Perhaps the whirlwind travel of last week just made it seem even much more so. After leaving “lovely” Northern Indiana for five days on Paradise Island in the Bahamas, I was home for one day to unpack, do laundry, repack and head to Minneapolis for our last All-Canada Show of the season. Even with our incredibly mild winter here in the Midwest, I have to admit the warmth of the Bahamas and abundant sunshine was a welcome relief. Of course, if you drink enough rum punch, everything is a relief and I think we accomplished that!
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| Cabbage Beach, Paradise Island Bahamas |
Since our daughters had a four day weekend, I was able to take our youngest (Allison-9) on a “business” trip with Dad. It was great having some extra one-on-one time with her although she (for some reason unknown to me) opted for some shopping with friends at the Mall of America vs. working the show booth with me much over the weekend. Go figure… Regardless, we still had some quality time together and had a great visit with our good friends from Stillwater, Mn and their kids. Special thanks to the McDowell’s for their tremendous hospitality while we visited. Thanks also to all of our guests and prospects who stopped by our show booth for a visit. Several bookings have already come in from the show and for that we are very appreciative.
In some Ontario/camp related matters, there is some good news on the horizon regarding DUI’s and other minor infractions. An excerpt from an email received from the Patricia Region Tourist Council follows:
A policy announcement was made advising that effective March 01, 2012 a Special Public Policy will be put in place which will allow for a CBSA officer to grant a Temporary Resident Permit (TRP), to those individuals who have had only one minor conviction, where the sentence was less than 6 months in length. There will be no fee for this TRP, and the issuance of the TRP will be at the discretion of the CBSA official. However, it is understood that this special public policy should significantly reduce the number of inadmissible visitors to our country.
Additional information on this matter is expected to be released on the Canadian Citizenship and Immigration website http://www.cic.gc.ca/ after March 1, 2012. This, of course, is received as great news from not only us tourism operators but also our guests who may have previously been denied admission into Canada for a minor infraction.
March is almost here already, I guess the opener can’t be too far off? See you soon!
