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As a huge advocate of getting WHATEVER you want out of life I wanted to share some of the recent go-ings on happening in my life. I love to travel. Every time I open a magazine and see a beautiful picture of somewhere I’ve never visited I try and figure out how I can get there asap.
Last year was a big year for travel, with a big trip to Italy and many smaller trips to Washington, Charleston, Savannah, and all around Ontario.
This year is shaping up to be another big year for travel. So far I’ve been to Mexico (ok, it was to get married…but it still counts!).
And this week I’m in Argentina!
We arrived earlier last week and have been mostly visiting family and taking care of business…until this weekend, when we had the ultimate Argentinian experience.
The Santa Maria Ranch Main House
We went up to the Entre Rios province, about 2.5 hours outside of Buenos Aires, to a ranch! The ranch, called Estancia Santa Maria, offers the Real Gaucho (Cowboy) Experience…and I wanted to see how these Argentinian cowboys do it!
We arrived late Saturday afternoon, and after we settled in our room we were offered tea in the dining room. We had tea, toast with dulce de leche and some little baked goodies.
Of course that was far too exhausting for us, so we retired to our room and napped for 2 hours! The rooms at the ranch are comfortable and clean, and very country cute!
Cute & cosy rooms at the Santa Maria ranch
We had a nice dinner of meat empanadas, and a chicken risotto main course. The ranch offers a set menu for all meals, so if you are a picky eater this is not for you. For us it was amazing, to pay for the hotel and four meals and have everything included (except liquor) and not have to make any decisions. We were there to relax!
After dinner we watched a movie and then spent some time looking up at the stars – the stars are always amazing in the country!
In the morning it was time to go horseback riding with the gaucho. It was a strange (and a bit nerve wracking) experience in the beginning. It’s been years since I’ve been on a horse. But after a few minutes it was more comfortable and it was gorgeous to ride the horses through the pastures, next the sheep, by the cows, and past some very noisy birds. It was nice to just let our thoughts wander as we were riding to the rhythm of the horse. There was no stress, no big decisions, just a nice slow rhythm of the horse.
When we returned to the farm house we were treated with the original asado – Argentinean barbecue. There were blood sausages (not for me, but others seemed to like them), chorizo sausages, potato salad, green salad, and a gorgeous barbecued beef. It was definitely tasty!
The Argentinean wood burning barbecue
After lunch it was time for another nap…which we managed to do for two hours! The great thing about the ranch is that your stay is for 24 hours… so if you arrive at 5pm you can stay until 5pm the next day. It was much better than having to check out of a hotel at noon, like most North American places.
It was a wonderful relaxing weekend out of the city, seeing the countryside, and tasting the local foods from field to table. If you are going to Argentina, a farm experience is not to be missed.
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With the Spring temperatures rising this weekend is the perfect time to head to Toronto’s Harbourfront and enjoy all it has to offer! Start off by taking a stroll along the waterfront path. You will pass by all the boats, parks, restaurant patios, and see these great deck bridges that were opened last year.
After you’ve built up an appetite from your walk go to one of the great restaurants for lunch. Il Fornello is a favourite, and they have a large patio right on the water with a great menu and decent wine list too. The Watermark pub is also a good choice for a pub lunch and draught beer. If you’re more in the mood for sushi head to Ichiban Sushi or Oyshi Sushi, both have great menus at reasonable prices.
The Habroufront Second Cup patio is the best in the city!
If dining out is not your thing perhaps a coffee is in order. The Second Cup at Harbourfront has the best patio in the whole city! It’s right on the water, and you can see all the boats coming and going and just sit staring down at the water. This patio gets full sun from approx 10am-3pm, so keep that in mind.
If you are more loyal to Starbucks there is one across the street. Although it doesn’t have the patio of the Second Cup it does have great people watching. If there are no spots on the patio you can also sit next door at the waterfall and watch everyone from there!
