New York City

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Kate and I made a quick trip to New York City for our friend (Kate's KBS colleague) Nancy's 50th birthday party held with a few friends in a luxury suite on Park Avenue. 

Staying in the city is atrociously expensive and you'd be a darn fool to take your car into the city so we made other plans.

We drove our car to Albany; touring some of the Finger Lakes wineries on the way. We stayed overnight in Albany, the state capitol, which is up river on the Hudson, and the next morning took a quick train into the city. 

In NYC we stayed overnight at the Jumeirah Essex House at the south end of Central Park (a posh hotel for sure) and attended Nancy's party a short walk away on Park Avenue. She and Jeff had rented a large suite for the party; Gillian, a mutual friend from Australia, had come to the party as well.

We made a CD for Nancy, I can't recall what was on it other than "I Wanna Go to New York City" by the Demics.

We had lunch overlooking Columbus Circle and took a carriage ride around Central Park before the party. The next morning we went to the top of the Empire State Building before returning to Albany and touring more of the Finger Lakes Winery on our way home — we found one that made it's own grappa!

It was a brief visit to the "Big Apple" and nice to celebrate with Nancy.

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Ps. this brief note was composed 2026/01/05. Kate was writing with Nancy wrt. the recent passing of a mutual friend and mentor Sharon. We remembered this adventure from years before and our wild times at the KBS.

Fred Picnic

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We went to the annual Fred Eaglesmith Charity Picnic at Sweetwater Conservation Area near Aylmer this year and camped over night.

Our niece Paula and her beau were with us. They used the tent we've borrowed form Mike, we had a camper we had borrowed through Ellen. Cindy came out on Sunday to join us.

Greg Hobbs was there, he does a great tune "Secrets of the Bride". He apparently wrote it for an ex-girlfriend as a wedding present -- it reveals probably a little too much. We love it.

Roger Marin was in attendance and joined Fred's band on pedal steel. He has his own band as well which we really enjoy. His tune "Dagwood and Blondie" has a nice country swing to it. Washboard Hank and Mountain Muriel added their usual lunacy to the proceedings. Bill Durst, from St Marys, played a heavy electric blues set on Sunday afternoon. In his younger years he formed the band Thundermug which had some local success.

Another fine picnic with lots of new music and new artists. We'll be back.

Home County

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Here's some photos from the Home County Folk Music and Arts Festival in July of 2007. This is a yearly event held in Victoria Park, London, Ontario.

My sister Ellen, brother Larry with his daughter Natalie, husband Peter with daughter Evelyn and son Cameron were there this year.

Budapest

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In June Kate's annual KBS conference was held in Budapest Hungary. We stayed at the hotel attached to the Gellert Thermal Bath on the west side of the river. The pictures in the album are an odd bunch and not well sorted... there's a reason for that.

The camera I was using at the time was a Minolta DiMage A1 which I had been using since our long trip to Australia/New Zealand in 2004. It was an excellent travel camera which worked very well — a long fast zoom, image stablization, reasonable film speed, it worked well. The Compact Flash memory cards at that time were quite small which meant that every day after shooting I'd strip the cards onto Kate's laptop. Unfortunately, on this trip the camera and the laptop both failed! We were able to resort some deleted photos off my memory cards but lost quite a few. Many of the pictures in this collection are from friends who shared them with me.

The picture above is from just before the camera failed. As I recall that's taken at the one end of the Erzsébet Bridge.

This note composed 2023/08/09 ... much more work required. I'll come back to this another day.

Burgundy

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In May of 2007 Kate had a meeting in Geneva Switzerland and asked if I'd like to come along. We've had some cool weather in the spring before, and we were to be in Budapest later, so I was not too keen on another trip to the area ... but then Kate mentioned that the Burgundy wine region of France is right next door. Well then, Ok, count me in!

We met our niece Paula at the Geneva airport and she travelled with us for the duration of her stay. She had been travelling in England with Gordon, her dad, and Eva, her sister and it's a short flight over to Geneva.

