I love living in Thailand, but nothing energizes the spirit more than a return visit home. I don’t feel the need to go back too often – money and time are limited, and with all the video chats and Facebooking and instant messaging available at my fingertips, friends and family back home are never too far away. Not counting a quick trip this past Christmas to attend to some family business, it’s been 8 years since I spent any time of consequence in the Great White North. But that just means that when I do get home, it’s even more special, which was definitely the case from October 6-24, when I, my wife, and our son packed our bags and visited the old country.
Not counting the 18 hours of flights with a teething toddler – which I highly recommend if you hate yourself and/or the people on the plane – it was a fantastic trip. We put about 1,500km on our rented car, had Thanksgiving dinner with my family, caught up with friends, and took a few gigabytes worth of photos.
We were confined to Canada’s west cost – the best coast, as I call it, not to discount the stark beauty of the Maritimes – visiting Vancouver, Port Alberni, Tofi