A Summer of Cycles and Reflection

After a busy summer, September has always brought with it a travel hangover.  It’s back to school, back to work (although I’m working all through summer), and the start of a new cycle of planning adventures, conjuring up stories, locking down speaking events, along wit the various puzzle pieces that string my strange career together.    
 
Time flies when you’re in the flow, and the flow was relentless this summer.  I kicked the holidays off by taking both kids to Aruba, then onto Montreal, the Eastern Townships, and Charlevoix.  You can read how that worked out with my Aruba and Montreal columns on Canadian Geographic.  A few more stories are still coming down the pipe, but in the meantime, you can check out the family travel videos I put together recording that journey.

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​My next trip didn’t get a video because I was too busy hanging on for dear life.  My annual Harley Davidson B.C Roadtrip was fortunately uneventful, other than a few torrential downpours and riding into apocalyptic smoke in the B.C interior.   Renting a bike from Eaglerider Vancouver, my Road Glide carved up the asphalt like Thanksgiving turkey, and my fellow riders always make great company.  This year we had Norm’s support vehicle which shuttled instruments for outdoor and hotel room jams, including a memorable night as Daniel Cook and the Radiators entertained wildfire crews in the parking lot of a cheap motel in Cache Creek.   The sky was sepia, with an end-of-days feel to the town.  Motorcycle trips always make a dramatic canvas to paint a memory.
 
With the kids away at summer camp, the missus and I took a rare opportunity to head to Europe together, spending a lovely week exploring Salzburg and Vienna. After several family trips, the grown-up couple travel was refreshing, full of museums and stellar meals, urban wandering, and rare time to recharge and reconnect.   Europe was cooking, again, with temperatures in the high 30Cs.  All signs point to these temperatures being the new normal, which is problematic in old Europe, where people walk up flights of stairs and air conditioning isn’t common.   We loved our visit to Austria, as you can see in the story I wrote about Vienna, and the videos I put together that record our experience:

The following week, I found myself on a plane with my father to Halifax to tick another Great  Canadian Trails adventure off the bucket list.  After hiking the East Coast Trail in Newfoundland, this time we’d be cycling across Nova Scotia, the first visit to the province for my dad, and the first time he’d be riding an e-bike.  The resulting story for Canadian Geographic reveals how that went, and why my dad wants to plan our next e-biking adventure.   It was world class food, wine, scenery, and great company all the way through, and was another compelling reason why active Canadian outdoor adventures make the best multi-generational memories.  If you need another one, check out the video, with rockstar drone footage courtesy the talented Pete Heck. ​

​A few days later, I found myself casting and reeling for monster trophy fish in the remote Northwest Territory.  My son joined me for a true bucket list angling experience in the north, a story that manifested after I met some lovely folks in Inuvik and Yellowknife after delivering a tourism keynote last November.  Lac La Matre is a lake sea almost three times the size of Toronto, and it is home to lake trout and northern pike that fuel the dreams of serious anglers.   For my son’s first fishing trip, it’s like starting a mountaineering journey with a hike up Mount Everest.  The resulting story captures it best, but check out the video below, which is a neat bookend to Gali’s trip north to Churchill several years ago. The kids sure grow up fast.

​I dropped off one kid, picked the other up, and flew east to Toronto for a story about the traditional southern Ontario resort experience.  The Resorts of Ontario encompass dozens of properties, but we’d focus on four different locations with different business models, ranging from all-inclusive to corporate, wine and golf to cottage.  Threading between each resort was a road trip through beautiful countryside, farmland, and a reminder how easy it is to escape the bustle of Toronto.   It also felt like a bittersweet swan-song to the travels I’ve done with my 13-year-old daughter, written since she was a baby, and recorded in video since she was 4-years, and spanning 18 countries.  There’s an innocence lost as she begins high school, and naturally begins to stake the boundaries of her indepen​dence.  Whatever the next stage brings, she’ll always be my sky full of stars.

​8 weeks, 4 provinces, 2 countries, 1 territory – and still some time for backyard BBQs too.  I usually begin each September with an empty plate that almost immediately fills up with tasty adventures, opportunities, and unexpected desserts.   This annual cycle has some semblance of consistency, but nothing can be taken for granted, and every journey remains a prized and deeply appreciated gift.   I’m excited, anxious and eager to see what will happen next.