With everyone working from home and office buildings empty, Ontario’s biggest city has become quiet, peaceful, and easily navigated
Adventures with kittens
Walk a cat on the leash? Take your cat on a bike ride? It can be done!
Wonderful Wiarton
Heading to the Bruce Peninsula? Be sure to stop over in the quaint town of Wiarton, with its beautiful waterfront
Hiking the Niagara Gorge
Skip the pricey tourist traps and get up close and personal with the true power of Niagara
Niagara Falls Mini-Trip
Thanks to covid, now’s a great time to take a mini stay-cation at one of Canada’s top sights – minus all the annoying tourists
Sweet Summer Berry Picking
A summer must-do is picking fresh Ontario grown raspberries and strawberries
The Slow Reopening
We’re a few months into the “life with covid” reality. And slowly, thankfully, it is getting better. Not back to normal, but better. The initial months of panic, fear and distrust are starting to recede, as more and more information about coronavirus becomes known. We continue to wear masks, avoid indoor/crowded places, wash hands constantly,…
Introducing… the Covid Cat!
Since covid-19 started, and we have all had to adjust to life at home, all the damn time, without much contact with family or friends. Which means plenty boredom and loneliness. A lot of people are turning to the next logical step — adopting a pet. And now is a great time. After all, offices…
Seriously!?
And then it SNOWED!!!!! In May!!!! WTF, Canada? Just when we thought life couldn’t get any MORE depressing, the white shit came back for one final middle finger! What the actual hell? Yeah that’s just what we need – snow in May. Great!
Beating covid boredom
We are slowly but surely losing our minds. I imagine this is what prisoners feel like. Or perhaps animals put in a zoo. Stuck, caged, with nowhere to go and nothing to do and no one to interact with. All I can say is, thank goodness we live in the suburbs, with lots of green…
Hello Covid-19
Well, f*&^%. What else can we say? Huatulco was a lovely, quiet, relaxing holiday, with sun, sea and spicy Oaxaca food. But the bubble burst even before we left. For days I’d been watching the news, watching the numbers climb on the global coronavirus meter, from hundreds to thousands. The Prime Minister had just gotten…
Exploring La Crucecita, Huatulco
A tiny town with the world’s largest mural of the Virgin of Guadaloupe
'Hey Gringo, Tranquillo!' – How to Chill in Huatulco, Mexico
A gem of the Pacific coast of Mexico, Huatulco is a quiet, laid back beach town, and a great place to chill for a week
Finding Joy in the Snow
After three winters I think I’m finally getting the hang of this whole snow thing
The Happiest Man in Tobago
An unforgettable day out, exploring Tobago’s untouched coastline and hidden bays with Screamers Boat Tours
Tobago Time
Not your typical tourist destination, Tobago offers a true, down to earth Caribbean experience, which will either delight you, or drive you insane
Ottawa Road Trip
Beautiful architecture, the Rideau Canal, markets, cathedrals, and many museums – Ottawa is a great road trip
The Grotto – Bruce Peninsula National Park
Stunning views, rocky caves, and gin clear turquoise waters, at Bruce Peninsula National Park
Awenda Provincial Park
Our new favourite campsite, with FOUR beaches, a lake with canoes, trails, and snapping turtles
Discovery Harbour
Stepping back in time to 1812, at an original British naval base in Canada
Craft Beer in the Countryside
Nothing like a freshly made beer in the beautiful countryside on a hot summer’s day
Niagara Tourist Trapping
Going in the summer? Be prepared to get up early and beat the crowds!
Camping @ Craigleith Provincial Park
Not all campsites are created equal – especially when your neighbour is blasting Marilyn Manson
Cheltenham Badlands
A strange geological formation of blood-red earth, tucked away in the countryside
Kazuemachi Chayagai
The trip to Kanazawa was coming to an end, and we’d managed to tick off most of the main sites: Kanazawa Castle, Kenrokuen Gardens, Nagamachi Samurai District, and Higashi Chaya District. The bonus was stumbling upon another district along the beautiful Asano River, which is lined with, you guessed it, loads of cherry blossoms, plus…
Higashi Chaya – The Geisha District of Kanazawa
Out of all the things we saw in Kanazawa, I think Higashi Chaya was one of the highlights of the trip. Higashi Chaya – literally translated as Eastern Tea House – traditionally was and still is Kanazawa’s ‘pleasure quarter’ where geisha and courtesans dances, played music, and entertained in quaint wooden tea houses (where tea…
Nagamachi Samurai District
Kanazawa has a number of fascinating little neighbourhoods, one of which is the Nagamachi Samurai District. Not too far from Kanazawa Castle (see previous post), Nagamachi is where samurai and their families lived while serving the castle and its inhabitants. With narrow roads and small, walled houses, this is an area that should be explored…
Cherry Blossoms in Kanazawa
Just as things were starting to defrost in Canada, we boarded a plane for a long, long flight from Toronto to Tokyo, to visit hubby’s family. Spring is a great time to be in Japan. It’s not too cold, it’s just before the stifling heat of summer sets in, and everything is in full bloom….
