Janet and Mark's Retirement Trips

  One of many money shots: ‎⁨Cameron Lake⁩, ⁨Waterton Park⁩, ⁨Alberta⁩, ⁨Canada⁩ The genesis of this trip sprung from an ambitious idea for another mondo 3,000 mile road trip, swinging north through Seattle and North Cascades National Park, then sweeping east to Glacier National Park, Banff/Lake Louise, then swing south and west to Crater Lake and Bend--too long mileage and time wise.  Then maybe we could take a scenic railroad trip from Calgary to Vancouver--ooofah, too expensive with Cairo/Nile Cruise yet to pay for.  How about flying to Kalispell, MT and renting a car for a more focused road trip--ahhh, much more do-able! We have a rather new Bucket List Goal to visit all the magnificent National Park Lodges, like the Ahwahnee in Yosemite (stayed there in December 2021), so Janet's magic laptop secured reservations at  Lake McDonald (the west-most section of Glacier NP),  Saint Mary Lake, Many Glacier Lodge, the Post Hotel in Lake Louise, then the unbeli...

The Money Shot: Temple of Hatshepsut Somehow this trip came together at an "Extreme Bucket List" Trip among Marcia, Joan, and the two of us.  We are not "Cruise People" as we absolutely abhor the idea of getting on one of those massive ocean cruise ships, but Janet and I took a UniWorld River Cruise in the Bordeaux wine region as part of a three-week trip to Paris and the Basque Country, and it was a fantastic trip, and with only 80 passengers or so on the boat, it was most civilized.  Sure, it's pricey, but it was much more fulfilling than standing in line for EVERYTHING with a few thousand of my besties.  So, off we were to the Middle East again, using UniWorld again, just as the region was heating up, again (Marcia and Joan's pre-trip to Jordan's Petra was impacted as United cancelled all flights to Amman so they adjusted to come in with us directly to Cairo). October 30th 2024: San Francisco to Frankfurt to Cairo: arrived on the 31st on uneventful fl...