Wisetrips Travel Blog

After packing our suitcases for our drive to Gananoque, Canada, to see the Thousand Islands, we decided to get breakfast at the nearby La Prep restaurant. We had a couple of coffees and pastries and then drove our Toyota Camry out of Toronto. Although traffic was not very heavy, we experienced several rain showers during our two-and-a-half-hour drive to Gananoque. We checked into our Country Squire Resort and dropped off ou…

I am 1,168 feet above the ground, on a thin metal walkway around the CN Tower's upper platform. It's a beautiful sunset in Toronto, and I can see for miles around in all directions. I am doing the highly recommended EdgeWalk with my wife. I can see the nearby Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport; the Blue Jays play the Red Sox in the Ricoh Coliseum below. The first steps onto the ledge are scary. I am the first guinea pig…

After getting up early, around 6:30 a.m., we dressed and drove to Niagara Falls. We were told that traffic could be heavy, but we did not expect it to be so terrible. It reminded me of traffic in the San Francisco Bay Area. Most lanes were barely moving. Since we had 3 people in our car, we could use the HOV lane and made better progress. We finally reached Niagara Falls around 9:00 a.m., but since we were hungry, we decided t…

Is travel really worth it? I was contemplating this as I sat in the San Francisco airport, waiting for my Air Canada flight AC756 to Toronto (our first leg of the Eastern Canada trip). First, you spend time getting to the airport (contending with traffic on US-101), then you wait to check in at the airline terminal (Air Canada was running really slow). Then, you endure a time-consuming TSA check and passport check. Then…

A grand opera brings out inherent emotions - overwhelming joy or profound sadness. The  Marriage of Figaro , based on a French comedy that is set in Spain but sung in Italian, does not bring out either. However, I felt sympathy for its main characters in several instances. The  Marriage of Figaro  tells the story of Count Almaviva, his wife, Countess Almaviva, and his two servants, Figaro and Suzanna, who plan to marry. Ma…