Summer with Santa

What does Santa do all summer?  If you have been asked this question one too many times, this year travel to Bracebridge, Ontario, Canada and find the answer.<br /><br />Bracebridge, just north of Toronto, sits on the 45th parallel, halfway between the Equator and the North Pole.  Since 1955, Bracebridge has been home to Santa’s Village Family Entertainment Park, Santa Claus’ preferred summer vacation spot.<br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ9pgkgvHDNo1NEDVButcjEXSol9TIWtT53JltXlSj8EA9yCmyC_fclLSJWiUdJ9OZas_B7NlUBmC_PlVmmOrJu1T-rPDhfQukU6APSB7IB9twOeiTm30opOgTlrgnzyxsZIxyRm3V2UDC/s1600/Summer+with+Santa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Summer with Santa" border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ9pgkgvHDNo1NEDVButcjEXSol9TIWtT53JltXlSj8EA9yCmyC_fclLSJWiUdJ9OZas_B7NlUBmC_PlVmmOrJu1T-rPDhfQukU6APSB7IB9twOeiTm30opOgTlrgnzyxsZIxyRm3V2UDC/s1600/Summer+with+Santa.jpg" title="Summer with Santa" width="400" /></a></div> <br /><br /> Not sure what to do first?  After being greeted by Santa himself in Santa Square guests can catch a ride around the 50-acre park on the Candy Cane Express miniature train and use it to get your bearings.<br /><br />Santa is not the only one on vacation over the summer; the elves are too.  The park is full of ways to amuse elves (and children).  <br /><br />Enjoy net climbing excitement in the Elves Island Play Area.  Ride Rudolph’s Sleigh Ride Roller Coaster, the Christmas Ball Ferris Wheel, the Merry-Go-Round, and more.  <br /><br />Children can create customized souvenir crafts in the Elves Workshop and Candy Cane Lane features a variety of skill games to hone hand-eye coordination.  Live entertainers perform at the park throughout the season.<br /><br />Santa’s Village also features a petting zoo complete with goats, sheep, and deer, though not reindeer since Bracebridge is too warm for those hardy animals.<br /><br />One of the attractions of this summer home away from the North Pole is warm weather and the chance to cool off in Santa’s Splash Zone.  Work up a sweat paddling around lemonade lagoon in one of Santa’s Paddleboats or relax and let someone else do the work when you take Santa's Summer Sleigh Jetboat Cruise.<br /><br />The park is open 10am to 6pm from June to September.  For more specific information about Santa’s Village, or to make reservations, visit the park on the web at http://www.santasvillage.ca .

Canada Travel Summer with Santa

What does Santa do all summer?  If you have been asked this question one too many times, this year travel to Bracebridge, Ontario, Canada an...

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Titanic and Halifax

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div> The story of the doomed ocean liner<b> Titanic</b> has captured the imagination of people all over the world since the day it sank.  Halifax, in Nova Scotia, Canada is a largely unknown part of <a href="http://realitytourstravel.blogspot.com/2014/05/titanic-and-halifax.html" target="_blank"><b>Titanic</b> <b>history</b></a>.<br /> <br /> After the <i>Titanic</i> sank, the White Star Line chartered four ships from Canada to search for survivors.  Two of them, the MacKay-Bennett and the Minia, were from Halifax.<br /> <br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJUFUnzNRlaU-h5HWZ3ORDZVz9ZTC8CHjR3ZCDtiTPv2SNBfd6I6yYh37CX4SFeLGr7KKYG29ls5vyw-c_EzBI1OboEIe3pZOkpHo7oFg5wxVrHsE6lxS_47eEPvgnUdY7S4g2x-TyrBDb/s1600/Titanic+and+Halifax.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Titanic and Halifax" border="0" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJUFUnzNRlaU-h5HWZ3ORDZVz9ZTC8CHjR3ZCDtiTPv2SNBfd6I6yYh37CX4SFeLGr7KKYG29ls5vyw-c_EzBI1OboEIe3pZOkpHo7oFg5wxVrHsE6lxS_47eEPvgnUdY7S4g2x-TyrBDb/s1600/Titanic+and+Halifax.jpg" title="Titanic and Halifax" width="400" /> </a></div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <br /></div> Of the 328 bodies recovered from the disaster site, 119 were so badly damaged or deteriorated they were buried at sea.  The remaining 209 were brought to Halifax for identification, where possible.  150 of those people were buried in one of three Halifax cemeteries, based on religion (Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish), giving Halifax one of the largest concentrations of <i>Titanic</i> passenger burials in the world.<br /> <br /> The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax houses the largest collection of wooden <u>Titanic</u> artifacts in the world in their permanent exhibit, Titanic: The unsinkable ship and Halifax, which opened in 1998.  <br /> <br /> One of the centerpieces of the collection is a wooden deck chair, one of the only intact ones in the world known to match those in photos of the ship.  A grandchild of Reverend Henry W. Cunningham gave the chair to the museum. Reverend Cunningham received the chair in recognition for his services in conducting many of the sea burials for Titanic victims.<br /> <br /> One of the most moving items on display is the log of wireless operator Robert Hunston, from Cape Race, Newfoundland.  It is a condensed log of all the distress calls from the ocean liner the night it sank.  Reading the log brings home the reality of the disaster and the amazingly short time in which it occurred.<br /> <br /> For more information on Halifax’s role in the Titanic aftermath, visit the city’s Titanic web page at http://www.halifax.ca/history/titanicmain.html.

