My world

For those of you that don't know me too well, I was in the Navy for six years. During those six years, I was blessed to travel around in a 600 foot gray floating dumpster for days, weeks, even months on end. My first deployment in 2000 (pre-911) was basically a humanitarian cruise showcasing our ship and maintaining peace throughout the Mediterranean Sea. The second was in 2002 (post-911) and we actually had to work for 7 months. At one point we were at sea for over 90 consecutive days. In these deployments, I was able to see many places that I probably will never visit again. If you couple this with where I've been on my own travels, I would consider myself moderately traveled. Below is a list of the top places I've been on this world. Keep in mind it will probably change once I go to Cancun in April.

6. Rota / Malaga, Spain: Spain was absolutely beautiful. I absolutely loved Spain and the fact that I could use what I remembered from 4 years of Spanish classes in high school definitely helped my time there. Rota will most be remembered because that is the checkpoint we always stopped at upon getting to the Med. Sea. Rota was a tiny town but had this great Irish bar that me and my friends would go to and play checkers, darts, and drink. The only problem with Spain was that the portions of food were tiny. I always left hungry. Oh well, the price of beer more than made up for it.

5. Split, Croatia: At the time we visited Croatia, I was told we were only the second U.S. Navy ship to go there. The city welcomed us with open arms. I guess they didn't realize the squids would come in and take over the town for a few days. The town was amazing and we realized we weren't in Kansas anymore when we saw a U.N. vehicle blown up on the side of the road. Just a little scary. But again, the beer was cheap and the food was good.

4. Seychelles: This is a group of islands off the coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean just south of the equator (that's right, I'm a shellback). The island we went to was a resort island and we were there for 2 days. Of those days, I was in a hotel for both. The water was warm, clean, and beautiful. The only problem here is that it was a place where a lot of extremel wealthy people traveled so everything was extremely high priced. I paid $8 for a beer and $10 for a hamburger. It would have ranked higher if not for the empty wallet I had when I left.

3. Nassau, Bahamas: This place was absolutely amazing. I could not find anything wrong with this destination. My fondest memory of here was walking from the ship to Paradice Island with an open bottle of local rum and having a steady diet of said rum throughout the stay. This is also where I blew out my eardrum when I got swept under a wave. It's a little strange to have blood coming out of the ear and not being able to hear for a few days. This is also where I got to see way too much of one of the girls I worked with at the time when she showed up at the beach in a swimsuit...um...how can I say this...with a little extra hair. Not a pleasant moment. But that did not take away from the beauty of the island.

2. Rome, Italy: Up to this point, every visit was pretty fun and care free. But my visit to Rome obviously was a little different as I got to visit the Vatican. Touring through St. Peter's Cathedral was something I will never ever forget. I actually got to travel the spiral staircase all the way to the top of the cathedral and look out to the whole city. Simply amazing and breathtaking. I only had one complaint here though. While walking through Rome seeing the Vatican, the ancient ruins, the Roman Coliseum, and back to the train, I must have walked about twenty miles. The following morning, my feet were so blistered I couldn't even put on shoes. Needless to say I turned down a trip to go back to the Vatican. What I missed that day was the Pope giving mass. An amazing event that I found out after everyone got back to the ship. Oh well.

1. Israel: This is another place that is on the list because of things other than drinking and fun. While in Israel, I got to visit Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, Jerusalum, the Wailing Wall, and was able to see where Jesus is burried. Talk about life changing. Words cannot describe how much this visit meant to me as a person and as a Christian. I have said on numerous occasions that the highlight for me was the Wailing Wall. To see the impact this had on people's lives was simply breathtaking. If you are unsure of what this wall is, I highly advise you to google it. This visit was the highlight of my deployment and ranks as one of the top 6 moments of my life.