Thursday Thirteen - 13 cool trips I've been on

I've been reading some blogs of friends who are not leading a mommy life and include exciting travels around the globe. So I felt inspired to remind myself of the travels I've enjoyed....here's 13 of the best trips I've been on.....

1. Family bike trip from Frank's Slide, AB to Cranbrook up to Golden and back to Calgary. Three kids (16, 14, 13), two parents, one tent trailer and 5 bikes. The kids got to ride the Canadian Tire 10 speeds, while Mom and Dad got the new mountain bikes. My brother and I rode almost the whole way. We still have stupid little songs from that trip that we sing to each other...."come on little sister" and "du bist ein verlorner". Family bonding 101.

2. Berlin Germany 1989, before the wall fell. It's pretty cool to think that I have a picture of myself against the Brandenburger Gate when it still divided West and East Berlin. I was 16, on an exchange program to Germany. Pretty eerie to walk the wall and see armed guards. Even crazier when the wall fell only a couple of months later. The whole exchange program trip was pretty cool too.

3. Vancouver road trip 1992. Four girls in a station wagon on a road trip from Calgary to Vancouver. The highlight being one night at "The Roxy" (how cliche) in Vancouver - lots for drinks and a late night down at Kits beach.

4. Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - New Year's Eve 1995. Three girls on a holiday to Mexico. Roaming the streets, drinking margaritas in a bar owned by Calgarians. Lots of really silly pictures.

5. Mount St. Helen's Volcano on the 15th anniversary of its eruption - 1995. A fluke really, but what great timing. A last minute pit stop on a 7000km road trip with a guy friend through Montana, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Vancouver/Whistler and back to Calgary. I think we spent more time driving in the car than we did actually seeing anything. Good times though - a great way to celebrating graduating university.

6. Some remote bay on the island of Vanau Levu, Fiji. This one has lots of crazy stories. My girl friend and I were trying to find a friend of my uncle's where we were going to stay for a few days. We ended up having to take a ferry from one island to another, where we had to stay overnight in a local family's home because there was no accommodation, so we could take another smaller ferry BACK to a remote bay on the first island where there were two houses and no sign of people when the boat dropped us off and left again. Talk about naive travellers. But what a great couple of days we had once the people showed up!

7. Fraser Island, Australia - July 1996. The moon rose up over the Pacific Ocean. A dingo watched two backpackers' first kiss. It was love and still is.

8. Sydney, Australia - New Years Eve 1996. Nothing beats the fireworks over the Harbour Bridge in Sydney. My first NYE with my hubby.

9. Paris, middle of a heat wave, summer 1997. I fell in love with Paris on this visit. A romantic jaunt through the Chunnel while living in England. We walked and walked and walked. We did not go to the Louvre, but we did climb the steps of the Eiffel Tower. The heat did us in though. My husband suffered temporary insanity while waiting in line for his Big Mac and melted down when he got the wrong ice cream at the foot of the Sacre Coure.

10. London, England. A few different experiences here. A night of too many cocktails at the Long Island Ice Tea Bar (perhaps an early indicator of my soon to be life without alcohol) with my sister who came to visit for reading week. Another visit with two girl friends included a very expensive cab ride to get us from the bus station to our executive apartment and to the theatre district to see Jesus Christ Superstar in time. My husband had to fend off a thug one time when he was taking my picture in Piccadilly Circus - the guy came up to him and said "give me a quid or I'll punch you in the face". Needless to say, he gave him a pound.

11. Amsterdam on Queen's Day - April 30, 1998. My husband and I booked our European adventure and randomly picked the busiest day of the year - the Queen's Day holiday - to arrive in Amsterdam. The day is celebrated with everyone selling their household junk on the streets and anything left over is just left for the city to clean up. Talk about a dirty introduction to a dirty (wink, wink) city. Thankfully we had Dutch hosts who secured a hotel for us to stay in and gave us the city tour.

12. Cook Islands, 2000. What a fantastic honeymoon. A long way from home. Sunshine. White sandy beaches. Newlyweds.

13. Las Vegas, 2005. Girls trip to Vegas. 4 days away from the responsibilities of motherhood and life. What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, right?