Adventure Cycle Experience

Back at the end of January 2009 we were camped out in Chiapas, Mexico at a neat little spot called Agua Azul. As we were getting set up, a couple of Canadian cyclists arrived. These young guys were riding their bicycles all the way from Edmonton, Alberta to Buenos Aries, Argentina!

The Diefenbunker

"People do not want to believe there is going to be atomic bombing of Canada. The thought disturbs our equanimity. We like to look at the situation as though we were protected and insulated by many thousands of miles of sea and a northern ice cap. It's going to take an educational campaign to make people realize the danger in which we find ourselves." - Canada's Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, May 25, 1957, House of Commons.

Anybody wanna go to Cuba?

I know this doesn't work for most of our American readers, but one of the few benefits we get from being Canadians is that we can travel to Cuba, and there are sometimes some VERY cheap deals to do so.

Ottawa and race weekend

Ottawa is the capital of Canada, but it often gets overlooked because it is located so close to, and in between, the much larger cities of both Montreal and Toronto. But Ottawa is a really nice city in the summer, and worth a visit. There's lots to see if you've never been there.

Road trip!

Just because we wanted to go for a drive. So we set out with Ruth's dad Tony, and his dog KC. It's about two hours from here down to the shore of Lake Ontario at Kingston. This is where we worked for a couple of summers and we  wanted to visit.

Some pictures

It's been a really dry spring here in Ontario, but we had a big thunderstorm go through this area yesterday afternoon.

We're number one!

Well, you all knew that anyhow didn't you?! But more specifically, we're now in number one spot in the Australia contest. We can't believe how many of our readers have become involved with our entry.

What the heck is that?!

Actually, it's just a little bug. But our new camera has a "super macro" setting where you can take extreme closeups...check this out!

London Transit

Doing some research on the London, England transit system. We will be in London for eight days, and of course we want to travel the city as economically as possible.

Three weeks from today

Only three weeks and we will be heading down to Toronto and hopping aboard our flight to England. I guess we better start doing some planning!

Wanna free pair of Ray-Bans?

Anybody want a free pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses? All you have to do is fish them out of the Madawaska River!

Television

A little slow getting going this morning. First of all, we slept in because we stayed up late watching television. What? Watching television? That's not normal for us. Well I'll tell you, there's a reason we don't watch television.

How to explore a city inexpensively

Accommodation can be a major expense for a visit to any city, but once you've got that looked after you can still save a lot of money during your visit to the city itself.

Nice weather

We've been fortunate that we've had decent weather since we showed up here. Perhaps we really did bring the Mexican sunshine with us!

Megapixels and Memory Cards

It's a pretty safe bet that everybody who travels has a camera. But I think a lot of people don't realize that digital cameras have come a long way in the last couple of years and that you don't need to spend $1,000 to take decent pictures. Having just bought a new camera, I thought I'd give a little primer on the electronics and what 99% of you don't need.

Beer

Sorry for the late blog post today! But it was totally out of my hands...they turned the power off at 8:02am, and it didn't come back on until almost noon!

Chicago Best Western Plus Hawthorne Terrace Hotel

We have to put out a special thank you to the Best Western Hawthorne Terrace Hotel in North Chicago. When we decided to profile the city of Chicago, the Hawthorne Terrace , only a ten minute walk from Wrigley Field stepped up to the plate and offered us a place to stay.

Beautiful day

It would seem the Mexican sunshine arrived in Ottawa with us! It was a beautiful Sunday yesterday with sunshine and perfect temperatures around 23C (73F). First thing on the agenda was a 5 km (3 mile) walk.

Chicago to Ottawa

You would think it would be fairly simple to get from Chicago to Ottawa. And it should be, but for us it was an all day affair.

Chicago Museum of Science and Industry

We didn't leave ourselves enough time to see the whole thing...just couldn't seem to drag ourselves outside at a decently early hour even though it was a beautiful day. And then, we got sidetracked into buying a new camera!

The Field Museum of Natural History

First of all, I have to qualify this by saying that it was only in March that we visited world class museums in Mexico City. Not to say that the Field Museum isn't world class, it's just that I think we are "all museumed out"!

The Shedd Aquarium

Yesterday morning we took the bus down to the Shedd Aquarium and the Field Museum of Natural History. They are pretty much across the street from each other and we chose to do the Shedd Aquarium first.

City Segway Tour - Chicago

You may or may not have heard of a "Segway". Introduced to the world almost 10 years ago, they are a two wheeled electric mode of personal transportation. Two things have hindered their popularity, even though they are a VERY neat mode of transportation.

Chicago Architecture Foundation River Cruise

The Chicago Architecture Foundation River Cruise aboard Chicago's First Lady Cruise's is certainly one of the more popular ways to learn more about the skyline and some of the more interesting buildings. The one and a half hour cruise takes you down the Chicago River and onto both branches where the river splits.

Adler Planetarium

We slept in yesterday morning, and then had to write three blog posts! So we didn't actually get on the bus towards downtown until about 11:00am. We had three more events planned for Wednesday, the Adler Planetarium, the Chicago Architecture Foundation River Cruise, and the Chicago City Segway Tour.

Urban Kayaks - Chicago

This was a very cool experience! It's pretty neat going kayaking to begin with, but to do it while weaving your way around the skyscrapers of Chicago was absolutely fantastic!

The Willis Tower

The highest building in North America. Formerly known as the Sears Tower, this 108 story building was the tallest one in the world from 1973 to 1998.

Chicago Greeter Tour

Tuesday was such a busy day that it's going to be tough to put it all into one post. So we're not going to! In fact, this will be the first of a series of posts over the next few days as we detail each activity on it's own in order to give you the best view of Chicago from our eyes.

Mexico to Chicago

Kind of squeezing two days into one here so it's a bit of a long post! Let's go back to late Sunday morning and try and catch up from there...

Before leaving Hacienda Contreras, I wandered down to Whiskey's tree. I had mentioned a couple of days ago that a bloom had appeared and it looked like there were more coming.

Hello, Chicago!

Just a quick note to say...we are in Chicago! We had arranged to bring some Mexican sunshine with us, but I think it hopped on a different flight because it hasn't arrived here yet!

Goodbye, Hacienda Contreras...

Last night was our last night. We are leaving Sherman behind and heading out to new adventures for the next five months or so. We spent a lot of time here this winter and enjoyed every minute of it.

Back to Day 1

Ruth has been diligently working to get all of our old blog reports up on this site. Our first year or so was done on the old tripjournal website and the reports were never available to read here.

Cinco de Mayo

A little history lesson this morning on May the 5th (Cinco de Mayo). Our son asked if we were going to any celebrations this weekend to mark the event. But Cinco de Mayo is celebrated more in the U.S. than in Mexico. Here's why...

Saying goodbye to new friends

Our new friends Doug and Nancy headed out yesterday morning on their way to the coast. I should tell you the story of how they made a decision to come to Mexico.

Business cards and breakfast

When we travel, we meet a lot of people. And when you meet people, you want to stay in touch. We learned when we set out almost five years ago that we needed "business" cards so that it's easy to give out our email address and website address, and now our Facebook page.

Another fiesta by the big tree

A fiesta and a feast that is.

Who says you need a reason for a fiesta. Barb and Sal invited some of their friends and relatives and we had a little party by the big tree!

April, 2012. Our cheapest month ever.

But the cost of having an inexpensive month is that we didn't really do very much. That was the plan though, because we were due for a break after a busy March when we took in the sights of both Mexico City and Las Vegas.

A donkey and a flower

Just a relaxing day around the park yesterday to rest up from the 10 km hike we did on Sunday.