Geneva is on Lake Geneva (of course) but is a very short distance from France (it's not clear to me why Geneva isn't in France!). It's in the French canton of Switzerland. We rented a car for our trip at the airport and found our way to Annecy France which is due south but not that far. We had reservations for a place in town but it was one of those "You can't get there from here" problems. Paula, who is reasonably fluent in French, was some help and we stopped for directions several times. We ultimately found the hotel and squeezed our car into an impossibly small parking spot in an under ground parking lot beneath the hotel.

We found navigating the Burgundy region much easier. We found our way to the city of Beaune in the heart of the Burgundy region. We had a lovely two story suite for the three of us in a converted building (perhaps it was an animal or wine barn at one time) called the Hotel Belle Epoque which was just a short walk from the walled city. Our room was on a warm sunny courtyard and every morning we dined on fresh bread and croissants with fresh butter and jams, strong coffee. Every night we dined out and always had escargot (snails: it was the season for fresh snails). Escargot in garlic butter, escargot in pastry, escargot in lots of things. Each morning Kate swore she'd had enough snails and garlic but each night we were back for more.

On our first day we visited around the city. There's a city shuttle train that takes you around the city and out into some of the vineyards. There's even some vineyards right in the city. And there are wine caves to explore and lots of wine to taste.

Burgundy wines are some of my favorites. There's the major region Cote de Beaune with Beaune at the north end, then the Cote de Nuits region to the north with lots of minor regions nearby. We visited several wineries to the south of Beaune and enjoyed them all. At one we could have bought a 1980 Burgundy (from the year we were married) for only 100 euros. They have an extensive library in their underground caves and would open, taste and recork a bottle for us -- they might have to open quite a few bottles to find one that hadn't gone bad. We travelled as far as Mount de Sene where there's a scenic overlook of the valley.

After Burgundy a friend (a sommelier) back home had recommended we explore the Jura Region. This is a recommendation I'd not pass on. It's an interesting area to explore but the wines are oxidized and tast awful. That's apparently how they're supposed to taste.

In Geneva for Kate's meetings we stayed at Le MontBrillant which is right in the CBD and beside the train station. Paula was a great help with shlepping our luggage from the closest parking spot (several blocks away). It was great to have her there, it would have been very difficult without her. I took the car back to the airport and then returned by the city metro system. We had dinner at our hotel that evening. Everything was very expensive and we ended up having "Raclette" -- boiled potatoes, pickles and melted raclette cheese. Well, it was the only thing that made any sense!

While Kate was at her meetings Paula and I explored the city, which is quite scenic and very historic. There's a very old well maintained cathedral that we explored with great views from on high of the city. There's the waterfront of course and lots of lanes and alleyways to explore.

Another day Paula figured out that we could take a train (from our hotel door step) along the north shore of Lake Geneva through Lausanne and just a little past Montreux to find the Chillon Castle -- a medieval fortress on the shore of Lake Geneva which was used as a choke point on the trade route through the Alps. We spent the day there, it's authentic and fun to explore (e.g. a prisoner in the dungeon of the castle was made famous by Byron in a poem "The Prisoner of Chillon") and walked back to Montreux where we caught the train to return to Geneva. It was a good day.

Here's some photos from our visit for those who are interested.

Cuba

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We spent a week at the Breezes Jibacoa, Cuba with Paul and Judy this winter. This smallish resort is on the north coast between Havanna and Varadero -- you fly in and out of the Varadero Airport.

Becky Castillo, our travel agent has arranged all four Sunwing vacations. We're meeting up with my brother and his wife who live in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Becky has recommended this resort is as a good place for snorkeling -- Varadero is a sand spit suitable for sun bathing and frolicing in the surf. We are more interested in snorkeling. And the snorkeling from the beach at this resort is very good. There's a sandy beach, then some shallow coral and just past that there's a nice deep good sized tank to explore with lots of fish and coral encrusted walls to the tank. From there you could go out to deeper waters but we never ventured. Check out my picture from the bluff above -- you can see the coral and the tank.

