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

The day started with a treck to Grand Central Station. This was one of the things that had been on my list of things to do in my lifetime for a long time. I also had a print in my living room for the longest time of this beautiful train station so how excited was I to finally make it there. My first reaction ... a little surreal because I have seen this iconic image and now all of a sudden I am there! My second reaction ... it's actually relatively small; definitely not as big as I had imagined it. We headed down to the Dining Concourse to grab our first New York bagel ... yum! As we were having a quick breakfast at Grand Central Station (which to my mom was a little surreal), ... 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

We arrived in New York at just a little before 8 am and quickly made our way out of the airport to grab a cab to the hotel. And yes I squealed like a girl at the first sight of a yellow cab!! Mom had a moment at the thought of just being in said yellow cab. As expected, our hotel room was not ready so after a bit of regrouping we made our way out the door. We were on a mission ... a John Lennon mission. We walked down from West 79th Street to the corner of 72th Street and Central Park West to reach the Dakota. This was home to John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Actually this is still home to Yoko Ono. This is also where John Lennon was shot by Mark ... read more

The last two days have all been about soaking it in which meant general laziness on the beach or aimless wandering around looking for photo ops or last minute souvenirs. This morning I figured that I would hit up the Kuta Square Art Market. Art is quite the big word for the things that you find in this market. Bintang Beer t-shirts, board shorts and penis-shaped bottle openers ... but art is in the eye of the beholder I guess. The advantage of going early is that you get the "lucky morning price for you" and that means cheap! Yesterday I was able to buy three necklaces for about $ 1.50. And when you are the first person to buy, they would say "you my lucky customer" and proceed to rub the money on various spots ... read more

The day started with the same routine ... banana pancakes. It amuses me to know end that every morning you also get the question "you want Nescafe or Bali Coffee?" Why you would pick Nescafe while in Bali is beyond me but to each is own. I again took the 9 am shuttle which would drop me off in the centre of town of Ubud. One of the things that I have seen many times now since arriving in Bali are the women that walk along side the road balancing baskets and such on their heads. I even saw one riding a bicycle while balancing a large basket on her head. This morning the woman was walking with those square cartons of eggs that must hold about 48 eggs in them and she had a stack ... read more