A long awaited return...

Well, it's been almost 4 years from my last post.... I dunno, guess I've been busy. Thanks to a good friend of mine, I've revamped my blog to give it a whole new look and feel to better represent the times, and myself today versus 4 years ago.

So much has happened in the last 4 years, I can't even begin to think of all of the changes I've been through in that time. I think back to my last post, and my position in life, and the person I was, and while I believe I am the same person overall, I know so much has changed. That's life for ya, but I started this blog to keep a log of what I've been up to, and my thoughts, so here goes nothing...!

I guess the most recent event that comes to mind is my trip to Iceland, Paris, and Amsterdam. Cass and I had an incredible trip to three very different countries and I loved our trip because it was such an interesting mix between extremely beautiful natural scenery, the hustle and bustle of city life, and a more laid back and relaxing adventure.

Iceland is a beautiful country. Within a few hours driving you can see glaciers, volcanoes, waterfalls, geysers, caves, and hot springs. Iceland is truly a land like no other. If you love hiking and taking photos of beautiful landscape, Iceland is the place for you!

There is no place in the world quite like Paris. Cass and I spent three days there, but there is so much to see and do in Paris, it is not nearly enough. With so much history and culture packed into this city, there is just so much to see and do. Needless to say, our feet were dying from walking around from site to site to site to site.... I very literally thought my pinky toe nail had fallen off and was constantly asking Cass to check my shoe to see if blood was beginning to seep out.

Amsterdam was the perfect way to end our trip. I've been to Amsterdam about 2 years ago, but I'm glad Cass got to see the red light district on our trip because they are cleaning it up and I a can already see a very noticeable difference. But aside from all the sex and drugs you hear about Amsterdam, it's actually a very beautiful city with beautiful canals and architecture. Honestly, one of my fondest memories of my entire trip was just getting lost and aimlessly wandering the streets of Amsterdam with my girl, just looking for small little shops and restaurants to try some new food.

Well, that's my trip in a nutshell. There is so much more to say about the trip, but I guess I just don't have as much time as I used to. Who knows, maybe I'll get back into the blog world...

Fact of the day:

People don't wash clay pots to lock in the juices from the previous times it was used. FACT!

All right, here goes nothing. My 11 day east coast trip in a nutshell.

Day 1:
On Thursday we picked up our car from the rental place at 8:00 am and did a little supply shopping and we were on our way. Our first stop was Rimouski in Quebec. It was something like a 12 hr drive, so we didn't do too much that night except sleep in our hostel.

Day 2:
Got up early and drove to through Gaspe to Forillon national park in Quebec. Honestly, that is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. The cliffs are enormous and they're just covered with trees and the ocean waves are crashing on the cliffs. We took a hike up to the top of the cliffs where they have an observation deck set up that raises above all the trees. From the top of the observation deck, you can see the entire peninsula and enless ocean all around it. It was really a site to remember. We did some more hiking and campted in the park where we saw a bear cub for a split second.

Day 3:
Got up and drove to Shediac New Brunswick. Shediac is known for having the warmest beaches in North America. We got to Shediac around dinner time, so we went to the warf and had seafood dinner. We camped in a provincial park right next to the beach.

Day 4:
Got up early to check out the beach. For lunch we went back to the warf where they sold a pound of cooked lobster for $10.00. We each had a pound and half of delicious lobster. Spent the afternoon just chilling on the beach. At night we went on a lobster boat tour where they explained to us how they catch lobster and the life of a lobster fisherman. They also taught us how to cook lobster and how to properly eat a lobster, the Acadian way. Then we had a lobster meal on the boat and got to practise eating a lobster like the Acadians do. Spent the night in Shediac.

Day 5:
Got up early and made our way to PEI. We drove across the bridge to get to the island. We set up our tent in Cavendish PEI. We went to Charlottetown to check things out. We had lunch in a small restaurant where they had the best fish and chips I've ever had, even beating out Old Galley. Then we took a tour of a museum that explains how confederation took place. It was actually very interesting to learn how Canada became a country. I remember learning about it in grade 8, but I really didn't remember any of it, it was a very educational experience. Then we went to a small exhibit where they had sculptures all made out of sand. For dinner, we had more lobster in the basement of a church called St. Anne's which was a pretty interesting experience. Spent the night camping in Cavendish.

Day 6:
Woke up early so that we could catch the ferry off PEI. We drove to Cape Breton which was another amazing national park. The hills are just so massive, and there's so many trees and so much wildlife, it was pretty incredible, not to mention the ocean all around. We went on a couple of hikes where we saw a moose. We watched the sunset over the ocean which was pretty neat. We camped somewhere in Cape Breton.

