family travel

Decide the Route Part 1 – 948 days to go

Mike PLeave a comment

My wife and I have spent countless hours dreaming about our trip. So far the topic we’ve spent the most part talking about is the route we plan on taking. I wanted to go ahead and share what we hope to do in our first 3 months of the trip. I expect much to change over the next 900+ days but this is the current view we are working with.

We would begin our trip just after Canada Day 2022 (which is July 1st for everyone outside of Canada) and would spend the next 3 months driving across Canada and potentially the United States. We live in Toronto and would take a route along the north shore of the great lakes. From there we would cross the Canadian Prairies and then the Rocky Mountains. Paige’s childhood cottage was on the gulf islands in the Pacific off the coast of Vancouver so we would spend some time there. After reaching the Canadian west, we would then drive back but have not made a decision on the route.

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Tips and Tricks Part 2 – 956 days to go

Mike PLeave a comment

Just wanted to share a couple more tips that we incorporate into our family travels.

Sleeping on the floor is a possibility
Sometimes you just miscalculate and think you have enough room for the family. We have found ourselves in this situation when camping and instead of everyone having an uncomfortable sleep on a twin air mattress, I have just slept on the floor. Same thing in a couple european hotels. To give everyone (myself included) a better sleep, just throw a blanket down and sleep on the floor.

Return from your trip a day early
We used to maximize every day of our vacation. We would come back late Sunday night and be at work first thing Monday morning. Now we always give ourselves a day at home before we begin our normal lives. It gets the kids settled into things and ensures you won’t spend an entire week playing catch up with laundry, school work or adult work

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A different perspective of our trip to Grenada – snapshots from Isabella and Julie – 964 days to go

Mike PLeave a comment

This is just a quick post. In our tips and tricks section we mentioned that we gave our daughters an old digital camera. It is fun to watch them walking around with the camera dangling mere inches from the ground or ocean. Each night when the kids are asleep we quickly scroll through and see what they took pictures of that day. Most bring a smile to our faces.

  • Isabella getting her wildlife shot ready
  • The end result is better than any her dad got
  • Julie takes 5 pics a day of her feet
  • Julie also likes taking pictures of her luggage
  • A good photo to ground parents. This was the view from Isabella’s car seat.
    No she can’t see the cows or the goats on the side of the road.
  • Isabella loves wildlife. She stayed still for 2 minutes for the crab to emerge.
  • Julie loves putting her fingers over the lens and taking pictures of napkins. It took us a while to figure out what this one was.

Don’t get me wrong, more than half of the photos are blurred shots of tables and hands but sometimes you get a gem. Plus, the excitement they get when they want to show you a picture of something only they have seen is memorable.

Family Travel Tips and Tricks – 965 days to go

Mike P1 Comment

We wanted to go ahead and share some travel learnings we have acquired the last couple years with our kids. We had scribbled these as reminders to ourselves for future travels. We still have some more to pull together but this is a good starting point.

Plan ahead
Last minute can be done but your margin of error is smaller. Planning does make it go smoother .

Schedule a bathroom visit before boarding the plane
It can be a long time from the boarding queue to when the pilot turns off the seat belt sign.

Keep an extra pair of clothes close by for EVERYONE who is traveling
Whether it be a plane, bus or ferry, children can get sick or have accidents. In such tight confines your clothes are bound to get something on them.

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