Rick Stevens:
CLASS OF 1972
West High SchoolClass of 1972
Anchorage, AK
Axia CollegeClass of 9999
Phoenix, AZ
University of PhoenixClass of 2010
Phoenix, AZ
Rick's Story
Life
Send me an IM if you want to talk about travel. I like talking to people about their travel experiences. I learn what to do and what not to do at different destinations.
An active life is catching up with me. I’ve had two orthopedic surgeries in the past two years. I’m on the mend and getting stronger every day. Life is good.
One thing I really enjoy is visiting my son and his family in Fairbanks. My grandkids are little characters. I enjoy them as much as I can.
I’m working as a network administrator. A very different second career for me. I do it to keep my brain sharp and travel money in my pocket.
School
Thinking back to high school I was a ghost. I was there most of the time but invisible. I wasn't very social. I worked a lot and only took two classes my senior year so I wasn't really part of high school life. I remember my greatest math achievement for high school was figuring out how many days I could skip and still graduate. I believe we only had to be there 85% of the time. We could miss 28.5 days (or something like that) and that is exactly how much school I missed my senior year. If it was a sunny day I jumped in my truck and was gone. Not exactly a stellar academic career. I notice that my profile says I was at West starting in 68. I’ve tried to change it, to no avail.
Military
A few months after high school I joined the Marines. The US was still very much involved in Vietnam. After basic and MOS (military occupational specialty) training we were supposed to be going to Vietnam but my unit stopped at Okinawa. I spent a year there. While stationed on Okinawa. I visited Hong Kong, Taipei and Tokyo while stationed on Okinawa. Loved Hong Kong in the 70s. After Okinawa I returned to California to finish out my tour. It didn't take me long to develop an affinity for Southern California. Yep, I’m proud to be a Hollywood Marine :-).
Vacation
I travel mostly along the West Coast but have been to 49 of 50 states. Haven’t been to Maine yet.
Over the past 6 years, I've discovered Europe. So far I've been to England, France, Italy, Germany, Kuwait and U.A.E....Expand for more
I really liked Paris. I was surprised how much of my junior high French I remembered.
In the spring of 2018 we visited Venice. We hired a photojournalist to give us a walking tour of Venice and it was a good time. Our guide grew up in Venice. You can’t beat local knowledge.
I’m not an opera fan but it was fun to go to a 300 year old building and see La Traviata. There were less than 100 of us in the audience.
Later in 2018, we returned to England and after a couple of days in London I rented a car and drove to Chichester and Oxford. If you’ve ever watched the Inspector Morse series many scenes are from Oxford.
In the spring 2019 went to Kuwait and Dubai. My buddy works over there and showed us around. It is a fascinating country. There is unbelievable wealth present. It isn’t a cheap country to visit but I am anxious for my next visit to Kuwait.
Dubai is one of seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates. It is also an expensive place to visit. Again wealth that I’ve never witnessed before is present in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Our visit to the Grand Palace Hotel. In Abu Dhabi, was hard for me to comprehend. A hotel built out of marble imported from Italy. It’s not a small hotel. It’s length is one kilometer and several stories tall. What I thought was gold paint, in the hotel, was in reality gold leaf.
I’m not a big architecture fan but some of the buildings in Dubai are really quite something to look at. Yes, I went to the top of the Burj Khalifa.
Travel has rekindled a desire for photography. I used to take many pictures with an old Olympus range finder camera in the 70s. Now I have a good Sony full frame that is more complicated to operate but when the settings are correct takes high quality photos.
College
I did it backwards. Went to work first and after retirement went to college. I have my B.S. in Information Technology. In 2017 I earned my Occupational Certificate in Networking. I also have a couple of IT certifications.
Workplace
Work is going well. Having a job allows me to travel more. There are so many places in this world I would like to see.
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Reunions
Photos
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