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This is the part of the web site where the little barbarian tries to show how worldly he has become. Don't be fooled, as many of the pictures in this page will show you, you might be able to take the barbarian out of the country but, well, you can't make him act civilized.

My original intention for this page was to just show all my international travels but it turns out that there's some pretty cool places to travel right here in the states. So now you can find both my jaunts across the oceans and my trips down the coast right here for your infinite enjoyment.

Speaking of your enjoyment, there are multiple ways to view some of my trips (the international ones in particular). First, you can take the narrative tour. This is only available for my Spain and Ireland trip and it is basically a picture book display with brief descriptions and lots of bad jokes describing some of the highlights of the trip. If you were one of those that preferred reading Dick and Jane to Crime and Punishment, this is for you. Another option, is to go through all of the pictures of the trip in agonizing detail. Be there from the first photo to the last. This is the option that probably only my Mother will take but I do make it available for all of you masachists out there. For my Spain trip, I also provide a journal that discusses my day-to-day activities with the kind of wit and humor you've come to expect from a Matt McCormick piece of literature.

A quick note before you begin your tour down my memory lane: all the pictures in the full tour are thumbnails. For the computer illiterate, this means you click on any picture and you get to see a much larger version of it. Sort of an on-line pop-up book if you will. Lastly, I once heard that you should always try to leave a reader with a quote. While I don't do that on all the pages on this site, I found a particularly good one that I hope will encourage everyone reading this to get out and travel (and if you ever need anyone to go with you, just give me a call). Here it is:

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness,
and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.
                                                - Mark Twain
  • Bumming Around Europe - 2009
    I'm being optimisitic by tagging this entry with the "- 2009". That indicates that I have intentions to actually have another trip to Europe and indeed I do because it was incredible. I blogged extensively about my travels as they were happening and I recommend if you're planning your own trip, you take the time to read my last post: Travel Lessons Learned. It's very wise.

    In the mean time, you can enjoy all the pics of my trip here:

  • London, England - 2008
    What to do with a week of free time? Well travel to merry old England of course. I got there at the end of March 2008 and saw some great spring weather, some snow, and some amazing history. London is an incredible city, expensive, but so full of history and life that it's definitely worth splurging on to go and visit. Now I just wish I wouldn't have had that stupid beard for all of these photos...

  • Italy - 2007
    An old Italian girlfriend of mine convinced me to go back and visit her homeland (it didn't really take a lot of convincing). We spent about 2 weeks traveling all over Italy including her mom's home town of Sferracavallo just outside of Palermo in Sicily. It was an amazing trip full of great food (except in Sicily - be warned), great sites, and great wine. There are other places I would recommend going first (like Spain - I loved Spain) but Italy really is beautiful.

  • San Diego - 2005
    Q. What's long, hard, and involves Matt and Joe?
    A. A mountain biking ride in Poway, CA.

    Q. What starts out slow and easy and then gets rough and sweaty?
    A. A 7 mile run along the bay in San Diego.

    Q. What's wet, sloppy, and involves the motion of the ocean?
    A. Matt trying to surf in the Pacific.

    Q. What do all these things have in common?
    A. They can all be found on my vacation to beautiful San Diego!

    That's right, the Li'l B (as he's affectionately called by KJ and MF, took a trip to sunny SoCal to hang out with his buddy Joe Vale and an old college friend that he hadn't seen in almost 8 years - Kari Hanson. What an absolute blast! The beautiful ladies of 1720 Thomas street - Kari and Maren - are perhaps the greatest hosts the world has ever witnessed. Besides just giving us a place to stay, they also loaned us their Jeep to bum around in while they were both at work on Thursday and Friday. Then, to top it all off, they took us to the beach and helped me find some clothes to improve my otherwise pathetic wardrobe. These girls rock!

    Alright, time to stop boring you with my childish sense of humor and give you what you came to this site to see. Oh, and before I forget, Joe Vale was in charge of my camera for several of these photos - I'll leave it to you to decide which ones.

  • San Francisco - 2004
    Thanksgiving 2004 saw me doing the unprecedented - missing deer hunting season in Wisconsin. Even more unprecedented: no regrets. I had an absolutely incredible time visiting my friend Amy in San Francisco. What an amazing city. Great food, beautiful sights, great food, good wine, great food, incredible company, and great food! Seriosly, there is so much to do in this city that it's mind boggling. One day we were in a modern art museum, the next walking around in a Redwood forest, and the next lounging in the Prisideo. On top of all that, I got to hang out with the beautiful and brilliant Amy Caruso. Not to mention the amazing Thanksgiving turkey we threw together. I think there was enough food to feed about 12 people - what do you expect when your host is Italian? So maybe I didn't get to shoot any deer this year, but I still had one of the best Thanksgivings ever.

  • Spain - 2004
    I have finally added a second country to my list of international travels (and, no, I am not counting Canada in this list). From October 9 - October 23, 2004 I journeyed to Spain. Despite this first trip to main land Europe, I still have a lot of countries left to see. My old list had Italy, France, Germany, Japan, China, and Greece. My new list now includes Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. No matter, I'm pretty sure there aren't enough years in any one life time to witness all the wonder the world has to offer.

  • Ireland - 2003
    This was my first ever journey outside of the continental US. It was an incredible journey that involved great friends, good food, and, of course, incredible beer. There was also one night in Dublin that involved Irish Whiskey but the details on that are a little sketchy. If you've never been to the Emerald Isle, well, you should - it's amazing. After all, it's where my ancestors came from.

            
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