Canada

Three Nights in St. John’s, Newfoundland Before taking this trip I didn’t know much about Newfoundland. As a kid I laughed at the famous Newfie jokes and I thought they were some kind of imaginary little people. It turns out Newfoundlanders need a pretty good sense of humor with all the crappy weather they get.  The weather on our trip was really bad but could have ...

Once Upon A Time in Vancouver : The 2018 Creation Entertainment OUAT Conference You probably all know the show that started in 2011 but we hadn’t heard of the ABC TV show “Once Upon A Time” until 2017 when we started watching it on Netflix. We were hooked from the beginning and started binge-watching 3 or 4 episodes every day once we started. It was in February 2018 when we were at season ...

DD in YYZ! (Toronto) The last time I was in Toronto was with my mother when I was very little and I don’t remember anything. At the time we didn’t take many pictures so there was nothing to bring back the memories. This time around though, there are plenty of pictures although just before I left my Canon G7 broke and I had to ...

Big Hill Retreat Such A Treat! While we visited Cape-Breton Island, Nova Scotia  for the first time, we stayed at Big Hill Retreat and  had such a lovely time. Here is the review we posted on Trip Advisor. We stayed 4 nights at Big Hill Retreat in the “Log Cabin” from September 11 to September 15 2011. Big Hill Retreat is a pet friendly accommodation. We had ...

Toronto In September   September, 2017 – Mama D had always wanted to go back to Toronto. We had been when I was 9, coming back from a visit with my uncle friends in Rochester NY but didn’t spend much time. This time we had 7 full days of visit. We met in Montreal where we stayed at our now favorite hotel; Hotel Bonaventure. While ...

Riverfront Park Trail Riverview We like to go down to Riverfront Park in Riverview and watch the tidal bore as it crawls up and down the Peticodiac River. From the boardwalk in the park we can see Moncton across the river and the chocolately brown rriver ebbing and flowing…it’s fun to watch the ducks surfing on the big push! We’re lucky to have so many ...

A Visit with the Animals A warm sunny day in October! It is probably one of the last nice days of the season and we have to go to the zoo and see the creatures and wish them well before winter sets in. It will be great to see our friends, these lovely animals! I read in the paper that the Moncton Zoo had some new ...

Moncton to Halifax on the Via Ocean Train I’ve never seen somebody as keen for surprises as Dami is. It must run in the family because when his  uncle DM was a kid, he played pranks on his younger brother (Dami’s father) and he loves surpise visits. So the day before the trip and his birthday, Dami brings me the usual weekly flyer pile and I notice an ...

Skyline Trail in Highlands National Park We’ve been going to Highlands National Park for several years and have hiked many of the trails and stopped at all the lookouts to admire the views but this time we decided to finally do the Skyline Trail which was one of the few treks we hadn’t made in the park. We decided to do the entire trail loop and went ...

Peticodiac Panorama The ice floes have started moving and the sunny days make walking along the Peticodiac River in Riverview just lovely! The Petitcodiac River, known informally as the Chocolate River, is a river in south-eastern New Brunswick, Canada. The river has a meander length of 79 kilometres (49 miles) and is located in Westmorland, Albert, and Kings counties, draining a watershed ...

A visit to Le Pays de la Sagouine Ever since coming to New Brunswick I have wanted to visit Le Pays de la Sagouine up in Bouctouche. On our trips to the dunes of Bouctouche and the Irving Gardens we have driven past the colorful island and it always seemed like a fun place to visit. DD had gone last summer with her mama and they really enjoyed it and so ...

Fundy Geological Museum If you plan to visit Joggins Fossil Cliffs, The Fundy Geological Museum can be a great complement to your visit although is fine on its own. More focused on dinosaurs and a little more kids oriented but still interesting for adults too. We really enjoyed watching the video presentation of the specialists. You have to phone and reserve if you ...

What’s Blooming Today This is a collection of pictures I took this morning of the flowers blooming on our property. Some of them we have planted, some were planted by previous owners and some others just decided they wanted to grow here because it’s such a nice place! Our own little oasis! This is mid-July and so many more are coming, it’s amazing! ...

Of Dahlias, Gardens & Goats On a recent trip to MacArthur’s Nursery in Moncton we spotted a pamphlet on the wall adverting a day-trip bus tour to PEI with the Dahlia Club of Moncton. The only reason I spotted the poster was because of the Dahlia and it was similar to our first Dahlia that was blooming at home so it grabbed my attention. We ...

Banff to Jasper Sightseeing tour We had an awesome 10 hour tour with Lynn and Harry from Sundog. Among the stops along the way were the Chateau at Lake Louise and fortunately the water had started to melt, creating interesting Colors and patterns. Everybody on the tour was friendly and we were pleased to meet Judy  from Melbourne Australia who took all portraits along the ...

Joggins Fossil Cliffs The Joggins Fossil Cliffs is a museum type modern exhibit with a guided 30 minute beach walk included in the admission price. It took 12 years to build the Unesco site which opened its doors to the public in 2008, but to nature, millions of years to prepare it. Here, erosion from the twice daily high tides is a fortunate ...

Mersey River Chalet Retreat We finally went for our much awaited retreat last week in Nova Scotia at Mersey River Chalets. It always feels like home, without the responsibilities a private chalet would imply; no taxes to pay, no cleaning, and no worries for vandalism or storm damage when we’re gone, it’s all taken care of. We left at 12:30 and after Truro, instead of ...

Waiting for the Easter Bunny at L’aboiteau Beach Easter Sunday and another sunny and warm day in New Brunswick, well, here in the South East corner anyway, so we decided to drive up through Shediac, past the giant lobster and go to our favorite beach, L’aboiteau at Cap Pélé. Forecasters were calling for 10 degrees above so we had visions of enjoying a nice walk on the sandy beach ...

Via Rail Ocean Line Sleeper Trip Moncton To Montreal How lucky am I! I am going to Montreal again and taking the train, my new favorite way to travel. The Ocean Line is the Via Rail line that runs from Halifax to Montreal. I get on in Moncton and prefer the train to flying. I get a cabin for one or a cabin for two and have my own ...

Alberta and British Columbia 18 Nights Itinerary (without a car) From April 29th to May 17th 2016, Mama D and I went on a trip to the Canadian Rocky Mountains, the British Columbia Sunshine Coast and Vancouver island. It was a lot of fun to plan and so much more to experience! The itinerary was built around the train trip and everything went smoothly, and as planned. We were very ...