Ultimate in Quality

We escaped for a weekend getaway in Toronto that truly was Ultimate in Quality.

Used travelzoo.com to snag an excellent deal at the Hyatt Regency downtown T.O. We will definitely return to travelzoo as well as this particular hotel - how can you resist a sweet rooftop pool?

Spent Sunday at the Zoo watching the monkeys and wished we had a super zoom. I fell for this guy but felt sorry for him, doesn't he look sad?

Monday we hit Canada's Wonderland and felt like we were 15 again. Good times!

This summer is certainly off to a fabulous start!

Left Without a Word

The past few weeks have been insane! I've finished all of my university classes, that means no more assignments for this chiquita. Now I'm down to my final practicum: six weeks of teaching the little monkeys and then my BEd will be complete! I can't believe the year is almost over, it certainly has been an interesting journey...

With the chaos of the final few weeks of school absorbing my time and thoughts I failed to mention the fact that I was heading to Mexico for March break. Whoops.

Mike's parents treated us to a fabulous week at the Dreams, Huatulco. We are so appreciative of this wonderful gift, it was an amazing break from reality for all of us.


Both of these shots were taken from our balcony. In the one below you can see that I was stalking Mike while he took his morning walk, he's the being on the beach (bottom right corner).

The resort was beautiful, food was great, service was outstanding: we were pleasantly surprised to find that the Dreams resorts are pretty close to Sandals when it comes to quality. Definitely a five star resort.

The three infinity pools are stellar and we spent a good chunk of every day with our chins perched on the edge of the pool gazing out at the ocean. Mike and his mom - neither of whom would be considered water babies - spent more time in the water this vacation then they ever have.


Huatulco is located on the Pacific coast and is south of Acapulco which meant the weather was phenomenal but the ocean was intense. A few beaches down from us people were surfing...

There were three days when going in the ocean was not an option - although Dave (Mike's dad) decided to give swimming a go despite the red flags, much to the delight of his audience. The ocean looked innocent enough, at times the ten foot plus waves would calm down but the undertow was insane. You can see the boys running from the waves in the shot below, that was right after they had been pummeled by a huge wave.
It really was an awesome trip. We enjoyed every moment of it, the quality time with Bridie and Dave was wonderful and we thank them from the bottom of our hearts for an amazing week of relaxation!

Now it's time to return to reality: lesson planning here I come.

Standing on top of the world!

Our week in Whistler was amazing. Mike and I spent Saturday mountain biking and had an amazing time; Sunday we took the peak chair to the, you guessed it, peak of Whistler mountain. It was a beautiful day on Sunday so we managed to get some pretty spectacular shots.

Where's Waldo Mike in these two pics?


The background is so beautiful it almost looks fake, don't you think?

Off to see Feist with a pile of people at Deer Lake tonight, have to fly!

Heading to the Top of the World!

Jessy and I took the gondola to Garbonzo and then took the peak chair up to the top of Whistler Mountain on Wednesday. We were blown away by the fact that we were literally in, and above, clouds!


These shots are all from the top of the Gondola, we went even higher when we took the Peak chair but I'll post some of those pics later.




This shot here gives you a really good idea of what it was like approaching the top of the glacier; it was absolutely amazing!


Our final adventure this week was ziplining at Cougar Mountain with Jess and Colin. It was such a rush! Godzilla was the biggest line at 1500 feet long, 200 feet off the ground with a 200 foot vertical drop: WOW! Colin has video of the ziplining but we don't have any still photos... once the video is on youtube I'll pass along the link to you!

Now I Get It!!

I've bitten the bullet and decided to pay for 24 hours of internet access so that I can update everyone on our adventures in British Columbia. We're having the most amazing time!

Mike and I agree that this trip is definitely our second best vacation (first being our Mexico/Jamaica wedding/honeymoon trip) and we're just halfway through it. We arrived in Vancouver last Friday and spent the night with Rebecca; she has the most phenomenal view from her condo on Sunset Beach.

Saturday morning we drove two hours to Whistler Mountain where we had planned to spend five nights. The two and a half hours it took to drive to the mountain seemed like just a blink of an eye thanks to the phenomenal views!

