meinen Reisen MY TRAVELS mijn reizen mes voyages meus cursos mis viajes minhas viagens mo taisteal mine rejser mina resor i miei viaggi

Today, the 27th, we went to Sonoma Valley and San Francisco. (I just saw the post that Jonathan was in the area. The posting dates are off as I post at night and the computer is in Central Time Zone. It would have been fun to see him and my friend, Allison too, but we really are going quite fast. We needed more time.)

We took the ferry from Sausalito over to Fisherman’s Wharf. We saw a lot of the sites including Lombard Street. Lombard Street had so many flowers planted on the sides it was hard to see the curves. It is hard not to compare Snake Alley with the street, but we probably shouldn’t.

I think we all loved Chinatown. It was much larger than I expected and much like China. It transported me back to China. I felt we really had left the country. We were able to eat some Peking Duck and other Chinese dishes.

We are driving a rental car down Highway 1 to Anaheim tomorrow and spending the weekend at Disneyland. We are currently in Santa Cruz.

Today, we went to Crater Lake National Park and Redwood National Park. Tomorrow, we are going to Sonoma Valley and San Francisco. We are in California!

I am tired. I woke up at 3:30 a.m. Eastern and boarded the plane around 7:30 a.m. Six hours later I met Andrea and my dad in Seattle. We went to Pike Place Market. We saw the flowers, the fish, etc. Andrea was happy to see the original Starbucks. Starbucks, it seems, are on every corner here.

We went to the Space Needle and walked around the area visiting the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation Visitor Center.

We also went to Pioneer Square and Chinatown. We took light rail or a monorail everywhere. We stopped in Colombia City and looked around, but we ultimately found a good restaurant at our hotel.

I might work on this again. I think my camera pictures are different quality than Dad’s, so it doesn’t look the best.

More pictures of Miami. I am leaving tomorrow around 3 p.m. I haven’t explored much. I think I will be back some weekend as this looks like an interesting city to explore. It looks fun, but I am ready to be back in baby Orlando. (I went to Port of Miami for a reception tonight)

Oh yeah, so… During one break-out session, a speaker put an Okapi on the screen. I knew the animal as I go on Kilamajaro Safari ride a lot. He asked if anyone knew the animal!!! I did!!! BUT I was too nervous to guess. Ugh. Only 30 people were in the room.

I now have three animals I think of:

1) Duckie = lucky duckie – I have a lot to be thankful for  (like Dr. Seuss would say, “Duckie, you’re really quite lucky! Some people are much more…oh, ever so much more….oh, muchly much-much more unlucky than you!”)

2) Panda = Adventure – Keep exploring new lands

3) Okapi = confidence – Speak up. I know things.

I drove down to Miami leaving Orlando around 5:30 a.m.!

I took a tour of the Miami Free Zone at 10 a.m. I barely made it. I arrived at the complex at 9:42 a.m. Whew. The zone is very neat. It is somewhere I would like to work (but not in Miami). A lot of the organizations I work with now in Orlando are also located at the zone in Miami. We need to see why OIA doesn’t have one. The zone not only works with importers and exporters, but it also works with wholesalers. I think it would be neat to see something with retailers. Who knows…..

The tour took like 15 minutes. Ugh. I drove to downtown Miami and checked-in. I am in here for the Discover Global Markets event by the U.S. Commercial Service. I know a lot of people from Florida and from the event in Charlotte. I had some time so I drove down to Miami Beach and walked around.

At 2 p.m., I attended two different educational seminars. I actually have learned a lot about international trade in the last year.

I drove to St. Petersburg Friday morning for the Tampa Bay Export Alliance International Townhall.  

I ate lunch with two men: originally from Venezuela and Hungary. It was interesting to hear their stories about communism, rations, quotas, lack of food selection, etc. They were very happy to now be Americans.