Our Travels

The best things in life aren’t things. They’re the experiences and connections that shape us and travel has always had a place in my life from the time I was a boy until today.

In 1998, Yim joined me on the adventure and our big trips are still to come.

I enjoy writing about our travels and using my photography to illustrate them as a way of recording a life I am grateful for. I hope you find something you enjoy.

Watkins Glen State Park

This year we discovered Watkins Glen State Park. I had read about it on several occasions before but we have not really made much of an effort to visit the US in the past five years. So while we were on our way to visit friends in Maine and hike Acadia National Park, we decided…

Paris

This May, we visited Paris.  Apparently, the springtime is supposed to be the perfect time to visit and while we didn’t have the best weather, we did have a great visit. We had several very nice days, a couple of cool days and a few rainy days. Some days it rained much heavier than others…

Standing Rock Caves Trail

Standing Rock Caves Trail We have now hiked this trail in every season and this is still my favourite hike around Collingwood. This hike combines the blue-blazed Standing Rock and Singhampton Side Trails with the white-blazed main Bruce Trail. In this section, each blue-blazed side trail leads you back to the main Trail, and each…

Newfoundland

Quidi Vidi Village (above). After more than two years of waiting, we finally managed to get to Newfoundland this summer for two weeks with our friends Dorothy and Mark from Victoria. After settling in to our hotels and a night out at O’Reilly’s listening to some Newfoundland music, the first spot on our visit list…

The Distillery District

The Distillery District is a commercial and residential district in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, east of downtown, which is made up of numerous cafés, restaurants, and shops housed within incredible heritage buildings of the former Gooderham and Worts Distillery. At one point, Gooderham & Worts was the largest distillery in the British Empire. First established as…

The Grotto in January

The Grotto, up north of us, in the Bruce Peninsula National Park, has become one of Southern Ontario’s most popular tourist destinations in the summer. Located near Tobermory, it’s close to lots of other tourist destinations such as Fathom Five National Marine Park, where you also find Flower Pot Island. The Grotto is  located close…

Nottawasaga Bluffs

The Nottawasaga Bluffs Conservation Area is a 400-acre jewel on the Escarpment. The unique geology has created a veritable land before time, as deep crevasses cut their way through the hardwood and coniferous forest. During the hike, you can expect to find open fields, limestone bluffs and woodlands carpeted in green undergrowth, which provide the…

Manitoulin Island

The name of the island, Manitoulin, is the English version of the Ojibwe name Manidoowaaling, which means “Cave of the Spirit”. It was named for an underwater cave where a powerful spirit is said to have lived. I’d been wanting to visit for several years now and recently, we managed to coordinate some sunshine with the fall…

Creemore Nature Preserve

Known locally as “The Mingay,” after the family who originally owned and donated the land in 1987, the Creemore Nature Preserve is an important part of the local community as this area was long inhabited by both Indigenous peoples and more recent settlers. The Nature Conservancy of Canada manages the Creemore Nature Reserve to promote…

Duncan Caves Trail

The Duncan Caves Trail is a 12.4 kilometre moderately trafficked loop trail located between Ravenna and Kimberly that features a waterfall, Mills Creek and Metcalfe Rock and is rated as is a moderate hiking trail. For our visits, we parked at the entrance along 9th Side Road. There’s a small parking lot there but people…