MODENA, ITALY – It’s a gorgeous spring day. My wife and I are sipping on Italian wine and nibbling on strips of rare steak and fabulous local cheeses on a restaurant patio in this city’s handsome main square. Kids are skipping about, ignoring instructions from their parents. A young couple with guitars sing a lovely tune. A woman rides by in a bike, her son sitting on the handlebars. Usually by this time of year Italian cities are overrun with visitors from Canada and the U.S. There are tourists about on this day for sure, but things aren’t so crazy Read more

A magical lookout high above the largest freshwater lake on the planet. A beautiful and easy hike along quiet, rocky beaches that reveals crystal clear water and a stunning rock arch jutting out into Lake Superior. Bountiful and beautiful white-tailed deer grazing in deep green forests. If Sleeping Giant Provincial Park was a few degrees south of latitude it might be the most visited park in Ontario. Instead, it’s something of a well, sleeping giant, an amazing and powerful and evocative and beautiful headland that stretches out into the majesty that is Lake Superior. I arrive on a perfect, 20 Read more

A great hotel any time of the year. But especially wonderful on a Canada Day weekend. The Fairmont Chateau Laurier is a Canadian institution that has one of the most iconic settings in the country. It rests alongside the Rideau Canal, a UNESCO Heritage Site. Just the other side of the canal you’ll find the glorious stone of Canada’s Parliament buildings. Many rooms at the Laurier have views of both the canal and Parliament. If you’re lucky enough to have room 202 like I did this past weekend, you’ll also get a view of the Ottawa River and the Gatineau Read more

Fittingly, my first exposure to the now famous Canadian flag was at a hockey game. Oddly enough, it was in Oakland, California. I grew up in the suburbs of San Francisco and always enjoyed sports. Once, perhaps as part of a school field trip, we went to a game at the Oakland Coliseum Arena to see the California Seals play. I remember, I think, the white skates. I definitely remember trying to figure out what icing meant. The rules confused me and I didn’t really understand what was happening on the ice (something my kids will say has stuck with Read more

The new NHL team heading to Las Vegas is changing more than the city’s sports scene. As part of the re-design of the area around the new T-Mobile Arena, where the newest pro hockey team will start play in the fall of 2017, Vegas officials have created an entirely new neighbourhood that’s both pedestrian and environmentally friendly. The new development, called The Park, runs from Las Vegas Blvd. to the new arena between the New York, New York casino and the old Monte Carlo, which is being replaced by a NoMad Las Vegas and the new Park MGM hotel. The Read more

Glorious deserts and towering redwoods. Quiet canyons and daredevil climbers ascending ridiculous pillars of stone. Fierce grizzlies and adorable prairie dogs. The United States is blessed with perhaps the most diverse geographical variety on the planet. Luckily for them, and for us, they also had the foresight 100 years ago to create a national parks service to preserve these natural wonders forever. Canadians and folks from around the world can visit fantastic parks from Hawaii to California to Maine and beyond. And now, thanks to a new film, Canadians will get a chance this summer to see a remarkable, immersive Read more