

The spectacular "Dinosaur Hall" is still...well....spectacular, and in some ways remains the central display area of the museum. The Hall lets the visitor place him or herself into the world of the dinosaur, at least for a while, and I'm glad that we never really co-existed, Hollywood “evidence” notwithstanding.

A "before and after" style display is common in the Dinosaur Hall.

The feel of the room is starting to show its age, and it now has a nostalgic vibe that hearkens back to our childhood schoolroom ideas about what dinosaurs were all about. Back then, we kids stood on firm ground with what we “knew” about them (like my Dimetrodon) and nobody could have shaken us from our confidence that there really was such a thing as a “Brontosaurus.” I was heartbroken when we were later told that it was really just an Apatosaurus all along. But hold on! Paleontologists have recently decided that our beloved childhood swamp-plant-muncher really was a distinct creature after all. Yay Brontosaurus! (I know how Pluto must have felt when it got demoted to “dwarf-planet” status...but I think they really prefer to be called “little-planets” these days. Maybe it will make a comeback as a real planet too).

The guest can study these specimens very closely.

Nestled in the center of Dinosaur Hall is the dark and beautiful “Marine Hall.” In this gallery, the skeletons of enormous sea creatures cavort and swirl around us and overhead in a display that cleverly gives a sense of being undersea and at the very center of the action. Sort of like what a diver feels in a swirling mass of reef fish, but if the fish were all twenty feet long and had teeth like crocodiles.

"We need a bigger boat..."

Now we had back toward the present day as we enter the “Ice Age.” Here, despite the Arctic setting, the creatures are more familiar, looking more like alternate reality versions of elephants, bison, and cougars. Familiar or not, I'm glad that it's a deer that we risk hitting on the highway these days instead of a ten foot tall, 8 ton, woolly mammoth.

If those cats pull this off...they'll eat like kings!

Our final stop before returning to the present is “Mammal Hall.” While mammals actually developed right alongside dinosaurs, they were mostly small creatures (and really scared...ALL the time) until dinosaurs met their still somewhat mysterious demise. With the ecological niche cleared by the absence of all those twenty-five foot tall meat eating monsters, mammals had a chance to get bigger...much bigger. Our own early ancestors were probably pretty happy to have access to a herd of slow, docile, plant eaters from which they could obtain a decent steak.

I'm bettin' there'd be a few good roasts on that guy...just sayin'...

Finally, inevitably, we complete our journey through the incredible history of our planet in the time honored fashion that has itself been passed down through the ages as we “exit through the gift shop.” If you can't find an appealing souvenir widget or thing-a-ma-bob in here to put on your desk or hang from your rear-view mirror, it's really your own fault. Beware those of you that bring small children. This place is chock-a-block with plastic toy dinosaurs of every shape, size, and type, so make sure you have plenty of room on your credit card. As for me...hmmm...I like those speckled blue “Tyrrell Logo” bistro style coffee mugs...and we really ought to have some little memento...”Vicky!...Honey!...What do you you think of these?...”


Fox & Vicky

A Caribbean Christmas Tale

Vicky and I took a Caribbean cruise back in 2010, and the weather was just awful the whole time. Fall is always a pretty dodgy time to cruise, and there were several tropical storms and even a hurricane or two in the area. Since we cruise often, we recognize that the stated itinerary is at best just a suggestion, so when port stops were changed or skipped entirely, and excursions were cancelled outright, we just rolled with it. Usually the port facilities themselves have shopping and other diversions, so we often found ourselves sitting on the dock at some little bar, watching the rain pour down in buckets like it can only in the Caribbean.

Under A Thatched Roof In The Pouring Rain

Many of these little islands have a local beer, and they're often served in bottles that are smaller, or even much smaller, than the ones we're accustomed to in North America. Because the labels and brand names were unusual, and because these port-side bar tours in the pouring rain were becoming something of a theme for the cruise, I made a point of taking a picture of the little bottles we were drinking from at each stop.

