Exploring The World

We have had an absolutely fantastic time during our 10 week swing through beautiful British Columbia. Through Karen’s organizational skills we ended up doing five house sits in five different locations around southern BC. We ran the gambit of animal personalities from dogs that were deaf, to obsessed with squirrels, to chickens that were just a little too curious at times. To blind Truffle who…

We had the opportunity to spend a quiet Saturday wandering around the downtown centre of Vernon, British Columbia. No better way of maximizing the enjoyment than to check out the cities vibrant street art scene. It appears that about 20 years ago the city adopted a program of showcasing its heritage and encouraging pedestrian traffic in the core. All I can say is, job well done. When Europeans…

Being back in our ‘home’ city has been great, in that seeing family and friends is wonderful and important. However, the city itself has been a bit depressing for me as the growth and change it has experienced has not been all positive in my eyes. So, our short pre-anniversary trip to Canmore was a much needed boast to my mental wellbeing. The view from our hotel room balcony was a fantastic…

First off, I would like to apologize to those of you who received a notification of a post only to find it inaccessible. Amateur error on my behalf, my apologizes. So here we are, safely back in the wintery grasp of our home and native land, Canada. Very happy to be here mainly for the fact that after 3 years of delays due to COVID, illness, and travel I finally am scheduled to get a hernia…

We were very fortunate to be able to be in Vathi for the big Carnival parade. OK, maybe big is a bit of an overstatement. However it is obviously an important event for the island as winter wraps up and the preparations for summer start. It was fun to see the obvious effort that went into the children’s costumes as well as seeing the mothers right in there with them in full costume. And who…

As we pass the half way point of our three months in Greece I figure it is time for some reflection. As in, what the heck do we do with our time here? As with every other person in the world the answer is routines. Those routines may morph a bit from location to location, however it is important to have them. Whenever it is reasonable we prefer to spend time outside enjoying the sunshine. Dice…

I decided to wrap up our glimpse of Egypt with a post about our transportation there. There are many options when travelling and though we are fairly conventional with our travel, we do try to do some interesting things as well. If you are curious about travel I hope you find this interesting. Of the three airports we used in Egypt it was easy to see which location was tuned in to dealing with…

Cairo and the Pyramids

Egypt is certainly a country of many faces. The Red Sea was beautiful, Sharm el Sheikh was glitzy and an all inclusive haven, and Cairo was a massive dirty city. However, the one thing they all had in common was people. We were very impressed though at the commitment to preserving the historical, archaeologic, and tourist gold mine that is ancient Egypt despite the obvious need for space. It was…

Diving the Red Sea

This particular diving adventure actually started a couple of decades ago when we watched a short series on scuba diving called ‘Descending’. Two divers visited some of the best dive locations in the world. One of them was the Red Sea and it hooked us immediately. So when Karen’s birthday coincided with an opening in our schedule, the decision was easy. We flew from Cairo to Sharm el Sheihk and…

Wow! When Karen told me we needed to start packing today I was honestly surprised. In the last 2.5 weeks we have had three amazing house sits with a liberal dose of challenges and wonderful discoveries. While we were in Chertsey we enjoyed a wonderful variety of weather which made photography a joy. The view of the Chertsey Bridge was different every time we took the dogs out for a stroll. A…

We are enjoying continued lovely weather here in southern England. Admittedly we have had some rainy days, but seriously, November in England and we are still wearing shorts and a light jumper. I think we have hit the jackpot as far as weather goes. As well, to go with the great weather, we have been fortunate to see some pretty incredible sights. From one of our house sits we were able to pop…

One of the things we love about our lifestyle is the length of time we spend in a place. Having the opportunity to stroll about areas to take in the sights and simply absorb the feel of a location is wonderful, I understand it is not everyone’s cup of tea, but it is certainly ours. Once we headed south from Scotland we had a number of house sits lined up with a few days extra in between.…

Our first glimpse of Iceland was as we approached the north coast from the west nearing the end of our cruise on the Celebrity Summit. Simply put, it was beautiful. Our first port of call was at the city of Akureyri, located near the end of the longest fjord in Iceland. The scenes were breathtaking as we glided up the waterway. We had signed up for a small group tour to Godafoss which was…

Wow, Greenland! This is one place I never thought I would have a chance to glimpse. Admittedly we only had one day ashore in Qaqortoq and another day cruising through the Prince Christian Sound, but what a neat experience. We were tendered ashore in the village of Qaqortoq. This community of about 3000 is rather what I had expected from images I had seen previously. What you can’t absorb from…

St. John’s Newfoundland

Our last Canadian port of call before departing Canada for several months was St. John’s, Newfoundland. Though I feel quite strongly that a one day stop over on a cruise ship does not constitute actually having visited a place, I was glad to at least get a glimpse of this iconic city. As we pulled into the harbour the police were on hand to say hello. Not a terribly spectacular view from our…

A New Adventure Awaits

After much anticipation, planning, and a bit of anxiety we are finally back on the international travel path that we so enjoy. I am sure everyone these days is familiar with the nightmare stories of travel delays, lost luggage, and cancelled flights. Without a doubt all of these stories were on our minds as we planned this latest adventure. However, we chose to focus on the idea that if 10 – 15%…

As luck would have it we had four free days between our Montréal and Halifax house sits. A reasonable amount of time to play tourist in Ottawa. We have managed to visit the capital cities of 18 other countries and it was always a bit embarrassing to admit that we had never been to our own capital so the time was ripe. We were extremely fortunate to be here during the celebration of Queen…