Are you a Sentimental Traveler?

Traveling is an incredible experience in life, and when we book our flights, cruises, all inclusive resorts, it comes with the hotel name, airline name, tickets, and when we go to the airport we obtain our boarding passes, luggage tags, Airline Destination Tags which are attached to the luggage, and keep them for memories and sentimental value to some, but however some people discard them and throw them away saying ahh they do not need it anymore, but then when it comes time to reliving memories by taking out your travel memorabilia and overlooking where you have gone, the airlines you have traveled with, or the cruise ships you have sailed on, but do not have anything but maybe pictures from your travels, and then regret not keeping those. It has happened to a few people whom have thrown it all away. Not a good idea to. Its nice to have and overlook them once in a while. It may take up some space, but in the end you know you have it with you for years to come.

For me on the other hand, I am a very sentimental person when it comes to these things. I keep all my travel tickets, documents, luggage tags, the destination code checked baggage tags, airline boarding passes, airport maps, headsets, cruise ship cards, even the napkins, and any logo with the airline, the plane model, or cruise ship, the airline magazines, the pens, anything. I have even kept my all inclusive wristbands from the hotels. Call me crazy, but I keep everything.  I have even kept a record of the room numbers I have stayed in, even shampoo/conditioner bottles from hotels, the shower caps and stuff that they put in the washroom. I take my own shampoo and stuff, because I know that the hotel will have those, so I put them in my luggage right away. I grab a few more. I have kept them in boxes and labelled on what is inside and sometimes I take it out and take a look at them and its nice to be refreshed on my travels. I have traveled a lot in my life and its a beautiful thing and I am so thankful for all those experiences.

Are you a sentimental traveler? Do you keep everything when you travel?

 

Pasta Lovers Unite – Loving All Kinds

I have been loving pasta for as long as I can remember. I remember when I was 8 years old. I made my very first pasta dish with of course the supervision of my mom. She started getting me in the cooking mode since I was 7 years old and she taught me the basics from making pasta sauce from scratch and how long to boil the pasta for and then as I got older when I was 14 years old, I began to do it all myself without supervision anymore and they love my pasta’s I make. Now I do an assortment. I do lasagna, fettuccine Alfredo and a whole bunch of other styles of Pasta. I love tortellini, rigatoni, fuccilli, elbow macaroni, linguine, and among other really awesome styles. For all those connoisseur’s for pasta, I am sure you can all relate to the passion. I think all of us pasta lovers have this different type of food passion and I am sure all of us can eat this everyday. 

Too many carbs though, but I do not care, Pasta is good for you. You may not believe it, but it really is and a good nutrition factor. There are some people who go overboard and go to extremes when dieting, I believe that nobody should diet. All it is, is to watch your portion control and who cares if you have a little more, but pastas have durum semolina, and all kinds of nutrition packed into it.  God bless this food. Spaghetti, Penne Rigate, Tagliatelle, Cannelloni. I have come up with so many recipes, and different styles of how to create and make that perfect sauce, and that perfect blend of tastes. Some can be done with Veggies, an array of meats, Seafood pastas, cheese pastas, pasta salads, Olive oils, vinaigrette,  I would love to get the accessories to make pasta from scratch for my Kitchen Aid stand mixer, but its so expensive to buy, So for the time being I want to try and do different pastas on my own and get the dough recipes and then cut the dough into Tagliatelle Nests, and get them all pretty. There are also small shells, linguine, and so many several types.

In the world, mostly Italy and few other places, pasta, spaghetti is very well know around the world, and different people make it different ways. what are some of your favourite pasta dishes? What do you work with? I would love to venture off to Italy and go on a Food Trip tour and taste and get the feel of how important Pasta is to those regions and to the cultures. I would love to go on a culinary adventure and get more personal with top chefs, Pasta Experts and so much more. The possibilities are endless and its such a beautiful thing.

  P-A-S-T-A …. yum yum yum. Bon Apetit…..

The Armenia Tree Project — Greening Armenia Since 1994

Just a few years ago, I discovered a vibrant and wonderful program called The Armenia Tree Project, and right away subscribed and became a member. The Armenia Tree Project is something that is very important for Armenia. Nearly 60,000 trees were planted in Armenia’s towns, villages, rural areas, family backyards, in front of churches and other historical monuments and historical structures that make it bloom more. The community tree planting has restored over 1.1 million trees in Armenia and Artsakh. To this day, they will continue to restore forests to make it vibrant and beautiful. Armenia is a beautiful country and it is mountainous. Armenia has beautiful winding roads that lead to a church there, and a church here, and every turn there is always something to see, whether its mountains, or historical monument, statue, and so much more. Armenia’s Agriculture, Forestation and environment is so beautiful and the Armenia tree project is doing their best to make sure Armenia is taken care of.

