I have been lazily getting adjusted to being here. I have been going to bed late and getting a later than usual start to the day. It's lovely. I could get used to this. This was my last day in Paris until I return for the last four days in July before going home. I can't even think of that right now. Just making the most of every second. And if you are wondering ... yes intellectually I know that I am here for a bit but has it truly hit me ... ummm that would be no. Seriously ... who's life is this anyways? The first stop of this day would be the Grande Arche. There are three arches that make up Triumphal Way in Paris including the Arc de Triomphe du Carousel, the Arc ... read more

I may have found the cure for jet lag ... a lovely Chateau Haut Pineuilh Bordeaux. I woke up at 2 am this morning and was wide awake. The effects of jet lag of course. So I pounded back a couple of glasses and back to sleep. Heck ... some people take Gravol or Melatonin. A lovely Bordeaux works just as well and it will even help you curb your cholesterol. I may need that soon ... wait until you hear what I ate today!! The moral of that story though is that I slept through to 9:30 am ... I've never adjusted that quickly to the time change in Europe. One of the things that I have been wondering about this whole trip was the question of what I was going to get out of ... read more

Destination this time was a small cottage on Lake Nosbonsing (which is about 25 kms outside of North Bay). This was a cottage that my brother and sister-in-law had rented last year and my parents had joined them for a few days. I on the other hand was unable to go last year (I was traipsing through Paris!) but when the idea came around that my parents would rent it this year and that we could all join them, I was in. First I had felt like I had missed out on some good old family fun. Then add that my brother and I and his wife were all turning 40 meant that family time was more important than knocking something else off of my list of things to do in my lifetime ... heck we ... read more

The day started with no set plan; just a couple of smaller things that we wanted to see here and there. We knew that we would put some mileage on the subway ... turns out that this is one of the days that we probably did the most walking. We would first pop by the Flat Iron Building just to get a few quick photos and then headed towards Chinatown, which we reached after a short yet confusing subway ride (I'm a little bit directionally challenged at times!). The atmosphere is drastically different from the other places that we had seen so far. We were early so the guys selling knock offs of Rolexes and Louis Vuitton were out but just not out in full force. We managed to pop into a few boutiques but by ... read more

Metrocard firmly in hand, we started our day by making our way on the number 1 train to the Staten Island Ferry. The beauty of this ferry is that it is free. We entered the waiting area where hoards of people (and by people I mean ... tourists) had already started gathering. We decided to catch the next ferry which would afford us some time to grab a little breakfast and browse through the small souvenir shop (my Paris purse now has a New Yorker friend!). For breakfast we had something called a bunzil with ham, egg and cheese. No calories whatsoever! It is essentially pretzel dough wrapped similarly to a cinnamon bun and then made into a sandwich. Hearty way to start the day ... we would need it! Our turn finally came to board ... read more