After a wonderful week in northern New Brunswick with my mom anddad, and a week rediscovering our hometown of Halifax with my wife’s brother, wife and kids, our summer reunion tour of 2021 returned back to New Brunswick for some time with my wife’s parents. A brief pause here for a couple of quirks about our respective experiences living most of our lives in Atlantic Canada. I have never been around the Cabot Trail (that will have to be rectified on a trip back to Nova Scotia at some point) and my wife had never visited the Hopewell Rocks. We decided to tick that one off her list by visiting on a short detour on the way from Halifax to her old hometown of Nackawic.
We checked the tide tables to ensure we planned our visit to coincide with when we could walk out on the floor of the Bay of Funday. We arrived right on schedule for low tide and got a good dose of weather luck with a stunning late summer afternoon to do some exploring.
I know that for most people Nova Scotia is not top of mind for wine producing regions in Canada. But for those of us in the know, there is a surprisingly high quality wine region tucked into the Annapolis Valley, about an hour outside of Halifax. Take a look at a map and dig a little deeper and you’ll notice that this area of Nova Scotia is in a similar latitude range, has a similar climate, and in many areas, similar soil conditions to areas in Champagne, France. Luckily for us who were/are fortunate to live relatively close nearby, there is a true gem of a winery that started with an audacious goal. The purpose of Benjamin Bridge winery was to show that world-class sparkling wines could be made in Nova Scotia. Starting with their early vintages, in blind testings their wines scored similar to Champagnes. They have expanded their range of wines over the years, and due to the occassional free shipping special offered, we’ve accumulated a small inventory of their wines at our home in Saskatoon.
Much like we did back in the days we lived in Halifax, when we were visiting this past summer, we made a day trip to the Annapolis Valley. Our first stop was Benjamin Bridge to try a couple of tasting flights of their wines.
After a wonderful visit with my mom and dad in northern New Brunswick, we pointed our car south, marvelled at the fact there was a pandemic-related random selection border checkpoint on the way into Nova Scotia, and a few hours later arrived in a city that means a great deal to both of us.
Halifax. Home sweet home.
This part of our Atlantic Canadian tour was about visiting family and also taking a couple of days to reconnect with some of our favourite things.
When we moved to Saskatoon, we consoled ourselves that we could always overcome the occasional bout of homesickness with an overpriced airline ticket and be back east the next day. Now looking back on that thinking almost two years into a global pandemic, I long for the ability to plan trips and visits without concern for testing, isolation rules or carrying a virus to people I love. While all of that will be the reality for some time to come, the summer of 2021 will be a time I’ll look back on as a joyful return to our old stomping grounds to spend time with family around the Maritimes.
This was a trip in three parts. Part one, with my folks in northern New Brunswick. Part two, with my wife’s brother and kids in our old hometown of Halifax. And part three, with my wife’s folks and extended family in west/central New Brunswick. Feeling like a complete travel newbie from the longest separation from air travel in my life, we excitedly, and with some trepidation, hopped on our flights back east with our masks hiding ear to ear smiles.
While my hopes might have been higher for more travel in 2021, I finally made it back out east to visit family I hadn’t seen in close to two years. That three week summer trip, the first time in my career I have ever taken three consecutive weeks off, was a revelation. Part reunion tour with lots of hugs and stories to share with family and part vacation with a suddenly fresh set of eyes for places that now feel less like home after so long living, and hunkering down in Saskatoon.
Most of my favourite travel memories this past year are from that three week trip back to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, but I will be liberal with the term “travel” as a few of my favourite memories in 2021 were about other forms of escape or diversion during the third and fourth waves of a pandemic that hit Saskatchewan very hard. So here they are in no particular order, my favourite travel memories and moments of 2021.
(1) Beers with Dad – It had been far too long since Dad and I had just had a good hang at my favourite craft brewery in Bathurst. On a steaming hot August day, we enjoyed a couple of our favourite beers (mine, Four Rivers Brewery’s amazing Havre St. Pierre, a medal winning amber ale that I wish I could have a stash of back home in Saskatoon) and chatted an afternoon away.
