We were picked up by our tour guide Minh early on New Years Eve day and started the 4 hour bus trip east to Hạ Long Bay. We arrived at the Hạ Long Marina around noon to a tourist infested area filled with hundreds of overnight boats and literally thousands of tourists. Hạ Long Bay …
Coming from the order, conformity and lawfulness of Toronto, Hanoi is a mecca of chaos. Over 8 million people live in Hanoi, and together they own and operate more than 5 million motorcycles (we think all at once). The sights, sounds and smells of the city make it a vibrant and highly stimulating place unlike …
We spent a few days in San Diego with Paul and Beth to top off our trip. We never got around to writing a detailed post (as often happens with our last stop of a trip!) but here are some pictures of our time in San Diego. Coronado Beach This beach is incredible; some of …
Drive to LA We left Paul and Beth’s and drove South for 5 hours to LA. The drought in California is awful. Here you can see a lake that has almost all dried up. You can see the lines on the hills in the foreground that the lake used to reach to. It was …
After a surprising and amazing coastal drive, and a short stop in Napa, we settled in Redwood City at our friends Paul and Beth’s place. Matt and Paul went golfing early on Saturday morning. They saw a few deer that were clearly used to people! House Family Winery House Family Winery is an awesome winery …
We drove from Portland down the coast to Napa, and then made our way to Redwood City, just outside of San Francisco, to stay with Paul and Beth. The drive took us about 10 hours, including stopping a few times. Along the way we pulled off the road to take pictures or get a better …
Unfortunately for us we only had a short ‘layover’ in Portland of a single night. It’s a cool little city known for it’s microbreweries, coffeehouses and ‘stay weird’ mantra. Despite the short stay we were able to get a good look at the city and sample plenty of local fare. It started off at a …
We arrived in Seattle after a pretty uneventful ferry trip starting from the bottom tip of Victoria, through Puget Sound and into Seattle. Seattle is a big craft beer and seafood destination and we were only there two nights so knew we had our work cut out for us. First we stopped at this quirky …
We left Vancouver Friday afternoon and headed over to Vancouver Island on a ferry. It was a short trip from Tsawwassen that wound through the Gulf Islands and then landed in Swartz Bay. We’re really fortunate to have Alicia’s Aunt Teresa and Uncle Doug living and working on Vancouver Island and so spent two …
After a couple of big trips to Europe and Asia we felt it only fitting that we actually come back and see what our own continent has to offer. Starting in Vancouver, we’re taking two and a half weeks to hit Vancouver, Victoria, Seattle, Portland, Redwood Forest, San Francisco, LA & San Diego. Our first …