Feb 18, 2019 - T minus 48 hours

Hi All: We are in countdown mode to our Asian extravaganza. Now accepting take-out orders for Thai, Vietnamese and Hong Kong orders. Food, clothing, art, please let us know and we'll do our best to provide. Already checked-in on-line for our flights. We are packing and Brian is ensuring that our luggage tags have the correct address, hence the photo. Had a lovely pre-event with the ladies book club yesterday. And our neighbours hosted us for appies and cocktails today. So we are well surrounded by supportive folks in our journey.

Feb 13, 2019 - Toronto Airport

Leaving in the midst of a Storm. We headed down to Toronto a day early so that we could take our time. As we drove from Perth into the storm it was a little eerie with no cars on the road. It felt like we were the last ones on earth. I guess we were crazy to start off with the storm warnings, but in the end the drive wasn’t bad and we arrived at our hotel befor the freezing rain started. We are sitting in the airport waiting for our flight to Buenos Aires that leaves in 5 hours. Boring!,,,,, Write to you later when more interesting...

Feb 2, 2019 - Toronto departure

After a week of snowstorms and digging out from under the weather, both literally and figuratively (both Lisette and I were recovering from bouts of the inevitable winter 'flu) we were excited that the departure date was upon us after months of planning this mid-winter get-away. It all started with a phone call from our friend and travelling mentor, Trevor. He made us an offer we just couldn't pass up after virtually enjoying all his intervening travels since we spent an awesome fortnight together several years ago on one of our most...

Jan 25, 2019 - Squamish departingvancouver

Hi everyone. Just when u thought I was done with the travel blog here is my final final one. We r awaiting our flight home which leaves in 2 hours at midnight Friday. We ventured out of vancouver today and were treated with some amazing scenes particularly the sunset. We headed north to Squamish where nick has spent quite a few Canadian winters snowboarding at whistler. He showed us the area where he saw a bear in the wild once. Luckily they r slumbering right now. Squamish has this amazing gondola which took us high into the mountains with...

Jan 24, 2019 - Flying

We didn’t have to rush in the morning, had our complementary breakfast and then headed for the airport. Everything went good and then we just had to hurry up and wait. Ran into Craig and Krista Dutka and kids. They were heading to Minneapolis so that Craig could go to a vintage snowmobile rally. It wasn’t a long flight to Calgary and only an hour before next plane left so not much waiting here. We had four hourthere and it was nice we got to have something to eat and not have to rush around a huge airport. They picked me for a customs...

Jan 23, 2019 - Regina

We went into Regina this morning because we had some returns to do and Dale wanted to get a battery for the old srx and a truck. I did the check in for the flight on the phone and a little more involved then I thought with having to give passport info but we figured it out. Spent some time at the casino but I was in the room after supper. Too darn cold and windy out there

Jan 23, 2019 - Vancouver

Hi all. In our final days in Vancouver we r exploring a lot. Went to the science museum which is really well set up. Lots of hands on things plus an imax theatre in which we saw a film about volcanoes. The day before we hired bikes and cycled around Stanley park. Vancouver city is pretty flat and it’s quite safe to bike around. So we cycled the sea wall which is the longest sea wall ever built. Today we caught an adorable cute ferry across to Granville island which reall isn’t an island . It’s a huge market and artistic precinct. More...

Jan 20, 2019 - Vancouver

Hi all. We left panorama in the dark hours of early morning with nick nursing a broken rib. Done after a fall doing Nordic skiing. We had a day in Calgary which saw us being in the odd.e of a protest march by the yellow shirts. They were anti trudeau, anti un and well pretty much not a happy bunch. Nick shone with pride as his saw his country men and women vocalise their democratic rights. There is a big debate in Alberta about the potential building of a pipeline to transport oil to rest of Canada. First Nation lands and environments would...

Jan 17, 2019 - Farewell to panorama

Hi all. Wish I could bring some snow home to cool things down your way. It’s lightly snowing today. We r nearly finished our skiing and snowboarding stint in panorama. It’s been good to be settled for a while and have a kitchen to cook in. The boys are doing the most challenging day of snowboarding today. They were all excited this morning. Takes quite a while to get dressed. Double layers of socks and gloves and thermals under all the other clothes . But it’s all worth it once outside. We will miss the beautiful snowy mountains. Off to...

Jan 15, 2019 - Panorama week 2

Panorama week 1 was dominated by all of us (me not so bad) getting through a gastro bug. Not fun but lots of card playing. Pleased to say we are all recovered. So I’ve had some great skiing getting more confident and as I write the boys are going snow boarding with nick from some great height above cloud line. Harry had a great coach yesterday who managed to show Harry all the right moves and tricks. Lots of knuckle high fives going on. Last thing I heard nick say to the boys was the next few days are going to push you to your limits. Mmm ....

Jan 9, 2019 - Panorama

Hi from panorama ski resort back in b.c. Our trip in lake louise turned out to be fun. Nick.dom and Harry went ice skating on the lake. Plus there was a hot pool back at the hotel. We then travelled southwest out of the state of Alberta to radium which is famous for its beautiful hot pool. Not radioactive I hope! We also had a reunion with Steve and his parents who were so thankful to nick for rescuing their son in Indonesia. Steve plus wife and kids will spend next weekend with us at panorama. They love to snowboard. Harry unfortunately...

Jan 4, 2019 - Banff and lake louise

Snow, snow and more snow! It’s been so lovely walking through the mountains surrounded by snow. We were warned that there was a cougar in the area but we stuck together without a sighting. Have been in the hot pool in Banff . Our travels to jasper however have been stopped by the closure of the main hwy due to the massive snowfalls. Luckily we got 2 nights accom in lake Louise at the mountaineer lodge.We went to the famous lake , all frozen over. Oh by the way our car is now stuck in snow. Mmm