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Underneath It All

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div> The weather is a harsh mistress in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.  The natives have fought back by establishing a modern wonder, Montreal’s Underground City.  The underground, as the locals call it, is a remarkable pedestrian network of train stations, shops, hotels, restaurants, museums, and more, under downtown Montreal.<br /> <br /> The underground city got its start in 1962 with the building of the Place Ville-Marie office tower and underground shopping mall.  That first mall connected to Central Station (subway) and the Queen Elizabeth Hotel via tunnels.  Since then the underground has grown to more than twenty-two miles of pedestrian walkways.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8VwIUibk6lYYpu4ofOZ7w2kugaAu1X3EHrdh1zRKsBrYe67DlPF54QzWNFM-XfieMI4z9toMv3ZFlp3QU6tQ1nNtqDmvn1-qAyyrZOir1KgGlXMPml9lceg7e0BcCd6PEoLjryYvX_7CE/s1600/Underneath+It+All.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Underneath It All" border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8VwIUibk6lYYpu4ofOZ7w2kugaAu1X3EHrdh1zRKsBrYe67DlPF54QzWNFM-XfieMI4z9toMv3ZFlp3QU6tQ1nNtqDmvn1-qAyyrZOir1KgGlXMPml9lceg7e0BcCd6PEoLjryYvX_7CE/s1600/Underneath+It+All.jpg" title="Underneath It All" width="400" /></a></div> <br /> Residents of Montreal are extremely proud of their “inside city” (not all of it is<a href="http://realitytourstravel.blogspot.com/2014/05/underneath-it-all.html" target="_blank"> underground</a>), the largest underground complex in the world.  There are more than 150 access points to the subterranean city and more than 60% of the businesses in downtown connect to the underground.  Over 500,000 people traverse the belowground pedestrian walkways and subways of Montreal each day.  Several residential towers connect to the underground as well, allowing some locals to go from home to work to play without ever going outside.<br /> <br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> Some of the most stunning features of the underground complex are the subway stations.  Each station is, literally, a work of art.  When the subway was built 1% of the budget for each station was devoted to procuring and displaying art in the underground.  A different architect designed each station in a different style and no two stations are the same.</blockquote> <br /> A number of well-known tourist spots in Montreal are accessible from the underground city.  Things to check out without going out include Olympic Park and the Olympic Centre (built for the 1976 Olympics);  the Place des Artes, home to the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art (Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal);  and Molson Centre, home of Montreal’s hockey team, the Canadiens.

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The weather is a harsh mistress in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.  The natives have fought back by establishing a modern wonder, Montreal’s U...

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Wolf bluff castle-cortes island

