Ty and Helen:

Helen and I were married eight years ago this July. It was the second time for each of us. We each have two adult children from our first marriages. There are thirteen grandchildren; six of Helen’s and seven of mine. Helen taught third and fourth grade bilingual students until she retired almost five years ago. I retired from the collision repair industry a decade ago. We have a lot in common including a love of traveling. Our goal is to see as much of the world as possible while we are still healthy enough. WorldMark is making that possible for us in a big way.

FEATURED OWNERS QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

How long have you been a member of WorldMark? Where have you visited?
Helen and I joined WorldMark in August 1999. We have stayed at Angels Camp, Clear Lake, Pismo Beach, Branson, Bison Ranch, Lake Tahoe, Klamath Falls, Seaside, Vancouver and Coral Baja. We have toured Pinetop, Monterey Bay, Estes Park, Birch Bay and Victoria.

What is your favorite WorldMark resort? What do you like about it?
Coral Baja in Los Cabos, Mexico was our first actual WorldMark stay. We had a wonderful time there and have returned twice since. Helen had already traveled extensively throughout Mexico before we met. Coral Baja opened my eyes to so many more resort destinations in Mexico. We now divide our time there between Los Cabos, Puerto Vallarta, Cancun and our favorite, Mazatlan.

What things do you like to do when visiting this resort?
When visiting Coral Baja, we enjoy seeing the whales (Figure 1.), sight-seeing in the countryside, experiencing the Mexican culture off the beaten track (Figure 2.), riding quads on the dunes (Figure 3.), parasailing, scuba diving, snorkeling, swimming, and relaxing around the resort. We even enjoyed seeing the rare, endangered cacti at Cacti Mundo (Figure 4.) in San Jose del Cabo.

Would you share some of your favorite vacation web links and/or photos from this resort and the surrounding area?
See above.

Tell us about the people you travel with - are they family? friends? co-workers? If you have children, what are their travel preferences?
Helen and I usually travel alone. Occasionally we have had friends or family join us. Between the two of us, we have four children and thirteen grandchildren. Those who live near us have taken advantage of the nearby WorldMark resorts. Airfare is very expensive for young families.

What is your most exciting vacation memory?
We had spent a week at Broome Park (Figure 5.), a four hundred year old Manor House in Kent, England. While there we spent two days touring Canterbury, with it’s incredible Cathedral (Figure 6.); took a train and bus to and from Stonehenge (Figure 7.); and visited Folkestone (Figure 8.) and much of the English countryside by mistake because we got on the wrong bus. We spent the following week on a canal boat (Figure 9.), out of Nottingham Castle Marina, on a canal that connects the Trent & Mercy Rivers. With no one else aboard, we did everything ourselves, including manually managing the locks and often preparing our own meals. The third week we flew to Tenerife, Canary Islands (Figure 10.), for whale watching, snorkeling, scuba diving with manta rays, and sightseeing around the island. The last week we spent on the Costa del Sol, near Malaga, Spain (Figure 11.). There was too much to do and see in only one week, but we gave it our best try. We explored Malaga, Marbella, the Cave of Nerja and the Alhambra in Granada. On the spur of the moment, we decided to take a ferry from Algeciras, Spain, in Europe, past the Rock of Gibraltar, to Tangiers, Morocco, in Africa. On the trip across, we met a man traveling with his wife and his eight-year-old daughter to see his family in Tangiers. We shared with these new friends that we felt a little timid about exploring the city and would probably just return to Spain on the next ferry back. When the boat docked, we helped them carry their luggage to the parking (Figure 12.) area where the man’s brother greeted them all. Our new friend told his brother to take his wife and daughter to his brother’s home. He then said he was going to call a nephew to bring his car and that he was going to show us “his Tangiers”. For the next eleven hours, he became the best guide and host we have ever experienced as he showed us every nook and cranny of Tangiers, including the Kasbah, several sights where American movie companies filmed, the palace of the ruler of Tangiers and the palace of the ruler of Morocco, the surrounding countryside where he even arranged for us to ride one of his friends’ camels (Figure 13.) and a couple of eating establishments where he wouldn’t even let us pay for the meals. At eleven that evening, he put us on the last ferry back to Spain with our “most exciting vacation memory” fresh in our heads.