Whale Watching in Cabo San Lucas
From December to April, humpback whales and grey whales migrate from Alaska down to the warm waters of the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific, both to give birth to calves, and to mate. You can see the whales literally ALL THE TIME if you just look out at the horizon. In the morning we…
Exploring San Jose del Cabo
The old town of San Jose is not too far from the ‘Zona Hotelera’ – Hotel Zone – where we were staying at the Royal Solaris in Cabo San Lucas. Instead of forking out a lot of money for an overpriced taxi, we decided instead to try the local bus transportation, the Urbano. Getting around…
Kayaking The Arch
One of the most famous sites in Cabo San Lucas is The Arch, an iconic rock formation at the very tip of the peninsula, where the Pacific Ocean hits the Gulf of California. Many people go see The Arch on a boat trip, but the best way to see it is by kayak.
No Bad Days – Trip to Baja California
As you may have read in my previous post, the only way to survive the 6-month stretch that is winter in Canada is to leave in February, which is just when you slink into the depths of depression. This is why on a freezing Thursday morning in February, during a snowstorm, we found ourselves sitting…
Hibernation Nation
Once upon a time, I was a voracious blogger. Writing about all the fun and interesting things I had seen or places I’d been, that kind of thing. Well, I haven’t written for a while. And that’s because pretty much since October, it’s been a whole lotta this rubbish: Followed by more snow….. and temperature…
Lion’s Head Provincial Park
In the last few months, whenever we’ve had the time, we drive north to the beautiful, pristine Bruce Peninsula, to hike, camp, and even swim in the warm, shallow waters of Lake Huron. Autumn is a fabulous time to roam around the Bruce Peninsula, with the autumn colours changing literally every day to the most…
Dinosaurs in the Mist
About a month ago I was able to make a quick trip to Winnipeg, which is the capital of the province of Manitoba. This month I went a bit more west to visit two cities in the province of Alberta – Edmonton and Calgary – which are about a 3 hour drive from each other….
Bruce’s Caves – Perusing the Peninsula
By sheer luck, a close friend from Hong Kong has just moved to Ontario, and has a cottage up in a scenic area north of Toronto called the Bruce Peninsula, so we’ve been up there quite a bit this summer, enjoying the fantastic natural scenery. The Bruce Peninsula is on Lake Huron, which has a…
Weekend in Winnipeg
Lucky for me, there are two new ultra low-cost carriers operating domestic routes out of Toronto and nearby city Hamilton – Flair Air and Swoop – Â which means that there’s going to be a whole lot of local travelling going on around my new home and native land. One of the first places ended up…
We didn’t get eaten by bears
Canada is bear country – let’s face facts. Once in a while in the local news you hear about bear sightings nearby, as in 20 minutes up the road, and you are reminded that Canada is one big-assed country with a lot of wildlife (unless you live in Toronto). Nonetheless, we embarked upon our…
Scenic Caves – Collingwood
Having guests is a great motivator to get out there and try somewhere or something new. So when some friends from Hong Kong came through Toronto, we headed a short drive north to Collingwood to visit the Scenic Caves. Set in a beautiful forest, with an easy to follow though hilly trail, there are 17…
Mono Cliffs – Instagram lies!
You can’t always believe everything you see and read about online, especially when it comes to travel. A lot of times we see an incredible image and think, ‘Wow, I want to go there just to see THAT, to stand there and take the same picture of this exact spot’. Well, sometimes Instagram and Facebook…
Biking Island Lake
Since Island Lake is literally right around the corner, we’ve been there a lot for hiking and sightseeing. But this was the first time to do the entire lake, which is 8.2km long, on bike. What a great workout! And what a beautiful day. Island Lake is a 400 acre reservoir with a number of…
Belfountain Conservation Area
So the goal this summer is to go somewhere, every single weekend, rain or shine, and enjoy the great outdoors before the deep freeze returns, forcing people to hide indoors for roughly five months. There’s nothing like the threat of winter to make you carpe that god damn diem! Last weekend we hit up Belfountain…
