Tag: adventure

Posted on in arts, community, entertainment, Historical, travel

Make Kingston your happy place this summer

I have now lived more than half of my life in this beautiful corner of eastern Ontario, calling the area north of Kingston home. Dave and I often say it was the smartest decision we ever made (including having kids!)

And yet, I’m often astonished how many people I meet from southern Ontario or Quebec who have never been to downtown Kingston. They’ve stopped here travelling between Toronto and Montreal. But their only impression of our fair city is a plethora of gas stations and fast food restaurants off the 401.

Kingston is, in a word, simply…wonderful. From its vibrant patios and waterfront, to its historic buildings and world-class tourist attractions, thriving arts and music scene, and festivals all summer long, it delights all ages. So in the spirit of Destination Canada and travelling local this year*, I invite you to explore Kingston this summer. Here is my top ten list for things to do in the limestone city.

  1. Watch the Queen’s Golden Gaels football team, hot off their amazing 2025 season take on their rivals at Richardson Stadium in August or September. Our newly rebuilt stadium (in 2016) is a true gem. Catch some rays, have a beer and cheer on the Gaels to victory.
  2. Do a haunted walk. Kingston has many haunted buildings (I worked in one—the Empire Life historic building). Hear the grisly and ghostly tales and admire the architecture as you ramble through some of our wonderful old neighbourhoods.
  3. Kingston Penitentiary Tour. I’ve done this tour three times and it never disappoints. Tour the grounds and the cellblocks of Canada’s most notorious prison. After, spend an hour at the Kingston Penitentiary Museum, one of my favourite little museums in Canada.
  4. Tour the SS Kewatin, the beautiful steam passenger vessel older than the titanic at the Great Lakes Museum. Kingston was lucky enough to secure this grand old dame in 2023. I haven’t toured her yet—it’s on my list for this summer.
  5. Movies in the Square: Still one of my favourite things to do on a Thursday night in the summer. Downtown Kingston will be announcing their line-up soon.
  6. Stroll or bike along the waterfront. Most people stick to Confederation Basin near city hall. Venture further west to Battery Park, City Park, the walkways behind the Tett Centre (stop at the Juniper Café for a coffee or cold beer) towards Lake Ontario Park.
  7. The downtown is a hub of free music, festivals and events in the summer months. My recommendations: HomeGrown Live featuring all local performers this Saturday, May 2 (get there early—all the venues get packed as the day goes on!), Art after Dark later this month and Buskers Rendezvous in July. Hot off the presses: Kingston has replaced its popular BluesFest with a new festival called The RoadTrip Music Festival on September 12, 2026.
  8. Take the free ferry from Kingston to Wolfe Island and listen to some live music and have a drink at the Wolfe Island Hotel or spend the day at Big Sandy Bay Beach ($20 per person and a kilometre hike in)
  9. Fort Henry is always fun to visit, but elevate your experience by taking in one of their special events or sunset ceremonies. Plan to have a beer at the battery bar overlooking Lake Ontario and Kingston—one of the best views around. Admission to the fort is free for kids 17 and under with the Canada Strong Pass.
  10. Number ten is a toss up between hiking at Lemoine’s Point, and exploring the streets of Barriefield, a heritage village. If you choose Barriefield, be sure to stop into the Frontenac County Schools Museum, a quaint one-room school house.
  11. BONUS Number eleven! Admission is free to Bellevue House, the home of Sir John A. Macdonald from June 19 to September 7 as part of the Canada Strong pass again this year.

And I’d be remiss if I didn’t urge you to spend at least one day hiking, fishing, or biking on one of our beautiful trails or lakes in South Frontenac where I live.

This week’s #HappyAct is to come to Kingston and spend a few days this summer. For all my friends from out of town, consider this your invite to come visit us. I’d be happy to play tour guide for you!

Queen's Gaels playing at Richardson Stadium

Queen’s Golden Gaels playing at Richardson Stadium

Movies in the Square in Kingston

Watching Wicked last summer in Market Square

Kingston sign

When Dave’s cousins Alison and David visited last summer from BC, we had to take their picture in the Kingston sign!

Posted on in entertainment, family, holidays, pop culture, relationships

Love Actually is in an airport

My daughters Clare and Grace back together again

Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Ottawa airport… It seems to me that love is everywhere.

This week, I picked up a very special package from the Ottawa airport. Kid #2 arrived on a Porter Airlines flight on Wednesday morning after being down east at school for the past four months.

So maybe love wasn’t everywhere when I went to pick Clare and maybe I ripped off that line from the opening scene of Love Actually, but the feelings of love and anticipation of seeing Clare after her being away for so long has made me a romantic at heart.

I love that opening scene from the movie, parents reuniting with children, old friends slapping each other on the back, and husbands and wives, boyfriends and girlfriends kissing and hugging each other with misty tearful eyes.