While waiting for the opportunity to reengage with travel over the past year, I have been looking through pictures of past trips to take some of the sting out of losing the ability to explore freely like during the pre-pandemic days. In all of those pictures are great memories. Some are grand experiences like seeing the Eiffel Tower for the first time… some are more subtle memories of the smell or sense of a place from sitting on a park bench somewhere far away from home. While I was looking back through photos from a trip in 2008 to San Francisco and Northern California, there were lots of memories in both camps, including what I still to this day think is one of the best travel days I have ever had.
We tried to do this trip on a relative shoestring budget using points for hotels and our flights (that resulted in a very restless night trying to sleep in Pearson airport before the onward flight to San Francisco… booking with Aeroplan almost always guarantees you something like this) but we were torn as to which of two more extravagant experiences we wanted to include… a hot air balloon ride over the Sonoma valley or dinner at the French Laundry. We settled on the hot air balloon ride, and turned it into an amazing day trip from Sonoma that we still talk about to this day.
We got a confirmation phone call that the weather looked good at the crisp hour of 3:30am, loaded into our car for the drive to Santa Rosa, and as the sun came up, we waited for our balloon to inflate.
When we were planning our first trip to Europe back in 2006, my wife had her mind set on Belgium. I thought that was an odd choice at the time, though looking back in hindsight, it was a stroke of brilliance and made for a wonderful first European adventure. I lobbied for Amsterdam to be a side trip of a few days from our base in Brussels and it too ended up being a memorable part of our first time overseas. The trip was a tale of two distinct approaches… in Brussels, thanks to points, we stayed at an ultra luxurious five star hotel… in Amsterdam, we stayed at a place that had a roof and indoor plumbing. What that place lacked in charm, it made up for with a location that led us to a number of memories we still hold dear.
For me, when I think back on Amsterdam, it is of a spectacularly beautiful city, where every bridge over every canal was a stunning scene the likes I hadn’t ever seen to that point in my life.
Many times the best decisions you make in life sneak up on you.
It was a beautiful late August evening, our last night in Prague. Looking back on this from almost eight years on, it remains one of my favourite travel memories because of what this night ended up meaning to my wife and me. We hadn’t set out with any grand plans… just a way to enjoy the last few hours of what had been a remarkable two weeks in the Czech Republic. We headed up to the Letna Beer Garden with an idea to enjoy the view over the city and for me to spend the rest of our Czech currency on glasses of ice cold pilsner.
Brussels was an odd choice for my girlfriend (now wife) and I as a destination for our first trip to Europe. Looking back on that trip now with fifteen years of experience and hindsight, it was filled with amazing and weird experiences that continues to make us smile. That trip, and in particular the first day, a Sunday in Brussels, fuelled my love for travel and has sent me on a number of life adventures in the years since then. Even with all of the adventures I have been on since that day, it remains my favourite story from my time on the road.
Up until arriving in Brussels, the trip was as one would expect. We left Halifax flying through Newark with no hiccups. The overnight flight was the first red-eye for both of us, and with dinner, we elected to enjoy a glass of wine to help us get a bit of sleep as we flew over the Atlantic. That decision, as we’d learn in a few hours, would make all the difference in how this trip would get started.
We disembarked in Brussels and headed to passport control. As we were nearing the lineup to have our documents inspected, my wife uttered words that stopped us both on the spot… “I can’t find my passport”. We were stuck – no turning back to the gate at which we arrived and no way through customs. We disclosed the missing passport to the border agent and that led to police being summoned and the two of us being escorted into a holding area in the police station in the airport. Not only was my wife’s passport sitting back on our plane, but so was about 200 euros from when she paid for those two glasses of wine on our flight. She let the police know our seat numbers and that she now remembered she had “temporarily” stashed the cash and her passport in the pouch in the seat in front of her….. and we waited, and waited, and waited.
Our first venturing off our continent, and here we were on a Sunday morning being questioned by police in Brussels. We figured her passport and the money were on their way back to Newark and we’d be in limbo until we could speak with someone from the Canadian embassy on Monday. Luckily, after about two hours, word made its way back to us that a cleaner had found the passport (and money!) and we’d be reunited. After what seemed like an eternity, my wife was reunited with her passport and we boarded a train for Brussels Central, massively jet lagged, but relieved. This remains to this day one of my favourite pictures – the first I ever took in Europe.
Bluenose Traveler 