May 2001
west rim of the Grand Canyon
Rather than take the usual tourist route, we travelled on an old school bus through the Hualapai Nation lands west of the canyon. No guardrails here - that is the rim immediately behind Barbara. The Hualapai have minimized their footprint on the land and the view was spectacular.
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We ate a meal prepared by the Hualapai under temporary awnings close to the rim. When two other visitors asked to share our table we hoped to hear stories of new places and travels. As has happened often, our eating companions were visiting from Gatineau, Québec, not far from Ottawa.
December 2001
Wall Street, New York - New Year's Eve, 2001
I was been scheduled to fly to New York for a course on September 12th, 2001. The trip was delayed by three weeks and rather than fly, a colleague and I drove to New York. On the first night I walked as far as Canal Street before turning back, the smoke being too thick. The next evening I walked a circuitous route through Battery Park as far as Church Street, one block from the burnng remnants of the World Trade Center. Photos and videos no matter how good cannot truly portray such a surreal sight, nor the mood of the crowds. Respecting the wishes of New Yorkers, I did not take any photos.
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I returned with Barbara between Christmas and New Year's that year. In the ensuing period the site had been cleared. Again no photos were taken. When this picture was shot the barriers had not yet been installed along Wall Street.
27-APR-2008
Dennis in Paris, 2008
With so many cities boasting a Cafe de Paris it was nice to visit one in Paris. Of course this one is in Paris Ontario, my birthplace. With a population of approx. 2500, it's tough to pretend you are strolling along the Champs-Élysées. The Grand River is grand, but I don't think it is deep enough for a Bateau Mouche.
September 1999
Disneyland Paris 1999
To walk along Main Street, U.S.A. with all the signs and public address anouncements in English, all the while hearing wisps of German and Italian (and of course Parisian french) from the surrounding crowd - bizarre in the extreme!!
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Later that day, we went to eat at a small family bistro that I had previously visited in the 1970's, La Cremerie Polidor. There were few seats available so the waitress asked if we would mind sharing a table. Since the crowd at the Polidor is usually local families, we thought we were lucky that a single diner was willing to share his table with us. What an opportunity to experience non-tourist Paris!! Well as the saying goes, if we didn't have bad luck, we probably wouldn't have any luck at all. Our dinner companion was a civil servant from Québec City and had nothing good to say about Paris, Parisians or the food. Considering the usual inter-city rivalry, the fact that we live in Montréal probably didn't help.
October 2006
Confederation Bridge, P.E.I.
08-APR-2007
Ice sculpture, Presqu'Ile Park, Ontario
03-MAR-2007
Entrance to Boundary Bay Dyke & Trail - Delta, B.C.
September 1999
Musee d'Orsay, Paris
At each end of the gallery, there is a metal grill that blocks the view down the main corridor (my guess is that if you spend too much time looking at Impressionists, they worry you might want to jump). There was a small opening in the grill, just large enough to hold my camera backward at arms length above my head and take this panoramic shot.
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We had missed out on a visit the previous year, as I had forgotten about the move and taken Barbara to the Jeu de Paume gallery, where I had last seen the Impressionist works and others. We both feel that the new exhibitions that we had seen at the Jeu de Paume were probably an acquired taste. I'm not sure even today I have acquired the taste necessary for a return visit.
25 September 2000
at the Magic Kingdom with Uncle Walt and Minnie