If you are a dog lover there is a great dog centre right by Ichiban Sushi and just off the crazy wave bridges. You can bring your pooch and play away for hours at a time!
For art lovers and culture mavens the Harbourfront Centre has cool art shows on a regular basis, and also live theatre which is really popular.
On the ferry to the Toronto Islands
Ready to see more? Consider taking the ferry over to the Islands – here’s a post on what you can do there.
However you chose to spend your Easter long weekend make sure you take some time out, relax and enjoy one of the great things your city has to offer. Get out there and start living!
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While we are in Mexico for our destination wedding we are lucky enough to have many Spanish speaking friends with us, and very lucky that they are willing to put together some tours for us.
These are not your get on the big tourbus with the guy making bad jokes selling you expensive and crappy beer kind of tours.
These are the kind of tours where you hire all your own things, like bus, driver, food, drinks etc…and get them to take you where you want to go and completely on your schedule.
I’m thrilled we were still able to tour, and see all the great things the Mayan Riviera has to offer, but we don’t have to get herded here and there, have people trying to sell us time shares, and spend a set amount of time at every place with zero flexibility.
Hello freedom, this is a great and different kind of touring.
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Dreaming of la dolce vita in Tuscany
It’s Winter, it’s cold, and every year around this time everyone starts to get a bit blue. Looking for a winter escape? Why not pull out a copy of the novel Under the Tuscan Sun and dream of living la dolce vita in Tuscany?
The book is amazing, and helps take you away to dream land…where love, natural beauty, good food and great wine are a part of everyday life.
So if it’s a cold night and you’re looking for something to do that will warm your heart and soul, open Under the Tuscan Sun, or dream about living your own dolce vita dream life in Tuscany.
Don’t you feel warmer already?
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Over the last few weeks we’ve been on a road trip throughout the USA. We started in Toronto, went to Washington DC for Christmas and then on to Charleston, Savannah, and finally Florida.
Our first stop in Florida was outside of Jacksonville in a road hotel. We were both too tired to continue on, and we’d been stuck in a never ending traffic jam that took us 3 hours just to get outside of Savannah. As frustrating as it was, it was also heartbreaking. Originally we couldn’t figure out why the traffic was taking forever to move…seriously, we were going 20 mph for 2 hours straight. It was like we were in a street parade for Senior’s Day!
So of course we started getting frustrated and agitated…until we came upon the real reason the traffic had been so backed up. There was a massive crash involving a semi truck and four cars and all of them were completely destroyed. There were five police cars around, skid marks everywhere, a few tow trucks…and a Hearse. No ambulance, just a Hearse.
This whole scene really haunted me. The cars all looked like they had been put through a garbage compactor and I couldn’t stop thinking about the people that used to be in them. Mothers, daughters, sons, friends, colleagues…those people could be so many important things to so many different people.
And now they are gone.
Then of course my thoughts turned inside our car, and thinking about how much I care about my fiancé, and how I would be completely devastated if he wasn’t with me.
So after holding back some tears we chatted about how many crazy accidents we’ve seen on this trip. And how none of them were worth it.
We decided to slow down, enjoy the drive, and chill out with the passing, speeding, and other carryings on that put us closer to harms way.
Sometimes it’s okay to get to a destination later, especially if it means you arrive alive.
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As I wrote about here and here, we’re taking a road trip from Toronto all the way to the Florida Keys and back, by car.
With all the crazy weather there has been on the Eastern Coast it’s been a huge mix between chilly temperatures, rain storms, sunny days, and warm weather.
The best part of all this crazy weather is the sunsets they create.
Here are some of my favourite shots of gorgeous sunsets in the clouds we’ve seen on our roadtrip.
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For years I have wanted to go to Savannah. It all started when I was an ESL teacher in Korea. On one of our many nights of drinking wine together my friend Lise and I shared stories on our favourite cities to visit. Lise mentioned that her favourite city by far was Savannah – with all the gardens on every block, beautiful historical architecture and Southern charm.