Cara, Herwig and Rosie met up with us in Whistler just a few moments after we arrived in the village. The boys hit the Whistler Golf course where they played a round, drank some pints and enjoyed the scenery.

Cara, Rebecca, Rosie and I spent the afternoon catching up over drinks (milk for the baby, beer for the ladies) and then took a hike to Lost Lake where we snapped some pics, oohed and ahhed over the baby and yapped some more.



Sunday afternoon the fun continued...
I now understand my husband's obsession with mountain biking. Cara, Rebecca and I rented some bikes and gear and hit the trails and WOW was it fun!

I'm totally hooked on mountain biking. I had a blast zipping down the hill with Reebs and Neen, three runs were just enough to get me hooked!

Monday and Wednesday there are women's clinics offered for a crazy good price at Whistler so I attended both clinics on my own and loved every minute. The girls were super cool and the coaches were awesome. They split us into groups by riding ability and there was no pressure to ride any runs we weren't comfortable with or to move at any particular speed. Both nights I rode with the lower intermediate group because I was comfortable riding blue runs (green are the easiest). I learned some basic riding techniques on Monday; Wednesday our coach, Jim, taught us to jump. Hitting table top jumps was what he worked with us on - not jumping over anything so mom don't fret - I caught a little air on a few of the table tops after practicing over and over again so that was pretty cool!

So far I've ridden Easy Does It (green), part of Golden Triangle (blue), B-line (blue), a bit of Ho Chi Min (blue) which was my least fav due to the zillion rocks and roots, Crank-it-up (blue) which I loved and Heart of Darkness (blue) which is pretty intense thanks to the drop on the right but wow is it fun! Mike is pretty stoked that I liked riding, we're going to bike together tomorrow! Yay!

Jessy, Colin, Ian and Jackie all arrived on Sunday afternoon. Rebecca headed back to Vancouver after riding but Cara and Herwig stuck around for another night. Remember I said we had planned a five night stay in Whistler? Well it has turned into eight nights thanks to a crazy rock slide that has blocked the only highway from Whistler to Vancouver. Thankfully our hotel has offered us a fabulous price for additional nights while the road is blocked. We've got it made at the Mountainside Lodge and would definitely stay here again in the future, we're right at the base of the mountain in the village. Check out the view from our room.


Monday the girls all went kayaking while the boys rode and others (Herwig - such a good man) took care of Rosie.

We had such a good laugh, particularly when Jessy flipped her kayak landing in the freezing cold creek next to a beach where three strangers were sitting, thankfully they were kind and helped us to right jess' kayak before they laughed at the situation. Hilarious!

We've been up to much more since Monday but I think this is a long enough post for today. I'll tell you about some of our other adventures tomorrow. It really has been a fabulous week!

Two More Sleeps

We leave for Vancouver in less than 48 hours. I am far from being ready but I'm super excited and wish Friday would just hurry up and get here already! I'm dying to see my girls and their boys too! The plan is to touch base with Rebecca, Cara, Rosie, Herwig, Jen, Mike, Jackie, Ian and of course Jess and Colin throughout the two weeks we are West... there are a few others we are hoping to see while there as well but we'll have to wait and see whether it works out. YAY!!!

A shot from our June 2007 visit to Van

We have loads of adventures planned and both Mike and I will be blogging regularly while we're away so you'll see and hear all about it as it happens! Two weeks with a pile of friends who we haven't seen in quite some time and loads of fun things waiting for us to partake in. What trouble will we be getting ourselves into? You'll have to wait and see! I'm keeping all the goodies to myself and intend to share with them with you as they occur.

A Day at the Beach

It was an incredibly windy day at the beach, so windy in fact that our little swimmer wasn't able to get close to the waters edge without holding tight to a hand belonging to an adult. We played in the water and built sand castles but a good deal of Neve the three year old daredevil and my time was spent on the jungle gym: climbing rock walls, swinging, going down the curly and bumpy slides, swinging, climbing up the slides and more swinging.




Playing in the sand with my parents sitting in lawn chairs beside the big beach blanket time warped me back to my childhood. My mom packed one of her famous beach lunches of course, loads of sandwiches, fresh fruit, cookies, cheese, chips and more liquid than an army could consume. Yum!




