Travels Near And Far

Mount Royal Montreal

2009-09-07T09:15:00.000-07:00

On July 18th last my wife and I visited our son Kevin in Montreal and walked up to the top of Mount Royal, well, not all the way up. We drove up as far as was permitted and walked the rest of the way. Mount Royal Park is worth a visit and the view of the city from the top is marvellous. Enjoy the few pics I have posted here.

Btw, we travelled to Montreal by VIA (train), and stayed at the Hotel Gault in Old Montreal. It is really convenient and relaxing to travel by train from Ottawa.

The Hotel Gault is a small boutique hotel right in the heart of Old Montreal. The staff are friendly and very helpful. It was our second stay there and we recognized many of the staff from our first stay. I recommend it.

Tortola - The British Virgin Islands

2008-10-31T16:38:00.000-07:00

One of the islands we took a tour of during our cruise in April was the island of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands (BVI). Here are a few pics for your enjoyment.

The Norwegian Pearl at the pier in Roadtown, Tortola.

The Bomba Shack

Our tour guide and one of the tourists on our bus.

My First Cruise - The Norwegian Pearl

2008-10-14T20:49:00.000-07:00

My wife and I went on our first cruise in April, 2008. It was a nine-day Caribbean cruise on the Norwegian Pearl and is arguably the best vacation we ever had. Our ship visited five islands - the Dominican Republic, the British Virgin Islands (BVI), Antigua, St. Lucia and Barbados.

We had never visited any of these islands so we took a tour of each island. We booked our tours through the ship, booking online before we left home. We enjoyed all of the tours and loved the islands, but we liked Tortola (BVI) the best, then Antigua. We met an American in Antigua who told us that he has lived in Antigua for 35 years and just loves it there.

We researched cruising before we booked. Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL) offers what is called "freestyle cruising". That means that you can do virtually whatever you want when it comes to meals. On most cruise lines, you have to commit to a dinner time, and you are assigned specific seating with the same people. With NCL you can have dinner whenever you want and wherever you want. There were many specialty restaurants on this ship and we did not try them all. We were happy with the ones we tried, and with the buffet restaurant.

Every night there was a show in the theatre and we attended most to them. Most were good. The one which sticks out, as I write this months afterwards, is the Elton John impersonator. He was really good.

There was a "chocolate night" one evening after the last show in the theatre. It was held in the buffet restaurant. There was chocolate everything. One had to have a great deal of self-control if one did not want to be ill, very ill, the following day. I was fine.

The Norwegian Pearl was just over one year old so everything was nice and new, and beautiful. The staff worked very hard. They often seemed to be sleep-deprived but yet were polite and pleasant. Our room stewards were two men from Indonesia. They provided excellent service.

We embarked and disembarked at Miami. We arrived in Miami the day before the cruise and stayed at the Conrad. This is a luxury hotel close to the pier. It is advisable to arrive in Miami the day before the cruise so you do not miss your cruise because of flight or other delays.

While we were on our vacation, we did not read a newspaper or go online at the onboard internet cafe, so were unaware that the US FAA had forced American Airlines to do some safety checks on their planes. This caused hundreds of flight cancellations and flight delays. We only heard about this the last night at sea. We were very concerned about how we were going to return home to Canada. We did not want to be stuck in an airport, in another country, at the end of such an enjoyable vacation.

We did get home as scheduled but got to the gate at La Guardia fifteen minutes before the flight was scheduled to depart for Ottawa. American Airlines was late, very late, departing Miami and there were many passengers onboard who had to make connecting flights at La Guardia. I believe that some people missed their connections. We were lucky.

My Grand Canyon Trip

2008-10-08T19:24:00.000-07:00

The Grand Canyon is awesome. Really, really awesome.

My wife and I visited this beautiful wonder of the world on Sunday October 28, 2008. The previous day we attended our nephew’s wedding in Phoenix. This was the purpose of our trip to Arizona and we decided that since we were going to be in Phoenix, we had to go and see The Grand Canyon.

We booked our trip with Vaughan’s Southwest Custom Tours before we left home. Booking with them was easy and hassle-free. If you plan to visit the Phoenix area and are looking for tours, check out these folks. Laura of Southwest was very helpful, and Bob our tour guide, was very knowledgeable and managed the trip very professionally.

Bob picked us up at our hotel, Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs Resort, just after 7 a.m. Laura called us late the previous afternoon to advise us of the pick-up time.

Bob had already picked up a couple, and after two more stops there were nine tourists, including two young children, in an air-conditioned van which seated twelve passengers. It was very comfortable.

It seems that the first couple Bob picked up asked him if he could take us through Sedona on the way to The Grand Canyon. Bob agreed. This was a bonus for us as we wanted to see Sedona.

Sedona is famous for its red rock and rock formations. It’s about a two hour drive from Phoenix. We saw some of what the city looked like, the red rock, the million dollar plus homes on the side of the hills, and we made a rest stop.

Bob’s wife is an artist and she displays her work in one of the galleries in Sedona. Bob did not stop and twist our arms to buy his wife’s art. If it were my wife, I probably would have.