Armenia and Armenians have faced challenges of the past with the Armenian Genocide of April 24, 1915 committed by the Ottoman Turks of Turkey with killing 1.5 million Armenians and plus the 1988 Earthquake of December which killed about 25,000 people and did a lot of damage, and so the Armenia Tree Project helped restore a country who has been through it all. The main mission to this beautiful project is to make Armenia vibrant which it already has been and to protect the future of the environment, nature conservancy, and provide care and greatness to our beautiful Armenia.

Thank you to Jeff Masarjian for your incredible and beautiful spirit and to all those involved into this, thank you to the donations given by so many people, thank you for all the efforts made to make Armenia whole again.

For more information in regards to this beautiful project, please visit — http://www.armeniatree.org and there you can see photos, and get more in touch with My Motherland Armenia.

 

Poem — Highway 401 east To Montreal — By Talin Orfali

Highway 401 East to Montreal

 

Highway 401 east I love you

You are the way to my happy place

So I will never be blue

 

It brings me to Montreal, so many lovely people to see

That I love and admire,

My love for you all is like intense fire.

 

passing by so many cities and towns Galore

going to a city I truly adore.

 

Passing by the big apple, the paint test strips,

thousand islands, the triangle green house and more

So many things the 401 has for people to see

so many things in store.

 

A highway that is so special to me

I know it sounds funny, but its how I

want it to be,

 

The highway 401 east only exists to me

from the start

I love it with all my heart.

 

I know each Kilometre I pass

It gets me closer to the people I love

who have class.

 

Going to a city that is great

that I never want to stop on the way

and keep going straight.

 

So 401 east to Montreal I love you

So many memories since I was a child

so happy I can drive on it now as I grew.

 

Thank you Highway 401 east

You are the best

Forget the west…

The Big Apple — Colborne, Ontario — My Thoughts and My Rating on it.

3, 519,760  apple pies sold. By, Talin Orfali

In past experiences I have stopped at the Big Apple in Colborne, Ontario on my way back and forth from Montreal to Toronto, Toronto to Montreal and I think its a nice landmark in Ontario. It can be seen from Highway 401 at exit 497. Percy St. Big Apple Dr in Cramahe Township. There is a giant red apple, that cannot be missed. It has been in existence since I was little.

I must say certain pies are great especially the Caramel Apple Crumble, but I have tried the Apple cookies and I didn’t find them to be quite appealing. It was overbaked and I really did not enjoy it. It was not what I had expected. The gift shop is quite enormous and there is an array of merchandise, groceries, snacks, souvenirs and apple products for baking and consuming. I had bought a lanyard, t-shirt and a couple of things from the gift shop. I think some of the prices are reasonable, but some are ridiculously expensive. I really do not see the logic of things being expensive in stores. They will be kept there for years if they do not make the prices reasonable for the customers.

There is a golf course, There is a pole with a sign on it stating how far cities are in the world. It is pretty neat. There are animals, and a lookout point in the giant red apple, that overlooks the Highway 401. You can see transport trucks and vehicles driving by so quickly and the nature of trees around is absolutely spectacular.

The cleanliness of the restroom’s are excellent and maintained. If you ever go to a bakery, restaurant or place where food is being served, the restrooms must be clean. The restrooms are an important factor to how food is handled and overall health of a restaurant and how things are made.

My overall rating out of 10 for The Big Apple is an 8. They can improve on some things as stated as above.

Childhood Memories Of Tweed, Ontario, Canada – North of Belleville, Ontario

Recently, I have been thinking a lot about my Childhood memories and another has sticked to me was my moments of going up to the Cottage with my family in Tweed, Ontario Canada about 15-20 minutes North of Belleville, Ontario exiting off the Highway 401 on #544 to Highway 37. Everytime the time came for us to go to the cottage, I was so excited. I would pack my bags and sometimes my mom would pack my bag and we would load up the car and drive down. It took about 2 hours to get there everytime and I enjoyed the trip so much all the time. I am a huge fan when it comes to roadtrips 10 hours or less. :). I remember going fishing, boating, paddle boating, swimming and jumping off the Raft My dad and my uncles built. Sometimes it would be weeks at a time we would go and the grass was ever so tall and when the fall hit, there would be so many leaves on the ground, so I would help rake them up. It was a cute little cottage. What would really scare me when I was a kid, at night there would be Thundershowers, and very strong ones, so I would be so scared that I would hide under the covers and cover my eyes shut so I would not see it, but I am past that stage now. Anyway, I would like to tell you a bit about the Town Tweed, Ontario.

