Category Archives: Personal

October 15, 2014

Thanksgiving Weekend 2014

My little brother came home for Thanksgiving! He lives in Toronto, now, and I miss his face. He and his girlfriend Anna got a ride and were able to spend the weekend in Ottawa, so on Saturday Rob and I cajoled Meadow into the car and went to pick them up. My mom joined us, but unfortunately my dad was working, which is really too bad because no one loves the outdoors like he does — except for maybe me! The weather was pretty much perfect all weekend. Rob and I hosted Thanksgiving dinner for 12 (including my cousin who came all the way from Saskatchewan!), and the Butterball was amazing, as per usual (it’s hard to mess up a Butterball!) Unfortunately I was too busy hosting to take any pictures of our guests or even the meal, but I did bring my camera along for the Saturday walk.

October 14, 2014

Travel Tuesdays | Bled, Slovenia

It rained on the 70th day of our European backpacking trip — for the first time. We had amazing weather for this trip, which I like to think was some sort of built up karma from all the camping trips I’ve been on over the years. We trained into Ljublijana, Slovenia and then took a bus to Bled. We arrived at the station in a downpour and had a 15 minute walk to our hostel, so we resigned ourselves to getting soaked and started the hike. Three minutes into our walk, a woman approached us and asked if we were looking for the hostel. We said yes. She asked us if we would like a private room with our own kitchen, bathroom, living room, cable TV and free internet for the same price as the hostel room.

October 7, 2014

Travel Tuesdays | Mui Ne, Vietnam

In February of 2010, during spring break in the Korean academic calendar, we travelled to Cambodia and Vietnam, where we based ourselves in Ho Chi Min City and took shorter excursions nearby. The farthest north we got (not very far at all) was Mui Ne, which is a tourist town on the coast. Mui Ne is known for its sand dunes and kite surfing. We felt like spending a couple days on the beach, so we jumped on a bus for $10 and prepared for the 4-hour ride which — like most of Asia — turned out to be closer to six. Of course, the fact that we had to stop to change a flat tire probably didn’t help.

September 30, 2014

Travel Tuesdays | Bodrum, Turkey

We were in Turkey on Canadian Thanksgiving 2008, which I still think is pretty funny. Turkey? Thanksgiving? Okay, maybe not that funny, but this was an amazing leg of our trip. Thanks to a tip in Cosmopolitan Magazine, of all places, we were able to book a super cheap Mediterranean Cruise a couple months before leaving for Europe. How cheap? For a week’s accommodations and half board (breakfast and our choice of lunch or dinner), we paid about $320. Yup. What a score! This was our “vacation” smack in the middle of our 3.5 month backpacking trip. It was a week where we could actually put our toothbrushes in a holder. Where we had room service! Where we could just relax on a beach and not worry about where to go and how to get there.

September 29, 2014

Our Neighbourhood Dog Community

Those of you who’ve known me well for more than a few years know that I never use to be a dog person. In fact, my parents are still sort of flabbergasted each time they see me with our lab Meadow. But Rob said from day one in our relationship that he wanted a dog some day, and I figured that was something I could compromise on, and hopefully come to love. Which, thankfully, ended up being the case! We got Meadow as a chunky little ball of fur when she was 9 weeks old, and let’s just say the bonding went well. I was nervous around large dogs until we got her. Now all I can see when a 120lb large breed is running towards me is an overgrown puppy hoping to play!