This website has been sitting idle for a few years so I figured I’d hijack it from my kid and bring it to life again as my own travel blog. I’ll leave our previous posts up for nostalgia :).

2023 is a milestone year for me – I turn 50. I recognize how incredibly fortunate I am to be healthy and to have the opportunities that I do at this point in my life. It’s been a tumultuous couple of years around the world and certainly I’ve been incredibly lucky not to be directly touched by the loss of a close friend or family member to Covid. I do work in healthcare though and witnessing the ‘worst of the worst’ in ICU at the RAH and Foothills was horrifying. Almost as horrifying is the dissemination of misinformation on social media and the trickle down effects that has had on myself and my colleagues who are in the trenches trying to do what we can to get everyone through this pandemic as unscathed as possible. Full disclosure, we all need a break from the opinions/demands/hostility being levelled at us presumably in an attempt to steer us away from evidence based medicine and logic and toward a state of fear and uncertainty. Anyhow, enough controversial commentary – just wanted to provide a little background on why I’m indulging in the aforementioned break…

They say that everyone should solo travel at least once. So I chose somewhere that’s at the top of my list and the bottom of Leighton and Reid’s – India.

India is a country that incites such different responses from people when you tell them you’re going – most will tell you how dirty it is or that they had a bad experience or voice concern for your safety. Others are smitten – and have been back multiple times. I’m optimistic that I’ll fall into the latter category….

That being said, my adventurousness only extends so far and after 4 days on my own in Delhi, I’ll be joining an Intrepid Travel Food Tour. I’m viewing this as my ‘first time’ to India – such a huge and diverse country will require multiple visits to be able to say I’ve truly experienced it. The organized tour will be a less stressful way to ‘get my feet wet’.

Since I’m going so far already, I decided to take an extended leave from work and add on a few more countries. After India I fly to Egypt to meet up with one of my absolute fave travel companions – one of the smartest, most travel (and life) savvy women I know, Malorie Aube. We’ve travelled together to Hungary, Austria, Spain and Portugal and explored her home province of Quebec together along with the third of our trio, Megan Madden. This time Megan will be absent but replaced with Malorie’s 15 year old son Mathis (hopefully he survives being subjected our epic ‘old ladiness’). Malorie utilized some contacts and arranged for us to tour with an Egyptologist – it’ll be heavenly to be able to ask ALL the questions!!

From Egypt it’s on to Rome for a week. Leighton will join me (a last minute addition after a bout of FOMO on his part). Rome was really just a convenient stopover between Egypt and Peru. So we’ll do all the touristy things there and then take the milk run from Rome to Montreal to Toronto to Lima to Cusco in time to spend 3 days acclimatizing to the altitude in hopes that 4 days on the Inca Trail isn’t the end of me.

From mind blowing Machu Picchu, it’s back to Lima for the meal of a lifetime at Central (see Season 3, Episode 6 of Chef’s Table on Netflix). We will eat things we’ve never had before and likely never will again…

From Lima it’s on to Colombia for 3 days in Medellin before Leighton flies home for meetings and I jet off to meet Megan in Guatemala for a couple of weeks. She and I will celebrate my birthday there and then I’ll fly home 1 year older having (hopefully) met my ’50 countries before I’m 50′ goal.

In the past I’ve done daily posts on Instagram while traveling. I think I’ll refrain from that this time. I always worry about how I’m perceived on social media and my opinions on that have changed over the years. So this time, I’ll write the blog, post some pics and the people who care to check up on me can visit my page and those who don’t won’t be bombarded by my posts.

If you stuck it out reading for this long, thanks for being there for me! Stay tuned for the next post – likely around the 3rd week in January. Happy New Year and here’s to a fabulous 2023!