Now, Tweed, Ontario is located north east of the Province Ontario. All the time we would go to Tweed, we would stop by the IGA food market which is not called Valu Mart, and we would get some food for the weekend or however long we would be there. The town is so small and you can get everywhere within 5 minutes 10 minutes. They have North America’s Smallest Jailhouse, The Amazing Dollar Store, a Hardware store, Daisy Mart Beckers Store for convenience. I would always get Bubble Gum Ice cream or Popsicles, and snacks. There is also the Park Place motel which always makes me think of the Game Monopoly, There is a beach on the Lake Stoco, but way too weedy, but it is beautiful. Also A beer store. There is also a Bridgewater Antique Shop near the end of Tweed. There was this man people used to Call Uncle JED, so each time we used to go, we said Hey Uncle Jed, he began to know us and whenever we came to town, he greeted us and he used to give me treats when I was little. After the years went by, we decided to sell the Cottage because nodody was hardly going there anymore after people started getting older and new things were happening in our lives and we just couldn’t go to Tweed anymore which sort of Saddened me and it took a long time to get over it, but its not so bad now.  After we had sold our cottage in 2001 about a year or 2 later when I was about 18 years old, I drove by the town with my brother before we headed to a Camping trip with friends and we decided to pop by and we saw a New Tim Hortons at the end of the Town. A few things were changed. My 2 years of not being in the town does surely change and the population became a bit higher to about 2000 people.

Now on our way to the Cottage in Tweed, as soon as we saw Trenton, Ontario, I said we are getting closer and closer to Tweed. We used to stop at the Mcdonalds on the way at exit 519 on Highway 401 East. At the time there were the barbies and hot wheels happy meals. So I would get the toys. Now that Mcdonalds doesn’t exist anymore. A couple of years ago, they gutted it all out and it became a new OnRoute Service centre with Tim Hortons, Burger King, and so much more. It is now called Trenton, South. There is one just up north of the 401 Parallel to Trenton South. It was so fun just stopping there and you would see all these big 53 footer trucks, tankers, RV’s and stuff. I said wow its awesome. I began to develop a strong respect over truck drivers since that age. My dad said these guys are taking big loads of stuff to other cities and they drive for hours and hours. I love stopping at Highway 401 Service centres. I have had many experiences in them all the time. To this day, These service centres, the Highway 401, Tweed, Ontario and all these little things in life have a big place in my heart and I will never forget it. I do not want to sound weird by loving a Highway and showing my feelings toward it, but its the way I am and like I said, I am very sentimental when it comes to memories of my past and holding onto belongings that mean the world to me. If your ever in Canada, in Ontario, Tweed, Ontario is such a cute place to visit. You will need a car there of course, but its worth a visit. In My Opinion, but everyone has different ones of course.

Well, I hope you have enjoyed reading. Thank you for stopping by. Come again.

I Love The Highway 401 East in Ontario, Canada.

I know in the back of your head you are wondering why I have such a love of a highway? Especially the highway 401. and the Direction is EAST of Course.

Well, let me uncover the information on the story behind it all.

When I was as little as 5 years old, My Family and I took a road trip to Montreal, Quebec. I was so excited for it. One of the very first things that caught my eye was “The Big Apple”. I saw this huge red dome like structure that really excite me, so I begged my father to stop so we can go visit it. So he did and we went to the big apple for a while and then my dad said we have to get back on the road because there was almost 3 and half hours more driving to do. I said ok, so as I was looking outside, I said wow there is no end to this. I was very excited. So after returning from Montreal, I said I want to go again, so not so long after we went back to Montreal to visit family. I was ever so excited again.

So As we had a cottage in Tweed, Ontario just about 30 minutes north from the City Of Belleville, I always looked forward to it and I couldn’t wait until I could drive. When I turned 16 years old, I had just gotten my drivers licence, and so I was legal to drive. So my brother was able to drive at the time, so he stopped on Highway 37 which was the highway that took us to Tweed, so I got to drive all the way to the cottage. It was so exciting, but I wasnt happy because I could not drive on the 401 still, so I hurried up and When I got my other Licence to drive, I was the one to always drive on the Highway 401 and I wouldnt let anyone else drive.

I remember driving to Montreal back by myself for the first time 5 years and a bit ago, and it was the best time of my life, Just the road, myself and my car with my favourite music on, and I did that many times after. I loved stopping at the service centres while taking a break and watching the cars and big rigs flying by ever so fast and hearing the noises was and is just awesome. I went as close as I could to the highway so as I can see it all. I have also driven to Kingston, Ontario by myself and I have also done so much Highway 401 driving, that I got to know the road really well and I almost know every exit number and description by heart. When the Quebec border was coming up also known as Autoroute 20 which is the continuation of Highway 401, I would always make my symbol everytime I entered into Quebec at that point. I would give the “I love you” sign and bring my hand to my heart.

So I kind of grew up with the Highway 401 and I will never forget the great times I have had on there and will continue to have. To me it is not just a road to drive on. It is a lot more to me. I love the Highway 401 and I will always have a place for it in my heart. If you ever need directions on the Highway 401 and the exits, just let me know. I will be there to help you 🙂