Leaving the UK & Travels in Canada & the US

Three blogs about leaving the UK and travelling in Canada & the US in 2018 that I originally posted on Facebook notes....

Goodbye Canterbury (September)

After nearly 40 years as a resident of the UK I am emigrating to Australia. My predominant feeling is one of excitement, as I am looking forward to the challenges ahead. I am also feeling sad to be moving so far away from my family and friends.

The last 8 years of working and living in Canterbury have been a fantastic time in my life and somewhere I have felt truly happy, valued and content. It is the place where I met my wonderful wife Katherine and our beautiful daughter Frankie was born and will always hold so many treasured memories.

As a tennis coach of over 20 years I have worked in lots of different places and in several different teams. Polo Farm Sports Club has proved the most innovative and community centred place I have worked at. It is amazing to think how much the facilities and the tennis programme have evolved in the time I have work there. I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has helped and supported me at Polo in my 7 and half years. Yesterday was my last day working at the club and my Head Coach Simon presented me with 2 amazing gifts. One was a display case with some rocks and a hammer with the words ‘Duncan, keep pounding the rock’ (read a book called ‘The Culture Code’ if you want to know the significance!). The second gift was an amazing memory book with pictures, quotes and messages. It really blew me away and something I will treasure dearly. I am looking forward to returning as a visitor in the years to come and following all the stories on social media.

On route to Australia we are spending a couple of months travelling in Canada and the US. I am looking forward to spending time with family and exploring places I have always wanted to go. We are touching down in Brisbane in November and staying with Katherine’s family initially whilst we establish ourselves and look for our next working challenges.

So goodbye to the UK for now. It will always be the place I identify the most with. I am very proud of my Essex, Scottish and Shetland roots. A big thank you to everyone who has helped me on my journey. Please keep in touch.

Bye Bye Canada (October)

After forty-six days we have sadly said ‘bye-bye’ to Canada. We have had a fantastic time and have many treasured memories.

Toronto, was the starting point of our trip and we had 10 action packed days. Staying with Katherine's aunt and uncle in Brampton required our first hire car, a tiny Chevrolet Spark! One journey where Katherine's uncle said ‘follow me’, was as good as any roller-coaster ride, as we darted about the maze of motorways surrounded by huge trucks and SUVs!

Toronto has so much to see and do. Ripley's Aquarium, Toronto Islands and seeing polar bears at the zoo being my sightseeing highlights. Catching up with with family was great fun. We enjoyed lots of amazing meals with Katherine’s family and a fun day picking apples on a local farm. Going to Ian and Katie’s bespoke sushi restaurant 'Skippa' was a new experience for me. The food and the service were fantastic, a place that is being built on passion and hard work. Playing tennis with Peter brought back a lot of memories of how we use to play together in our youth on the famous grass courts at Frinton. My family highlight was having a big family get together at my cousin's Barbara's house, with Laura, Ray and Tony joining all Toronto family. Frankie loved seeing a raccoon that came for a visit on Barbara’s roof!

From Toronto we took a plane to Calgary and there was a big change in the weather. Toronto was uncomfortably hot at times but the cold weather gear we packed now became essential, including Frankie’s new ‘bear hat’! We had 3 nights in Calgary and I really enjoyed visiting the Sports Hall of Fame, watching some youth ice hockey and fun and games with Frankie in the Science Park. We also met up with Katherine’s family friends, and was fascinating to hear their experiences of living in Calgary since the mid 70’s. 

Our second hire car was a Nissan Qashqai and this proved a great choice for our adventures in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. This was the part of trip I was most looking forward to and it did not disappoint. For around 10 days it was the norm to be surrounded by snow peaked mountains and it was just visually stunning. We were so lucky with the weather and managed to get amazing views from the Jasper SkyTram and of the highest peak Mount Robson.

My highlight of the rockies was our trip to the Grizzly Bear Refuge at the Kicking Horse Mountain Resort, where we paid a little extra for the ranger assist program. This was well worth it as we got to help with feeding Boo the Bear and see him close up. We did several walks in the Rockies with Frankie in the child backpack and were certainly very aware of the dangers of bears. It was very amusing when Katherine asked one of the park rangers, “so there should no be too many problems at the moment, as it isn’t bear season, is it?”, and he replied saying “the bears are currently at their most active, foraging for berries and food up to 20 hours a day, in preparation for hibernation!!”

Our next stop was Kamloops, where the highlight was an event at the Adam’s river celebrating the sockeye salmon run. It was then on to Vancouver for 4 days, where we enjoyed exploring Stanley Park and Granville Island. 