It was only later that I realized what I'd done. I had actually captured photos of those most elusive bringers of Santa's Christmas cheer...you've all heard of them...The Eight Tiny Rain Beer!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Fox and Vicky

We Meant It When We Said NO Videotaping!

I've always had a problem with following rules, and during a trip to Las Vegas back in 1998 I managed to remind Vicky of that particular failing.  While there, we were bombarded by ads for a new attraction at the Hilton Hotel & Casino called "The Star Trek Experience”, which promised to whisk visitors away aboard the Star Ship Enterprise on an "intergalactic adventure". The TV ads featured gleeful visitors lurching back and forth aboard a flight simulator. Having ridden flight simulators at Disneyland, I thought their advertising claims seemed a little overblown, but I was inclined to try out the Star Trek Experience just the same, as I'm kind of a fan.

I should make it clear that I'm not one of those people who dress up in “Spock ears” and goes to conventions. I do however have the titles of all 79 original episodes from the '60’s committed to memory, which probably puts me a little farther up the Star Trek geek ladder than I care to admit.

We arrived at the attraction to find ourselves on the "Promenade of Deep Space 9," which in reality was the shopping and restaurant area. Since Vicky has something of a weak constitution when it comes to roller coaster type rides, she intended to sit this one out. I settled her in Quark's Bar to sample the intergalactic food and drink while I went off to buy my ticket and ride the simulator. It turned out that "intergalactic" food and drink consisted of Quark Burgers and fries with Romulan Ale (which was probably light beer with blue food coloring).

I discovered to my shock that the price of admission was $15. This struck me (at the time) as an outrageous amount of money to pay for a five-minute simulator ride; but we'd come this far now. I bought my ticket, and entered through a well decorated pre-show area that featured all sorts of large models and props from the Star Trek television shows and movies. The next part of the attraction was a long, walk-through museum, full of artifacts and costumes.

I was carrying my video camera in case there was anything of interest that I wanted to tape. Warning signs were posted all around saying that videotaping was OK in the museum area, but would not be allowed after entering the simulator portion of the attraction. The museum was huge and arranged as if it were an actual historical repository of items from the Star Trek universe. This was already taking much longer than I had expected, and I was mindful of the fact that Vicky was still waiting in the bar. Consequently, I hurried through most of the museum that displayed items from the more recent years of Star Trek..

Eventually visitors came to a turnstile that admitted them to the simulator waiting area. Here, a security guard gave stern warnings regarding the prohibition on videotaping and photographing anything beyond that point. I turned off my camera, hung it over my shoulder, and followed directions regarding where to line up in preparation for the simulator ride.

The waiting area for the simulator was exactly like those I'd seen before in Disneyland: a small waiting room with yellow lines painted on the floor to indicate where people should form rows in front of each of the several doors that would admit riders to the simulator. Also, just like Disneyland, television screens were arranged above each door which we were told to watch for important safety information. Soon the usual safety video started to play, which stressed the importance of properly fastening your seat belts and warned those with heart, stroke, or back problems to reconsider.

Part way through the safety video, the image became faulty and the video stopped. The two staff members present said there was probably a technical difficulty, and they hoped the delay would not be too long. The employees were clearly uncomfortable, and did their best to kill time by asking where people were from, and by telling a few jokes. Shortly, a man wearing a headset and looking like a member of the technical staff poked his head out of a door adjacent to the waiting area to tell us they needed to reset the simulator. He said that they would unload the people currently on the ride and try to get our group aboard. There were groans from some of the less patient among us, and someone even ventured to say this was a rip-off.

By this time, Vicky had already been waiting quite a while. I resolved to take a deep breath and tough it out, but I was hoping that the simulator ride would be over soon. After a few minutes, the safety video began to play again, and we all dutifully watched the monitors once more. However, once again the video faltered, and one of the staff members said, "Not again" in a dejected tone, as if this was an all too common occurrence.

This time though -- something entirely different happened...

