I have been profoundly blessed when it comes to travel, most of it in association with work. When I first joined the Air Force, I went to San Antonio Texas for basic training, went to Monterey California for advanced language training (Russian) and then worked for a bit in Columbus Mississippi. When I was stationed with the 15th Air Force Band in Riverside California, our territory consisted of the three southwest states, California, Arizona and Nevada. This allowed pretty extensive travel within those states, but my real travel adventure did not start until I joined Yamaha Corporation of America in 1994.
When I became the Global Licensing Manager for Yamaha’s Firewire based audio technology, mLAN, I had a chance to travel to many countries in Europe and Asia, as well as throughout the United States.
Africa
In October of 2008, I had an amazing opportunity to travel to Spain and Portugal. One of the stops on this trip was to the African country of Morocco. Carleen was an extremely popular tour guide on this cruise, and she had scored a tour of Casablanca, so she stayed to do that while I wandered off with another tour group that went to Marrakesh. After a rather long bus ride, we arrived in one of the most interesting places I had ever been to. We sort of ended our tour at a large market place where it seemed that the last thing you actually wanted to do was buy anything. There were a bunch of colorful characters running around to say the least… but my favorite was this traditional water seller. I doubt he had ever actually sold any water, nor would I have wanted to drink from any of the cups he dangling around him like ornaments on a Christmas tree.
Bahamas
I have made three trips to the Bahamas for work … I know… Huh! One of them I took Brandon on, and we wandered all over Nassau just exploring. The travel has of course been a lot of fun, but occasionally bringing one of my family along has been a real treat, and something that I hope I will be able to continue to do. It seems that one of the things my trips with the kids is marked with is travel to foreign countries where they can drink at 18. So… Brandon’s first drink… with me… that I was aware of… was a Pina Colada on Coco Kay.
Canada
Don’t really remember much about Canada, though I think I did go there a couple of times.... maybe.
Canary Islands
China
The thing that most struck me about Shanghai, which is the city I visited in China, was the financial contrast of where I stayed. I was in a very nice hotel, and the room rate was a fairly typical $140 or so per night. My understanding is that the hotel was surrounded by apartments that I could have for three months for the same $140.
This was also the trip that I decided that I would chase around after hooligans that wanted to sell me time piece treasures from seedy little back alley lofts and dark apartments. I am not sure what I was thinking, but I did come back with a selection of incredibly useless watches, and a beautiful string of real pearls that I gave to Carleen. One of my favorite things I found there were some necklaces made from broken porcelain from the Ming dynasty. I gave these to Carleen as well, and to this day, I love to see her wear this necklace.
England
Trips to England included London and Oxford. The area around Oxford is some of the most beautiful country I have ever seen. I remember my first time there, I decided last second to rent a car at the airport and drive out. Well, all of the cars with automatic transmissions had been rented out so I had to make do with a stick shift. Not only did I have to deal with driving on the wrong side of the road, I kept trying to shift with my door handle. Needless to say, I managed to get to where I was going in almost one piece, and left the car there. I think both I and the car were better off for it.
On one of these trips to Oxford, I had an opportunity to take my daughter Brittney along, and we both had a great time. There was something humbling about having a beer in a pub where the mortgage had been paid twice as long as our country has even existed. In keeping with the tradition of dragging my spawn all over the globe to buy them drinks legally, Brittney’s first beer with her Dad was at the Child and the Eagle, the pub frequented by C.S. Lewis, Lewis Carol and J.R. Tolkien. Extremely cool….
France
My trip to France was actually quite amazing. I was returning from a trip to England, and found a flight back to the States that was actually cheaper if I flew through Paris on the way back rather than directly from England. Needless to say, I took advantage of this and flew to Paris for three hours. In that time, I hired a cab and had him drive me all over the city. Really had no time to do anything, but I did go to Notre Dame, the Louvre, the Eifel Tower and of all places, the Moulin Rouge. Even had a chance to have dinner in the shadow of the Arch de Triumph. All in all, probably the most efficient use of three hours in my entire life.
Germany
The world’s largest music trade show, Music Messe is held in Germany each year. It is sort of the equivalent of the NAMM show here, which it completely dwarfs. In addition to this major trade show, many of my licensees were located in Germany, and this afforded me the opportunity to travel there several times. On one of these trips, I was able to bring my son Brandon along which was a blast!
Japan
Obviously, Yamaha is a Japanese company, and I did get a chance to get over there three or four times. I really enjoyed the trips, though I found Japan to be truly a foreign land. When I travel to Europe, there is some sense of familiarity there, even though I would rarely understand the language. There was something very western about the experience. My trips to Japan were interesting in a disturbing “Lost in Translation” sort of way. Anyone that has seen that movie… and been to Japan knows what I mean.
Netherlands
Portugal
Spain
Switzerland