Day 7:
Got up early and went to Mark's Whale Watching Tour. It was such an amazing tour. We went in this small boat, and we saw so many pilot whales. There were groups of something like 16 whales, and they were about 2 feet away from our boat. They just kept going down, and coming back up for air, and it was just amazing. These whales are really small compared to other whales, but they still weigh around 3000 pounds. We also saw seals and eagles. We continued driving around Cape Breton and headed to Halifax. Got to Halifax and had dinner and drinks in the oldest pub in Halifax. Afterwards, we crashed in our hostel.

Day 8:
Woke up early and did some sight seeing in Halifax. We first explored some huge fort in Halifax. They never actually had to defend the fort, but it was a really impressive fort, and it would have been really hard to over take it. Then we went for a little walk along the coast and through down town and made a stop at Alexander Keith's brewery. We took a tour of the brewery. Then we went to port 21 which is a historic port where over 1,000,000 immigrants came to Canada in the last century. Afterwards we went for a little walk through Dalhousie campus. We crashed that night in the hostel.

Day 9:
You meet a lot of travellers when you stay in hostels, and we met this guy named Tobias from Denmark. He was heading to Toronto, but had to stay in Halifax cuz his luggage got lost on his flight. Anyways, since he was heading to Toronto, and our trip was almost done and were heading back to Toronto soon, Eric invited him to join us for the rest of our trip, which he did. So first we went to the casino in Halifax, where I lost $40. Then we did a little shopping and headed out to the Bay of Fundy. We set up our tents in Fundy and did a little hike and saw the tides.

Day 10:
Got up early and drove to Hopewell Rocks and walked around the beach during low tide. It's pretty amazing how the tides work in the Bay of Fundy, and the effects it had in the surrounding area. The rocks were pretty amazing. We walked around the beach during low tide, and were planning to rent kyaks and kyak around the rocks during high tide, but apprently they don't rent out kyaks there, they only have kyak tours. So we decided against that and drove back to a ranch and did some horseback riding instead. Spent another night camping in Fundy and did another hike to see the tides.

Day 11:
This was the last day of our trip, and we didn't do much except drive. We woke up at 4:00 am, and pretty much drove 16 hrs straight to get home. Dropped off Eric and Tobias, and got home dead exhausted.

So, that's my little east coast trip. I think we managed to see a whole lot of site, do a lot in a short period of time. Thanks to Eric for doing just about all of the planning, I really appreciate it. Honestly, it was a really amazing trip, and I still can't get over how many beautiful places there are to see in Canada. I also learned so much about Canada on the trip, and met so many interesting people travelling across Canada doing a very similar trip to our own. Everyone we met was so incredibly friendly, I gotta say, it really made me so proud to be a Canadian. I really think every Canadian should make a trip out to the east coast similiar to the one we did at some point in their life, it was definately a worth while and memorable experience.

So, I haven't posted in a while, so I figure it's about time!

Two weekends ago, Allan and I had a small trip to Miami for four days. We had free round trip tickets to anywhere in continental North America, so it ended up being a really cheap trip. The total of the trip including flight/hotel/car rental/food/entertainment/shopping came up to less than $500. We got to Miami Saturday afternoon which was the only time it rained during our trip. We didn't do much Saturday except check in our hotel, do a little shopping and have dinner at the Cheesecake factory. Dinner was really good and they got some big portions (which I like) down in the states. Sunday we took a trip down to South Beach. First thing we did was just head out to the beach and just spend the morning relaxing in the sun. It was really hot out, but it was really nice taking a dip in the ocean. I think it may have been my frist time in the Atlantic. After some fun in the sun we walked up and down Lincoln St which is like the touristy area on South Beach where we had lunch. After that, we took a little walk down to see Miami Ink. We took some pictures out side, but didn't really go inside. Went back to the beach for a little more R&R before getting some slushies at Wet Willies and heading back to our hotel. Went for a little drive and had some dinner. On Monday we got up early for our snorkling adventure. We picked up our snorkling equipment and then headed out to Key Largo where a boat took us out to the ocean to go snorkling. Snorkling was a lot of fun, but it was kind of tricky at the start and I got so much salt water up my nose which really sucked. Snorkling was fun, but I woulda much rather gone scuba diving. I saw a lot of fish, but where we went snorkling it was a little too deep for us to really go to the bottom of the ocean floor. It was still a lot of fun though. Went back to Miami and did a little more shopping and had dinner at Chili's. Honestly, I love Chili's. They're corn on the cob is just drenched in butter and it just tastes so good! Tuesday was the last day of our trip. We checked out of our hotel and went over to the beach one last time. Did a little more shopping, and that was about it, got on the airport and headed back home.

