Since I first strapped on a backpack as a 20-year-old, I’ve been hooked on exploring new places and finding out what’s at the end of this street or beyond that next mountain.

My thirst for the unknown, off-the beaten path and the middle of nowhere adventures started with exploring most of Canada. My first real taste was driving from Quebec City to the Alberta side of the Rocky Mountains for a six-week camping trip when I was 22.  And now I can’t seem to stop.

Journalism took me to places like Flin Flon, Manitoba, Dawson Creek, BC, Yellowknife, NWT, and even Iqaluit, Nunavut, with a number of other remote communities along the way. There was also a six-month backpacking trip to Europe, three months of which were spent hitchhiking around Ireland.

My wife, who I met in Yellowknife, shares my sense of adventure. Canoe camping trips around Yellowknife, a drive to the Yukon and two weeks in Belize were just the beginning. Our honeymoon was a three-month backpacking trip in South America.

Now that we have kids, N. and M. (now 8 and 11 years old), we’ve made sure to include them in our travels. When we left Yellowknife for Ottawa when they were about 2 and 4, we did it our way: a six-week drive across the country, first heading west to the Yukon and Alaska before taking the ferry to Vancouver Island and then driving across the country. All in a Toyota Camry pulling a pop-up tent trailer!

We’ve been told a few times that we are brave (or was it crazy?) to do some of the things we’ve done. But I’ve always believed you should always follow your dreams.  I hope this blog inspires you to try new things, explore new worlds and mostly to just go out and “adventurize”.

I’ve spent almost 20 years working as a journalist then moving around in the wonderful world of communications and public relation. This blog combines my passion for the written word with that of travel. Posts run the gamut, from camping in Alaska to snorkelling with a whale shark in Costa Rica to winter “yurting” in Gatineau Park.

They detail the trials, tribulations but mostly joys of travelling, focusing on sharing tips, ideas and suggestions. In the “Kid’s Corner”, my children get to write about their own experiences and share what they did and learn during our many adventures. Note that some of those are often in French.

Oh, and what’s with the ptarmigan? I laid eyes on these ubiquitous white fluffy birds in Yellowknife and thought they were amazing and resilient. And let’s face it, ptarmigans are very cute!