If you are traveling in Canada near Vancouver, be sure to visit Cortes Island.  The island boasts a number of attractions, but none is as unusual as <i>Wolf Bluff</i> Castle.<br /> <br /> <a href="http://realitytourstravel.blogspot.com/2014/05/wolf-bluff-castle-cortes-island.html" target="_blank"><b>Wolf Bluff</b></a> is not your average castle.  It is new enough that its age is measured in years, not decades or centuries.  It is not crumbling or falling down—probably because it is made of cinder blocks.  You can even meet the man who built it.<br /> <br /> Karl Triller, owner and builder of <i>Wolf Bluff</i> Castle (known locally as King Karl’s Kastle), grew up in Hungary dreaming of castles.  When he moved to Cortes Island, he decided to make his dream a reality.  When Karl was building the castle wolves were abundant on the island, hence the name.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKj1fh_TVxIfZk-pahC3E7h-3jlGOnk1sC4ZuTWup5wLC9-7PT5BYO6Jo_49xzBdTdpLMYYuY0DAZC_WLQypvxvRk6ZYXrJSq2O732ojTu6Ycaf77S6IfHdl5-JC2j9gl5IDQzSR-4Itae/s1600/Wolf+bluff+castle-cortes+island.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Wolf bluff castle-cortes island" border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKj1fh_TVxIfZk-pahC3E7h-3jlGOnk1sC4ZuTWup5wLC9-7PT5BYO6Jo_49xzBdTdpLMYYuY0DAZC_WLQypvxvRk6ZYXrJSq2O732ojTu6Ycaf77S6IfHdl5-JC2j9gl5IDQzSR-4Itae/s1600/Wolf+bluff+castle-cortes+island.jpg" title="Wolf bluff castle-cortes island" width="400" /></a></div> <br /> <br /> Karl designed and built the five-story, triple-turreted, eight-bedroom castle from the ground up.  He even made all 13,000 cement blocks used to construct the castle and spent 12 years completing it.<br /> <br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> In the past, <i>Wolf Bluff </i>Castle was a bed and breakfast, but age has forced Karl, a former professional chef, to stop preparing and serving guest meals.  The castle’s modern full-service kitchen is available for self-catering during longer stays.  It is also a base of operations for caterers serving events in the dining hall, a room with space to seat up to one hundred people.  </blockquote> <br /> What castle is complete without a dungeon? Karl’s dungeon is also a torture chamber and features homemade dummies in various states of torment with placards announcing their sins.  <br /> <br /> Karl himself, who does not charge admission but does ask for a donation, leads castle tours.  Do you want to relive that childhood fantasy of being lord of all you survey or a damsel in a tower?  It can happen – talk to Karl about staying the night in <b>Cortes Island’s</b> <b>Wolf Bluff Castle</b>.

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The Yukon capital of Whitehorse is the logical place to begin exploring the history of Klondike Gold Rush

<b>Yukon</b>, formerly The Yukon Territory, is Canada’s most northwestern province, bordered on the north by the Beaufort Sea and the west by the state of Alaska.<br /><br />Visitors to the region will need to be hardy and prepared for the sub-arctic climate.  The temperature in the province goes over 50° F (10° C) less than four months of the year.  The average winter temperature is between -4° F and -26° F (-20° to -32° C) but, since it is drier than many parts of southern Canada, the cold is considered more bearable than the same temperatures would be further south.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNONKkic4JOZEDbLz-h3rO65eRiXOqS0GZIhkXSICx-bw4m_XjIcTNrbC79vyUQOxShe-IDk9jxzW2RJbQvDen51IeGYc67hxDKMA1elSE_4J0KUSRea9LIZd-dKu8o7JDbIw0UepUuou_/s1600/url.jpg+The+Yukon+capital+of+Whitehorse+is+the+logical+place+to+begin+exploring+the+history+of+Klondike+Gold+Rush.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt=" The Yukon capital of Whitehorse is the logical place to begin exploring the history of Klondike Gold Rush" border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNONKkic4JOZEDbLz-h3rO65eRiXOqS0GZIhkXSICx-bw4m_XjIcTNrbC79vyUQOxShe-IDk9jxzW2RJbQvDen51IeGYc67hxDKMA1elSE_4J0KUSRea9LIZd-dKu8o7JDbIw0UepUuou_/s1600/url.jpg+The+Yukon+capital+of+Whitehorse+is+the+logical+place+to+begin+exploring+the+history+of+Klondike+Gold+Rush.jpg" title=" The Yukon capital of Whitehorse is the logical place to begin exploring the history of Klondike Gold Rush" width="320" /></a></div> <br /><br />The Yukon is so sparsely populated that it is the only Canadian province not subdivided for the Census.  The entire province, all 186, 661 square miles of it (483,450 sq km), is a single Census division with an estimated total population of 31,500.<br /><br />The Yukon is best known for the Klondike Gold Rush of 1896.  The rush to hunt to for gold ended 3 years after it began and by 1902 most of the hopeful miners had left.  Gold production peaked in 1911 and the last dredge shut down in 1966.<br /><br />The Yukon capital of Whitehorse is the logical place to begin exploring the history of Klondike Gold Rush.  Be sure to visit the Tourist Information Center before heading down the Klondike Highway to Dawson, ex-fishing village, ex-boomtown on the Yukon River; closest town in Canada to where the gold was found.<br /><br />Today the main industry in the Yukon is tourism.  In the Yukon tourism is a $164 million per year business, a number that has grown steadily since 1996.  The recent discovery, in the 1990s, of diamonds in the Northwest Territories has led people to wonder if the precious stones might not be the next big thing in the Yukon, too.<br /><br /><br />

Canada Travel The Yukon capital of Whitehorse is the logical place to begin exploring the history of Klondike Gold Rush

Yukon , formerly The Yukon Territory, is Canada’s most northwestern province, bordered on the north by the Beaufort Sea and the west by the ...

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