• Cycling & Cycle Touring,  Travel,  Trip Reports,  Trips with Kids

    Ottawa-Quebec City – A Bike Trip in the “Other Canada”

    At the end of summer we set off on yet another bike trip. Our flight was very early in the morning and followed a night of very little sleep. It was a domestic flight though, to Ottawa, so there was less airport hassle than usual. As were leaving, the sky looked hazy. It turned out that the smoke from wild fires had finally rolled into Vancouver. Up until that point we had no smoke in Vancouver. Early morning flight to Ottawa Five hours later we landed in sunny Ottawa. We took a taxi to our wonderful Warm Showers hosts, one of six different hosts we stayed with during this two…

  • Overseas,  Travel,  Trip Reports,  Trips with Kids

    New York: Charmander Visits the Big Apple 

    As a child I spent many summer breaks and school holidays in New York. It is a big city and can be overwhelming for some. Last year Neil and I had a quick visit to the Big Apple and this year it was time to bring Kai too, and Gili, oh and Charmander. Charmander is a little red character Neil got as a gift from his Maker Lab instructors at Steamoji. They asked him to take photos of Charmander in the big city. Neil carried him in his pocket everywhere and through his eyes we got to enjoy this big, overwhelming, exciting and colorful city.  Charmander at the Museum of Natural History Shark exhibit Some of…

  • Mini-Guidebooks,  Overseas,  Travel,  Trips with Kids

    A Mini-Guidebook to Cycle Touring in the Yucatán: Cenotes, Beaches, and Tacos

    At the end of last year we did an excellent five week cycling trip around the Yucatán. In this blog post I put together some notes and recommendations about the route and practical tips related to traveling around the Yucatán. I hope you will find them to be useful for planning your own trip, by bike (or not). Scenic cycling between El Cuyo and Las Coloradas It was definitely hot at times, especially on the road from El Cuyo to San Felipe when we were fully exposed to the sun the whole time. We took plenty of breaks to rest in the shade, drink coconuts that we found on the…

  • Cycling & Cycle Touring,  Overseas,  Travel,  Trip Reports,  Trips with Kids

    Mexico: Let the Good Times Roll

    It all started with a wedding. It was sometime in the spring that Gili shared the news that his cousin was getting married in Mexico in November. Mexico, in November? Sure, that doesn’t sound too bad. We were excited for the wedding of course, but November is also our favourite time to get away from gray and rainy Vancouver. So we started thinking how we might combine the wedding with our annual fall cycling trip. YVR, late at night… We left late at night with an elaborate plan to leave our bikes and gear in Cancun during a short five hour layover between our flights. It was a great plan but…

  • Overseas,  Travel,  Trip Reports,  Trips with Kids,  Urban

    New York: Dinosaurs, Trains, and Harry Potter

    Over spring break back in March Neil had two very different weeks. On the first week he attended a nature camp in Pacific Spirit Park. It was a very wet week to be outdoors all day, including biking there and back but he still had a great time. On the second week we flew to New York.  New York, New York! It’s been over three years since I had last been to New York, but Neil kept asking me to take him. He still remembers that I took Kai when he was only two months old and he stayed home with Gili. Ever since then we talked about one day…

  • Camping,  Cycling & Cycle Touring,  Overseas,  Travel,  Trip Reports,  Trips with Kids

    Portugal: Far and Away to Faro

    It was Monday morning and Gili and I were biking in the first of several atmospheric rivers to hit British Columbia. The rain was coming down hard and we were soaked. But we had to keep going, we had to make it on time to get our COVID test…  We hadn’t been overseas for almost two years and we were dreaming of a long bike trip in a far away sunny place. After much consideration we chose Portugal as our destination. At the time, the high vaccination rates in the country played a role in our decision. Also, we had heard really great things about biking in Portugal, the weather…

  • British Columbia (and nearby),  Cycling & Cycle Touring,  Kayaking and Canoeing,  Overseas,  Random Thoughts,  Travel,  Trips with Kids

    2021: Looking at the Glass Half Full

    I woke up with a rare blast of optimism on the 31st. I was so focused in the last few days on saying good riddance to 2021 and I had no idea how to summarize this year. Then I thought why not focus on the glass half full. I came up with a mission to think of at least five good things that happened this year. It wasn’t actually too difficult and I asked Gili to do the same. We both wrote our list of five things before comparing notes. Neil showed some interest but only wrote two things. Our lists had some overlaps and similarities, but also differences. So here is our list of good…

  • Camping,  Cycling & Cycle Touring,  Mini-Guidebooks,  Overseas,  Travel,  Trips with Kids

    A Mini-Guidebook to Cycle Touring with (Two) Young Kids

    Four years ago I wrote a detailed mini-guidebook to cycle touring with a baby/toddler. Since then we have had a lot of changes in our family, and two major additions. The first addition was our second son Kai who was born in 2018. The second addition was our cargo bike, a bright yellow Bike Friday Haul-a-Day (AKA Big Bird), that joined our family shortly after. In addition, time goes by, and our older son Neil (now almost six) grew and started riding his own bike most of the time. Two important additions, a baby and a cargo bike! In 2019 we did two overseas bike tours in three different countries.…

  • Cycling & Cycle Touring,  Overseas,  Travel,  Trips with Kids,  Videos

    Taiwan: The Sun Can’t Shine Every Day (Video)

    Taiwan was surprising. It was a mix of everything. Urban, rural, busy roads, quiet roads, tropical beaches & fruit, heat and rain. Even if it took us a bit of time to warm up to Taiwan we loved almost every minute of our time there, which now seems very far away. It’s home to some of the loveliest and friendliest people you’ll ever meet. Our kids aged 4.5 and 1 got the royal treatment there as you can see in this short video. Most of the roads and bike paths were safe enough for our older son to bike by himself which he loved. We also skipped some sections we…

  • Cycling & Cycle Touring,  Overseas,  Travel,  Trips with Kids,  Videos

    Japan: It’s All a Dream to Me Now (Video)

    In the Fall of 2019 we spent six weeks cycling in Japan with our two children, aged 4.5 and 1 (followed by six weeks in Taiwan). One of the lines in the song I chose for this video goes “it’s all a dream to me now.” Since this trip the world changed completely due to COVID-19. Everything that seemed doable and easy then is now out of reach, at least for awhile. How lucky were we to have done this trip before the world had gone mad? Hopefully, we’ll have more opportunities for cycle touring in the future and not just in our dreams.  As for our route, we started…