In the 30+ years I spent in one form or another of public service, I have had the good fortune to be able to travel to some fun and fascinating places. Of course, I often had to work when I got there, but there was usually opportunities to see the area, take in the sites, etc. Here are a few of those opportunities. Future posts will include other trips.
I went as a member of the Evidence Response Team to the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. My team ended up with the night shift which gave us time to go see some of the events and sites. This was the Men's Biathalon. By the way, this is not with a long-range telephoto lens. We were able to get right up next to the track.
I went to San Juan, Puerto Rico, to assist in the investigation of the explosion and fire at a petroleum tank farm there. Fascinating work, but the off-shift time was great too.
I was sent to Budapest, Hungary for a week and a half to instruct a course in evidence collection at the International Law Enforcement Academy there. I'm not really sure what I expected, but found that Budapest is an incredibly beautiful and fascinating city. When not teaching, I was sightseeing. This is the Hungarian Parliment Building from across the Danube River.
Budapest at night. Looking across the Danube River to the Chain Bridge and the Palace on the hill. This trip was a lot of fun (even the work was a total blast), and the people were wonderful. However, as an old soldier, brought up and trained during the Cold War, it was difficult to keep from recalling that not many years ago, we were enemies and planned each other's destruction... Time changes everything.
