The USA and Canada are almost magical; like Hong Kong, it was built by immigrants and refugees who arrived with nothing and faced with an uncertain future. With determination and grit, they resolved to make this a meritocracy where anyone can make it in life – or so they believed. Read more
During the first quarter of the 20th century, 30,000 men worked to dig the New York Subway. The work was dangerous and collapses were frequent with many of those who died unnamed Italian and Irish immigrants, back then seen as less than desirable. All this work was undertaken when trams Read more
There are no good airports serving New York City, Trump’s helicopter service failed and the traffic is atrocious. Turns out, the right way to get to the Big Apple is by pulling into Pen Station on the Maple Leaf Amtrak service from Toronto in business class. The premium service with Read more
Muhammed Ali stayed here after he lost to Joe Frazier across the street at Madison Square Garden, Nikola Tesla invented alternating current on the 33rd floor, and CBS recorded music to broadcast to troops overseas during the Second World War. This hundred-year-old art Deco monolith in New York City is Read more
I know of presidential libraries that have a primary function of generating political dialogue and act as a depository of information from the executive branch, but given the reputation of late President John F. Kennedy, his presidential library is a tribute to the work of his life. The museum houses Read more
Every October, Upper Canada Village in Morrisburg closes for a whole month for regular visits only to open in the evenings for lit pumpkins. About 7,000 handcrafted pumpkins are put together for a colourful light show with huge pumpkin sculptures. The pathway is a kilometre long and takes about 30 Read more
I’ve been to aviation museums in Ontario to the likes of Trenton and Ottawa, and those are mighty impressive. Ones in Quebec, even in major cities like Montreal and Quebec City, are much smaller. The Air Defence Museum in Bagotville, 20 minutes east of Saguenay, is a little different. Bagotville Read more
The fortress-like prison in Philadelphia have 30-foot walls that go underground. Built in 1830, it was the world’s first purpose-built prison meant to deprive people of freedom as a form of punishment. Jails before this were just holding pens for people waiting for their sentences which might be flogging, hanging, Read more
Jewish Americans landed in New Netherlands before it became New York and built their first synagogue in the country there in 1730. So, logically, New York should have been the home to this museum rather than Philadelphia. Early Jewish settlers included Portuguese Jews who were persecuted and forced to convert Read more
An incredible collection of western European modern art from the likes of Prendergast, Cézanne, and Van Gogh ended up in Philadelphia. I loved the giant pointillism painting Models by Seurat which featured a slice of the famous A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. Both are from Read more
The country’s third longest Foucault pendulum is in Philadelphia‘s Franklin Institute. It proves that the Earth is round and turns on an axis. The Pendulum appears to change direction while in reality the Earth is the one spinning and the pendulum maintaining a constant direction. The museum is named after Read more