BERMUDA – So, apparently Dark and Stormy isn’t just the name of a popular drink in this island nation. Ba-doom-boom. Okay, so it really was a fairly decent day overall. It’s just that I had desperately wanted a hot, clear sky and plenty of sunshine and ended up with almost no sun and a reasonable amount of drizzle. And it’s raining again this morning as I type up my notes. Still, my half-day on this lovely island was a pretty decent start to a long-weekend. And it looks like we might get a break this afternoon or maybe Saturday afternoon. Read more
August 2013
THUNDER BAY, ONTARIO – A visitor hears Kakabeka Falls outside Thunder Bay is the “Niagara of the north” and immediately thinks lesser of the place. I mean, we all hear that nonsense about how Toronto is Hollywood North and we know it’s not true. Or maybe it’s Vancouver. Anyway, I didn’t think much of the analogy and the photos I saw didn’t quite overwhelm me. But the tourism folks suggested I take the 20 minute drive from the airport out to see the falls so I figured they knew what they were talking about. I made the short drive as Read more
We haven’t heard as much about it as you might think, given that Canada and the U.S. are playing on Saturday in Toronto for a berth, but the Rugby World Cup will be in England and Wales in two years time. And it promises to be a massive show. Sure, the Super Bowl is big. Ditto for the Stanley Cup and the Pan Am Games, which will be in Toronto in 2015 in case you forgot and will have more athletes than a Winter Olympics. But the Rugby World Cup is said to have the third largest global audience of Read more
The entry of the big boys from Trump and Shangri-La and the new Four Seasons Hotel and the fairly new Ritz Carlton has garnered a lot of attention in Toronto hotel circles. So much so that we (meaning in this case, I), sometimes forget about a very sleek and very convenient hotel right downtown: One King West. The famous tower in the historic (almost 100 years!) bank building at King and Yonge has 330 hotel rooms; all suites with kitchens for the convenience of guests. They do a fair bit of leisure travel, as it’s very convenient to attractions like Read more
This is from a visit to the great city of Montreal a couple years ago… MONTREAL – I’d forgotten how much fun this town really is. I’d been a few times with my kids over the years, but last week’s brief sojourn was my first time to spend a few hours really looking around. I like the old city just fine, but I’d seen it before a number of times. I’ve also spent a bit of time on Crescent Street, attending a Jacques Villeneuve event at his Newtown restaurant when I worked in the sports department. So this time I Read more
