O, Canada!

(Love the photo of the Hockey Hall of Fame!)



So I can't figure out how in the world to arrange photos on Blogger. Sigh. I was going to do this photo-essay for everyone but it's all jumbled.

So I guess I'm going to have to do some typing, haha.

Friday after Thanksgiving (and try explaining what "Black Friday" means to a Japanese Fellow with a limited knowledge of English...but I digress) we loaded up the minivan, the passports and the pipsqueaks and headed north(east) to Canada.

It's supposedly a four to five hour journey from A2 to Toronto. But we drove through dense fog through much of the Michigan portion of our journey. Then, at the border crossing at Port Huron (see Lake Huron from the bridge pictured) we hit a delay of almost 45 minutes. Then more heavy traffic throughout Ontario. But we finally made it all intact. We stayed at the Cambridge Suites Hotel which, as its name implies, is all suites. It was great; right smack in City Center, very posh, comfortable and modern. We had a living room with a sofa bed, big closets, a bar area with a fridge, microwave and sink, as well as a large bedroom and bath. Plus, the all-important pocket doors so that the kids could go to bed early and we could finish Season Two of "The Wire."

Toronto is the largest city we've ever taken the kids to. At the last minute, I asked our neighbors if we could borrow their double stroller (more on said stroller later). I am so eternally grateful that we did. I honestly don't know what I was thinking that IEM could "walk" around Toronto.

We met one of Zack's Vandy buddies and her husband for dinner Friday evening, then I took the kids home and got them settled down. IEM loved taking his bath then playing cards on our bed after his sister went to sleep. Both kids were so good in the hotel and on the whole trip. They were true troopers.

Saturday we woke up to the view you see of the gorgeous sunshine on the skyscrapers so we decided to walk about 15 minutes to the Harbourfront. The photo you see of the schooner in the dense fog is what encountered when we left our hotel. Fortunately, it cleared by early afternoon but we didn't get to experience the waterfront at its best.

After a brunch near the Harbour, we got brave and boarded the subway for the Royal Ontario Museum or the ROM (pronounced like "Tom"). My kids have never been on a subway before and it's been several years since I've been on one. They did awesome. IEM and EPM both enjoyed it and were very safe and careful. She stayed in the stroller without complaint and he either held my hand or sat strapped in the stroller. IEM really loved it. And they both loved the ROM. There were some great kid-friendly exhibits and a good "discovery" room. We stayed almost 2 1/2 hours which is about 2 hours longer than I thought we would. Another subway ride back to the hotel, then time for EPM's nap. While she napped, IEM played with his play-doh and watched a video. I went out for a walk and Zack read for class.

After Her Shortness awoke and we gave them a snack, it was back on the subways...with a transfer this time!...to Greektown for dinner. Again, they were really great. We ate at a banquette of all things and they did well. The food was amazing. We ate at a place callled Mezes which was loud, comfortable and most important, fast. And cheap. We got the kids a Baskin-Robbins (which we haven't had since we left Memphis) as a treat. It was such a wonderful sight, seeing them both sitting together in the stroller, happy with their dinner and their ice cream.

Sunday, we decided to check out and drive down to Union Station to show IEM some trains. There were no trains in the station but the kids had fun running in the SkyWalk between Union Station and the CN Tower. We weren't ready to leave the city so we decided to go up into the tower. Now if you are unfamiliar, the CN Tower is the tallest freestanding structure in the world. And you can take a high-speed elevator up to the observation platform and get a panoramic view of greater Toronto.

The kids were in good moods so we decided to do it. Once we bought our tickets, we had to go through the most sophisticated scanning device I've seen. It's a chamber you step into where air is shot at you from all different directions. Kind of like a glaucoma test for your entire body. Basically, they are scanning you for explosives and metal.

As I had the kids in the stroller, they took us to the side and used one of those swabbing thingees they have in the airports...they put a piece of fabric in a wand, swab you and the stroller, etc. and place the fabric in the machine. This is where it gets interesting.

All of a sudden, alarms start going off on that thing and I see a red screen with "Explosives! Explosives!" written on it. Apparently, our neighbors stroller tested positive for something. It was a delay that annoyed Zack and really had me concerned for about a second...how to explain to these people that it wasn't really my stroller, that we were only in A2 for a few months, etc. I decided to just keep the story simple. So as far as the security at CN Tower knows, we took a looooonggg road trip from Memphis to Toronto with a borrowed stroller. The views were quite spectacular and IEM enjoyed looking through the binoculars at different things.

After another hour delay at the border which stretched our return trip to six hours, home again to A2 and Sawyer the cat who was happy to see us.

IEM told me today how much fun he had in Canada, riding the trains, going to the museum and staying in the hotel. Our trip Up North and now to Toronto has shown me that we can take trips with them...it's not easy but it is doable. We love to travel and I think that they will as well.

Thanks for stopping by.