2024 Trip/Experience Goals

I left my full time job last year in late February of 2023. I ran my remaining events till mid May then had the remaining year to work on my 2024 events and unwind/travel/see my mom.

In the last 5 years, the cost of travel has really gone crazy. Trips that Katie and I had planned to do in 2019/2020 were 50% or more in cost in 2023/2024. So in 2023, we decided to stick to the ground and drove to Florida and stayed there for 5 weeks. We made stops in Delaware, Virginia and South Caroline before making our way to Orlando, Seaworld and Disney World. It was an amazing trip and those 5 weeks were just absolutely amazing. I'll make a separate post about that trip later.

For 2024, we decided to focus on a ton of mini vacations and day trips in Ontario, 3 separate 5 day trips during Christmas break, 5 day vacation in Burlington during the March break and an 8 week trip in Florida again. We really like Florida and feel we should take advantage of it while the kids are at such a great age for it. As they get older, trips to Europe, Latin America and Asia will be our main priority.

There isn't much to do in Brantford, I consider it a commuter city and we often have to leave the city to do things. We moved to Brantford so that Katie could live close to her family, Brantford was a centre spot to both of our workplaces and the housing was a third of the cost of similar homes in Oakville and Burlington. Although I'm not a huge fan of Brantford, I'm glad we moved here because we were never mortgage poor and were able to use our savings to start up my business which has payed huge dividends to the both of us. Life is just much cheaper in Brantford and because of that, we have a much larger budget for day trips, travel and experiences.

During the 2024 March break, we did a mini vacation in Burlington at the Pearl Hotel and Spa for 5 days. It's an amazing high end hotel on the water near Spencer Smith Park. I used my credit card points to pay for the hotel and my platinum status from travelling so much got us a free sit down breakfast every day. The breakfast was huge so we often skipped lunch most days and if we did do lunch, we'd get their stone oven pizza at their cafe on the main floor. Although doing a 5 day trip in a city only 45 minutes away seems odd, it was an amazing little vacay. We went to medieval times and our knight won the show and Violet got picked at the end by the princess and she got a free picture and sash, we went and saw Migration, Trolls 4 and another movie that Katie liked using our Costco Cineplex Passes, we went out for really nice dinners in the local area, we did a day trip in Oakville and I showed the family were I grew up, the school I attended and all my favorite spots, we visited all the popular donut/bakery spots, we went to 4 different malls so Katie could do some shopping and the kids went for a swim every night in the fancy hotel pool. I miss living in the Oakville/Burlington area, but I don't think I'd appreciate it as much as I do now if I lived there.

As far as day trips go, we focus on Oakville, London, Burlington, Hamilton and Toronto. We find these cities provide the best scenic walks or things to do for the whole family. The goal this year is to do 15+ day trips across the province.

My 2024 Travel Goals:

1. Mini vacay in London with the fam over Christmas Break (Done)

2. Go tubing in Brantford (Done)

3. Go tubing on a commercial hill (Couldn't do it)

4. Go Dog sledding near Barrie (Couldn't do it)

5. Spend our March Break at the Pearl Hotel and Spa in Burlington (Done)

6. Go see Uncle Ryan 4 times

7. Spend the day with Adrian and the fam 4 times

8. See Cousin John 2 times

9. Go to Washington DC

10. Go on a cruise

11. Go to Seaworld

12. Go to Disney World

13. Go to Delaware

14. Go to Boston

15. Spend a week in Muskoka on the water

16. Do a mini vacay in Toronto and do all the touristy stuff

17. See my Mom 4 times

18. Visit Kingston, Peterborough, Guelph, Kitchener, Barrie, St Catherine's and Ottawa one time each.

19. Visit Niagara falls twice

20. Take Katie to a special place without the kids for our 15 year anniversary

21. Go to the Pearl Hotel and Spa for my Birthday weekend.

22. Take Katie shopping for her Birthday.

23. Visit the USS Haida in Hamilton with the Fam

24. Go to the RBG in Burlington and do all their trails

25. Go to Burlington Beach and the Burloak Waterfront trail/beach

26. Surprise Katie with a trip to a spa

27. Take Katie to swim with otters in the US

28. Do a Penguin excursion in Florida

29. Do a surprise for Katie during our Florida Trip.

30. Take Katie to Valentino's in Hamilton (Her favorite Restaurant)

31. Take Katie to California Sandwich (Hey Favorite sandwich shop)

32. Bring Violet to Pita Pit 6x times (Her fav place)

33. Do all the Oakville and Mississauga Waterfront trails.

34. Do my annually Bayfront Park/Gino's Pizza/Ice cream and boardgames Trip with the kids.

35. Vitis the McMaster Planetarium for a show

36. See 6 movies in Theatres

37. Go on a boat ride

38. Go fishing

39. Go to the factory in London

40. Visit all the Bass Pro Shops in the Province

41. Watch a Buffalo Sabres game

42. Watch a blue Jays game

43. Do a minimum of 20 trails from the All Trails App.

44. Visit 3 different zoos

I signed up for the ticket lottery to the World Juniors in Ottawa but was never selected which is disappointing. It would have been a great trip with the family. There is just so much to do up there and we have friends in Ottawa.