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Wishing you a Happy Holiday Season 2003 and New Year 2004
Click here for our Greetings

Welcome to the Family Homepage

of Vance, Bobbi, Glenn, and Dusty

S T E V E N S

and Musky the Cat, still with us in Abu Dhabi

This picture shows the part of Abu Dhabi where we live.

For a "live" view of the street (above) where we live: http://161.58.217.32/uaeint_misc/webcam/cornich.html

The purpose of the material in these pages is to greet and inform our friends, to entertain casual passers-by, and to welcome all into our virtual home. This material is in no way meant to reflect on our professional credentials, which remain impeccably above board (of course, and despite what you may find here).

Family Album:

Click here to see photos and find out more about:

Vance	Glenn	Musky
Bobbi	Dusty	See pics

Dusty's Homepage is now at: http://www.oocities.org/TimesSquare/Lair/7641/
Glenn's is at http://www.glennstevens.biz/; an older one is at http://members.tripod.com/glennaldino/cover.htm Glenn's ICQ number is: 45697714; MSN Messenger glennaldo_sf@hotmail.com

What've we been up to? ...

2005

Summer travels begin in late June (stay tuned)

Vance has been writing papers and reports and attending many conferences, giving presentations; see: http://www.vancestevens.com/papers . I presented again at the TESOL Convention in March http://www.homestead.com/prosites-vstevens/files/efi/chat2005/chat2005.htm#tesol2005.

On my way to San Antonio for the conference I passed by Houston to see my aging parents. One of my webhead pals blogged a screen shot of Dusty and Dad and I looking into our web cams: http://elderboblog.typepad.com/fiesta/2005/03/the_herd_is_on_.html

They were looking forward to their 59th wedding anniversary on June 28, 2005.

It wasn't to be ...
he died in mom's arms, smiling at her
comfortable, with dignity, surrounded by family, the way he wanted it to be
after a charmed and charming, long life: Oct 11, 1916 - May 25, 2005

I came across these from healthier more vibrant days in 2002, bottom of:
http://www.homestead.com/prosites-vstevens/files/efi/sue_houston.htm
and others I've just happened on from 1998

Vance went to the Philippines in January:
Pic and dive logs here: http://www.homestead.com/prosites-vstevens/files/divelogs/dives2005/logs2005.html

2004

Bobbi and I went to Thailand in November, and I intend to start a blog with pictures

Busy summer:

2003

2002

Trekking in Ladakh in August, here at our first 5000 meter pass:

Our Christmas card from that year, showing us crossing our second 5000 meter pass:

2001

I've been rather bad about updating this site, so busy lately. But I've put a 2002 events update on our Christmas 2002 card, here.
Feb 2002 - Bobbi and Dusty and Vance flew to Kenya on a special package deal. For about the cost of the normal airfare, we were flown to Nairobi and back, picked up at the airport, driven to Masai Maru game park, and put up in a lodge there for two nights. We were taken on four game drives where we saw herds of wildebeaste, zebra, and gazelle; plus numerous topi and hartebeast, a rhinocerous, a few cheetahs, and lions stalking most of the above. On the third day we were driven back to Nairobi where we stayed in the Stanley Hotel (something I've always wanted to do but never have until now). Bobbi and Dusty had to return to school, but I had taken two days off work, so I organized an expedition ... ok, I paid some money for someone to send a car for me and organize a porter, a guide, and a cook and I accompanied this retinue up to the top of Mt Kenya, 4,986 meters, and back down. It was an easy walk but it was a good thing I'd been in Nepal recently and had warm and waterproof clothes. There was freezing rain up there, on a mountain almost right on the Equator.
December, 2001 - We had a couple of breaks. For National Day Dec 2nd Bobbi and Vance went to Oman for diving in the Damanyite Islands, and over the Eid (end of Ramadhan) in mid December, we went with Dusty for diving off Fahal Island and Bandar Khayran, and hiking in the Sayq plateau region. Pics and update on Sayq forthcoming ...
Summer 2001 - Bobbi flew to California to help son Glenn move from the corner of the living room he'd been occupying the past year with college roommates into his own room near Height-Ashbury. Vance met her and Dusty in Houston for a drive to Big Bend for hiking, and then Vance flew to Amsterdam to meet Glenn there and go hiking near Scuol, Switzerland, where our friend from Oman Tommy Back lives. In August, Bobbi returned to Abu Dhabi with Dusty via Florence and Pisa.
June 28, 2001 - Vance joined some friends for a second (for me, Vance) drop 178 meters into Majlis al Jinn on the Selma Plateau, Oman. I added pictures and commentary to this page, started in 1994.
Vance continues with diving and dive instruction. Check out my logbook for this year.
January, 2001 - Vance and friends make a walk up from Umq to the Selma Plateau in Oman.

