This page contains the listing of the blog entries for our 2024 20th anniversary trip to Toronto and Collingwood, Ontario, in July and an August visit to Dahlonega, Georgia. The most recent posts appear first for each trip.
Dahlonega, Georgia – August 2024
Note 56 – More Wine, History, Chocolate, and a Bavarian Surprise
Day 3 of our Dahlonega trip found us exploring downtown Dahlonega mid-morning Friday. It was pretty quiet and few shops were open yet, so we wandered around a bit. We found the old Presbyterian Church from 1900, now used by the Catholics since the mid-1960s. It had an interesting Japanese Maple growing by it. One…
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Note 55 – Southern Food, Wine, and Gold
In early August, we flew into Charlotte, North Carolina, because we had American Airlines credits to use by the middle of August and it was one of nine US airports with non-stop flights from Houston on AA (we didn’t want to mess with connections). After booking, we had to decide what to do once we…
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20th Anniversary Trip to Toronto – July 2024
Note 53 – Exploring Collingwood, Ontario, and Our Return to Houston Post-Hurricane
To wrap-up our “Toronto” trip, we decided to get out of the big city for a couple of days and explore more of the Ontario “countryside”. I was perusing Google maps for ideas up towards Georgian Bay and Lake Huron when I spotted a town name that seemed familiar – Collingwood. I couldn’t quite place…
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Note 51 – Niagara-on-the-Lake Winery Tour
For our final full day in Toronto, we left the city again on a private tour to visit three wineries in Niagara-on-the-Lake (NOTL) with lunch included at a local restaurant. I had researched small group and private tours from Toronto online and finally booked a private tour directly with Ontario Group of Touring Companies (OGTC).…
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Note 50 – Visiting Toronto’s Castle – Casa Loma
As mentioned in Note 49, we decided on a relaxed sightseeing day in Toronto following our day in Niagara Falls. We used the Hop-on Hop-off (HOHO) bus to get an overview of Toronto’s various districts and use it as our transportation to Casa Loma and back. Casa Loma History The HOHO stop is about a…
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Note 49 – Seeing Toronto from the HOHO Bus
Following our long day to Niagara Falls, we decided on an easier sightseeing day in Toronto. We elected to do the Hop-on Hop-off (HOHO) bus to get an overview of Toronto’s various districts and use it as our transportation to Casa Loma (Toronto’s castle-like mansion) and back. So, I went online and pre-purchased our tickets…
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Note 48 – Independence Day at Niagara Falls
For the Fourth of July, we took a small group tour with a 7am pickup from our hotel to Niagara Falls that I found via Viator. The company, Trip Shepherd, runs a lot of tours in/to Niagara Falls (as well as many other cities in the US and Canada), all with good reviews. We saw…
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Note 47 – Ontario, Canada for our 20th Anniversary
For our 20th anniversary, Dave wanted to go somewhere with lower temperatures than Texas – I readily agreed of course! We settled on Toronto for several reasons, among them – Dave had never been there, I was here once – 44 years ago, our honeymoon 20 years ago was to Canada, it’s a non-stop flight…
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Notes By Nancy 