This page has pictures from:
Cozumel
Cancun
Spain
France
Italy
Malta and Corfu
Roatan, Honduras
London

1998 began with a trip to Cozumel with the Hoofer SCUBA Club. While diving was the main activity on our agenda, we found time to tour the island, frequent Carlos & Charlies, and drink a fair amount of Red Bull, with 33% maas. When we were seeing clearly, the visibility was terrific and the variety of aquatic life was amazing. The picture at left is a few of the sucbas on the roof of our charter boat soaking up the rays between dives. Eric (far left) was already a tad sunburnt.

For more pictures of the Cozumel trip, click here.

A couple months later some friends and I returned for spring break in Cancun, which is just north of Cozumel on the mainland. Memories of the trip include the retrieval of Barney, nearly dying in the ocean ("the ocean got me"), cave diving, the day of garlic, dancing midgets with roosters, CrispyChip, a broken dishwasher and substituting margaritas for water.

For more pictures of the trip to Cancun, click here.

One of our greater adventures in Europe was the San Fermin festival in Pamplona, Spain. Arriving at 10pm, JenO and I spent 14 hours with half a million people of all ages, dressed in white with red sashes and drinking... heavily. We did our best to keep up, but were forced to seek shelter (under a park bench) and grab a few hours of sleep in the early morning. Not surprisingly, we didn't make it to the 6:30 am start of the "encierro", or running of the bulls (much to our mother's delight) and were forced to watch from the sidelines as the 600 lb. bulls trampled and gored our fellow partiers. Damn.

For more pictures of Madrid, Pamplona, San Sebastian and Barcelona, click here.

Another highlight was standing on top of Mount Blanc, the highest point in Europe at 4807 meters. We chose to take the telepherique (the gondolas that occasionally get hit by airplanes) from where we were staying in Chamonix, France, but we witnesses many people making the hike on foot... approximately 13-14 people die every summer there trying to do so. One of the major causes of death is weather conditions - it was nearly 90° F and sunny at the base of the mountain but storms and gusty winds are common at the top and temperatures stay around 0-10° F.

For more pictures of Chamonix, the surrounding mountains, and Juan-les-Pins, click here.

The highlight of Italy was our 2-day trip to five small villages called "Cinque Terre" meaning five lands. We stayed in Vernazza, shown at left, but spent a day hiking through the hills and terraced vineyards between the villages, occasionally stopping to eat gelati or cliff dive. At night we ate the best pesto pasta EVER and drank the local wine while we watched the sunset over the ocean. It was tough, but we survived.

For more pictures of Cinque Terre, Venice, Pisa, Florence and Rome, and one random one of Frankfurt, click here.

In April of '99 my dad and I flew out to the country of Malta with Bob and Inger Kay who are slowly sailing around the world, leg by leg. We joined them for two weeks as they sailed across the Ionian Sea to Corfu, Greece. Both Malta and Corfu are incredible islands... the scenery there is very different from anything I have ever seen. It was also interesting to hear the Greek's perspective on the political situation in Kosovo... the picture at left shows me on the Kay's boat, the Vega Maria in Corfu -- behind me are the mountains of Albania.

For more pictures of Malta and Corfu, click here.

Much like 1998, 2003 began with a Hoofer scuba trip. This year's destination was Anthony's Key, a resort located on the island of Roatan, Honduras. While my bungalow lacked some creature comforts (hot water, glass windows, etc.) the island and aquatic life were incredibly beautiful and relatively undisturbed compared to most of the places I have travelled. The resort itself was a top-notch diving facility, very well run with excellent staff, equipment and food (if you like seafood and meat anyway).

For more pictures of Roatan, click here.

In November of 2003 my brother JeffO called to say British Airways was having a sale on flights to London from the US and that he was going the following month, and that I should come along. I told him December was way too hectic and London would be cold and rainy. He said I was becoming old and boring and the next thing I knew I was on the plane.

See more trip photos from London.