England & Thailand 2001:

We had the opportunity to travel to England and Thailand for Entity Finance Conferences as part of Judy's work.  These regional conferences occurred from late February through late March 2001.  Since it was easier and cheaper to fly around the world, we also got to stop over in Hawaii to visit Ray's parents for a mini-vacation and unwind a bit from all the work and traveling.

Judy participated and presented several topics at the conferences, while Ray helped with various conference logistics and computer support work for the conference delegates.  We got to sightsee a little bit on the weekends.

Brazil 2001:

With very tight travel scheduling, we went to Brazil for two weeks in mid-August, 2001, to do the Branch audit with Debbie, a volunteer.  Debbie and Judy did all the complex accounting audit work, and Ray did the audit 'grunt' work.  We went to the Cuiaba and Porto Velho offices.  On the weekend, we were able to visit the Chapadas, similar to a U.S. National Park, which had hiking trails to beautiful valleys, lookouts, and waterfalls.

Unfortunately, all three of us got sick in the middle of the trip, catching a 'flu-bug' that was going around.  Since the audit must get done, we toughed it out - coughing & sniffling in the midst of boxes of financial records.