Shooting the Breeze

We had a fabulous week in New York.  The Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Conference was excellent and I will have lots to write about it in the near future.  Check out my takeaway from day 1 here.

We had an extra day before we had to make the long journey home so we did some more site seeing.  We had an awesome day!

Here is what we were able to see:

Grand Central Station.

The Chrysler Building

The Gutenberg Bible at the Morgan Library

The United Nations

The Empire State Building

What did you do for fun this week?

Lauren and I arrived in New York on Monday night.  We are here for the Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Conference that is taking place at New Life Fellowship this week from May 2nd to 4th.  We are very excited about the conference!

Before the conference we had a day to check out New York.

This is my fourth time and Lauren’s third time coming to the Big Apple.  We have managed to hit a lot of the big attractions in our previous visits here (i.e. Statue of Liberty, World Trade Centre, Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park).

This time we wanted to visit a few things we haven’t yet and we wanted to do a few things we have never done before.

Here is what we did:

At the taping of "The Chew" of ABC.

One of our favourite TV shows is “The Chew” on ABC.  Every lunch hour we watch it with our daughter Bethany.  We have never been to a taping of a show before so we thought that this would be a lot of fun and it was!  Look for us on May 2nd when show airs.

At the American Museum of Natural History.

We went to the Canadian Museum of Nature when we were in Ottawa so we wanted to check out this museum too. I must say that this wasn’t my most favourite attraction that I have been to in New York but I am glad that we went. It is an impressive museum.

New York Public Library.

This is a great free thing to check out in New York. The library is absolutely amazing.  I love checking out old architecture.  This is one of our favourite things to do in New York.

Have you ever been to New York?  If yes, what have you seen?  If no, what would you like to see?

Late Friday night (midnight to be exact), after finishing up a two-day convention with the churches of our region, Lauren and I flew to Ottawa to visit my sister and her family.  It was a nice two-day pit stop before we head off to New York for the Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Conference this coming week.

This was the third time I have been to Ottawa and it was great to check out some of the sites. A few places that we visited were the Parliament Building and Canadian Museum of Nature.  A big highlight was eating a Beaver Tail.

Here are a few pictures from our weekend:

Canada's Parliament building

Parliament Library

Notre Dame Cathedral Basilica of Ottawa

Eating a Beaver Tail

What did you do this weekend?

*** If you would like to see more pictures from my trip to Ottawa click here.

We have been vacationing in Victoria, British Columbia for the past two weeks.  We have had an incredible time!  It has been refreshing and relaxing.  We have built some great memories for our family.

Victoria is a great place to visit.  There are so many awesome things to do (and a lot of them are free).  I grew up in this area and it was fun to visit places that I had been too as a child.  I also visited many other places I hadn’t been to before.  We packed a lot into our two weeks.

3 fun things to do in Victoria, BC

1.  Gold Stream Provincial Park

Niagara Falls, Gold Stream Provincial Park

There are so many things to do at Gold Stream.  Our focus was on the hiking trails.  The first hike we did was to Niagara Falls which is 47.5 meters high.  Being summer the water was low but it still very beautiful.

We spent the rest of the afternoon hiking along the river and then we hiked part way up Mount Finalyson.  I would have loved to hike up the whole way but you need to dedicate a good half day to do that.

2.  Butchart Gardens

Butchart Gardens

The Butchart Gardens are a must see in Victoria.  It is definitely a whole day affair.  We didn’t get there until dinner time and we stuck around for the fireworks (which are phenomenal!)

There is so much to see in the gardens.  My girls loved looking at all the different flowers.  There are also lots of different activities and shows that take place during the day.

3.  Shaw Ocean Discover Centre

Jellyfish at Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre

The Shaw Ocean Discover Centre is absolutely fantastic!  There were so many cool things to see there.  They even let you touch some of the sea life (this was a highlight for Lauren and the girls).

Even though we live near the ocean this was still a neat place to check out.  I was totally mesmerized as I stared into the different tanks.

The best indication you have had a great vacation is you are ready to go home!

We are ready to go home!  Before we do though we have one final stop to make.  We are going back to the Coombs Country Market.  We went there during the May long weekend and we loved it!

What have you been up to this summer?