Our final destination was Vancouver Island for two weeks, which proved the perfect end to our time in Canada. Kyle and Megan were amazing hosts. Frankie has loved trying to keep up with ‘the boys’, her older cousins Cole and Logan! A big thanks to Kyle and Joy for organising a surprise birthday party for Katherine, including the most amazing chocolate cake I have ever tasted. 

Our trip to the Pacific Rim National Park and Cathedral Grove were two sightseeing highlights on Vancouver Island. Cathedral Grove is where some of the oldest and largest trees are in Canada. I was amused that they had called the biggest tree ‘The Big Tree’! A creative opportunity missed there I think for this magnificent Douglas Fir that is 76 metre high and 9 metres in circumference! My suggestion would be ‘Dougie’! 

On my previous trips to North America I had lots of fun with the different words used for everyday items, like ‘trousers’ being called ‘pants’. On this trip I was most amused by the Sat Nav directing me to go 'left at the Traffic Circle', when I came to a roundabout!! ‘Poutine’ was another one. I had seen it on lots of menus and wondered what this Canadian delicacy was! Turned about to be cheesy chips! 

We want to thank everyone who has made us feel so welcome and helped make our trip so enjoyable. Next for us is exploring the west coast of America, starting with Seattle. Looking forward to exploring more of Canada in the future.....

Goodbye America (November)

After 70 days and 14 different homes we have completed our travels. My last BLOG was about escapades in Canada and this one is about our 26 days of adventure down the west coast of America.

We have found our time in America more challenging. Our biggest reflections have been that we prefer getting out into nature more and the independence of car travel. Travelling mainly on the Amtrak trains and staying in cities would be something we are unlikely to do as much in the future. We have though met lots of great people and had some amazing experiences.

We arrived in America in Seattle, via the ferry from Vancouver Island. It was late in the evening and very foggy, which gave our taxi driver a challenging time finding our accommodation! We awoke to much better weather and continued this for our 3-day stay. We really liked Seattle and found lots of cool things to do. The Space Needle is the obvious choice for views but we are glad to have taken my aunts advice and instead ascended ‘The Smith Tower’. The views are fantastic and narrative they have put together is great fun. We also enjoyed breakfast at the awarding winning Bakery Nouveau, the amazing Seattle Public Library, Pike Place Market and the Amazon Sphere’s.

Our next destination was Portland. After reading some great things we were left disappointed but 3 days of heavy rain did not help things. The clouds did lift for the Saturday morning farmers market at the Portland State University and we had a great time exploring. We also had great fun with Frankie at the Children’s Museum. 

We then took an overnight Amtrak sleeper train to Oakland. The cabin for the 3 of us was tight and the beds very hard on our backs but we had fun and had some lovely scenery. We then took a bus to Alameda, where we stayed 3 nights in a very cool vintage style caravan. Alameda is a very relaxed and friendly place. We had a day trip to San Francisco and enjoyed seeing the sea lions on Pier 39. We also experienced our first Halloween in America. People really go for it here and amazing to see how much effort people put into decorating their front gardens and dressing up.  

We then spent a day on the train to get to Los Angeles, where we stayed in the Downtown area. We had a lovely time meeting up with Katherine’s family on her dad’s side and they introduced me to the joys of a motorised scooter. We also had an amazing time at Katherine’s cousin wedding, on the roof of the Los Angeles Athletic Club. Frankie had a great time and could not stop dancing and smiling at the reception. Looks like we have a party girl on our hands!

Our final destination was Oceanside, where we were hosted by Father Jim, who we met on our Amtrak journey from Portland to Oakland. Oceanside is a real gem and we had a lovely time in the pier and beach areas, where scenes from Top Gun were filmed! The Saint Luis Rey de Francia mission was well worth the visit. The chapel is stunning and very different to the typical U.K. churches. Father Jim was a fantastic host and he got us taking early morning walks on the beach, introduced us to the amazing ‘In-N-Out Burger’ restaurant and played some iconic music that Frankie loved dancing to. 

We were thrown a curve ball on our final journey as we took the Amtrak from Oceanside to LA, with our flight to Australia the same day. A few minutes in and we were informed a freight train had derailed and we were not going to get to LA on this train. Fortunately Katherine’s family in LA were able to pick us up, enjoy some family time, and made it to LAX airport on time. 

It is goodbye to America and a big thank you to all the lovely people who have helped and supported us on our adventures. Next stop Brisbane and our new home country. We are currently applying for jobs that could take us anywhere in Australia. My next BLOG will be a Christmas one.....