-
Airborne Trampoline – Kitchener, Ontario
Badge of Awesome Communities invites you to share your favourite things to see and do in cool destinations around the world. We caught up with the folks from Airborne Trampoline KW — one of our featured attractions from the Waterloo Region area — to learn about what they have to offer.
-
Backyard Axe Throwing League (BATL) – Kitchener, Ontario
Badge of Awesome Communities invites you to share your favourite things to see and do in cool destinations around the world. We caught up with the folks from Backyard Axe Throwing League (BATL) — one of our featured attractions from the Waterloo Region area — to learn about what they have to offer and what…
-
Adventure Rooms Canada – Kitchener, Ontario
Badge of Awesome Communities invites you to share your favourite things to see and do in cool destinations around the world. We caught up with the folks from Adventure Rooms Canada — one of our featured attractions from the Waterloo Region area — to learn about what they have to offer and what they think…
-
Pirate Adventures – Ottawa, Ontario
Badge of Awesome Communities invites you to share your favourite things to see and do in cool destinations around the world. We caught up with the folks from Pirate Adventures Ottawa — one of our featured attractions from the Ottawa, Ontario area — to learn about what they have to offer and what they think…
-
Great Canadian Bungee – Ottawa, Ontario
Enjoy the thrill of a lifetime with a 200-foot leap into the abyss.
-
Experience Food tours – Ottawa, Ontario
Ottawa has become a culinary destination with some of the country’s most talented chefs. What better way to discover this than with an Experience Food Tour?
-
Lock and load at Splatzone! Paintball — Cambridge, Ontario
Keen to try paintballing but worried it hurts too much? Splatzone! Paintball‘s low-impact games in Cambridge, Ontario offer all the action — with half the welts.
-
Thinking Things Through: Lessons learned from nearly swallowing a severed human toe
There are 3 items on my ultimate bucket list. Joining Captain Dick’s World Famous Sour Toe Cocktail Club is one of them. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this… unusual… drinking tradition, Sour Toe cocktails are found exclusively at the Downtown Hotel bar in Dawson City, Yukon, Canada. Entry into the prestigious club…
-
Failing Your Way to Success: Lessons learned from being blindfolded and left in a farmer’s field
Whenever my extended family gets together you can usually count on three things: a lot of boxed wine, a lot of Euchre and a lot of jackassery. Our Easter celebration a couple years ago delivered on all three counts and included an activity that my Van Osch cousins came up with: the Blindfold Game.
-
Take a cooking class
The best thing I can say about my egg salad is that it rarely gives me diarrhoea. I’m not much of a cook. That said, I’m trying to get better and think learning how to cook is a great path to eating healthier and showing off to your friends.
-
Open a bottle of wine… with a shoe.
What happens when you’ve got some wine but no corkscrew to open it? That’s usually not an issue with my family, considering how much of our vino comes out of a box, but for those of you fancy pants people out there, having a bottle with no corkscrew to open it can put a serious…
-
Bicycle around Angkor Wat: Cambodia
The world is full of awesome things to see. But oftentimes, how you see something matters just as much as what you see. This week’s Blue Marble Badge of Awesome goes to Jon Chilton, for sharing his bicycling experience around temples in Cambodia.
-
Shoot Blow Darts in Japan
As the Baby Boomer generation gets older, more and more attention is being paid to “senior-friendly” activities. Your mind may automatically go to things like Bridge, shuffleboard or knitting (or Guerrilla Knitting if you’re super cool). But a rather unconventional activity is picking up steam in Japan: blow darting.
-
Play Dodgeball World Domination
My brother Dan added a comment on the Tri-Pong post, introducing me to a great variation of classic Dodgeball. Here’s Dan to explain:
-
Do a Photo Scavenger Hunt
Photo scavenger hunts are a great, low-impact, low-cost alternative to the classic “find and collect” game. Whether you’re looking for a fun activity for your corporate event or just want something to do with your buddies on a Saturday afternoon, a photo scavenger hunt is a quick and easy thing to whip together.
-
Do a polar bear dip… for no good reason.
A lot of people do Polar Bear Dips as part of a charity event or some other noble cause. Then there are the Van Osches. These cousins of mine are a special breed of people. You may remember them from a few of my earlier posts, including the awesome Blindfold Game.
-
Go on a Retreat: Washington meets WiFi in Virginia, USA
I think some people thought me strange to drive 9 hours to spend a week in Winchester, Virginia on a “writing retreat.” After all, I work from home. Couldn’t I get the same work done there? Maybe. But I feel there are many advantages to getting away from your daily routine and surroundings. Virginia proved…
-
Host a recipe swap night
Here’s a simple idea that’s both a fun social activity as well as a way of beefing up your personal cookbook (or vegging up as the case may be). Throw a Recipe Swap party. The rules are simple.
-
Sandboard the Dunes: Peru, New Zealand, Namibia and more
Growing up in Canada, tobogganing factored big in my childhood. Each winter the hills around Port Albert, Ontario became the grounds for epic battles with my siblings and cousins. I often felt bad that people living in warmer climates were missing out on this awesome activity. But then Ashraf Dean submitted this photo of him…
-
Align your gearbox: the drinking game
Backpacking can introduce you to all sorts of fascinating customs and traditions. Hostels and guest houses serve as the hippie equivalent of the United Nations – a convergence of cultures, nationalities and ideas. This exchange of ideas can revolve around politics, music, religion, philosophies, worldviews and other big discussions. It also facilitates the spread another…
-
Play Tri-Pong
Rainy days at cottages are the mothers of invention. This week’s Backyard Badge goes to Rob Shirkey for introducing me to the awesome game of Tri-Pong. A couple years ago, while visiting his cottage near Minden, Ontario, Rob taught us how to play this simple, yet exhausting version of ping pong.
-
Take a soak in the Banff Hot Springs, Alberta, Canada
I’ve never had much of a fashion sense. Most of my clothes are unfit for a blind hobo. Despite this complete ineptitude and disinterest in anything to do with fashion, I knew the moment I laid eyes on that old fashioned bathing suit in the display case at the Canadian Rockies Hot Springs in Alberta,…
-
Go Geocaching
Ever wanted to be a pirate and search for buried treasure? Is your favourite part about Easter the egg hunt? Do you pride yourself in your ability to find lost car keys? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then geocaching just may be for you. I’ve wanted to go geocaching for years.…
-
Visit the Moeraki Boulders, New Zealand
Tina Coghlan submitted this photo into the “That’s Awesome” Photo Contest of the Moeraki Boulders in New Zealand. I thought they were so cool they deserved their own Badge of Awesome post.
-
Play Spoons (with vigour)
Spoons is a card game that was very popular in the Martin household growing up. I’ve played a few variations of it over the years but the general idea remains the same.