May 15, 2013 - Last day in Toronto and Canada

This morning we had breakfast at St Lawrence markets, sort of like our Central market. The food in Canada has been great, not as I imagined. Although Starbucks and other chains are everywhere, it is possible to get nice fresh stuff too. We took a walking tour of Old Town Toronto run by a historical architect. We were the only ones on the tour and it was great hearing about the history and architecture. Toronto is a rapidly growing city full of high rise condominiums, but luckily some old buildings are being preserved. We even saw some...

May 13, 2013 - Toronto day 1

We arrived in Toronto around 11.15, and it was almost midnight by the time we got to our hotel. It was a bit of a shock to come from warm, sunny Banff to 3 degrees. Today we had a much needed sleep in, then spent the day just wandering around the city. About 50% of Torontonians are born elsewhere, and it shows. We had hoped it would be a bit warmer today, but although there was no rain, the expected maximum was 11, with a biting northerly straight from the Arctic. We found a huge supermarket that sold the usual groceries and also ready made...

Feb 4, 2013 - On our way to Quito ... maybe

Monday, Feb. 4 The most stressful part of travelling for me is getting to the airport, on time, with all my papers in order. We left the house at 4:30 am. I wanted to be gone by 4 but it always takes longer than you think to make sure everything's unplugged and the house is in order. The drive started out fine although traffic was heavier than I expected. While getting gas in Bowmanville the snow squalls hit. Uh oh. Traffic got even heavier and even started to slow down around Pickering. I was starting to sweat. Suddenly the sky cleared,...

Jan 26, 2013 - Bangkok to Toronto

Bangkok to Toronto Wake up time 3:00am! After a shower and closing our bags we are ready for the taxi at 3:45am. When we step outside the hotel we see that there are still people sitting in the outdoor restaurants – mostly young people though! Vendors are still selling food and many shops are still open. It is very quiet on the roads and we arrive at the Bangkok airport around 4.30am. Because we are early there are no line-ups anywhere: not at check in, not at passport control, not at customs, so we are through security in no time. Bangkok...

Dec 26, 2012 - What a Start !!!

What a start to the adventure. We have yet to leave Toronto but it is already an adventure. For the past two days the weather forecasters have been threatening us with the first major winter storm. It was supposed to begin this afternoon and drop up to 15cm on us by tomorrow morning. (Our flight is tomorrow morning.) Soooo.... wise travelers that we are, we arranged for Derrick (Eke's son) to drive us to the airport early. Like tonight, so we can stay overnight at an airport hotel. He graciously left his family Boxing Day dinner to drive...

Nov 13, 2012 - O Canada

Canada photos https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152231753650707.921351.746395706&type=3 Wednesday 31st Oct We wake up to a fresh snow fall, not surprising given the weather last night. We are disappointed we missed the northern lights though. We don’t have to be up too early this morning as the flight is not until about 5pm, but we will have to start making our way to the airport around 1pm. As we had our breakfast more snow fell outside. The day is not as cold as yesterday, but we are told a big storm is brewing, so it seems we...

Sep 29, 2012 - This should be fun!

So I don't have a connection to internet, but I think I can type the blog using pages, then copying to mytripjournal when I am on line. We got on the train. Our cabin was set up for sleeping. The cabin seems to be much smaller than I remember. Or maybe we are bigger. Have you ever seen the VIA commercial where it says "you will be gently rocked to sleep"? Ha. I have been less "gently rocked" coming through the straits off of Vancouver Island in near hurricane weather on the cruise ship! However we did get a good nights sleep even with the...

Sep 19, 2012 - Toronto Trip

Our last sightseeing trip was a fantastic day in Toronto. The first "wow" of the day was the most heart stirring theater production I have ever seen.... "War Horse" produced by the National Theatre of Great Britain, performed in the Prince of Wales Theatre In Toronto. The horses were played by life size puppets. Somehow these amazing puppets were magically brought to life..breathing, galloping, charging... and it was easy to forget that they were not real live horses! We left the theater in a state of awe! The next "wow" was dinner at the...

Aug 16, 2012 - Niagara Falls/Toronto 13-14 August

There are so many things to do and see I've haven't had the time to do this journal. From the Finger Lakes district, New York we travelled to Niagara Falls and went on the Maid of the Mist boat trip to the falls. Even though they give you a pancho to wear you still get quite wet. Andrea and I also went for a walk along the rim where the spray was quite heavy and drenching. Great fun though. It was quite late when we arrived in Toronto. Our tour leader is a great baseball fan asked if we wanted to see a game that night. We went to the Rogers...

Aug 12, 2012 - Day 28 - to Toronto for day

Today we drove into Toronto for an afternoon game of the Blue Jays vs the New York Yankees. Garry survived the freeway traffic. We got great seats in the back row of the lowest section right along 1st baseline behind the Yankees bench. Jays won 10-7, and we saw a double play, some home runs and a fabulous catch at left field by Davis to rob the Yankees of a home run. A great game. We stood in line to go up CN Tower for half an hour and then found out that there was another hour and half wait for the elevator so decided not to go up. We...

Aug 1, 2012 - Quebec City, Quebec to Toronto, Ontario

Drive to Toronto and spend the night at Toronto's only camping spot, the Glen Rouge Campground. Something interesting that I forgot to mention, was that in many of the small villages we drove through you would see a Sears catalog store. There might be nothing else in the village. We didn't take time to stop, but I wondered if in those catalogs you could buy a house like you used to be able in America.

Jul 26, 2012 - Day 1 - Toronto

Hey Family and Friends, If you've received an email today it means that you've asked us to keep you posted on our Honeymoon trip or not and we've forced you! I'm sure there's a way to turn off our notifications if they bother you or if you're tired of hearing all about our awesome time! So Day 1! We've managed to pull everything together pretty quickly over the past two days to get ready for this trip! We are NEVER this unorganized! Having only a few days after the wedding to pack, confirm our medications and check over our itineraries...