Disneyland (March 1996)
One spring break, Mary brought Treva, Sarah and Byron done for a visit. I picked them up at Ontario airport and we drove directly down and stayed at a Disneyland hotel. That gave us the priviledge of entering the park two hours before the general public. In doing so we managed to go on all the major rides by the time the park opened at 10 a.m. We were able to go back to the hotel room for a little nap before checking out, and then rested we were able to stay until the park closed!
Ft. Lauderdale & the Caribbean Sea (November 1996)
Kris Clark and I decided to go on a cruise for Thanksgiving so we sent on a Holland America ship out of Ft. Lauderdale to the Western Caribbean. Ft. Lauderdale was beautiful – it makes Newport Bay look tiny in comparison! We took off found out we were assigned a table to six for dinner with a couple on their second honeymoon from Vancouver and a drunk couple from Chicago via Park City. We didn’t click! So the rest of the cruise we spent trying to avoid the drunk couple. The ship took us to St. Maarten, St. Thomas and St. Johns Island in the U.S. Virgin Islands, back to the Bahamas before returning to Florida. On Thanksgiving day we hit a big storm and most of the ship got sea sick. So there were very few that showed up for Thanksgiving dinner. Holland America isn’t the most exciting of cruise lines.
Santa Fe, New Mexico (June 1997 )
On of the benefits of knowing a bunch of environmental attorneys is that they attend the Rocky Mountain Mineral Institute every year at great locations in the west. This year I met Kris Clark in Santa Fe and we saw my friends from Redlands, Doug Hairgrove and Warren Wood. We also visited our friend from Washington, D.C. Sunny Nixon who lives in Santa Fe.
Buffalo, New York and Toronto (June 1998)
One of my assignments at Corona was to work on a specific plan for the North Main Street corridor. One of the concepts of the plan was to expand on the entertainment amenities that were located or planned there. I attended an Urban Land Institute meeting on entertainment planning and development in Buffalo, New York. I hadn’t been to Buffalo since 1959. So off I went for the week long meeting. However, I went early so that I could spend the prior weekend exploring Niagara Falls. But once I got there I rented a car and drove up to Toronto visiting Niagara-on-the-Lake on the way to Toronto. While in Toronto I saw the play Rent. In 1959 we spent about 20 minutes seeing Niagara. This time I could have spent a week there!
Vancouver & Horseshoe Bay (August 1998)
Kris Clark again was attending the Rocky Mountain Mineral Institute, this time in Vancouver. I went up and we got to spend time with Mary and Jon and go on a fantastic ride in their boat out of Horseshoe Bay.
Hong Kong, Bangkok & Laos (October 1998)
Kris Clark has a high school friend, Wendy Chamberlin who was the U.S. Ambassador to Laos. So we decided to visit her and her two daughters in October 1998. We flew to Hong Kong did a bit of shopping, then on the Bangkok for more shopping with a Tuck-tuck, and then on to Laos. We spent about a week in Laos, going to a cruise up the Mekong River. We flew up to the ancient Laotian capital of Luang Prabang and then back to the current capital of Vientiane. The trip was exotic. Only one paved road in the country!
Savannah, Georgia (May 1999)
I had always wanted to go see Savannah, Georgia. So, thanks to Corona’s 4:10 work schedule to headed off to see this historic city.
Tokyo (October 1999)
Having just had a five hour layover in Tokyo in 1991, I couldn’t wait to return to see more of the city. Nora Jacob, a Corona work friend, and I booked a 10 day package to see Tokyo. We also got to stay in a riukan inn in Nikko to the north, Nara and Kyoto to the south and a day trip via bullet train to Hiroshima. We were in Kyoto there was a big parade festival – great for loads of pictures. Additionally we took a funicular train up to a mountain top village to see the annual fire festival where loin clothed men and boys pull burning logs down the main street. Fun!
Preserved from Ron’s original collection. The wording and historical recollections are the authors’ own.
Source: /travel-1996-1999/