• active family travel - family - parenting - special needs - Travel

    Five Tips for Train Travel with Special Needs Children

    August 12, 2014 - By 

    I love to travel by train – usually. I can work all the way and my wasted time is minimized. Plus, typically train travel is very economical. This summer my kids and I travelled to Montreal and Ottawa by train. That’s a substantial amount of time spent riding, and also a lot of transferring to different connecting trains. We travel every year by train together at least once. As some of my readers know special needs kids require a bit more planning when travelling anywhere, in any mode of transport. I have one anxious child, and another with a brain…

  • family - Health - parenting - Travel

    Cottage Road Trip Memories #travel

    August 11, 2014 - By 

    Cottage Road Trip From the time I was a baby I spent my summers at the cottage. I have seen the pictures of me sleeping in the portable crib, and I remember the many years we took this week for family time, indulging in the opportunity to grow together. The routine of road trip and cottage travel is well mapped on my memory, etched on my skin in every single freckle and carved deep in the veins that lead to my heart. A school teacher relishes summer like no other professional I have ever known. They seize it and wring…

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    Lost Luggage and My Trip to #Blogher14 #travel

    August 1, 2014 - By 

    Is there anything worse than lost luggage? Yes, actually. Lost luggage when attending a conference. That can be truly frightening. This happened to me recently and this is the story of how I fixed it. This is the story of lost luggage. Just last week actually on my way to a conference called Blogher, I arrived without my luggage. That was a first for me as a traveler. I have heard many stories over the years of people losing their luggage but this was apparently my turn. I was on my way to a business conference for bloggers called Blogher…

  • active family travel - family - family travel - Travel

    Canopy River Tours in Puerto Vallarta #travel

    July 25, 2014 - By 

    Looking for a fun adventure in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico? Canopy River Tours is the perfect way to spend a day exploring rain forest from above. If the flip flops fall off, they will most definitely plummet 600 feet to their demise in the Sierra Madre mountains. I find myself wondering: will they whirl like maple keys do, or dive straight down into a rocky canyon below? Together? Or one at a time? Flip flops were the first questionable choice we made this morning. I am excruciatingly hopeful that this two hour zip lining Canopy River Tours adventure is not the second. Comfortable…

  • active family travel - Travel

    Vintage African Lion Safari #travel

    July 24, 2014 - By 

    (I just found this in my drafts file as I was travelling by train this week with my kids. My older daughter was sleeping on the train when Ainsley asked me to tell her a story from my childhood and I quickly remembered going to African Lion Safari every single year until I was in high school. It is such a memorable backdrop for so many of the times I spent with my Mom and brother, that I knew when I was a parent I would also take my kids to see this awesome destination. This is a story I…

  • Travel

    Our Quick 2-Day Montreal Girl’s Trip

    July 16, 2014 - By 

      I am the lucky mom of girls. I wouldn’t have it any other way. Girls are an amazing responsibility and also a joy to parent. They move through life with hearts wide open, sometimes needing tiny reminders to guard their emotions. They absorb experiences and breathe them forward at school, at home, and as they grow outward into the universe of possibilities. This summer our universe took us to Montreal girl’s trip.     Post contains affiliate links as a service to my readers. I receive a small commission from purchases made via qualifying links. Our First Trip to…

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    active family travel - Travel

    Canopy River Tubing #wordlesswednesday #pvpresstrip

    July 15, 2014 - By 

    Canopy River Tubing is the subject of this photo essay today. At the end of a brilliant day spent zip lining and swimming with dolphins, Payton, my 12-year-old, at that time, had the chance to tube down a river in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. The excursion was at Canopy River, and it was a solid two hours adventure. Highly recommend. More about that later. Together we travel often as a family but this was one of our first ever Mother – Daughter Trips. Wordless Wednesday is a photo meme. Link up your recent photos, or a photo that is meaningful to…

  • Travel

    Vallarta Food Tours: Evening Taco Adventure

    July 10, 2014 - By 

    The beef cheek taco seizes your tastebuds and stops you in your tracks. You think: “Wow, I am eating beef cheek on the street in Puerto Vallarta and it is unimaginably tender and moist.” Who knew? But the beef cheek taco is just one surprise on the Vallarta Food Tours evening taco tour.       Surrender to the Experience These are things you learn when you surrender to the sense of adventure that travel brings:   1. Street meat can be magnificent. 2. The architecture in downtown Puerto Vallarta is regal and dignified. 3. It’s possible for a man…

  • active family travel - Travel

    Snorkelling in Yelapa Mexico with Mosquito Jellyfish

    July 4, 2014 - By 

    When the mosquito jellyfish bit me I stopped short a moment, treading water, breathing and wondering what just happened. Am I hurt? Did I imagine that? Should I bail? I am far from an adventuresome swimmer. In fact, truth be told, I almost drowned once in a wave pool. Michael Phelps, I am not. But my kids swim beautifully and are well on their way to summers filled with pool parties and maybe even jobs as lifeguards. Today I am snorkelling in Yelapa, Mexico with my daughter and some travel bloggers. Living the life, admiring the view until this happens….…

  • active family travel - family - Parenting - parenting - Travel

    Summer Math and Travel With Tweens

    July 3, 2014 - By 

    This summer I am trying my hardest to trick my brain into forgetting summer math. June plus July plus August equals my three favourite months. Summer is fleeting, especially in Canada. It’s a blink-and-you-miss-it-kind-of-season. Time flies, but summer time well that’s like a Concord whipping by at breakneck speed. how many more weeks do we get to enjoy this beautiful weather? How much more time off school? How many more summers with my kids at home? Only 6 more years and one will be in college or university. That’s tween Mom math. Summer math. In my experience, the only way…