1999-2000

Bobbi and Vance
have been married
25 years
as of August 15, 2000

December 2000	Vance did a second through-trip in Hoti Cave and put some pics up on one of his web sites. Glenn arrived in Abu Dhabi on Christmas eve and spent Christmas with his family, as you can see from the pics.
October 3, 2000	Vance had an operation on his knee (arthroscopic repair of the medial meniscus cartilage) from which he has since fully recovered. Vance resumed running in November, but having been essentially out of the running since the injury in April, some work will be needed to get back up to marathon speed. On October 25^th, we spent Bobbi’s birthday night inside Hoti Cave in Oman and lit the place up with 50 candles.
August 2000	Glenn left Abu Dhabi to return to San Francisco via Amsterdam and UK. While he was here, and when he could be distracted from partying away the wee hours in Abu Dhabi, he and Vance went diving at the Damaniyite Islands in Oman. Around the first of the month, Bobbi and Dusty returned from their visit to parents/grandparents in Houston. On August 15, the family was together for the celebration of Bobbi and Vance's silver 25th wedding anniversary. Eschewing silver, we took Wednesday off work and headed over to the eastern Emirates for a night at the Fujairah Hilton with buffet and wine and champaign, and diving next day off Khor Fakkan.
June/July 2000	Vance, Bobbi, and Dusty met Glenn in Casablanca and the family traveled together to Barcelona where after a conference, we all went to Pamplona for the Encierro there. Glenn documented his summer travels at http://www.oocities.org/glennaldo_sf/ In May 2005, I got this email. Unfortunately I've lost control over my travel pages (login/password no longer works, Geocities totally non-responsive on the issue) or I'd apply these corrections directly to the pages here: Pamplona Encierro. Best I can do is direct my own links to these pages through here: "Hello Vance, I enjoyed reading your impressions of Pamplona, and thought I would make a couple suggestions with regard to some details in the description of the bullfight itself. When the matador goes in for the kill, the red cape (muleta) is always in his left hand, and sword always in the right. There is a saying that the bull is killed as much with the left hand as with the right, as it is with the left that the matador controls the head of the bull, down and away from where he is "going in." Olay is actually spelled "Olé", and the dagger with which the puntillero ends the life of the bull is put into the spinal cord at the base of the skull, not into the brain itself. I have finished work on a photographic book about bullfighting and so have had the chance to learn a lot of small things about this odd and ancient subculture. You seem like a detail person, so I didn't think you'd mind a few minor corrections. As I said, I enjoyed reading about your travels. Take care, Michael Crouser www.michaelcrouser.com"
March 2000	Vance travels to San Francisco to visit son Glenn, and Glenn joins dad in Vancouver, where Vance is presenting at the annual TESOL conference. Fulfilling a longstanding ambition, Vance skis Whistler and Blackcomb.
January 2000	A diving milestone: Vance buys a dive computer and uses it to descend to 50 meters on a wrecked supertanker north of Musandam.
December 1999	Vance travels to Venezuela during flash flooding and barely gets away to Aruba and on from there to Houston to meet Bobbi, Glenn, and Dusty for a family reunion millenium Christmas.
October 7, 1999	The family (Vance, Bobbi, and Dusty) returned to the Straights of Hormuz for some challenging diving in stiff currents with black-tips, bull rays, and turtles, et al.
September 1999	Vance got away for a trip to South Africa. Read all about it.
Summer 1999	Vance stayed home for a change to feed the cat and turtle. Bobbi and Dusty went to Houston in July a week after Glenn came to Abu Dhabi. Glenn left August 7 for Milan to see friends from the UAE in Innsbruck and he returned to San Francisco where he met up with his Mom, who helped Glenn move into his apt. in San Francisco. Bobbi and Dusty returned to Abu Dhabi in late August. While Glenn was here, he and Vance made an interesting trip to Salalah. I meant to write it up while I had the house to myself, but never got around to it, and now I can't even locate the film for the pics we took. I need a memory upgrade.
May and April 1999	After a month of being away most of the time, the tendency for the Stevenses these months is to stay put. Accordingly, Vance participated in an online conference from the comfort of home, and presented a paper on his online ESL class, Writing for Webheads.
March 1999	An eventful month: Vance went to a TESOL conference in early March and gave a presentation there, did some skiing in Austria en route, and spent a few days with Glenn in New York. At the end of the month, Bobbi, Vance and Dusty headed for the Maldives (trip description with pictures posted) for a few days of diving at Kuredu resort. We also worked in a visit to Sri Lanka (more pictures).
January 1999	Here you can see pics from a hiking trip with Dusty and Bobbi, and from a caving trip to Jebel Kaw in Oman

