I stumbled onto Capri, Italy in the 90s in a serendipitous moment during my low budget, university graduation backpacking trip. Those days on the island were an unexpected bolt of lightning, its profound beauty, striking fast and deep. Meanwhile, I blinked, and it was 25 years later. The day Pablo and I set out for Capri I felt nervous at breakfast. Had it really been as beautiful as I remembered, or was it all a figment of my imagination that grew with the decades? We fidge

Four years ago Pablo and I embarked on our inaugural European vacation together. To compound that even further, it was our first trip since the start of the pandemic. We, like much of the world, had been sitting in our house for a year and half. That alone made it epic. The world suddenly felt huge. Those were strange times. Pablo was jet-lagged on our arrival in Rome and I hadn't felt the wind in his sails on the train to Naples. Would he love Italy the way I do? We emer

Kingston, Ontario is both a central gathering point within Eastern Ontario, as well as a central character in my life. Throughout the decades I have come and gone from Kingston. We have loved, and lost, fought, broken up and always made-up. In the end, all roads have led me back to Kingston. At 175,000 inhabitants, it is the biggest city in Eastern Ontario outside of Ottawa. While I would no longer call it tiny Ontario (as a kid Kingston was closer to 60,000), it is the reg

On our visit to Greece in the spring, we were staying on the island of Rhodes, in the far eastern part of the country. This meant that a day trip to Turkey was possible. Ninety minute ferries run from Rhodes, Greece to Marmaris, Turkey daily. You can travel over in the morning and back in the evening. How could we say no? We researched the ferries ahead of time, but didn't book tickets until we arrived in Rhodes. We were able to walk into a local travel agency who made t

When I moved to Mexico in the 90s, one of my favourite things to do was to go shopping. And I don't mean shopping for shoes or designer bags. I loved the everyday shopping for groceries and other necessities. My town had several supermarkets which I frequented but my favourite place was the market, which butted up against the Gulf of Mexico. The fisherman would dock their boats, throwing their catch of the day to the vendors above. I would wake in the morning, heading ou

As old man winter wears on, it reminds me of one of my favourite places, Quebec City. My favourite way to arrive in the city is to ride the rails. In our case, we travel to Montreal, changing trains, to connect to Quebec City. The journey takes a day. This is slow travel. Stepping off the train in Montreal you feel the change; there is a different vibe to Ontario, a feeling that runs deeper than simply arriving in a French speaking province. After a quick lunch we boarded t

I've loved a day at the market for a long, long time. Is there anything more beautiful than fresh produce? As a young person when I first started going to museums I didn't understand why people painted bowls of fruit. And yet as I get older I realize I'm guilty. I would have been one of those people who painted bowls of fruit. I have taken literally hundreds of photos of produce in markets. The shapes and the colours are mesmerizing. Thank-you Costa Rica!

In another lifetime, when my children were little, we had the opportunity to travel to Finland over Christmas to visit family. Truth be told, I don't like to travel at Christmastime. It's expensive, crowded and people tend to be a in bad mood. My stance is that, for the most part, little kids want to wake up in their own beds on Christmas Day. But this was travelling to the mothership of Christmas. I was in. We would be staying in downtown Helsinki for the majority of the

Sicily has been on my bucket list since the 90s but for one reason or another, it never happened. When we decided to make a side trip from our recent holiday in Malta, I knew it had to be Sicily. From Malta, Catania is a 30 minute flight - the plane goes up and then comes straight back down. Flying across the Island from the south, it was apparent just how arid this land is, and yet it's a foodie paradise, in part due to the rich volcanic soil from Mount Etna. We flew Ryan