Ann and Ted:

I emigrated to Canada from London in 1969 on my own, and Ted emigrated to Toronto from Holland in 1965. I met Ted by the guillotine in a mining company office in Vancouver. It was love at first slice. He had just returned from prospecting for gold in the Yukon. No direct deposit of salaries then and as I had been putting his check into his bank account for months, I knew I was onto a good thing. It is well known by family and friends that I had my hands on his money long before we met. As a qualified accountant, he then found a job at a large insurance company, and retired in 2002 after 30 years of service. My career, if you can call it that, always fitted in with family needs. I worked as a legal secretary and taught typing at night school. When our children came along, I didn't work outside of the house for their formative years, preferring to give them my version of family stability. (They turned out OK!). Our daughter, Sarah (30), is retraining to be a Goldsmith/Silversmith and lives with Scott, her fiance, in Gastown. Our son, Roger (26), is a journeyman carpenter and lives with friends on the North Shore, and looks like Brad Pitt. (No questions about that please).

FEATURED OWNERS QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

How long have you been a member of WorldMark? Where have you visited?
Our first 6,000 credit purchase was in June, 2003, followed by another 6,000 credits in October, 2004. So far, we have been to Birch Bay, Cascade Lodge, Coral Baja, Discovery Bay, Pismo Beach, Gleneden, Depoe Bay, Clear Lake, and have taken a peek at the Seaside, Schooner Landing, Victoria, Vancouver and Windsor locations. Exchanges have been to Villa Del Palmar/Cabo, Four Seasons Aviara, CA, and The Grand, in Kelowna.

What is your favorite WorldMark resort? What do you like about it?
Can't wait to explore more of the WorldMark resorts, but at the moment, Gleneden is the one we know we will return to again and again.

What things do you like to do when visiting this resort?
We love to stroll along the beach at low tide searching for agates, scanning the horizon for whales, driving along the 101, fishing with Trade Winds, http://www.tradewindscharters.com/, crabbing, eating fish and chips at Tidal Raves in Depoe Bay, and visiting the Outlet Stores. The pool area is very comfortable! And it is so wonderful to tell Ted to "go fly a kite"!! We still laugh at the last time we crabbed at Waldport. A fellow crabber went to the store and brought back a frozen skinned mink for bait. He heartily chopped it up into sections, and gave us the part with the back legs and tail attached. Yuck!

Would you share some of your favorite vacation web links and/or photos from this resort and the surrounding area?
Most of the time we revisit our well traveled areas, especially the Oregon and CA coast, so we haven't needed to do much research. The latest Google aid "Google/Earth" sounds as if it will be fun to use. Photo of me is on the beach at Gleneden, our daughter/fiance and son, and Ted and I at a wedding in Vancouver.

Tell us about the people you travel with - are they family? Friends? Co-workers? If you have children, what are their travel preferences?
Ted and I mostly travel together. We've enjoyed a Gleneden holiday with our daughter, Sarah, and it was lovely to have that time with her. Sarah loves it when I book her into any WM resort, or give her an II exchange. Our son, Roger, is the adventurer, having toured Australia for close to a year. He got his Lifesaving Certificate in Broome. He also spent five months exploring Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand. He hasn't experienced a WorldMark vacation yet, as his plans are usually too last minute. Last year, I visited Discovery Bay with $unflower (Lee), my very best girlfriend of 35 years. Have two trips to Gleneden booked for family next year.

What is your most exciting vacation memory?
Wow: would probably say going back to England to marry Ted. We met in Vancouver and returned to London and got married in Chelsea, 33 years ago. Just seeing him turn up at the church was enough excitement to last a lifetime! Wink We honeymooned in Amsterdam.

Have you ever had some kind of "vacation disaster" threaten to ruin your trip? Tell us your story!
We've had various little mishaps. Ted has lost the passports TWICE in the last three years. In Amsterdam, I lost my train ticket, and managed to spill my only supply of meds all over the floor of the train as Ted was trying to drag me off! (Big fines in Holland for traveling without a ticket) Talk about throwing Mama from the train. I have just been reminded by Ted about the time in the dock area of Edinburgh, when we managed to avoid being mugged by running into a store that was still open! And I lost my wedding ring in London, which was very distressing. But Ted replaced with an exact replica on our 30th!

What activities do you and your family enjoy besides vacationing? (i.e. camping, walking, painting, etc)
Ted and I enjoy antiquing. He has a very good "eye", and often manages to find a treasure. We like to walk on the West Vancouver seawall. Reading is a must for me! Love historical stories, especially about the Tudors. Crosswords for Ted, clicking channels with the remote control, and supervising my choice of spoon size when I am cooking. We love going out to eat ethnic foods, as there is so much great variety in the Vancouver area. I knit little "comfort dollies" for distribution to children with AIDS in Africa. Sarah is a jeweler and loves fashion magazines and her two cats. Roger is a carpenter, and hikes, mountain bikes, snowboards, dirt-bikes, plays soccer, plays the drums and generally tires me out just listening to how he has expended all his energy.

Do you have a hobby? What is it and what makes it special to you?
I love to fish! I am never happier than when my little fishing rod is hanging over the edge of a pier in CA. I have no idea why I enjoy it so much. Must be the cave girl in me.

Other than a WorldMark destination, what is your favorite place to visit for rest and relaxation?
Oddly, we don't like relaxing holidays! We get bored. Love to explore until zonked, which doesn't take too long! We do find cruising relaxing, but a five day cruise is long enough for us.

If you could choose to live anywhere in the world, where would that be and why?
Exactly where I live now:. N. Vancouver, under the extinct volcano called "Mount Seymour". Deep Cove is a beautiful location, just 20 minutes drive from downtown, 15 minutes from the ski slopes, and five minutes from the beach. It has all the excitement of the wild, especially when Ted puts on his bear costume to scare me. Wink But, if I spot a cougar, I'm moving! The Cove has a great village atmosphere and everyone is very friendly. Being immigrants, Canada has been extremely kind to us.

How did you choose to become a WorldMark owner? Or, why did you choose WorldMark over other timeshare companies?
Luckily, our best friends $unflower and hubby Ken have been WorldMark owners for many years. They allowed us to use bonus time at Cabo and at Pismo Beach some years ago, so that was a great introduction. Buying into a timeshare was a great stretch for Ted. I literally nagged him, and twisted his arm up his back. Now he is so glad we bought in. The short trips we take to Birch Bay are very enjoyable. We both wish we had become members much earlier in life when the children were small. We didn't research any other timeshares, as we loved Worldmark's point system, the number of resorts to visit, and the excellent flexibility.

What do you enjoy most about being a WorldMark owner?
The comfort level! Being able to have warm milk at bedtime! We feel quite at home, and I am an expert at testing the hot-tubs!

What do you like best about this WMO website community you have helped create?
I love everything! The friendliness of all the people is tops, and the way we can all have a laugh! We feel like family! There is always someone willing to help with your traveling questions.

What suggestions do you have to enhance it?
I think it is fine the way it is! But wouldn't it be great if we could get the message out to more WM members?! I would love someone to invade Nena's smiley faces and post them for more adventurous emoticons!

Do you have ideas for contests and giveaways that we could possibly incorporate in the future?
A photo contest would be great, as we seem to have some talented photographers. Or, how about giving away a T-shirt to the person who gets the most brown bears in their yard?

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Ann and Ted