As we continued north toward The Grand Canyon, Bob provided us with all kinds of interesting facts and information about Arizona, the many deserts of Arizona, and information about the various tribes which lived there quite successfully, and some of which inexplicably vanished, before the arrival of the European explorers.

About two hours from Sedona we arrived at The Cameron Trading Post. We had lunch here and did some shopping. The store is huge and one could easily spend a lot of time shopping. We bought the usual souvenirs – t-shirts.

For lunch, on Bob’s recommendation, I ordered the Mini Navajo Taco for $8.99 to be shared between my wife and me. We each received a plate overflowing with food. No, it was not a mistake. We were billed for one Mini Navajo Taco.

I ordered iced tea with my meal. It was served in a tall glass with a long spoon in the glass. I found this odd. I tasted the tea and it was not sweet. I found this odd. In Canada, iced tea is always served sweet, and there is never a spoon in the glass.

When I returned home I figured it out. In Arizona, you get to add as much or as little sugar as you like to your iced tea, or none at all. Talk about freedom! And talking about freedom, motorcyclists in Arizona are not required to wear helmets.

Only a Shakespeare could do justice in mere words, to the beauty and grandeur of The Grand Canyon. It is an awesome sight to behold. We went to the south rim and from there the Colorado River seemed like a very small stream far, far below us. However, Bob assured us that it can get up to three hundred feet wide in places.

The various colours of the rocks and their shapes and sizes left me in awe of the powerful natural forces which created this immense work of natural art over a period of millions of years. A million years hence it will be a completely new work, very different from what it was on Sunday October 28, 2008.

Bob advised us not to follow the few who risked serious injury, even death, by going beyond the low walls built around the rim beside the walkways. However, Bob had a safe spot beyond the low wall to take his group. My wife was far braver than me. She followed Bob as I hesitated, only following because if I did not, it would have been a tremendous blow to my fragile male ego, from which I may never have recovered. At the end of the little trail, Bob told us to look at what we were standing on – fossils of tiny sea creatures. This tiny spot on which we stood, high up on dry land in Arizona, was once the bottom of a sea of some kind. Truly amazing.

The Grand Canyon is something each person must experience for himself. I have no hesitation in recommending that you visit The Grand Canyon, at least once. Now that my wife and I have visited the south rim, we have to visit the north rim, which is further away from Phoenix.

We returned to our hotel at 9:30 p.m. It was a very long day, but worth every second.

Our cost was $130.00 each. It was a bargain.

Phoenix, Arizona September 2008

2008-10-05T14:53:00.000-07:00

September 2008 is the first time I visited Phoenix, Arizona. Three of my brothers had lived in Phoenix over the years and yet I had not visited. But I finally did visit to attend a nephew’s wedding.

One brother stills lives in Phoenix and all of my siblings, except one, attended the wedding. It was the first time in 30 years that all of us were in the same place at the same time.

Over the years when speaking to by brother in Phoenix I would ask him jokingly, “how is life in the desert?” He would laugh and ask about the cold and snow in Ottawa and tell me about being able to mow his lawn on Christmas day.

I am happy I visited Phoenix. It is a beautiful city and a beautiful area. Since it is a desert it was very hot but all the vehicles, homes, buildings, and shops I was in were air-conditioned.

The desert has been transformed. There are trees, plants, bushes, grass and flowers everywhere. They use an underground watering system which waters the plants in the evening when it is “cooler”. Look at the base of a plant in mid-afternoon and you will see dry sand; look at the base of the same plant the next morning and you will see damp sand. This is what keeps the plants alive and keeps Phoenix looking green and beautiful.

All of this plant life, except for the cacti, were imported. Among the plants I saw were eucalyptus trees imported from Australia.

Phoenix is one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the USA. The Phoenix area has about 4 million people and it is still growing.

I am happy that I visited Phoenix and met my family, many of whom I had not seen in years. I am also happy that I was able to see what Phoenix is really like. It was not the “desert” I expected.

While in Phoenix we stayed at the Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs Resort. This was also the location of the wedding and where the out of town guests stayed.

Air Canada is a Fine Airline

2008-10-02T22:07:00.000-07:00

My wife and I just returned from a trip to Phoenix, Arizona where we attended our nephew’s wedding. We left Ottawa on September 25, 2008 and returned to Ottawa on September 30, 2008.

Our flight from Ottawa took us through Toronto and Denver. The flights to Toronto and Denver were on Air Canada and were on time. Onboard service was great. Everything went smoothly.

The Denver to Phoenix leg on United Airlines was delayed for about an hour.

Our flight home was on Air Canada all the way. The Phoenix to Toronto leg was delayed by 25 minutes because the aircraft was delayed for about 30 minutes leaving Toronto due to weather conditions.

We made our connection to Ottawa and both legs of our journey home went smoothly.

We have traveled many times with Air Canada and our experience has always been positive. This is the reason I do not understand those who complain about this airline. I know that some other airlines, notably the Asian airlines, do offer much better in-flight service. I have experienced some of this service when my wife and I flew Dragon Air between Hong Kong and Taiwan.

However, all things considered, Air Canada is doing a fine job.