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Richard Perry
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Canada 2017
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Canada,
Toronto
We were on the road again yesterday morning, but this time it was only 1½ hours down to Niagara Falls . It has been my experience that quite often, some of these incredible sights can be a bit of a let down when you see them in real life. Niagara Falls is definitely not one of those! They are perhaps the most breathtaking natural wonder I have seen! There is no way to appreciate the insane power of them without seeing them up close and personal! We pulled into Niagara Falls late morning and dropped off our car and bags at the hotel. At this point, we had no real plan so we walked down to the falls themselves to take it all in. !...
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Richard Perry
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Canada 2017
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Canada,
Toronto
Sadly, yesterday we left Ottawa (well, Carleton Place, but you know what I mean) and my family after a brilliant, relaxed week . It was definitely a good break after the stress of the last couple of weeks at work. Also, given today is Easter Sunday and it’s chaos, we decided to move Easter to yesterday morning. Friday night, Jacqui, Rosie and I sorted out an Easter Egg hunt around the house for George so that he didn’t miss out with all the travelling. Then, when we got up yesterday morning, he noticed that the ‘Easter Bunny’ had come early and frantically began hunting for his eggs. It was absolutely brilliant! George, Jacqui and the dogs seemed to have the best time before we had...
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Richard Perry
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Canada 2017
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Canada,
Ottawa
It’s pancake day!! Well, it’s the day we’re going to have pancakes at the maple farm anyway . Wheelers Pancake House, Sugar Camp & Museums was a bit of a drive from the house so we got the opportunity to admire the countryside and the houses again. It’s still incredible to me how much open space there is and how big the houses are. There were some beautiful places on the way so there was no danger of being bored on the drive . On the approach, we got our first glimpse of the system used to extract the sap from the maple trees ready for converting to maple syrup. The network of pipes leading back to the ‘sugar camp’ was definitely something to behold....
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Richard Perry
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Canada 2017
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Canada,
Ottawa
Another day begins bright and early thanks to our insistent, ever reliable alarm clock, George. As normal we were up to see Jacqui off to work, but this morning was a little different. Not only was George happy walking past the Wiener’s, he actually petted them ! He then told us that their ears were “as soft as socks”, much to everyone’s amusement . So it seems that George can get used to most dogs given enough time. The plan for today was to drive into Ottawa with Rick just after rush hour to see what there is to see. When we got there we had the usual issue you have in any city, finding somewhere to park! After about 20 minutes we parked in...
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Richard Perry
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Canada 2017
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Canada,
Ottawa
Yesterday, for a number of reasons, we had a proper lazy day. We stayed at Jacqui and Rick’s house all day and didn’t really do a lot of anything other than play Lego, watch films and drink tea/coffee . It was brilliant! I think George and I really needed the break. So today we had to get out and do something. We arranged with Becky to take a trip to Merrickville to see a different kind of quaint local town, so she arrived at 10 to pick us up. First stop was a Tim Horton’s drive through, and Rosie had only been commenting a few hours earlier that we hadn’t done that yet! I can’t get over how cheap it is, we had 2 coffees...
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Richard Perry
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Canada 2017
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Canada,
Ottawa
After the hustle and bustle of yesterday, we took a more sedate (read: lazy) option. I checked out the Trans Canada Trail and ran through the snow towards Ottawa and George and Rosie played at the local park in the morning. Then Becky took us to the local kids play centre, Kids Kingdom, before lunch. It turns out that kids don’t get Easter Holidays over here in the same way that we do, so it was absolutely dead. There were only a couple of other kids in there and we hardly saw them, it was brilliant ! We spent a couple of hours defending the kingdom. George spent the bulk of the time dragging Becky around and making new friends with the locals, so that...
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Rosie & Jim
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Canada 2017
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Canada,
Ottawa
It’s been 26 years since I was last in Canada, but one thing I do remember is the time it takes to get here! We left home yesterday at about 09:30, got to the airport for 12:00, boarded the plane about 15:00, bounced across the Atlantic for 7¾ hours and arrived in Ottawa at 18:30. That messed with George’s head a little bit given it was bedtime twice before he actually got to bed. He was shattered by the time we got to Carleton Place, but he completely ignored that because of the extreme excitement of seeing Auntie Jacqui! He crashed fairly quickly (along with Rose and I), but he wanted to get up again at 03:30 . Thankfully we managed to get him back...
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Richard Perry
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Cornwall 2012
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UK,
Cornwall
For our first family holiday, we decided to take a different approach to normal and stay relatively close to home. We have been threatening to visit the Eden Project for at least the last 4 years, so we headed to Cornwall for the week after Easter. We started our journey on Easter Monday, but to keep travel times short, we stayed with friends in Wellington Monday night where we were kindly fed Chinese food . With George around, there’s rarely any danger of having a long lie in so we were back on the road again by 08:30 Tuesday morning on route to the Eden Project. Contrary to the forecast, the weather was glorious so we were able to fully enjoy our drive down. On arrival, we...
