Travel Find Tuesday: Are We Losing the Moment by Capturing the Moment?

I can’t help but wonder that when I look at this video of a couple during their vacation to Spain and Morocco. It’s a beautiful video, don’t get me wrong but…

By always being behind the lens are we forgetting what’s in front of us?

I struggle with this constantly because I work in social media in the travel industry. It’s also really difficult to turn off the gadgets in downtime. I think that’s why it’s so important to unplug and actually have a vacation. Actually, I’m seeing this trend with a few travel bloggers right now and I wonder if it will continue. I don’t think we’ll (“we” as in “travel bloggers” or people in social media as one subset; there’s also the “workaholic” subset as well) ever be able to completely “turn off” but at least living may lead to a better story and less a montage of photos.

So I vow this: one day during my trip in downtime to Portland and San Francisco, I am not going to be on the computer  at all (Twitter, Facebook, blog,the shebang). I’ll even turn off my phone. Gasp!  I can’t promise I won’t take photos. That might be hard. But except for my digital camera for one day, I will not be on any computer  Deal?

Source

May 2012: Monthly Update New Year’s Resolutions 2012

Somehow, I managed to arrange a meet up with some travel lovelies. From left, @MlleTravelista (those legs!), @EpsteinTravels @MelanieHillier (fingers crossed for Tues!) @belizeadventure @thetraveloution and moi at the super fabulous, Thompson Hotel Rooftop in Toronto.

Hello again. Miss me? Here’s the life update.  April’s Resolution post is here. 

NEAR: ZeroWeek

Thinking about buying this Teux Deux app. Teux cute! All hail Swiss Miss.

As you may know from my resolution posts, I’m trying to cut back on my expenses to get out of my debt and of course prioritize my spending for dreams (like travel or to buy tech tools or education that will help further me in my career).

April 2012: Monthly Update New Year’s Resolutions 2012

Eating in means I can scratch more destinations off my scratch map!

It’s been a while. 🙂 I’ve got some developments and I’m excited to share them!

Hear Ye. Hear Ye.

NEAR: The Shorts Challenge

Challenge: to fit into these comfortably by June 23, 2012.

Inevitably there comes a point in one’s life when one (read: me) has eaten too much. 

#FriFotos: Earth Day

To be honest, I didn’t think I’d have enough material for this week’s Fri Fotos. I don’t work for a recognizable pro-environment company. I’m not one of those gung-ho enivronmental evangelists nor do I need to laud it over people’s heads. But I do what I can with what I’m aware of. (If that makes any grammatical sense whatsoever.)  My dad taught me to turn off the lights and he always used to chastise me about it and saving energy in that simple sense became a habit. Now when I see other people leave the lights on at unnecessary times, I get annoyed and always turn off the light. I recycle. I’m a good citizen. I won the environmental challenge in Grade 8. They even gave me a pretty certificate. Does this count?

But seriously, how in the h-e-to-double-hockey-sticks can I be a better traveler in that sense? Right now I don’t have the time to do a voluntourism type of vacation or take a few months to save the children in Africa. Sorry, not trying to sound sarcastic here but I would love to hear your tips. Here are a few photos I came up with.

NEAR: L’Unità

Photo: Knot PR http://www.flickr.com/photos/knotpr/

So I figured I’d wait a while to try a new restaurant since I’ve been working on other resolutions. After all, I have now completed NINE of my ten resolutions and it hasn’t even been six months. Go me! But the sacrifice is my waist line (and after trying on a few pairs of shorts, I’m realizing I need an exercise resolution, not a restaurant one).

The culprit in feeding me copious amounts of delicious food this time? L’unita.

I’ve attached pictures but it was so dark in there that we literally had to crowd four candles around the food to get a decent picture.  Yes, were one of *those* diners.

After deciding to try out L’unita instead of Niagara Street Cafe (which beckoned my first twitter hater who didn’t like the fact that I wasn’t coming to Niagara Street Cafe because it was closing), I’m glad I made the choice.

I went into a detailed review of my first experience on Yelp. I’ll talk about the food on my second visit and the vibe as a whole here.  Thus, the two reviews will be mixed.

#FriFotos: Clocks

Time in Paris and New York

This Friday’s theme was clocks and time. I thought it was a good post and never realized I had a few photos of clocks. I love the romance of old clocks and finding them in the strangest places. Here are a few of my finds. 

NEAR: Save In The City. A Video Entry!

The Ginger Chicken Banh Mi Sandwich. This photo does not do it justice but I can't embed the video for some reason!

So…there’s this amazing website in Toronto called “My City Lives” and what makes it different from other sites is that it’s a hyper local travel site that’s dedicated to video blogs.  Not only can find out about specific categories (shopping, food and drink, etc.) you can look for videos based on location via the map of Toronto. Pretty nifty! So these geniuses teamed up with financial jaggernaut ING to launch a video contest called “My City Saves.” Anything goes but you have to show your best saving tip in Toronto.

NEAR: My Ten Favourite Places to Drink or Have a Cocktail in Toronto

Cold Tea

So lately, I’ve been going out a lot (no, this is not new news if you know me). I guess I’ve been drinking more than usual too. And while I won’t go on about how alcohol can be draining on the budget, Toronto has some great places to drink. I’ve stumbled upon a few new places (to me) and thought I’d share. The full Yelp list is here.