Canada - Oakville,Toronto, Victoria,Niagara Falls

Post by Colin...

Hi Folks...  Ok - so we have been in North America since the 18th May and it is now June 11th and we have not updated the blog about Canada at all. Shame on us !

We updated all of the Portugal stuff in the first week in Canada...  Honestly there is no real excuse.  So we are actually now in Winnipeg with a few days to go to what I think will be the most exciting part of the Canada trip - driving across the Rockies to  Vancouver.. I can' wait !

Anyhow - let me just hark back and take you through the trip so far.  So we arrived after a pretty good flight.  We left London at 4pm  UK time and arrived  8 hours ( 3 movies, 100 pages of a book and a small mount of shut eye) later at 7pm in Canada.  This was a pretty good way of doing it and not much jet lag suffered. 

Kizzy was  very emotional on the whole journey and for the first few days in Canada..  After seeing all of our friends in London she found it hard to leave again.  I felt the same way but  I was also very excited about the trip..

My cousin Graham met us at the airport. It had been at least 10 years or so since we had last met and  I was worried we might not recognise each other - especially considering my increasingly long hair and beard ! However we recognised each other immediately..   Family knows family..

Graham

Graham is  more or less the same age as me  - he is  married to Alison  and has one kid - Callum - who is 5 years old.  We get on like a house on fire. At one point in the time we spent together - Graham said that speaking with me was like looking in the mirror.  Certainly some  real common ground.. He is a great fellow.  Kizzy ( with her huge extended family...)  was delighted to meet my Cousin/s and second cousins (once removed) - because up to now she had the idea that I didn't really have any family apart from  my brothers and parents..  She found it hilarious to see some of the TK traits existing beyond us..

Alison with Callum's artwork

Callum

Graham was an excellent host and he really looked after us whilst we were there.   He took us around Oakville ( small commuter town where he lives) Toronto and to see Niagara falls and not forgetting Calum's school play - the sublime "Bugz". Thanks Graham !

Oakville Bus

So Oakville is a nice place  - when you are in the town centre you are right on the Great lake -Lake Ontario.

Lake Ontario

Where Graham lives there are lots of lovely houses but it is very suburban and all the streets look kind of the same.  Around the back of all these houses is this huge forest with loads of trails and streams  which is really cool.   Kizzy and I spent  several hours getting lost in there and the hardest part was that there was so many ways out - but each exit looked identical - same houses, same basketball nets on the drive, same  post box..   The walk in these woods started our impression as to the friendliness of Canadians (incredibly friendly !!)- an old couple just stopped and started telling us how big the fish in the lake are this year and how we should go take a look...    With the exception of the amazing woods - really not much to do in  suburban  Oakville without a car..

We spent a day in Toronto - having lunch, visiting Kensington Market and generally walking around. First impressions of Toronto - it seemed ok - kind of a big city skyscrapers.. with some different locales - but we were not really blown away by it..  Kensington Market is kind of like a Camden Town sort of place..  We found some pretty cool Graffiti and street art around here.. Perhaps we needed more time to uncover it's hidden gems ;-)

Honesty

Kizzy & Graham - Kensington Market

Col

Street Art

Street Art

Street Art

Ha ha ha ha....

Our day trip to Niagara Falls was great. Alison told us that it was kind of American..  ( It is on the border with the USA) and I asked her what she meant by that and she told me - Tacky...   I knew what she meant when we got there..  The town of Niagara is like a toy town built for tourists. Mini Golf, Hall of Mirrors, Ghost T`rains, Arcades etc etc...  I loved it !

Toy Town

The falls themselves are really something.  I was surprised to learn that something like 20% of the worlds water flow through here...! We took an excursion under the falls in these tunnels. It was pretty cool.  The pics speak for themselves really...

After looking at the falls we played several games of mini golf and went into a mirror maze..  Great fun...!!

Graham makes it look all too easy!

Yes Graham won !!

Kizzy getting a hole in one !

We all got lost !!

Oh - and  I came across this wonderful store sign - just in case you thought everything was free !!

Ok - will do...

We also had a chance to go to Waterloo with Graham to meet up with his brother, my other cousin David and his family..  his Wife Jennifer .... and Children..   David is  a Professor of Maths and he won global awards for maths when he was a kid.. For this reason I always had it in mind that he would be some kind of  geek  and probably lacking in social skills.   But no - he has got it all !  David is a great guy and very very funny. He does some mean impressions as well !

David,Graham,Colin

Jennifer

The main great thing about being here was getting to spend some time with my cousin Graham and meeting Graham's son - my second cousin ( once removed) Callum.  It was really wonderful to establish a connection with him. He is a really smart and cute kid..  We had the privilege of seeing him in his school play - Bugz - where he played the part of an army ant !

Graham

Col, Kizzy,Graham at Niagara

Callum in Bugz

Graham also introduced me to Hockey and I got pretty into watching the Vancouver Canucks  getting into the finals of the Stanley Cup.  Graham would always conference in his two brothers - my cousins David and Malcolm.. during the games.. They  are now  up one game - 3-2 in the final series with the Boston Bruins..    If you don't know - a series is best of 7 games..  so it's a finger biter !.. This would be the first time in something like 17 years if Vancouver win the  cup. Go Canucks !

So - Montreal installment still to come. And a sneak preview... Kizzy will be posting about our somewhat unscheduled trip to Boston and NYC !

Love you all  !

Canucks logo