So, beach volleyball season's finally started up! Yesterday was the second beach vball of the year, and so far it's been great! A day at the beach with friends playing beach volleyball, what more could someone ask for. My ankle's still a little sore, but it hasn't slowed me down too much. Yeah, it's just been a lot of fun so far, and looking forward to a lot more Sundays at the beach.

Two weekends from now, Eric and I are gonna be heading out to the East coast. Looking forward to that as well.

Bluuuueee Jayyyssss!!!

Another exciting update from Toronto's biggest sports fan! So, Jon, Chris, Britta and I caught the Jays game last Saturday, and talk about a disappointing game. Strong start for the Jays who were leading the entire game all the way till the 9th inning. Jays had a 7-6 lead over Detroit with two outs, and just one more out to win the game. That's when the Jays let Detroit get 4 runs in, losing 6-10. Most disappointed Jays fan left at this point, but being the true Toronto sports fan that I am, I stayed for the bottom of the nineth hoping the Jays would pull through in the final inning. What a disappointing game!

So, I just got back yesterday from a fun weekend in Montreal. I took Thursday afternoon and Friday off work so that we could spend a little more time in Montreal. Allan and Michelle came over on Thursday afternoon, and we were off to my city of birth. Didn't do too much on Thursday, mostly just driving, with a stop off at the Big Apple. Got to our hotel, the Hyatt Regency at around 11:00 and just chilled/explored our hotel.

Woke up early on Saturday and walked around town for a bit. Unfortunately it was so effin cold and I forgot my toque at home, so after walking around for a bit I was getting a headache and it felt like my ears were gonna fall off. We made our way to Schwart's for lunch for some of Montreal's famous smoked meat sandwiches. I thought the sandwich was really good, but I think maybe I was expecting too much cuz it just wasn't quite the same as the first time I had smoked meat in Montreal. Anyways, it was still good, and Schwart's is supposed to be the best. After Schwart's, we went back to the hotel for a dip in the pool and little time in the sauna. After our swim, we got ready for our reservations at a really fancy restaurant called Toque. We got a little lost finding the restaurant which was pretty annoying, especially considering how cold it was out, but we eventually found it and they held onto our reservations. It was a really nice restaurant, and my raw scallop appetizer were particularly tasty. I had some grilled tuna for my main course, and some kind of white chocolate mouse for dessert. Was a nice meal.

Saturday we got up and had brunch at some bagel place. Montreal really do have some really good bagels. It was just so fresh and really tasty, I really enjoyed it. After brunch we hit the Montreal casino for possibly my worse run in casino history. It was a huge casino, and I guess cuz it was Saturday, and maybe cuz it was March break, the casino was really busy. There were no low bet tables for black jack, so I decided to play a little Sic Bo. Man, I lost $100 in about 15 minutes flat. I won one game out of maybe 10, and that was it for me and my gambling experience in Montreal. After the casino, we head out to some mall and did a little shopping. After shopping, we met up with Justin and Karen for a little dinner. After dinner, we got ready to go to Tokyo Club. It was fun. I haven't been clubbing in a while, but it was pretty busy and the music was all right.

Sunday, we packed up all our stuff and met up with Justin and Karen for lunch. After lunch, we pretty much drove back home, with another stop off at the Big Apple. And that's pretty much my weekend in Montreal, good times.

Raaaappttooooorrrss!! Jon, Nat, Chris and I went to watch the Toronto Raptors take on the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday night at the ACC. It's so disappointing the Raptors, the Eastern Conference, Atlantic division point leader lost to the Bucks who are tied with Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Charlotte who are second last in the conference. The score was a disappointing 81 ~ 94 loss. The Raptor's leading point scorer, Chris Bosh, just wasn't able to get the ball on Friday due to the double teaming. Bosh, who's been averaging approximately 22.8 points per game only got 14 points against the Bucks on Friday night. What a huge disappointment! Oh well, it was a really exciting game none the less!

I also got together with Eric and Neeta over the weekend. We had a very inexpensive Sunday evening consisting of buying food and bringing it home, and a night of games. We played a kind of nerdy game called Citadels. Yeah, I play nerdy games like Citadels, but at least I'm not afraid to admit it. Neeta on the other hand, let's just hope her coworkers don't find out about this blog and read this post.