The lights went out, a powerful blast of wind blew through the waiting area, and then bright lights flashed all around us. There was a moment of complete darkness, and then to my amazement, the lights came on to reveal that we were no longer in the simulator waiting area. We were instead standing on the transporter platform of the Star Ship Enterprise. The doors of the simulator, the TV monitors, the very walls around us, and even the ceiling, had vanished. The transporter operator, an actor in a Star Trek uniform, suggested that we all remain calm and informed us that we had been brought to the 24th century through some type of time travel. Another crewman appeared and asked that we follow him to the bridge, so that we could be told of the strange circumstances surrounding our presence in the future.

Our group stepped off the transporter platform and followed the crewman out into the corridor. This was no cheap operation; but a highly sophisticated "set" of the sort used on movie sound stages. Even more sophisticated really, because all the walls and ceilings were complete, creating the illusion that we were actually on board the Enterprise. Lighting effects were everywhere, klaxons blared, and actors and actresses in Star Trek uniforms bustled through the hallways, clearly in the throes of a crisis. There were no more groans, or suggestions that this was not what it had been cracked-up to be.

Realizing now that this attraction was far greater in scope than I had originally believed, I was wishing wholeheartedly that Vicky had come along to see all of this. So, despite all the warnings, I cradled my video camera under my left arm in what I hoped was an inconspicuous fashion, and turned it on...

This turned out to be a grave mistake.

After a short walk down the corridor, we were herded into a "turbo-lift," or elevator, and taken to the bridge. As I stepped onto the bridge, one of the actors dressed as an Enterprise crewman spoke to me as I walked past him.  He told me that if I didn't turn off my camera immediately, it would be confiscated. His demeanor was so stern that I decided to take him seriously and did as I was told.

Actor Jonathan Frakes, appearing on a screen in the role of Commander Riker, informed our group that one of us was an ancestor of Capt. Jean Luc Picard. He explained that we had been brought here to protect this person from an evil Klingon commander, who was bent on destroying Capt. Picard by killing his ancestor. We were further informed that our group must get to the shuttle-bay immediately, so that we could board a shuttlecraft and escape the Klingon attack, thereby saving the day.

We walked through more spectacular sets on the way to the shuttle-bay where we took our position preparing to board the real simulator. Once again, a staff member appeared and spoke to me, reminding me not to videotape anything else. By this time I was realizing that my infraction was being taken very seriously. Eventually we were allowed to board the simulator after what seemed like an extraordinarily long delay. I suspected that I might have been at the root of this delay, and as we sat waiting for the simulator ride to begin, I thought that I probably wouldn't be getting out of this easily.

Finally, the simulator started and took us on the sort of spectacular roller-coaster type ride that I had experienced elsewhere. The simulator dove and turned to escape the attacking Klingon vessel, and finally flew through a "worm-hole," to emerge above present day Las Vegas for a wild chase through a night sky filled with hotel towers and bright lights. Ultimately, the Enterprise arrived at the last minute to destroy the Klingon vessel and save the shuttlecraft and its passengers, including the unknown ancestor of Capt. Picard.

When the simulator came to a halt, and the doors opened, we saw not the interior of the Enterprise where we had boarded, but the basement storage area of the present-day Hilton hotel.  Actors, posing as confused cleaning staff, asked us what we were doing there, and suggested that we move along quickly as we weren't allowed in this area.  As I stepped from the simulator with the rest of the people, hoping that I might sneak out unnoticed, I saw two armed security guards waiting for me.  Now I was certain this wasn't going to end well.

They approached and asked me to step aside so they could have a word with me about my photographic activities. Realizing they were not treating this lightly, I tried to be as jovial as possible while confessing that I had in fact attempted to videotape some of the attraction. I told the security guards I had only videotaped for a few seconds before being caught by the man on the bridge. They demanded to see the videotape, and that I erase it immediately. Under the circumstances, I was happy to oblige; but there was a small problem with that...

