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Nordik Spa-Nature – Ottawa, Ontario
Relax in North America’s largest thermal spa.
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Great Canadian Bungee – Ottawa, Ontario
Enjoy the thrill of a lifetime with a 200-foot leap into the abyss.
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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…
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Life’s Twists and Turns: Lessons learned from three bison
In August 2013, my girlfriend Ashley and I loaded up my Hyundai Accent and struck out from Waterloo, Ontario on our way to Vancouver, British Columbia. We drove through the US on our journey west, and indeed, it was a very American experience.
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Discover a cool way to watch Old Faithful blow: Yellowstone National Park, USA
Jam-packed with the world’s largest collection of geysers, Yellowstone National Park literally explodes with awesomeness. No visit to the park is complete without a visit to Old Faithful, the world-famous thermal pressure cooker that spews a roaring column of boiling hot water over 100 feet in the air every 91 minutes or so.
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Cool things to do in Grey County, Ontario
Badge of Awesome Communities There’s adventure around every corner! Badge of Awesome Communities celebrates great destinations around the world and invites you to share your favourite things to see and do in those places. Check out the video to learn about this project’s near-death origin story, discover what others are saying about Grey County and…
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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.
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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.
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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…
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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…
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Work abroad
Working overseas has many advantages. It looks great on a résumé. It lets you really immerse yourself in the day-to-day life of another country and culture. It’s a great way to make overseas travel affordable. It gets you out of your comfort zone and helps you grow as a person. It broadens your perspective and…
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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,…
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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.
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Have a beer at Oktoberfest, Germany
Prost. Schnitzel. Lederhosen. Oompah. Ziggy zaggy ziggy zaggy, oy oy oy. If these words confuse you, odds are you’ve never been to Oktoberfest. As a resident of the Kitchener-Waterloo area in Ontario for many years, I’ve attended my fair share of Oktoberfest events. If you do go, prepare to have your fill of sausage, sauerkraut,…
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Chase some cheese: Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling, Gloucestershire England
I spent a lot of time this past summer watching the London 2012 Olympics on TV. And while England put on a good show, there’s one sport I was disappointed didn’t get any coverage at all. A sport from their own backyard no less: Cheese-rolling.
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![[Blog] Hanging with Fred Penner photo: That’s awesome](https://badgeofawesome.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/fred-penner-222x160.jpg)
[Blog] Hanging with Fred Penner photo: That’s awesome
Voting is now open for the “That’s Awesome” Photo Contest. Check out the entries and vote for your favourite! I don’t typically “geek out” and I’ve never really been into following/stalking celebrities. But let me tell you: when I saw Fred Penner–my favourite and cherished childhood musician and TV personality–perform at the Dawson City Music…
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Go WWOOF’ing: World Wide Opportunities On Organic Farms
A couple weeks ago I talked about my experience volunteering on a refugee camp in Ghana. Keeping up with the theme of volunteer travel, this week’s Buddha Belly Badge is all about WWOOF’ing. WWOOF stands for World Wide Opprtunities On Organic Farms. It pairs willing workers (affectionately known as WWOOFers) with organic farmers looking for…
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Pipe down the sun: Port Albert, Ontario
If you blink you could very well miss Port Albert. You’ll find this tiny speck on the map on the shores of Lake Huron in Southwestern Ontario. Home to such famous landmarks as the Port Albert General Store, the Inn at the Port and a fish ladder at the “old bridge,” you won’t find much…
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Sleep in a cave: Cappadocia, Turkey
I’ve slept in a lot of different places in my day. Couches, tents, floors, laundry rooms. At the foot of a volcano, in a village on stilts, on a beach, on a mountain, in a farmer’s field. Train stations, bus stations, airports. But I’ve never slept in a cave. And after seeing photos like this…
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![[Blog] The Virgin Mary vs. Giant Squid: That’s Awesome](https://badgeofawesome.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/mary-vs-squid-222x160.jpg)
[Blog] The Virgin Mary vs. Giant Squid: That’s Awesome
Got a photo that makes you say “that’s awesome”? Enter it in the “That’s Awesome” Photo Contest to win great prizes. When I first saw this mural, in a tiny restaurant in Banos, Ecuador, my first reaction was “guh?” However, upon closer inspection I realized what I was looking at: The Virgin Mary wrestling a…
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Go tubing through the Elora Gorge, Ontario
Tubing through rapids at the Elora Gorge is awesome. Located within the Elora Gorge Conservation Area, about a half hour drive from Waterloo or Guelph, Ontario (an hour or so from Toronto), this activity offers visitors a chance to travel down the Grand River in a very cool way.
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Go “Glamping”: Long Point Eco-Adventures, Ontario, Canada
Luxury camping, zip-lining, star-gazing, mountain-biking, hiking and more make Long Point Eco-Adventures a Mecca for outdoor awesomeness.
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Shoot a friend: Flag Raiders Paintball, Kitchener, Ontario
Games like “Call of Duty” let you shoot your friends in a video game setting. Sure, it’s fun. But shooting your friends in real life with paintballs, and getting to hear them cry out in pain, is better. Way better. Welcome to Flag Raiders Paintball, soldier.
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Visit the museum of broken relationships: Zagreb, Croatia
Ah, love. The heady surge of endorphins. The joy. The companionship. The matching tattoos. The disgustingly sweet pet names that make your friends want to punch you in the throat. But of course, love and break-ups go hand-in-hand. The pain. The binge eating. The binge drinking. The sweatpants. The Sarah McLaughlin purchases on iTunes. The…
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Do a jungle tour, drink some jungle beer: Banos, Ecuador
Is it a problem that so many of my memorable travel experiences involve alcohol? I’ve already told you about the gin I shared with a chief in Africa, and the shot of whiskey I had in the Yukon that contained a human toe. For this week’s Blue Marble Badge, we head to the jungles of…