Sadly, yesterday we left Ottawa (_well, Carleton Place, but you know what I mean_) and my family after a brilliant, relaxed week :disappointed:. It was definitely a good break after the stress of the last couple of weeks at work. Happily, last night we arrived in Toronto :smiley:. Karlene (_Rosie's cousin_) and Joke met us at the train station, sorted us out with food and dropped us off at Karlene's apartment for the night. Although it had been a bit of a long day, and it was quite late, George was absolutely bouncing off the walls so it took us ages to get him to sleep!
Sadly, yesterday we left Ottawa (_well, Carleton Place, but you know what I mean_) and my family after a brilliant, relaxed week :disappointed:. It was definitely a good break after the stress of the last couple of weeks at work. Also, given today is Easter Sunday and it's chaos, we decided to move Easter to yesterday morning. Friday night, Jacqui, Rosie and I sorted out an Easter Egg hunt around the house for George so that he didn't miss out with all the travelling. Then, when we got up yesterday morning, he noticed that the 'Easter Bunny' had come early and frantically began hunting for his eggs. It was absolutely brilliant! George, Jacqui and the dogs seemed to have the best time before we had to go to the train station for our ride down to our next stop.
This morning we took a leisurely stroll through midtown Toronto to meet up with Karlene and Joke at Toronto's really old castle, [Casa Loma][cl]. It was built way back in 1914 :wink:
Happily, last night we arrived in Toronto :smiley:. Karlene (_Rosie's cousin_) and Joke met us at the train station, sorted us out with food and dropped us off at Karlene's apartment for the night. Although it had been a bit of a long day, and it was quite late, George was absolutely bouncing off the walls so it took us ages to get him to sleep!
This morning we took a leisurely stroll through midtown Toronto to meet up with Karlene and Joke at Toronto's really old castle, [Casa Loma][cl]. It was built way back in 1914!! :wink: It certainly looks like an old castle but, as the numerous signs around the area allude, Canada is only officially 150 years old itself so it's no real surprise that their castles are basically new builds.
The castle itself was cool, but it wasn't until we had nearly finished looking around that we found out so many awesome films have used it as a filming location including some of the X-Men films!
Given it was Joke's last night in Toronto, her and Karlene decided to go out for the evening, so we decided to do a little bit of wandering through downtown Toronto before looking for somewhere to eat. Everywhere we looked there were people in blue jerseys with both the Blue Jays (_Baseball_) and the Maple Leafs (_Ice Hockey_) playing this evening. So we ended up having dinner in a sports bar, which was a bit of a new experience for us. There were screens everywhere with all the different sports on so people could keep track of everything. It was a little bit confusing to be honest! The food, however, was very good.
We were on the road again yesterday morning, but this time it was only 1½ hours down to Niagara Falls :smiley:. It has been my experience that quite often, some of these incredible sights can be a bit of a let down when you see them in real life, but Niagara Falls is definitely not one of those! They are perhaps the most breathtaking natural wonder I have seen, and there is no way to appreciate the insane power of them without seeing them up close and personal!
