Our travels – one year in

I closed on the Colorado Springs house and we drove part way to my Mom’s house one year ago today. I remember that day as being extremely stressful. Laurel remembers it as extremely stressful in an hysterically funny way. Here’s a summary: I woke up (I didn’t really sleep that night.) on an air mattress…

Niagara Falls

I’m typing this blog post on my phone; we’ll see how the photo layout turns out. I’m sitting on a park bench while Charlie plays at this small park in Niagara Falls, Ontario a couple blocks from the train station. Laurel didn’t care to join us and is sitting at the station with our bags.…

Toronto

This is a big ol’ city. The city proper has 2.6 million people and 240 square miles with 5.5 million people and 2,700 square miles in the metro area. When we went up in the CN Tower today, we could see a number of nearby skylines. When I asked a friendly tower employee up on…

Alaskan photos

First I’m going to start with our current Airbnb situation…We arrived in Toronto late Saturday and got to our 18th-story apartment downtown. It’s nice. Catherine, the young woman who posted the place on Airbnb, said her parents own this unit; and she (Catherine) will be moving back in soon. The building management recently changed the…

Alaskan cruise

During our last week in Vancouver before going on the cruise, Laurel & Charlie walked a couple miles to Waterfront Station where they took the Sea Bus (ferry) to North Vancouver and then a bus to Grouse Mountain where they took a gondola and ski lift up the mountain and went up an elevator in…

Wrapping it up in Vancouver

We only have a few more days here. I was looking out at the bay and mountains and lit-up boats and skyline from Kitsilano “Kits” Beach just after sunset last night and thought how much I’ll miss this beautiful city. Here’s a recap of the last week: On Saturday, June 28, the kids walked to…

Subletting Update

Thanks to everyone who posted suggestions about my rental situation. I called Airbnb’s emergency number Sunday evening and had a 48-minute phone call, about 45 of which was waiting on hold. The young man with whom I spoke told me he didn’t know what to do and couldn’t find someone who did. He said he…