It’s a lot like the old ride! After discovering that my beloved red Kia Soul was a write-off after the suckiest of suck weeks of 2017, the world of vehicular transportation was open to me once again. What did I want to drive? I made it easy: another Kia Soul. …
Have you ever looked at a simple little gizmo and thought, that can’t possibly work? That’s how I felt about my motion sickness wristbands until a pal told me they kept her stomach from trying to leave her body when she flew. Now I don’t go anywhere without them. …
No More Queasy Rides Read More »
It seemed that the Emerald City hop-on-hop-off trolley tour of Seattle wasn’t running yet last week, so Erin and I set about finding alternatives. At check-in, our hotel receptionist told Erin that the Smith Building was a better deal than the Space Needle for an overhead view of the entire city. A little Googling turned up Bill Speidel’s Underground Tour, so first, we went under the sidewalks to see the original Seattle. …
From the Bottom to the Top Read More »
Seattle, Washington. Home of the Seahawks and the Mariners, the grunge music scene of the 1990s, fresh seafood that will make you moan and a long, pretty shoreline. It’s not surprising that they have tourism down to an art form. You can fly in, as we did from Victoria, via Alaska Air. You can take a ferry, as we did back to Victoria. They have light rail from the airport into downtown and bus rapid transit in the core. Uber and Lyft both operate legally alongside traditional cabs. Seattle gets it. Visitors want choices. …
Steepness in Seattle Read More »
Where to begin? At the beginning, I suppose. At my wonderful friends’ new home in Victoria, BC, with a panoramic view of the harbour and mountains, in the corner of our country that doesn’t experience weather extremes.
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A week away was planned some time ago and here it is. …
Leaving on a Jet Plane Read More »
Lately I’ve been making fairly regular trips back to my hometown. Well, I have three hometowns, and I’m traveling past or to at least one of them on these road trips. I drink coffee. I always take along a bottle of water. When nature calls, I’m caught in that all-too-familiar state of wondering how to answer. A stroke of genius hit me on Sunday. …
All Canadians know about the 1972 Canada-Russia hockey series in which the NHL proved its supremacy via Paul Henderson’s last minute goal. In 1974, the upstart WHA took on the Russians with a different outcome. The World Hockey Association was attempting to prove it was as good as the National Hockey League and better than the Russians. It had some of the great players but it didn’t have the preparation time that the NHL had enjoyed two years earlier. …
Throwback Thursday – The Hockey Series in the ShadowRead More »
Throwback Thursday – The Hockey Series in the Shadow Read More »
Only one thing could get me to go to LEGOLAND at the massive Vaughan Mills shopping centre on a Saturday. He’s short, adorable, and the son of my Little Sister. And he happened to watch Lego Batman about eleven times last week. …
Four years ago on a trip to Calgary, Alberta to visit my cousin Barbara-Anne, we grabbed a few more cousins and took a road trip to Drumheller and the Royal Tyrrell Museum. If you love science like I love science, specifically dinosaurs and fossils, you’ve got to check it out sometime. …
Throwback Thursday – Science, I Love Thee Read More »
How quickly a year flies by. Last February, we went to Iceland and got to see and experience things that aren’t available anywhere else in the world. From the jagged and unique terrain to the opportunity to actually stand between two continents, to the friendly people and their unusual way of life, it was truly an adventure. …
Throwback Thursday – Icelandic Adventure Read More »
Jamaica is beautiful. You probably don’t need proof, but here’s a photo I took off Montego Bay when I was there in the early 1990s. …
Throwback Thursday – Jamaican Dreams Dashed Read More »
How anyone can dispute the science of climate change baffles me. It’s fodder for stand-up comics (Can we trust temperatures taken 150 years ago?? Back then they were using leeches to cure disease!) and hard right-wingers who believe that if it wasn’t in the Bible, it doesn’t exist. Oh, unless it’s something convenient like a microwave or Tinder app. …
Lobster Will Flounder Read More »
Up until about the 1980s, Belfast, Maine was the world’s chicken-processing capital. Then, like car-makers high-tailing it out of Detroit, the chicken companies left Belfast for other parts of the world, taking with them jobs and the town’s economic engine. Now reinvented as a lobster and ship-repair hub, Belfast is a model for how other towns can survive after a similar downfall. …
Road Trip – Destination #2; Belfast, Maine Read More »
Hampton Beach, New Hampshire, is a sunny, sandy spot where Derek’s family traveled to a time or two when he was young. If you know Grand Bend, imagine its main drag opposite the beach and about 10 times as long. That’s Hampton Beach, which is beautiful and pristine and popular. …
Road Trip – Destination #1; Hampton Beach Read More »
One can’t really appreciate the magnitude of the Grand Canyon until they’re standing on its edge. And you can’t truly get a sense of how beautiful and pristine the coastline of France is, until you’ve stood on the beach, with its white sand between your toes. …
Throwback Thursday – Nice, Je Suis Désolé Read More »
For years, I wanted to see England and France. Eight springs ago, I finally got my wish. It was a wonderful trip with a few days in Paris, a few days in London, time spent in Kent and Nice as well as a week at a beautiful bed and breakfast in a medieval town called Cagnes Sur Mer. …
Throwback Thursday – Parlez Vous Francais? Read More »