Have you ever had some kind of "vacation disaster" threaten to ruin your trip? Tell us your story!
In the fall of 2002, we began planning a trip to Mombassa, Kenya in Africa. We found two weeks of availability in a two-bedroom condo at the Royal Safari and Beach Club for June 2003. We grabbed it and used our American Airlines Frequent Flier miles for two free R/T tickets on American and British Airways. We were all set and excited to be going to Africa for the first time. Unfortunately, just ten days before we were supposed to start our trip, British Airways cancelled all flights to Nairobi due to the bombing of their Embassy there. We were terribly disappointed. Fortunately, we were able to get all our mileage credits returned to our account, and we were able to trade for two weeks in Cabo San Lucas instead. We stayed at Hacienda del Mar resort the first week and Club Casa Dorada Beach and Golf Resort the second week. It was a little hot in June, but we had a great time anyway.

What do you and your family enjoy besides vacationing? (i.e. camping, walking, painting, etc)
Both Helen and I are avid readers. We enjoy taking photographs, entertaining family and friends in our home and attending plays and concerts.

Do you have a hobby? What is it and what makes it special to you?
Helen has several hobbies including learning new languages, mastering additional cooking skills, Tai Chi, hiking with other seniors and keeping up with her friends via e-mail. My favorite hobby is searching RCI for new destinations and working out all the details required.

Other than a WorldMark destination, what is your favorite place to visit for rest and relaxation?
When we travel we are anxious to take in as much of our surroundings as we possibly can. We spend very little time in our rooms. We try to experience as much as we can at each destination. Therefore, between trips, we return home where we feel we can rest, relax and prepare for our next trips.

If you could choose to live anywhere in the world, where would that be and why?
We feel very fortunate to live in Northern California. The mild Mediterranean climate is pleasant all year long. Living near San Jose and San Francisco allows us to take advantage of all the wonderful entertainment, great restaurants and terrific sights to see. At a much younger age, Sydney, Australia was high on the list of desirable places to live. The harbor there is even more beautiful than S.F. Bay and the people are extremely friendly.

How did you choose to become a WorldMark owner? Or, why did you choose WorldMark over other timeshare companies?
We had just returned from our honeymoon in Australia and accepted an invitation to attend a Trendwest presentation in San Jose. I was familiar with the name WorldMark having been treated to a visit to Coral Baja and to Pismo Beach but was not familiar with Trendwest. When I saw the pictures of Coral Baja, I told Helen “that’s not a Trendwest resort, it belongs to WorldMark. I’ve been there myself” I thought we were being scammed. As the film began, we soon became aware that the two companies were connected and we stayed to see and hear more. After reading the contract that night, we signed up for the minimum 6000 credits. Since then we have attended numerous other timeshare presentations and heard some outlandish claims, but we have been extremely pleased with WorldMark and have even added more credits.

What do you enjoy most about being a WorldMark owner?
With our WorldMark ownership and our RCI membership, we have been able to travel an average of 12/15 weeks per year for the last seven and a half years. Most of our travels are outside of the United States including every continent except Antarctica. We stay at WorldMark resorts using Bonus Time and Inventory Specials, saving our credits for hard to get destinations like Japan and South Africa, (where we will be staying at Kruger Park Lodge for two weeks in Aug./Sept. this year).

What do you like best about this WMO website community you have helped create?
We love the usually happy-go-lucky spirit of the owners. Most are so helpful; sharing information they’ve learned from their own experiences.

What suggestions do you have to enhance it?
Accept the blessings we have. Keep this website for the positive aspects of WorldMark ownership; sharing vacation ideas and experiences; helping each other with sightings and informational resources. Move the political agenda to a separate location and identify it as such. All those interested would be able to participate as much as they like. Others who come here to share the positive experiences would not have to read through the negativity.

Do you have ideas for contests and giveaways that we could possibly incorporate in the future?
I have no additional ideas for contests and giveaways.

Ty and Helen

Whale watching near Los Cabos	Getaway guy & dos amigos	Riding quads on the dunes	One of many displays at Cacti Mondo	Broome Park
Canterbury Cathedral	Getawayguy and Getawaygal at Stonehenge	Getawaygal at Folkestone	Interior of canal boat	Pearly Gray Resort from the water
Getawaygal in Malaga, Spain	Getawaygal with our guardian angel guide and his family	Getawayguy and Getawaygal creating a Xmas card