Summer’s here again, apparently

31
May/060

So summer is upon us and it looks like it’s going to be another scorcher (It was 34 degrees here yesterday). What are my plans this year? Quite similar to last year, actually.

Our plan is to head on another roadtrip up through New Brunswick, Quebec and then Ontario. We had a great time last year by simply driving when we felt like it.

A quick rundown of last year’s roadtrip:

Set off driving from Nova Scotia up through New Brunswick. We stopped at a lovely hotel at Crystal Palace. The hotel was a Ramada, if memory serves me correctly.
Our destination was Toronto, so we debated whether or not to make Quebec city our next stop. Liam [my son] fell asleep just as we hit Quebec city so we kept on going and finally stopped just outside Montreal (St. Clair?) in what looked to be a very nice hotel. The suite was a disgrace; nothing like in the brochure in the lobby, but we made do.
After navigating the often-incredible Montreal City traffic, we drove right through to Toronto and booked in to the Travel Lodge; A really great hotel and fantastic suites.
That night I met up with Vito Ceniti (DemoDemo.com), Paul and Amy Hirsch (Equentity), Nick and Denise Fish (SimplifyHosting.com) and Jamie Harrop (also Equentity) and we had a lovely dinner (Paul’s treat) which was somewhat of a prequel to the next day..
Saturday was spent largely at Vito’s home and we enjoyed a lovely BBQ, courtesy of Chef Vito. I was extremely happy to see another long-standing EIRCA client in attendance (In addition to the Equentity Staff); Steve Canning of Steve Canning Design. The BBQ went long in to the night, and worse-for-wear I got back to the hotel at around 2am. It was a very enjoyable day and lots of free-flowing discussion that thankfully did not linger on the hosting industry too long. Amanda [my wife] and I were extremely happy to see that Liam and Vito’s daughter got on like a house on fire. If Liam doesn’t see her soon he’s going to tear the house up.
Sunday was tricky. After the previous night’s escapades I felt a little dogged for the first couple of hours. That didn’t stop Amanda, Liam, Jamie Harrop and myself heading to Canada’s Wonderland though. After around 6 hours in the park, and a few near-death experiences on some roller coasters, we bid farewell to Jamie before he headed back to England. He won Liam some cool cuddly-toys on the stall attractions during the day so Liam is eternally grateful.
Monday was spent in beautiful Niagra Falls, Ontario. What a gorgeous place, especially the light show after-dark. Words can not do it justice so I’ll amend this post later to include some photo’s.Â
We headed out of Toronto on Tuesday and had every intention of heading home to Nova Scotia. That didn’t happen though as we ended up in Montreal for “one night” (After a night in Cornwall, Ontario due to heavy rain)
One night turned to five and our stay in Montreal included a meeting with the talented Artashes Toumanov of Toumanov Media, a visit to the Basilica to see the St. Peter and the Vatican exhibit, a carriage ride around Old Montreal, a few shopping trips and many restaurant visits.
After our stay in Montreal we were again intent on heading back to Nova Scotia.
That didn’t turn out as planned because on driving past Quebec City, we couldn’t resist turning in and ended up staying the night there. We took the day to walk around the lovely city (old town and new) and we’ll definitely visit there again.
Our trip home from Quebec City was then cut short just two hours down the road in Grand Falls by an annoyed Liam who had apparently had enough of the stop-start drive home. We stayed in Grand Falls for the night and then headed across New Brunswick for our final stay in the Ramada at Crystal Palace (near Moncton).
After eight hotels, four provinces, six cities, a few towns and 3000+ miles on the tacometer, we finally arrived home. A long but very enjoyable trip that started out as a “trip to Toronto for three days” and turned in to a 2+ week road trip.