Tag Archives: travel

#50by50 #33 – Take a cruise

The Writing Life of a Tadpole
June 21 2018

Sure, I know what you’re thinking. You read, “Take a cruise”, and you immediately thought it was the Caribbean, or Alaska, or somewhere in Europe maybe. Not really my thing, to be honest, although I could go for Alaska I think. I’m willing to consider the Caribbean sometime though.

No, my goal was a little closer to home. I was thinking maybe just on the Rideau or Ottawa Rivers, maybe something on one of the larger canal areas. Or even a sunset cruise in the Muskokas or over the Liftlocks in Peterborough.

My wife made the decision for me. She wanted to do a Thousand Island Cruise and go by Boldt Castle. Nothing super long, maybe a couple hours or so, rather than the four hour or six hour options. On Mother’s Day, there was an early afternoon 2-hour cruise, and we had takers … In addition to myself, Andrea and Jacob, we also had Dean, Becky, Grace, Ron and Marney along.  » Read the rest

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Trip to Newfoundland

The Writing Life of a Tadpole
March 24 2018

I’ve been to Newfoundland three times in my life…once for an APEC meeting (1997), once for some HR recruitment meetings, and once for a larger vacation with my family. Back in ’07, it was the HR recruitment meetings, my second trip to the province. I was participating in some broader recruitment, and I volunteered to be the one to go to St. John’s in November. Andrea joined me for the short trip (free hotel room for her!), and we added a couple of days of vacation to the end. With only two days, we didn’t go too far from St. John’s.

We were staying at a nice hotel near the one end of the downtown, with a view of the harbour and Signal Hill in the distance.

The reverse view from Signal Hill is kind of cool too.

Of course, like all good little tourists, we had to go Cape Spear.  » Read the rest

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Trip to Playa del Carmen – Day 10 of 9

The Writing Life of a Tadpole
February 16 2017

Day 10 was the day that wasn’t supposed to be, we were supposed to be home on day 9. The weather intervened, and we were stranded in Montreal.

Extra day 1

decent continental breakfast

hung out at hotel, played games

info about flight rescheduled to 3:30 p.m.

checked out around 12:15, got taxi voucher to airport

Since we didn’t get to bed until 1:00 a.m., it wasn’t surprising we weren’t too quick off the mark the next morning. But the hotel stopped their continental breakfast at 9:30, so A & J headed down just before 9, and I joined around 9:15. Short commute, about 20 steps. And it was pretty dang good. The room had been $180 the night before, and given the circumstances and the proximity to the airport (18 minutes away), that was a pretty good deal. Add in all three of us had breakfast the next morning, and the deal was looking better.  » Read the rest

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Trip to Playa del Carmen – Day 9 of 9

The Writing Life of a Tadpole
February 16 2017

Day 9 was our departure day, with a flight scheduled to leave Cancun airport at 2:15 p.m.

Finished packing

Breakfast at Laguna

Photos by pools, beach, around resort, hotel room, returned towels

Took luggage to lobby, changed bills

Shuttle to airport with family from Montreal

We had set up our shuttle run earlier in the trip with the BD Travel people, and we were set for 10:30. So once we finished packing in the morning, we grabbed some breakfast and then started snapping some final shots as we did a last walk around the resort. We had to return our towels and get our “towel cards” back, so we headed down towards the big pool and beach, snapping away as we went. Many of the places we had been during the week were ones we hadn’t snapped pics of since we didn’t take our camera or phones when going to the pool or dinner.  » Read the rest

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Trip to Playa del Carmen – Day 8 of 9

The Writing Life of a Tadpole
February 14 2017

Day 8 was our last full day in Mexico, and we had scheduled our last “packaged” outing for the day — a trip to Tulum (Mayan ruins), a visit to an estuary, and a visit to a cenote with underwater caves.

Tulum – took the shuttle bus

hot walk to entrance – J & P skipped tour and looked at ocean

tour described history, what it used to look like, etc. – VERY HOT – looked from cliffs near lighthouse, walked back to parking lot, no time for shopping, rushed, changed swimsuits, pay toilets, heat was brutal

We took the shuttle to Tulum, and while the ruins were impressive, it was INCREDIBLY HOT. I honestly can’t remember the last time I experienced that kind of heat. Jacob was wilting on the way IN to the ruins, so he and I quickly bailed on keeping up with the tour and wandered around on our own.  » Read the rest

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