1998

Glenn joined us again this Christmas in Abu Dhabi. He flew back to California in early January after a stopover in gloomie olde England to visit ex-ABA mate Damian Murray in Middleborough. Click here for pics of his visit.
November 1998: Vance and friends entered Arch Cave again and 11 hours later exited out the other side of the mountain at Kaf Tahry. Pics and stories forthcoming.
October 1998: Vance attempts to replicate trek from Wadi Bani Auf over the top to Wadi Bani Khurous (gets about halfway, but at least takes pictures this time) - Check it out at http://www.oocities.org/TheTropics/Shores/3508/oman/hiking/ . On this walk, into one of the most remote regions of Oman, our party espied a ROAD of all things at 2000 meters, so I drove up with my family a few weeks later, and we walked into the wilderness and camped overnight.
Vance participated in Global Learning Day II, 1998. See http://www.bfranklin.edu/hubs/gulf/gulf9801.htm
In August-September 1998, the whole family (Vance, Bobbi, Glenn and Dusty) were reunited in Abu Dhabi. Earlier, Vance had flown to Houston to see his mom and dad and to join his family there, wife and both sons. After a series of family visits in Houston, Vance, Bobbi, Dusty and Glenn flew to Costa Rica and went to Drake Bay Wilderness Camp for a few days of diving off Caño Island, hiking in Corcovado nature reserve, and rafting the Reventazón. In mid-August the family returned to Houston, but Vance flew instead directly to Amsterdam, while the family took the opportunity to visit yet a while longer in Houston and joined him in Amsterdam later. That is, all except for Glenn, who was flying on a frequent flyer ticket and went to Frankfurt for three days before catching HIS plane to Abu Dhabi. The plan was to all meet up in Abu Dhabi in mid-August, which is what eventually happened. Glenn spent a month with us and departed in September to resume studies in California.

Here are pics from when I saw my parents when they saw us off at the airport:

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· Late July 1998: Vance attended the WorldCALL Conference in Melbourne, followed by diving off the Great Barrier Reef and in the Coral Sea, with a day of decompression in Cairns spent river rafting.

June 1998: Dusty was certified as a PADI Junior Open Water diver after doing the course with his dad. The day before his final checkout dive, Dusty was listed on the High Honor Roll at the American Community School in Abu Dhabi. By late June Dusty was diving with Mom and Dad at Al-Sawadi Beach Resort, our favorite dive spot hereabouts, where Dusty managed to lay his hand on a leopard shark at some point during the weekend.
May 1998: Vance joined yet another expedition to the remote Selma cave system in Oman, abseiled 150 meters into shaft, got wet, climbed back out, great fun!!? (Despite destruction of digital camera, updated with pics from other cameras) .
April 1998: Family spent a GREAT Eid vacation diving off the Damanyite Islands in Oman. We returned in June for more great diving, and hope to go there again when Glenn joins us here this summer.
April 1998: Bobbi started working at a play school she helped set up. The school plans to get Vance to help them with a web site which will of course be linked here (postponed to August, maybe even later - like, it's December now).
March 23, 1998: Vance returned from a trip to the TESOL Conference in Seattle, Washington. The professional portion of this web site was featured at one of the events.
Feb.1998: Vance completed 2 weeks of trekking in Nepal. Pics from around Kathmandu are posted.

1997

Christmas 1997: Prodigal Son Glenn visited Mom & Dad in Abu Dhabi, and is now back at DeAnza College in Cupertino, California
December 17-19, 1997: Family Makes Third Recent Trip to Oman to See Friends and Go Shopping while Vance goes through Hoti Cave the Rufty Tufty Way, 10 hours
July 1997: On his way out to Abu Dhabi, Vance stopped off briefly in the UK for a sojourn in the English Alps. Find the story in Vance's dispatches from UK

Life in Abu Dhabi, UAE

In the summer of 1997, Vance, Bobbi and Dusty (and Musky) moved back to the Middle East, to Abu Dhabi, where Vance has started working for Amideast on a project to set up a language school for the UAE military. Glenn remained behind in San Jose, but he's since moved to San Francisco and is studying at San Francisco State University.

