Author Archives: brantdyer6929

We knew we were not going to be on the island very long but we also knew this was our highest risk area for bad weather. We decided this would be a recon mission so we knew where to come back to on future trips. We had a perfect spot in Ucluelet and immediately ifContinue reading “Vancouver Island: At last we found some Bears!”

We took off for Prince Rupert without any delays. In fact we left a couple minutes early. Getting to places early and leaving early seems to be a theme amongst the Canadians! It was a pretty ride on a comfortable train. Lots of friendly interesting people on the train. Oddly this train ride (Jasper toContinue reading “Prince Rupert: not sure how it got this name?”

We drove over Icefield parkway Jasper said to be one of the most beautiful drives in the world. Beautiful but when we arrived at scenic spots we often found quite a few people. Seemed odd to find this more in the Jasper area as it was becoming more remote. Perhaps the intermittent drizzle kept peopleContinue reading “Jasper: where are all the bears?”

After Apple cider donuts and press pot coffee we were back to back to Banf. (Lots of excellent coffee in Canada). Our first stop was at a wolf refuge. We had forgotten to stop at the wolf dog sanctuary so happened to find this. As it turns out wolf dogs are quite aggressive at unexpectedContinue reading “Banff area: short course on how to use up your phone memory”

It was another beautiful drive to Vernon in the Okanagan Valley . Another ferry but this time a cable ferry. We found our friend’s home very easily. We always comment on how GPS and the Internet has changed travel. You can find just about anything, but so can everyone else. Brant was happy to findContinue reading “Vernon: where happy hour starts at 9 ( the second one)”

It is unclear why we chose to follow su casa man’s recommendations once again, but we did so, even after saying, we would no longer trust him with travel decisions. We finally found the recommended road which was a rock strewn, one lane logging road over the mountains. The flag man doing construction on theContinue reading “Fairmont to Nelson: bad advice can lead to good places”

We did not realize Labor, make that Labour, Day, was a 3 day weekend Canada. As retirees we don’t get many opportunities to join holiday traffic, but it was a remarkably beautiful drive through the park (even if a bit slow) and down to Fairmont Hot Springs where our timeshare trade awaited us. (Banff soContinue reading “Calgary to Fairmont Hot Springs: Aspiring Hot Spring Hunters”

We arrived in Calgary to fortunately cloudy skies. Fortunate because it kept us from noticing the smoke. And it also gave us an excuse to go see “Barbie”. So well done.., thought provoking, entertaining and poignant. Brant may have a slightly different opinion, but I’m writing this. Thanks to friends recommendations we had some terrificContinue reading “Calgary:”

Off to Deadwood! I think the town was like Placerville on steroids … or as Brant said, “like Placerville if they’d let them have casinos.”Still not too bad a place to wander around and taste whiskey. I wonder what Wild Bill would have thought praline pecan whiskey? Banana? Apple? Peanut butter? You have to beContinue reading “Black (beautiful)Hills: Two monuments with 2 very different stories”

Amazing how easy customs is with the new facial recognition. Actually it always has a hard time recognizing me…. Big Hair? Blinking eyes? Criminal convictions? Who knows… What is not easy to do in Sioux Falls, is to find food at 10 pm. Thanks to that rental car we were able to a drive thruContinue reading “Sioux Falls to the Badlands: Order the tots! (Corrected)”

People are exceedingly friendly here. I think they might be bored. I’ve heard lots of unique stories. They chat away and once in a while they ask us where we live. We say Mexico and generally that stops the conversation. They look befuddled and don’t know what to say. We stayed at a hotel thatContinue reading “Badlands: (seemed pretty darn good to us)”

After asking what we do in all our spare time, the next question is: “how hot is it?”. Well, this summer was very hot and humid, but that’s not a very descriptive answer. When playing pickleball there are little wet spots from droplets of sweat flying on to the court. The ATV seat can giveContinue reading “Summertime in LB”

The most common question people ask is: “What do we do in our spare time?’ It’s a good question because I wondered what we would do to fill our time. I made sure I brought lots of knitting, painting, and art supplies. Finally, we are at the time of year that those things are startingContinue reading “From Whale shark snorkeling to Balandra Beaching….and all the in between…..”

We love the Baja but in the winter it sometimes seems a bit too windy and cold. So when friends mentioned Sayulita we were on it. We thought we were pretty clever to get a 22 dollar flight to Mexico City which is a HUGE airport. I guess it was cheap because it was tooContinue reading “Say you what?”

It seems as we age it gets tougher to come up with new birthday ideas, but remember that dinosaur themed birthday when you were 7? We had a real dinosaur party… and we are not talking about the attendees (sorry, bad joke). Many months ago, we met someone who did some great plant maintenance andContinue reading “A Dinosaur Birthday Party! (Sort of)”

Yes, we were here last year in December but somehow with all the projects and moving here, it did not feel very festive. This year we took time to really enjoy the holiday season and I have to say it was a lot of fun. We have been doing a better job of trying toContinue reading “Fundraising season makes for a Merry Christmas: Our very long and late Christmas card”

What better place to have a parade of SUP witches? Seems far better spot for SUP than on Lake Michigan in October. Brant and I rode our bikes out to the beachwatch the arrival of witches and a few lucky dogs. It marked the beginning of several days of festivities. October is a wonderful timeContinue reading “No colorful leaves but plenty of other stuff!”

Back home in LB, and the house still not completely back together….mainly because we find other things to do….like going to a turtle release. Friends are in town visiting, so it seemed only right to go “try “to see a turtle release. We have wanted to do it for many years but neither of usContinue reading “The Turtle release: Slow and steady wins the race! (Unless a seagull gets there first)”

Our last Greek Island of our trip…saved the biggest for last! We knew Crete was too large and our travels for so long that spending a week going spot to spot was not the way to end our trip. We had planned to do a Turkey Riviera Sailing cruise but we got kicked off theContinue reading “Crete: the stuff myths (and heroes)are made of”