Travel

The Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum (CWHM) in New Hope, Ontario, is unique because it is home to world’s largest collection of flying vintage aircraft.   The museum also houses an aviation art gallery, interactive displays, audio-visual presentations, and an assortment of aircraft photographs and memorabilia.
The Museum began as a labor of love for four friends, Dennis J. Bradley, Alan Ness, Peter Matthews, and John Weir.  The men did not just set out to restore just any planes, they specifically wanted to preserve and maintain a collection of the aircraft flown by Canadians and the Canadian military services from World War II to the present.
In 1993, an inferno ripped through one of the hangars at the Hamilton International Airport that the Museum was using for storage and restoration and destroyed five of the restored planes.  The museum reluctantly acknowledged the need to move to a single facility that could accommodate both the displays and the space needed to do restoration work.  As a member of Canada’s royal family and the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum’s royal patron, Charles, the Prince of Wales officially opened the new building in April 1996.
The Museum has over forty aircraft from the 1940s warplanes to jets from the 60s and 80s.  Most of the planes are military and many of them are rare.  Nowhere else will you find such a large collection of flight-ready vintage airplanes.  The Museum flies one of their operational planes once a day during, the summer season, and Thursdays through Sundays in the spring and autumn, weather permitting.
The Museum’s ride program, Legends Flight, gives people the opportunity to reserve a ride in either an open-cockpit bi-plane or the Harvard Trainer.  They also offer two different flight paths, the Niagara Escarpment Tour over Hamilton and the Lake Ottawa shoreline or the Grand River Tour.

The Empress Hotel sits regally on the Inner Harbor of Victoria, capital of British Columbia, and is a joy to behold for both history and architecture buffs.  The Fairmont Empress will be celebrating her one hundredth anniversary in 2008.

The hotel was begun in 1904 after supporters of the city convinced the Canadian Pacific Railroad to establish regular ferry service to Vancouver Island and build one of the railroad’s signature hotels in Victoria.  The Empress, named for Queen Victoria, then the Empress of India, and designed by English architect Francis Rattenbury.  The original, 116-room Edwardian chateau-style building opened with a great deal of fanfare in 1908.

The hotel’s magnificent architecture and opulent décor are legendary.  Built at the height of British power in India, it features a number of colonial India-themed areas.  Most notable of these is the club-like Bengal Lounge, decorated with objects given to the hotel by some of its notable guests.  An Indian maharaja donated the mounted tiger skin on the wall and the murals above the bar were a gift to the hotel from the king of queen of Siam.

To take Afternoon Tea at the Empress is to take a journey back in time.  This formal, high tea occurs daily and is enjoyed by over 100,000 people each year.  Do not expect to take it lightly, though.  High Tea is, in many ways, a meal, and you will pay accordingly.

There were rumors that the owners were planning to demolish the property and build a new resort on the site in the 60’s, but the public outcry caused against this plan led to the $4 million “Operation Teacup” renovation.  Another, significantly more expensive renovation took place in the 1980’s.

The hotel is also home to Willow Stream Spa and affiliated with two local golf courses, for guests who want more than art architecture.

At one time Las Vegas was little more than a tiny town in the desert, then came the boom time of the big casinos and the reputation of being a fun place to visit began to grow.  Today, many of those original big casinos that once boasted performers such as Elvis, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr, have been torn down and in their place stand entertainment complexes that are part hotel, and part theme park.

Today the Las Vegas strip is a strange place by day; an imposing array of awkward looking high storey hotels on either side of the road.  But as the ugly ducking transformed into a swan, these buildings transform into a magical land of colored lights and fancy special effects once darkness falls.  Each of the main hotels has it’s own signature and often these are programmed to run at set times every night, so check with your hotel concierge if they have a list of the times – or visit the websites for each hotel prior to starting your vacation.

As the best time to see the strip is after dark, keep the daylight for taking part in the various other activities such as shopping, museums (such as Liberace’s), and even taking a peek in one of the famous wedding chapels, but make sure you save most of your energy for once the sun goes down and Vegas really comes to life.

Gambling at Vegas is almost mandatory – not by the establishments, but by human nature!  To make sure you get home in one piece, set a limit to how much you can afford to lose in any one night, and don’t go over that amount.  Pace your budget by taking in a dinner show at one of the hotels – check the local listings to see who’s appearing where during your vacation, then ask your hotel reception if they can get you tickets.

Las Vegas is more than just casinos, but if you enjoy bright lights, cabaret and the sound of poker chips being restacked, then there’s no better place to spend your vacation.

Converted from a military installation to a federal prison in 1934, Alcatraz is one of America’s foremost notorious prisons.  Despite the fact it was only used as a prison for 29 years, it’s probably the most famous.  There are two main reasons for its being so well known; firstly the notability of prisoner which were housed there, and secondly, its image recorded by Hollywood’s moviemakers.

By current standards, the prison wasn’t large, housing only 250 inmates, but because of its island location, there were never any escapes recorded from it – thus adding fuel for entertainment industry to create movies such as “Escape from Alcatraz” where real life escape attempts were transposed into movies for the big screen.  TV’s “Mythbusters” have since proved that escape was in fact a possibility, despite Alcatraz’s reputation to the contrary.

Today Alcatraz, known also as the Rock, is overseen by the National Parks Service who have representatives on the island.  Visitors will be able to ask NPS staff any questions they have, but there are no formal tours around the prison.  There are self-guided tours – including the cellhouse audio tour - however, which together with videos and exhibits make for an interesting trip around this famous building.  The evening ferry ride out to Alcatraz offers a greater insight into the island than the daytime ones as it circles the island, and has a narration about the island’s history – this should be balanced against the fact that there are some areas of the island that not open at night because of safety issues.  There’s no fee for actually visiting Alcatraz, but the ferry companies that transport visitors across the Bay do charge for their services.

Whether you are interested in the Alcatraz myth, the celebrity inmates such as Al Capone, and Alvin Karpis, movie locations, or the historical past of San Francisco, you’ll find Alcatraz an interesting way to spend a few hours.