Indelible Adventures

The car was packed and ready to go the night before which is typical for anyone who knows me.  We were all pretty excited by the prospect of the open road and what adventures it might bring.   As I checked the weather the night before there was a major winter storm headed our way (just our luck I thought to myself as we packed the car).  It put me a tad on edge but after a reasonable nights sleep we were up and out the door a little before 6:00 am. It’s a two-hour drive from our place in Toronto to the US border crossing at Fort Erie near Buffalo, New York.  I was expecting a rough trip, especially with the impeding weather but we made it to the border before the storm and things looked great until we arrived at the customs booth at the crossing.   Apparently my new NEXUS card , which I got in June 2012 hadn’t yet been activated even though I had been to the US at least ten times by plane this was the first time by car. Zach...

As many of you know this past summer I had a three-week sojourn in Italy that can only be described as brilliant!   A couple of my summer blogs dealt with some of the activities and my misadventures during my trip, but there is one particular day that truly stands out from the rest. The Artist colony at Dolceacqua is definitely worth a visit!   I remember thinking to myself as I exited the hotel Europa in downtown San Remo that it was another gorgeous day in paradise (Italy truly is – no question!  :-)  and that adventure was in the air!     My sights were   set upon exploring the host of medieval hill towns inland from the coast.   I’d heard from a number of people who I’d met over the prior week that this valley was one of the hidden gems of this region. It’s a short drive from San Remo to the turn off toward Camporosso at Bordighera , the road leads up the Nevia valley, which skirts the French and Italian fron...

I thought about this topic all week as I sat on my various planes, taxi’s and airport lounges during my west coast swing.   This week I ventured out to Los Angeles then up to Seattle before making my way to Vancouver and now heading home.   So this week I’m writing my blog form the airport lounge in Vancouver as I wait for my red eye flight back to Toronto…glamorous some would say, but after 14 hours on planes this week plus being stuck in the middle row for my flight later tonight (5.5 hours) I’d just like to dispel that myth! Anyway, this week I was reminiscing back to when I was raising money for my hike in Papua New Guinea last November.  Initially when I had the idea of raising money in dad’s memory for Cancer Research I thought that if I was able to raise $5000 – what a great idea I thought!   Dispatch two birds with one stone, as I’d always wanted to hike the Kokoda Track and now I could piggy-back on this and raise money in dad’...

This past Sunday Zach, Sami and me went house hunting.   It’s not the first time, but it certainly had some interesting dynamics to the afternoon activities….   I had been pinging my real estate agent about some places I’d seen on realtor.ca from earlier in the week but he had been challenged in getting appointments, but me being me had just kept on sending him places I liked and asking for appointment. He finally was able to secure us four of the multitude that I had enquired about…   Now convincing the kids that they should invest the time with me looking at houses – easier said than done, but really they were pretty good sports about it. Sami jumped at the chance to find a new house, and was especially excited to find one with a bedroom for her to decorate in her specific tastes (eclectic might be too strong a word but she has a strong sense of what she likes and doesn’t like which is brilliant!)   Zach was fine to go along...