There were days when the beach was flagged -- too windy, rough surf or wind blown Portugese Man o'War jelly fish. You don't want to get entangled with that jelly fish. It will hurt like hell and leave lasting damage. Anyways, it was good snorkeling. I'd recommend the resort for that.

The resort is well appointed, solid construction, quite comfortable and well maintained. Grounds are lush with lots of Royal Palms (that's the national tree of Cuba) and exotic plants. There are 18 buildings with 260 guest rooms. These buildings are two stories with 8 rooms below and 8 above. We pay a little extra to get a room on the ground floor on the beach. There's one large swimming pool, tennis courts, and so on. For dining there's a large buffet hall and two restaurants (where you need to make reservations).

There are several bars, of course, but we spend most of our time at the beach bar. Every day there seems to be some event at the beach -- e.g. one day they roasted a whole pig. There are big show events every night with dancers and tom foolery. We attend a couple of them.

One morning we went on a short nature hike with "Mini Mike" through the woods to the bluff overlooking the resort. From there we visited a local farm and walked back along the roadway.

For such a small resort they do put out a big effort to keep guests entertained.

Our big event was a day trip into Havana. We stopped along the way to have a drink (apparently the "best" Pina Colada) at a sea side bar. This must have been a very nice spot years ago but it's sadly in decay. In Havana we stopped to see Fidel's tank -- Viva la Revolucion! On to the Capitol building -- very impressive. The Hemingway bar -- it's just a bar. The Bacardi building -- seized by the state when industries were nationalized. We went to a bar on the top floor of a very tall hotel for the views -- there's the American Embassy (closed since the revolution). And we wandered the streets of the old city. Havana is an impressive collection of Colonial Buildings and many are in good repair. I understand there's UNESCO money here. There is a decrepit oil industry in evidence -- a oil flare within the city and polluted waters in the bay.

That evening in Havana we went to the Tropicana show. There's another similar Tropicana show closer to Varadero. The one in Havana is the "original". It's a Las Vegas styled show with lots of flash, lots of pretty girls in skimpy outfits. The venue is open air with several stages, several tiers on each stage. When you enter all the men get a cigar, the women get a carnation and couples get a can of coke and a half bottle of Havana Club -- the rum of Cuba (which used to belong to Bacardi?). It was quite the show and we got thoroughly pie-eyed in the process. But we had fun and made friends.

We enjoyed this resort and hope to return some day. It was a good time with brother Paul and his wife Judy.

Brisbane

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Kate and I spent some time in Brisbane -- Kate was working with Ross on their book. We had a short stay on our way through to Perth at the start of the trip. Catching our breath with much needed rest after the long flight over from LA. After Perth we had some holiday time on Magnetic Island and from there we came back to Brisbane.

Some of the adventures in Brisbane are blogged elsewhere -- like the trip to Tangalooma and our lunch with the local Beefsteak and Burgundy Club at the Brisbane USC. This blog fills in some gaps.

We flew on Quantas airlines this time and had a deal which allowed us some in country flights. That helped a lot.

Ross and Bev have a lovely home in Indooroopilly (try saying that fast) one of many burbs in the city. Their home is built into the hillside in a forested part of the city with the usual, odd to us, Australian flora and fauna. They have a small pool you can jump into to cool off (the temperature was over 80F -- a hot spring by our standards). Ross was complaining about the wild turkeys we saw that root around in their yard making it hard to grow anything. They're pests but protected.

Queensland, and much of Austrlia, was in the middle of a drought which made growing things especially hard. Ross and Bev, like many others, were installing a water tank to catch rainfall and supplement the scarce city water.

Ross took his son Tim and us out to a very expensive dinner one evening in the CBD. We took one of the Brisbane public transit CityCats down the Brisbane River from Indooroopilly (try saying that again) to the Southbank and walked across the pedestrian bridge to our dinner. I ordered something that sounded interesting but turned out to be lamb brains. I ate them but shudder to think of it.