The UAE on the web:

http://www.uaeone.com/ - A favorite of our students
UAE web cams: http://161.58.217.32/uaeint_misc/webcam/index.html
April 2001 – ‘reliable’ info on what's going on in Abu Dhabi - (pubs, restaurants, cinemas, etc, etc): http://www.abudhabi-nights.com

We often enjoy great sunsets from our balcony. Click on the picture for a full-size view (60K)

Al Ain map at http://www.hct.ac.ae/cert/aamap.htm
Abu Dhabi links at: http://www.talesmag.com/rprweb/the_rprs/mid_east/realposts_abudhabi.html
Click here for a street map of Abu Dhabi

We live just a block from The Abu Dhabi Cultural Foundation, a thriving and interesting institution you can visit if you come to see us, or visit virtually at http://www.cultural.org.ae/.
Emirates Center for Strategic Research: http://www.ecssr.ac.ae/
Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, with links to sites relating to Abu Dhabi
UAE Culture, Tourism, History and Map can be found at http://www.uae.org.ae/
Some nice views of the UAE can be seen via http://www.uaeforever.com/PostCards/
http://www.uaetoday.com/channel/index.html
http://www.theuae.com/tourism/Tourism.html
http://home.netvigator.com/~dbsi/webdoc/uaeff.html
UAE Wildlife: http://aam.hct.ac.ae/aam/alain/wildlife.htm
For u.s. citizens: http://www.usembabu.gov.ae/
good site for Dubai maps: http://www.dubaicityguide.com/maps/

We bought a '96 Chevy Blazer 4x4 and have taken it out in the desert and on a couple of runs down to Oman. It's made of plastic, so each trip costs us $100 in repairs. Add in what you pay for radar speed traps, and it gets expensive.

Click here if you'd like to share some recent Oman adventures.

Vance sometimes (rarely) writes about what life is like in Abu Dhabi, the kind of stuff you might find in a newsy letter (if anyone still wrote letters anymore). If you'd like to share Vance's occasional impressions of Abu Dhabi lifestyle, check out Vance's Abu Dhabi Journal. But don't expect much .. I don't really keep it up.

Recent Family History

Life in Oman 1985-1995

From October 1985 to around June 1995 we lived on the campus of Sultan Qaboos University, where Vance was CALL coordinator and teacher in the Language Centre. Oman was a very pleasant place to live, one of the best-kept secrets and most enjoyable and pristine travel destinations left on the planet.

For a pleasant tour of Oman, click here.
More Oman info
BBC 2's 'Animalzone' has broadcast a program on Omani wildlife: http://www.bbc.co.uk/animalzone

Travel via Borneo, 1995

In July & August 1995 we traveled from Oman to California via Borneo. In Borneo, we acclimatized in Kuching, visited the caves in Mulu and Batu, and climbed Mt. Kinabalu as a family as far as the base camp hut, and Glenn and Vance to the summit. We did some superb family diving off Sipadan and then made our way as far south as Banjarmasin, the fascinating Venice of Kalimantan. In Singapore we stayed with the Pat Barkers, who took us in when we overnighted there and looked after our excess baggage while we were swanning off in Borneo. For an example of what we did, see:

Sipadan Island, Borneo Divers

Life in California, 1995-1997

In August 1995, we moved to California so Vance could take up work as Director of ESL Software Design for Courseware Publishing International, a small company producing interactive multimedia CD-ROM products for ESL and foreign language learning. After almost two years of fruitful involvement in innovative products such as Traci Talk: The Mystery, an ESL adventure incorporating speech recognition, Vance left the company in May 1997.

While residing in California, Vance wandered off as far as Chile, and the family drove together to Oregon, where Vance taught some seminars in early August, 1996. Other than that, we stayed mostly in California. We got up to Lake Tahoe now and then for hiking in summer and skiing in winter, and we visited good friends from Saudi, Brock and Cydney and Barry and Karel, in San Luis Obispo and drove back via Highway 1 up the Big Sur coastline. And when the weather allowed it, Vance made trips to King's Canyon and Sequoia National parks and to Mother Lode for caving. Toward the end of our stay in California, Bobbi, Dusty and Vance drove to Yosemite and camped out a couple of times, and before leaving the state we rented rafts and sampled the current in a couple of rivers within a few hours of where we lived.

Some Jokes

Politcal Commentary: http://www.unk.com/starrwars/

Have you heard a good one lately? You can click here for a bit of humor (we don't censor for language or taste, but each joke is preceded by a truth-in-telling advisory to prevent you wandering into anything offensive to you unawares).

Click here for a laugh.
I'm tired of your jokes. Take me to The Onion !!
To get a joke every day, go to http://www.thedailyjoke.com

Let's keep in touch!

Friends List

We've started a Friends List to help you get in touch with people who've kept in touch with us.

Friends from Saudi Arabia
Friends from Hawaii
Friends from Oman
Bay area cavers
Drop in on my sister Leslie and her family at http://www.oocities.org/TheTropics/Paradise/3917/index.html
Check out the website of Matt's family, one of my dad's grandkids. Matt has a great pic up of my Dad.

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For comments, suggestions, or further information on this page
contact Vance Stevens, page webmaster.