My video camera had an automatic lens-cover, sort of a flat sliding door with a complicated mechanism. It had been acting up through the whole trip, refusing to open when I needed to videotape something. Naturally it chose this particular moment to die completely. This left me fumbling ineffectively with the switch on the camera, getting more panic-stricken by the minute. The more I fiddled with the camera, the more it must have appeared to the guards that I was trying to avoid erasing the tape. In my nervousness, I made some smart remark about ending up in a shallow grave in the desert, which they didn't think was very funny at all. Finally, I was able to get the camera working so that I could tape over the offending segment.

By now the two guards had relaxed a bit, having no doubt decided that I was a harmless tourist, so I suggested that since I had to tape something, I might as well tape them. As I aimed the camera at the younger of the two guards and started recording, I joked that they probably did this a lot, to which the guard replied; "Yeah, but at least you speak English." I then suggested that Paramount (the producers of the attraction) really played hardball, and that this sort of thing didn't happen at Disneyland. The older guard replied, "We don't like to give our stuff away." As I swung the camera towards him, he clearly thought better of this whole, videotaping the guards idea, and turned his face away so as to be less recognizable.

After running the camera long enough to assure that I had taped over the section in question, I rewound the tape and played it for the guards so that they could see that no contraband images remained. Satisfied that I had escaped with no sensitive state secrets, they let me go.

Let's pause for a moment to remember Vicky sitting upstairs waiting for me. I'd been gone for about an hour and a half now, and for the last 30 minutes or so there had been a disturbing amount of activity involving security guards hustling to and fro. Her situation reminds me of an episode of  “The Simpsons,” in which Bart is leading an uprising at Kamp Krusty. His father Homer is watching a television news report about the revolt and starts chanting to himself, "Please don't let it be the boy, please don't let it be the boy." Immediately, the television displays an image of Bart leading the revolutionaries, prompting a "Doh!" from Homer. I imagined my wife, her Quark Burger and Romulan Ale long forgotten, watching security guards rush about and thinking to herself, "Please don't let it be him, please don't let it be him."

We'll return now to the basement where the security guards have just let me go. I started towards the elevator, and to my horror, I saw that they had kept the entire group waiting in the elevator while I joked with the security guards and struggled to comply with their demands. This had been no short span of time. I would have given anything to say, "You folks just go on ahead, I'll catch the next elevator.”  But this was not to be, and I had to get into that tightly packed space, full of very angry people, for what was the longest elevator ride of my life.

As I stepped off the elevator onto the Promenade, I saw Vicky approaching me with a questioning look on her face. I answered this by saying, "We have to leave...Now." Standing nearby was a security guard, who spoke into the microphone at his shoulder as we passed by, as if reporting our whereabouts. As we headed towards the exit, I answered Vicky's questions about what was going on with, "I'll tell you later." We passed yet another security guard in the hallway, and a third at the exit doors to the parking lot. Each spoke into their microphone as we passed, no doubt confirming that we were leaving the premises immediately. I was left with no doubt about their feelings toward me.

I was excited after what had happened, and spilled my story out to Vicky as we drove to a nearby restaurant. We found a table, ordered drinks and food, and she told me of her efforts to determine my whereabouts when it seemed the ride was taking too long. The guards Vicky had spoken to denied there were any irregularities. This response really had her concerned, and she wondered if I was indeed headed for a “shallow grave in the desert.” Soon our meals arrived, and we ate two delicious grilled steaks washed down with cold beer. I finally relaxed, as Vicky shook her head at my latest run-in with authority; my own version of the Star Trek Experience.

Fox & Vicky

Post Script: For those of you that are interested, here's a link to a grainy old-style video of the Star Trek Experience from YouTube that was shot by someone better at escaping detection than I was. The attraction is now shuttered, but this will give you some idea of what it looked like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SziLQXNWCbQ

Hey Fox! Have You Got A...?