Grams, Papa and Neve being goofs.


Eight zillion shots later...


One of my absolute favourite pictures of the day: pure happiness on my parents' faces.

Someday Farm

I fell in love with Tanya's sister Kim's farm when we visited yesterday! She has an absolutely beautiful property situated between two massive fields, and she's only a five minute drive to the beach! Heaven on earth. Thanks Kim for a nearly perfect day, it only the raw pork roast hadn't been eaten by your massive doggie.

You know I'm only kidding, it was an absolutely wonderful day and the beauty of Kim's property led to some great photo opps. I'll post more pics tonight; I'm off to the beach with my parents and Neve.

Yeah mon!

It feels like it's been forever since my last post but I've been soaking up the sun and the sea so please forgive me. We spent the last week in Negril, Jamaica and it was PERFECT. I considered hopping on-line to post for appx 2.5 seconds and then went back to sipping my pina colada and reading under my palm tree on the beach. Bwa ha ha ha!

Here's a quick review I know, I know, quick never means short when I say it, it means you have to read faster than usual. Mike and I took off to Jamaica with our friends Jessy & Colin and stayed at the Riu Tropical Bay last week; it was a superb resort. We spent a week at a Riu in Cancun a few years back and loved it, we were pleased to find that this resort held up to the last one we visited - I would definitely recommend this chain to singles, couples and families. The staff was friendly for the most part, the entertainment crew was excellent and the food was delish. The buffet food was really excellent and I'm rarely impressed with buffets. Mike is a 'selective eater' aka picky and he raved about the food as well. Overall I would give the resort 4.5 stars.

We stayed at the Grand Palladium in Mexico for our wedding last year and although the resort itself was nicer in Mexico the food and staff (except for on our wedding day) brought it down a tiny bit for me so I would have given it a 4. We've been spoiled and spent one week for the last three years at a Sandals resort and they definitely get 6 stars - so damn good they get a bonus star.

We were in the older section of the resort originally but there was a flood in our room the first night so when we went and politely complained the next morning the management was excellent and moved us into an ocean view suite - beautiful view!!

Looking to the left from our balcony

Looking to the right at my man

Not only did they move us but they sent us a bottle of rum and a fruit plate the next evening with a letter telling us they hoped we were pleased with our room and enjoying our stay. The day after that they called the room to ask us whether everything was ok. Every time we saw the manager he asked us personally if we were happy. I swear we were nice when we complained, granted there was smoke pouring from my ears since I was holding back from snapping but I was polite!! Fabulous service!

The beach was absolutely fantastic: 3 km of beach around the bay we were in, we could access appx 2 km of the beach and the last bit was private. We were able to walk to the Riu Negril and could eat, drink and play there too if we wanted - we had lunch there one day and it was yummy. The ocean was warm and clear and blue andahhhh.... I love swimming in the sea.

We could walk all the way to the end of the Riu Negril: the white buildings

The shows were superb on a few nights. A killer steel drum band one night, reggae bands on two, or was it three, other evenings. One of the reasons I love Jamaica so much is because of the music, rarely were we tortured with cheesy dance music, there were reggae bands wandering up and down the beach that would stop and play for you for a tip. On our last evening a band stopped on the path below our balcony and played a few songs as the sun went down - such amazing memories.

We went on one outing and it was super fun. A catamaran cruise to Rick's Cafe. They stopped at a reef so we could snorkel and woo hoo Mike is a pro! It was his first successful snorkeling attempt and he loved it. I'm stoked - this means we can go on snorkeling trips when we go away from here on in! Yay! The second stop was at some caves where we swam in and looked around. Finally we made it to Rick's and it was awesome!

Rick's from the water on our way out - the sun was just starting to go down.

What a view! It's basically a restaurant/bar on top of some cliffs overlooking the ocean - there are tables sitting in the pool and cliff divers to watch.

From our table at Rick's

The guys diving were crazy, they were jumping off of tiny boards nailed to trees high above the cliffs - probably 60 feet from the waters surface, maybe a bit higher. Nuts.

