The night before we left I ended up staying up all night making these patches (right) for our group.
Friday, 14 March we arrived very early in the morning after a fourteen-hour flight. We rode around Victoria at dawn, waiting for our hotel to be ready for us, and waiting for shops to open. It was an opportunity to get out and into the humidity that I'd missed so long and to ride the Peak Tram--which I'd never done--and onto a trail, where we found old Hash marks,
and where we looked over all of the island and harbor before going over to Stanley to shop and then to Aberdeen, where some opted to sit a little longer, on tour boats around the harbor, but others chose to stretch our legs, warming up for the weekend ahead, and then finally we were off to the hotel--to rest? Not with registration waiting at the registration headquarters for "The Sunset on the Empire," where we stared senselessly at the book, materials, and a bag so full of fabulous goodies that, especially in the condition we were in, nothing registered: the only thing that registered was us. We continued staring long into the night until finally surrendering to sleep. It was all too exciting for me, to see old friends I'd missed for so long....
This page is created and maintained by Alison McMahon Johnson
all photos and materials
© Alison McMahon 1997
...and sights like this that transported me back to the years I spent in Taipei, where old rooftop sights like this would surprise and delight me daily. These roofs are on some back stairs in Stanley. I'm glad we went when we did: the land owner has just (21 July 1997) gotten the go-ahead to tear it all out and build an air conditioned mall!