Gorgeous buildings on every corner in Savannah
When my fiance and I showed up in Savannah we weren’t sure where to go or what to expect. We parked by the river and walked around the tourist area. It was pretty busy and lots of tourists were walking around, going in the boutiques, and tasting the local seafood. The cobble stone streets and old buildings created a wonderful ambience, but one of the coolest things were the sidewalks, which was concrete with oyster shells and other shells mixed in. It was super original – I’ve never seen anything like it before!
Savannah river sidewalks have a seashells mixed in!
Once we had a coffee in the outdoor market we headed up to higher ground and walked around the old town. It was gorgeous! There were big, beautiful, historical homes with wonderful landscaping, and at almost every block there was a small city park. With the slow, Southern pace, beautiful homes and lovely little parks Savannah was the most walking friendly city I’ve been in.
Parks on every block make Savannah a great city to walk in
We didn’t have a plan in particular for the day, we just wanted to explore and visit the city – given the small city and walkable environment it was easy to do!
So we strolled, visited the parks, read all the plaques and learned about the monuments in each park, and strolled some more.
When it was time for a break we happened upon a gorgeous building – the Forsyth Mansion. We sat back, had a glass of wine and admired the phenomenal restoration of the historical building. It was stunning and fuelled so many ideas about how I would decorate my fantasy house.
The gorgeous Forsyth Mansion is worth a visit
One of the dining rooms at the Foryth Mansion
When the sun set we strolled back to the car, admired the final scenes and headed back on the road to our next stop.
Savannah was a beautiful city to visit, and if I’d had more time I would have loved to stay in the Forsythe Mansion, eat at the great restaurants and live like a Southerner for a few days.
Up Next: Key West, Florida
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Christmas is over, it went well, and our trip to Washington DC has wharfed into a whole new adventure! We’re going to the Florida Keys!
In the beginning of planning our trip we decided we wanted to see many of the cities and sights along the way to Florida. Since flying to all these different places would be way too expensive we decided a road trip would be a fun and less expensive way to see all these great places along the way.
We came up with a general plan, and then asked our frequent traveller friends for their recommendations.
Charleston was a city that everyone kept on recommending.
And I can see why.
It’s a lovely city. So beautiful and charming and historical. There are so many small streets, with well maintained buildings, and whole lot of that Southern Charm.
We planned on only spending a few hours in Charleston. But we got pulled in. We walked randomly around the city, admired the architecture and unique character of the city, strolled some more, stopped for a glass of wine, and continued on. Several hours later we found ourselves surprised at how much time had passed!
So instead of charging on we stayed at a local hotel and kept on enjoying!
If I could do this leg of the trip differently I would have spent more time in Charleston, and taken a guided tour to learn about all the history.
But, since we need to be in Key West in a few days it’s time to motor on!
Up Next: Savannah
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Like most people my family is spread all over. Some are in England, some are in Montreal,Toronto, Vancouver and all the places in between.
Inevitably spending time with family for Christmas involves a lot of travel.
This year we’re heading to Washington, DC to spend some time with my fiance’s family (Hi Matias!).
So this morning we hit the road, and we’ll drive, drive, drive for 10 hours or so for our family visit.
How far do you travel for Christmas?
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New Years dream come true
Since 1999 I’ve had a dream that I would spend New Years Eve on the beach drinking wine out of the bottle with close friends. I’ve done the wild club scene, the house parties, and the fancy restaurants for New Years, and I’ve been looking for something more personal and intimate.
Every year I’ve tried to make it happen. But inevitably it doesn’t work out. I can’t afford the trip, nobody can come with me, or other plans take priority.
This year my dream of welcoming the New Year with a bottle of Chianti on the beach is finally becoming a reality. My fiance and I are taking a road trip for Christmas, and we’re going to the Florida keys for New Years.
I’m so excited!
Photo Credit: Bnae on Fotothing