The reality of course was slightly different. I didn’t actually go into the Ottawa terminal. I missed the turn for the arrivals lane after seeing a sign that said Car Rental Return and had to make a U-turn and circle around the endless airport loop, Grace remonstrating with me and calling me a loser the entire way.

If we had entered the terminal, instead of seeing happy smiling faces reuniting, we probably would have seen half a dozen people making a frantic 100-yard dash to the bathroom after their seven-hour flight, another half a dozen cursing at their phones because the person picking them up was late, and at least one exhausted mother with two snotty-nosed kids trying to find her Uber.

I mean, c’mon. It’s not like we were going to see a young buxom brunette hopping into the arms of the Prime Minister. Wait, hold the ministerial phone. Did I just see Katy Perry launch herself at Justin at the gate, his strong arms encircling her while she wears a jaunty beret? Maybe the movie is true to real life after all.

The point is, maybe love actually can be found in an airport terminal. One thing is for certain. You have a better shot at finding love than your luggage if you fly Air Canada.

This week’s #HappyAct is my Christmas wish for you: to have a sweet reunion with someone you love. Happy holidays, and be sure to check back next week for my top ten happy acts of 2025.

Posted on in Uncategorized

Chase the checkered flag

Girl in go-kart
This pic of Clare says it all

With summer approaching the finish line, we shift gears from lazing on the dock to back to school planning and preparation. But before we cross that finish, we try to squeeze in as many fun activities as possible during those last few laps.

Last weekend we doubled the fun and took our pit crew of eight birthday party goers go-karting.

I’m not a speed demon on the highway. I’m a very responsible driver, but on a go-kart track, all that changes. As soon as they start your engines, I apply full throttle to the gas and speed out of the gate, rallying driving through the course and trying not to brake on the curves.

Mom and girl in a go-kart
Go-kart selfie

It was especially fun watching the kids tear up the track. You can see it on their face. The feeling of power and control of operating their own motorized vehicle, and sheer joy and exhilaration of racing at high speeds and beating the adults. The grins were a mile wide.

I had a flash back while we waiting to go on the track of one girls weekend where we had booked to go tree top trekking at the new rope course and zipline at Santa’s Village in Gravenhurst. The only other time I had been ziplining was in Costa Rica in the mountains and rainforest, so I was pretty disappointed when we arrived and the entire course was in a compound that was barely a few hundred feet wide. It was their opening weekend and they overbooked, so we spent most of our time waiting on the ground or on the tree platforms. I was bored out of my skull in about 10 minutes.

As I’m standing up on the platform in the trees, I can hear the roar of go-karts to the right of me. All I could think of was getting behind the wheel and ripping up the course. I’m ashamed to admit I bailed on my girlfriends and spent the rest of the day on the go-kart track instead of testing my mettle tree trekking.

This week’s #HappyAct is to start your engines and cross the checkered line at your local go-karting track. Plan a few fun things to do this last week of summer. Have fun everyone.

Girl in go-kart
Grace in car 71

Go-karts
A beautiful night for a race

Posted on in Uncategorized

Do something adventurous

Young man in the 1930s standing in front of an airplane
John Gillies, the pilot

My father was a creature of habit. He had five shirts in his closet, one for Monday to Friday. He ordered the same meals when we went out for dinner and always golfed on Sundays in the summer. The neighbours set their clocks by his daily walk with our old dog Bailey.

When my Dad passed away 12 years ago, we held a celebration at a restaurant. There were lots of laughs and drinks raised in his honour, which is exactly how he would have wanted it. When we were putting together a small display for the restaurant, the full richness of my Dad’s life starting forming in the pages, and it struck me that my dad had a hidden adventurer in him.

There were pictures of him fishing in Northern Ontario and playing trombone at the Palais Royale in Toronto. There were photos of him standing nonchalantly in an airplane hanger in front of the plane he flew when he was in his 20s. There were photos of him meeting the Queen of England (as the press coordinator for the Royal tours in Canada in the 70’s, he met most of the royal family several times and dined on the Royal yacht).

I like to think there is a bit of a hidden adventurer in all of us. In many ways I am like my dad, a creature of habit, but with a hidden adventurer waiting to explore the world and the next adventure in my life.

This week’s #HappyAct is to do something adventurous. While often it’s the small moments and gestures in our lives that bring us the most joy and happiness, we all need a bit of adventure. My adventure this week will be tree top trekking in Muskoka next weekend with my girlfriends. And yes, I’ll be bringing my bug zapper!

To all you Dads out there celebrating Father’s Day, I hope it’s one of the best days of your life, and to my own wonderful husband, the “President Choice of Husbands”, thank you for being such a wonderful partner and father all these years.