One of the divers flipping as he dove.

There were also cliffs that visitors could jump from, they were 35 feet from the ocean... and I jumped! Colin went first and then I did it. Super scary but so fun! I think that my man has a whole new respect for me now, although now he figures there is no good reason for me not to fly down a mountain on a bike next to him: "if you can jump off that you can mountain bike no problem."

I think this series shot that mike took is funny - what you can't see is the look of terror in my eyes as I stepped off the cliff.

Next trip to Negril we'll cab to Rick's and stay for longer, it would have been fab to watch a sunset from there although the sunset from the catamaran was still beautiful!


I am certainly not complaining BUT after last years three week vacation (wedding and honeymoon) this trip went by in a flash. We just started getting used to being lazy and relaxed and then it was time to go home. Next time we hope to go away for two weeks... in the meantime I'm grateful for the one fabulous week I had with my awesome husband and two of our best friends. What a fantastic "almost our anniversary" trip!

Counting Down

One week from right this moment our plane should be landing in Jamaica!
We're heading there with two of our amazing friends Colin and Jessy to spend a week soaking up the sun, the sand and the sea!! The four of us travelled to Jamaica two years ago together and had a blast, the shot above is one that Colin took of my rasta-husband hamming it up for the other guests on the catamaran cruise. As you can see, I thought he was pretty funny.
The countdown is on: 7 more sleeps.
It's going to be fantastic!

Cotton Candy Skies, Scabs and more...

This stellar picture taken by Mike pretty much sums up our week in Wasaga. Jessy described one sunset as 'cotton candy' and it wasn't even the one in the pic above that she was referring to. This phenomenal view was from the front of our cottage. Beachfront and beautiful! I spent 5 days parked on a comfy chair gazing at the lake while reading and crocheting - believe it or not I am 29 not 69. Jess & I were like too little old ladies dropping our books long enough to have a laugh, a glass of wine, a snack or a swim and then back into our own little worlds we went. Heavenly. I love vacationing with Jess - some days we sit for hours barely speaking at all and other days we yap all day long - the perfect friend to relax with, no expectations but fabulous company.

The boys did what they do best: threw themselves down Blue Mountain wearing full body armour on 50 lb bicycles. Crazy. They were in their own little heaven with the mountain being just 20 minutes from the cottage. Nobody was damaged too badly this trip - some new scabs to add to the scab cake (a sick inside joke) and a few temporary purpley green tats. Not too bad considering they're flying down a mountain of trees. Freaks. Colin says that Mike outbiked him on a couple days this time round so my husband is one happy guy - he's only been tumbling down moutains for a year now and I'm happy so say that it seems as if he's 'got it' now. A broken collar bone (that was due to dirt jumps and he's had enough of those thankfully), some stitches and too many bruises/scabs to count - he's still going strong and has come lightyears with his biking abilities so obviously he's found something that he loves (next to me and music of course) so I'll grin and bear it and pray to the great samsquanch that he stays out of the hospital for the rest of his biking days.


We took one trip to Collingwood with the boys so that we could check out the village at Blue Mountain, visit the Scenic Caves and hit the water slides. We had a yummy lunch in the village and then took a gondola up the mountain - what a view! I really can't believe my husband chucks himself down that 'hill' on a regular basis.

Scenic Caves should be called Rip Off Caves. They were neat to see but certainly not worth the $18 buck a person entry fee. We didn't make it to the waterslides because the rain and thunder came so everything shut down at Blue. Jess & I headed back to the cottage and spent the remainder of the day curled up in the cottage reading books.

I really hope we end up at Wasaga for our yearly vacation again next year. I love that place. The beach is extra wide and the water is shallow for what seems like forever! 5 sandbars and clear water = happy jaime. Shortly after arriving at the cottage Mike said that the beach reminded him of Jamaica and I agreed 100%. The layout of the land was just like Whitehouse where we spent our two week honeymoon - with us being set in a bay. The sunsets were nearly as good too! So many childhood memories were stirred up while sitting on our perch overlooking the beach this week; when Mike and I have our own wee ones we'll definitely be taking them there for family vacations.