Surfer's Paradise and the Gold Coast is beach area south of Brisbane that we decided to check out. Ross had discouraged us -- it's sort of a Las Vegas meets Fort Lauderdale kind of place with odd things like meter maids dressed in bikinis. The picture above is from Surfer's Paradise. This places takes the name "Surfer's Paradise" in a marketing coup -- many beaches up and down the Queensland coast have equally good surfing.

Kate thought that Surfer's Paradise smelled too much of fried fast food so we headed further south to Burleigh Heads for a swim, the beach and a bit of lunch. It's all part of the Gold Coast but here it's a little less hectic. The headlands here is the Burleigh Heads National Park and a favorite hiking spot for Ross and Bev. We had a lovely lunch at a fancy beachside restaurant -- other times we've eaten at the nearby Life Savers Club. There's some pictures of a wedding couple taken on the beach. Apparently it's a favorite spot.

There's some pictures of our apartment when we returned from Maggie. We rented a one bedroom flat at the City Park Aparments on Gregory Terrace; walking distance from Fortitude Valley and the CBD. We've stayed before and really like the location. It's a walk up apartment with lots of balconies and good airflow -- Brisbane can be hot but we usually had good breezes to cool the apartment. We had a small car to roam the city and countryside. We had rented a car but then Ross's mom had a car that wasn't being used so they loaned us that.

There's some pictures of a market and music on Brunswick Street in Fortitude Valley and another musical event we went to nearby on Claxton Street at the Calypso Bar & Lounge (all I can say is Ani DiFranco has a lot to answer for). There's also a picture of Kate at the "Bad Girls Platinum Club" -- you might guess what that club is about.

There's some photos from a visit to Noosa Heads which is two hours north of Brisbane on what they call the Sunshine Coast. This is another hiking and swimming spot recommended by Ross with another, but much larger, headlands national park. We've done a bit of a walk in these headland parks but not as much as Ross and Bev do. Instead we enjoyed the beach (Kate loves to swim, I float around a bit) and had a pigout on fried seafood at the Life Savers Club. It was a lovely warm spring day and that had brought out the crowds.

The Brisbane Powerhouse is an event space in New Farm down river from the CBD in what used to be a powerhouse. We caught some music there. There's some pictures of Jacaranda trees in bloom in our neighborhood and at the university campus. They're quite lovely and, while not unique to Brisbane (I think they came from Brazil), a sight to see when in bloom.

We had lunch at the Oxley on the river with Beefsteak and Burgundy friends. There's a picture of the nearby Regatta Hotel on Coronation Drive which runs along the Brisbane River in Toowong (say that twice while on your way to Indooroopilly) not too far from where we stayed. This three story hotel is subject to flooding as sometimes happens. I've seen old photos with people stranded on the second balcony (late 1800's) and first balcony (1960's) with flood waters filling the lower floors. With the current drought there's not much danger of flooding.

We took a drive up to Mount Glorious for a lunch one day. The mountain range is inland only a bit. It's a nice drive to see some forests and get some views back towards the city. Back in the city we saw Noel Coward's "Private Lives" at the Queensland Performing Arts Center on the Southbank with Ross and Bev. It's a very funny play if only a little outrageous.

Byron Bay is about 2 hours south of Brisbane, past Burleigh Heads and just across the state line in New South Wales. It has the most easterly point in mainland Australia. There's also another lovely long sand beach with more good surfing. At the light house on the point you can sometimes see whales migrating in the distance. Or at least the occassional splashing and blowing. We met some whale watchers from Melbourne who come here every year just so they can spot the whales.

Redcliffe is a nearby suburb to the north of Brisbane with some passable swimming. Much of the water front around Brisbane proper is either the industrial river or mangrove swamps. At Redcliffe there's a good bike path along the shore (we were travelling with our fold up bikes) and an enclosed swimming area something like the swimming area at the Southbank (but not as grande).

On our final day in Brisbane we took our car to be washed and detailed before returning it -- we got in trouble with Ross. "Don't you know there's a drought!"