When we're traveling, and Vicky asks if I have a (fill in any slightly obscure but useful item here) the answer will almost always be yes. Good trips happen before you leave. That's our trip preparation and packing motto. We always resented wasting any valuable time at our destination by having to go out and buy something that we forgot to pack, so when we thought of anything that would be likely to come in handy, we wrote it down. (This started long before computers -- yeah, yeah, we're old -- so our original packing list was hand written and tough to re-organize as time went on. These days you can just whip up a document on your laptop and print out a fresh one for every trip to use as a checklist).

The Mother Of All Packing Lists

Our packing list itself is worthy of a separate post, but we'll start by mentioning a few of the handy items that can be part of your own "save a trip kit." (This concept grew out of the "save a dive kit" that our dive-master taught us to pack for every scuba diving trip. A small problem like a broken fin strap would put an end to an entire day of diving once you're out on the reefs, so having a spare would "save a dive". Did I mention that we're divers as well? No? Hmmm...we'll get to that later).

Deep Water Sea Fan - Depth: 100 feet - Cozumel, Mexico

Let's get your own kit started. Grab a plastic zipper bag, and.toss in the following items: toothpicks, paper clips, elastic bands, and pushpins. One or two of each is fine. You probably already have most of them, and if not, your local "Dollar Store" will be a one-stop-shop for the rest.

The seeds from which a mighty "Save A Trip" kit will grow.

Naturally these items can all be used for their intended purpose, but their application as "save a trip" items is limited only by your imagination. For example, the pushpins were added to our list when we needed one to fix a watch strap. This stuff takes up almost no room, and can be left in the baggie in a pocket of your suitcase so that it's ready to go whenever you travel. So the next time your partner says; "Hey honey, have you got a pushpin?" You can answer: "Yes!" and save the day. We'll be adding other items for your kit in future posts.

Fox & Vicky

Here We Go!

Vicky and I just can’t decide how to get our blog rolling. At first we thought that it’s hard to go wrong with humor, so we’d tell the funny story about the time I was detained by security at a Las Vegas casino.

If they say no videotaping, they mean NO videotaping!

But that might make our readers think that the blog would only be about funny anecdotes. Next we thought we could start off with a travel tip, like how you can rescue a day at the beach by fixing a blown-out flip-flop with one of those little plastic tabs that keep a bread bag closed.

We'll tell you how to do this later...

But we didn’t want people to think that our blog was just about travel tips. Then we figured that since everybody loves to eat, we’d tell you about an amazing hole-in-the-wall we found in Montana where people line up out the door for a chance to eat the best barbecue pork I’ve ever had.

BBQ and Beer

But we want this to be more than just a bunch of restaurant reviews. Photography…that’s it! We’ll start with a tip on how to get the most from your camera when you want to capture those amazing fireworks on the Fourth of July.

4th of July from a mountaintop

No…people might think it’s just a blog for camera buffs. Maybe we should start with something about technology. Plenty of readers would love to hear about solving that annoying problem with weak Wi-Fi signals in hotel rooms.

Travel Booster - Wi-Fi's best friend

Wait, I’ve got it…we’ll start with a packing tip. We’ve rescued many a travel day by having some little item like a single use tube of super-glue that can solve a big problem in no time.

It's a super problem solver

No, that’s too specific. How about a photo trip report? Our Alaska pictures would set the tone nicely…

Johns Hopkins Glacier - Glacier Bay, Alaska

…or maybe the Fiji shots would be better.

Matangi Island Sunset, Fiji

We just can’t decide. Maybe we’ll go out for a cold glass of local craft beer and think about it. Now there’s a good first post…we’ll review the micro-brews we tried on our last trip.

Sweet, life-giving, beer

Now we’re getting somewhere. Hey, wait just a minute here. It looks like we’ve already written our first post!

We hope you’ll come along with us for what we promise will be an interesting, funny, and informative look at traveling, eating, and everything that goes with it. We’ll fill you in on the details of the things we’ve only touched on here, and who knows what else? It’s a big world, so we’d better get started…we’ve got plenty to share.

Fox & Vicky