Canada
I grew up in New Hampshire, which borders with Canada. Now I live in Denmark, which borders with Sweden. I’ve visited Sweden many times, so you might imagine that I visited Canada many times throughout my early life.
Alas, the distances are a bit different. Visiting Sweden took less than a half hour from my initial home in Denmark, so a visit to Sweden from Denmark is more like a trip into a Massachusetts, Vermont, or Maine.
Most of my visits to Canada have been while on business, when I worked for a company headquartered in Ottawa, but I never took pictures on those visits.
Actually, though, I did visit twice for pleasure. The first time with my college roommate and his family. The second time when I decided that I needed to learn how to vacation solo.
July 1984
Aside from Germany, where I chose to exit the womb, Canada is the first country outside of the United States that I ever visited. At that time, I could travel into Canada without a passport, so I did not get my first passport until nearly a decade later.
This introduction to international travel and intrigue was thanks to my college roommate, Dave, who invited me to visit his family’s summer house in Nova Scotia, along with his twin sister, Ginny, plus their father and grandmother.
April 2011
After my divorce in 2010, I resolved to vacation solo.
I had actually vacationed solo earlier. On my first solo trip, I met Christine, the Danish woman who became my wife, in a train station in France. That’s another story, of course.
I hadn’t vacationed solo since that time, nearly 20 years earlier. Christine managed our vacation destinations and I was happy she did. My plan now was to use photography as an activity while traveling. My first trip was from Boston, after a business trip, driving up through Vermont to Montreal.
I was surprised how nervous I was, in the taxi from my business hotel to the rental car agency. Reflecting, I realized that my fear was that I would not enjoy myself. Because if I didn’t enjoy myself, I didn’t know how to have fun in the future.
To be honest, it wasn’t the greatest trip. I needed to learn how to travel solo. I needed to learn how to take breaks. Stop for meals and not just walk from morning to dusk, searching for impressive photo opportunities.
Looking through those pictures reminds me of those feelings. I am not all that impressed with the pictures I took, either of the people or the place, though I am surprised to see that I was doing street photography already. I even managed to connect with a few people, albeit unintentionally.
This gallery collects my pictures of the place. To read about my experience and see the titles I’ve given each picture, visit the trip page.
