There and now I’m back again

I arrived back home in Edmonton on Friday afternoon. I’ve been spending time with my husband and my felines and taking care of all the tasks that pile up when you take off for nearly eight weeks (for example, “important tasks” like re-watching Ferris Bueller’s Day Off). My road trip by the numbers 20,000 kilometres 54 days 10Continue

Magnificent mileage

I think the shocking thing is that after all the Al Capone connections I’ve encountered in Canada I somehow did not one single Al Capone-related tourist thing while actually in Chicago. That glaring error aside, I had a fabulous time in Chicago right up to the part where I got caught out in weather thatContinue

Windy City wanderings

I didn’t make it into downtown Chicago until about 5 p.m. Amazingly, I barely got lost, and when I did finally get off the expressway to figure out where the heck I was, it turned out that exit was the right one. So, that worked out. I spent my evening wandering along the lakeshore, admiringContinue

Capital drift

I had a couple lazy days in Ottawa. Well, if you define lazy as walking a couple dozen kilometres. My feet will be delighted to reach the end of this trip, which is in exactly one week. But I certainly didn’t push myself. I spent a good amount of time getting lost driving between myContinue

Montreal, je t’aime

So my favourite store in Montreal is still open. I know for sure, because I checked. And bought a mask, which I collect. It’s good to keep track of these things. Montreal is one of Canada’s great cities. Again, I know for sure, because I used to live there. Which meant I didn’t have the same,Continue

Another day, yet another time zone

Somedays you just have to give in to the Anne of it all. So Friday night I ended up getting a ticket for the musical Anne and Gilbert, which distills the love story portion of the Anne of Green Gables into a couple hours of remarkably catchy songs from thoroughly charming actors. Which is probablyContinue

10/10

I’m typing this up while trying to watch the leaders debate, so please forgive the somewhat sparse nature of this post. I arrived in Prince Edward Island yesterday via a ferry from Nova Scotia. I ferried over from Newfoundland on the overnight run, which means I slept in a reclining chair and somewhat blearily managedContinue

Shooting puffin (photos)

The world sure feels like a small place some days. And I can personally attest to the fact that Canada is really, really big, so that’s saying something. Yesterday at our bed and breakfast in St. John’s, we chatted with a couple who’d lived in Edmonton earlier in their lives. As we conversed, it turnedContinue

Gorgeous Gros Mornes (and arrival in St. John’s)

Rather than rain and wind and fog, today we woke to sunny skies. It was the perfect day to go on the two-hour boat tour of Western Brook Pond, which is really the size of a pretty big lake. Technically, the steep mountains dropping off into the water are not fjords, because it’s freshwater andContinue

Where the Vikings came

Wednesday, we spent en route from Port Aux Basques to the very northwestern tip of Newfoundland, destination: L’Anse Aux Meadows National Historic Site, where there are the remains of an authenticated Viking encampment. It’s about an eight hour drive, and since our ferry had gotten in so late, we got a later start. But weContinue