Cindy and I are taking the kids up to Saskatoon today for a little R&R. It's harder and harder to sneak away these days, what with the bakery taking all our time and University, friends and the bakery taking all the kid's time. But travelling together has always been a big part of our lives and I don't want that to change.
Ben camping in Clear Lake, Manitoba, 1996
We instilled the travel bug in Ben and Robyn early in life. It started with camping. We took to Duck Mountain park when he was two weeks old and kept on camping and travelling -- Waskesiu, Clear Lake and even the Winnipeg Folk Festival when he was 13 months old. We even fit a car & motel trip to Vancouver Island in his first year.
When Robyn was born we had to switch from the tent to cabins for a year or so but by the time she was two years old we were back in the tent. We went all over, from the BC Interior to the Ontario Border in the summer and up to the Cabin in the Woods at McPhee Lake in February. We had a log book of the best parks and the best tent sites in those parks.
Nova Scotia, 2010
By the time the kids were seven we wanted to see more of Canada so there were two long trips to the Maritimes and a month on Vancouver Island, still in the same small tent. By the time Ben was 14 he was getting too long for the end of our four person tent but we still crammed in there. It was unthinkable to use anything else.
I'm so glad we instilled the travel bug in our kids. They've got it bad. Both have been to Japan on exchange trips. Ben's been to Brazil twice. They've both been to Europe. And they took advantage of every school band trip and ski trip they could. At any point in time one of them is planning a new trip somewhere.
U20 Football (Soccer) World Cup, Victoria, 2007. Six nations festooned on two kids!
Travel has helped us see and be part of other cultures. It's helped us appreciate what we have in Regina but also fueled the desire to bring the best of our travels back home. Orange Boot Bakery exists because of all the awesome bakeries we discovered on our travels, from Saskatoon to San Francisco and Victoria to Mahone Bay. Each one left us thinking "why don't we have that at home?" and now, in a small way, we do.
Awesome pergola outside Village Butcher in Oak Bay, Victoria BC. Still can't convince our landlord to let me build one of these on our patio.