By now, I’m hoping you’ve heard about the famous Sour Toe swallow up in Dawson City. For years, they’ve had a grizzled, green, gross-looking preserved toe on display at the Downtown Hotel. Brave souls (I did it) take a drink of pop or whiskey or what have you with the digit floating inside in what’s called the Sour Toe Cocktail. If the toe touches your lips when you drink, you get to join the Sour Toe club and you get your name on a certificate. Mine is not proudly displayed on my mantle but I have it somewhere. They’ve had Read more
Canada travel
We hear a lot about the Riviera Maya, with glittering Cancun and the ruins of Tulum and the great beaches. It’s a wonderful part of Mexico. Most Canadians also have heard of Acapulco and Cabo San Lucas, the latter on the tip of Baja California. The words Riviera Nayarit probably don’t sound as familiar. But it’s a hugely popular stretch of Pacific coastline north of Puerto Vallarta, and it looks wonderful. The folks from Riviera Nayarit on Tuesday put on a great lunch at Frida restaurant on Eglinton West, thanks in part to a virtuoso job by Mexican chef Betty Read more
HALIFAX – We all know about the harbour here; the tall ships and the Titanic connection and the seafaring history. We also see those pictures of the Citadel’s green, rolling hills and the beautiful clock tower. And we know Peggy’s Cove waits just a few minutes down the road, waiting to seduce yet more camera-toting visitors. (And a quick nod here to the 13th anniversary of the Swiss Air 111 flight departing from New York for Geneva, which crashed near Peggy’s Cove on this day in 1998; a very grim mark on an otherwise beautiful place). There are lots 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
ALONG THE FRENCH RIVER IN ONTARIO – “Alex is picking some people up at Five Fingers Rapids, you should take a boat ride with him.” I had just settled in for some serious note taking on the screened in porch of my fabulous cottage at the Lodge at Pine Cove, overlooking the French River west of North Bay, near the town of Noelville. I’d only been on the property an hour or so but when the owner of a lodge suggests I take a boat ride I usually find there’s a reason. And who doesn’t love riding a boat on Read more
