Sparking the Creative Spirit

Posing with an Indian family at the "Baby Taj" in Agra, India

Thank Goodness for the spring! I'm finally waking up my creative spirit and hopefully will be better about postings from here on out. It's been way too long since I've shared photos and stories with you all and I have many excuses - mostly the overload of editing so bloody many photos and over committing myself to volunteer work!

I shot over 4000 digital photos in India. So how do I even come close to sharing the experience with you all without serious info overload?

Luckily - I recently took a class in Kaizen which teaches you how to take the smallest possible step to achieve your goals. I noticed very quickly that my small steps were pretty monumental to what was expected but hey, at least I'm out here trying to post something after the long winters night..... a nice hike in the foothills of Boulder and a full day of sunshine are quite motivating!

I'll try to take a subject at a time, or a photo at a time or a moment in time to share with you all - feedback from you will encourage me to post more often, so interaction is highly recommended if you want to see/hear more about India.

I recently had a few friends over to share their travel stories and photos. What a great night it was - we visited Croatia, Montenegro, Patagonia and India and had a fabulous gourmet meal with wine, over the course of about four hours .... I think we need to do this more often!

So - here's a post to spark some creative thinking and I'll be pondering about what to share next during my daily walks. If there is some place you are dying to see/hear about let me know. I realize I've been "bagging" a lot international locations but not sharing all the fun stories and photos from them with friends - so what's the point????

Help me out with some suggestions on what you want to see! If I haven't been there I'll let you know. BTW I'm currently planning a trip to Indonesia for a month with a friend who was born and raised there but never got to see the unique things about the area (venomous Komodo dragons, orphaned Orang-utans). Hence - this is one of the diversions that has kept me from posting - I was invited on the trip about a month or so ago and we are planning to leave in June - so much research .... so little time to finalize the itinerary.

Did you know Indonesia contains over 18,000 islands in the span of about 3,000 miles? UNBELIEVABLE!

Posing with school group near Agra - Copyright 2008 Jan Gorski

The coolest thing about India was the people. This is the first country I've ever visited where people (mostly young girls) came up to us and asked us to pose with them in their photos. Wouldn't it be amazing if some of the kids from this class saw their photos on the web?

Happy Travels!

Serious World Traveler!

Ok - I love to travel - but does it all have to happen in the same MONTH?!?!
I just returned from 2 of 3 back-to-back trips. It started with my company annual "Kickoff" event which was held in San Diego 10/19-21. It was a great party - I got to catch up on my sister-in-law's life (who I took as a guest), visit a friend who recently moved back home (and survived the wildfires) - love that beach time :), took in a few local sites, and of course, ate some great food from around the world (Italy, Greece, France, China...) while gazing at fireworks off the deck of the USS Midway. The image above is from the rooftop of the Bali Hai Restaurant on Shelter Island. Any ideas about this guy?

The sea gulls were great entertainment on the beach near the Coronado Hotel. We had a yummy lunch and thought we would go for a walk along the beach after eating. Little did we know that the gulls had an attack strategy - when we returned we found our belongings had been ransacked by hungry birds, everything was strewn about - I guess we shouldn't have given them the leftover sushi rice and left the "grape apple" desserts behind ... we were, however, blessed with a parade of dolphins playing off shore on our journey back from the doggie-friendly part of the beach, where there was a lot of slobber, Frisbees and tennis balls being shared!



On Sunday morning I had to wake up at o-dark-hundred and try not to wake my roommate, so I could catch a flight from San Diego to Leeds, England (via Chicago and London's Heathrow Airport). After a long overseas journey I spent about a week in Harrogate, England on a business trip - mostly in the ozone of time warps and overcast skies. This trip made me really appreciate the average 300 sunny days/year in Denver and the fresh veggies that we enjoy year round. Pub food is not my friend, although the Guinness on tap was nice ;) Harrogate is actually a very lovely city to walk around in but I didn't have much time to explore on this trip and never pulled my camera out to capture the essence of this city of stone buildings. The cab driver, however, had great stories to share on the ride from Leeds to Harrogate !!

I was very grateful when I returned to Colorado late Friday evening after being awake for over 22 hours (and almost missing my flight from Chicago to Denver due to slowpokes in the customs luggage handling area and the backwards transit system that makes you go through security again even if you are on a connecting flight.)

I've actually managed to survive a short week at work filled with action items, visitors from out of town, rescheduled appointments and the stress of prepping for an upcoming journey to India.

WOW - so was this my wake up call? I thought I just wanted to jet around the world for the rest of my life. I'm thinking it needs to be spread out a bit!!! But I'm really looking forward to the upcoming trip which I've planned for many months, that will take me tiger trekking in India, photographing the many colors of the Taj Mahal at sunset & sunrise, visiting the Pink City of Jaipur, experiencing the largest festival in Asia - the Pushkar Camel fair and wrapping up the adventure with a visit to the Pench Tiger reserve.

So stay tuned for adventures from abroad - I hope to get internet access in this high tech country with the poorest population in the world (oxymoron?), but mostly I'm looking forward to experiencing the magic of the culture of India.