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Rosie & Jim
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Vietnam 2011
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Vietnam,
Hoi-An
Our last couple of hours in Huế were spent visiting some more of the local tourist hot spots before our bus journey through Đà Nẵng, over the mountain pass and into Hội An. We began the morning with another excellent breakfast at the Duy Tân Hotel before heading back over the river to visit the Imperial City of the Nguyễn Dynasty and the Citadel. The whole place had a strong similarity to the Forbidden City in Beijing, even down to the name of the central enclosure – the Purple Forbidden City. The whole place was very run down, but also still grand with what was left. There were workers dotted about working on the renovation works to try to bring this place back to the...
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Rosie & Jim
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Vietnam 2011
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Vietnam,
Hue
Off to another location today and this time we’re flying. It seems that the flight times have changed since we got our itineraries as the flight is in the afternoon. You know what that means, Lie In!! And a chance to go see the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and Palace before leaving . We enjoyed a relaxed Vietnamese/Eastern breakfast before heading out to see the preserved body of the man who brought Communism to Vietnam. The mausoleum was an impressive, if simple, structure. We were subjected to a security check before entering having left Hai looking a little like a very expensive packhorse with numerous cameras around his neck. It was a bit surreal seeing the body of a guy who died in 1969 perfectly...
We were on the road again yesterday morning, but this time it was only 1½ hours down to Niagara Falls 
. It has been my experience that quite often, some of these incredible sights can be a bit of a let down when you see them in real life. Niagara Falls is definitely not one of those! They are perhaps the most breathtaking natural wonder I have seen! There is no way to appreciate the insane power of them without seeing them up close and personal! We pulled into Niagara Falls late morning and dropped off our car and bags at the hotel. At this point, we had no real plan so we walked down to the falls themselves to take it all in. 
!...
Sadly, yesterday we left Ottawa (well, Carleton Place, but you know what I mean) and my family after a brilliant, relaxed week 
. It was definitely a good break after the stress of the last couple of weeks at work. Also, given today is Easter Sunday and it’s chaos, we decided to move Easter to yesterday morning. Friday night, Jacqui, Rosie and I sorted out an Easter Egg hunt around the house for George so that he didn’t miss out with all the travelling. Then, when we got up yesterday morning, he noticed that the ‘Easter Bunny’ had come early and frantically began hunting for his eggs. It was absolutely brilliant! George, Jacqui and the dogs seemed to have the best time before we had...
It’s pancake day!! Well, it’s the day we’re going to have pancakes at the maple farm anyway 
Another day begins bright and early thanks to our insistent, ever reliable alarm clock, George. As normal we were up to see Jacqui off to work, but this morning was a little different. Not only was George happy walking past the Wiener’s, he actually petted them 
! He then told us that their ears were “as soft as socks”, much to everyone’s amusement 
. So it seems that George can get used to most dogs given enough time. The plan for today was to drive into Ottawa with Rick just after rush hour to see what there is to see. When we got there we had the usual issue you have in any city, finding somewhere to park! After about 20 minutes we parked in...
Yesterday, for a number of reasons, we had a proper lazy day. We stayed at Jacqui and Rick’s house all day and didn’t really do a lot of anything other than play Lego, watch films and drink tea/coffee 
After the hustle and bustle of yesterday, we took a more sedate (read: lazy) option. I checked out the Trans Canada Trail and ran through the snow towards Ottawa and George and Rosie played at the local park in the morning. Then Becky took us to the local kids play centre, Kids Kingdom, before lunch. It turns out that kids don’t get Easter Holidays over here in the same way that we do, so it was absolutely dead. There were only a couple of other kids in there and we hardly saw them, it was brilliant 
It’s been 26 years since I was last in Canada, but one thing I do remember is the time it takes to get here! We left home yesterday at about 09:30, got to the airport for 12:00, boarded the plane about 15:00, bounced across the Atlantic for 7¾ hours and arrived in Ottawa at 18:30. That messed with George’s head a little bit given it was bedtime twice before he actually got to bed. He was shattered by the time we got to Carleton Place, but he completely ignored that because of the extreme excitement of seeing Auntie Jacqui! He crashed fairly quickly (along with Rose and I), but he wanted to get up again at 03:30 
. Thankfully we managed to get him back...
For our first family holiday, we decided to take a different approach to normal and stay relatively close to home. We have been threatening to visit the Eden Project for at least the last 4 years, so we headed to Cornwall for the week after Easter. We started our journey on Easter Monday, but to keep travel times short, we stayed with friends in Wellington Monday night where we were kindly fed Chinese food 
. With George around, there’s rarely any danger of having a long lie in so we were back on the road again by 08:30 Tuesday morning on route to the Eden Project. Contrary to the forecast, the weather was glorious so we were able to fully enjoy our drive down. On arrival, we...
Our last couple of hours in Huế were spent visiting some more of the local tourist hot spots before our bus journey through Đà Nẵng, over the mountain pass and into Hội An. We began the morning with another excellent breakfast at the Duy Tân Hotel before heading back over the river to visit the Imperial City of the Nguyễn Dynasty and the Citadel. The whole place had a strong similarity to the Forbidden City in Beijing, even down to the name of the central enclosure – the Purple Forbidden City. The whole place was very run down, but also still grand with what was left. There were workers dotted about working on the renovation works to try to bring this place back to the...
Off to another location today and this time we’re flying. It seems that the flight times have changed since we got our itineraries as the flight is in the afternoon. You know what that means, Lie In!! And a chance to go see the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and Palace before leaving