Niagara
<The main reason for being in Niagara was to spend time with Luci while Louise was at a Pathology conference ( which she said was excellent ). It was a delight to have time with Luci – she is a very articulate and insightful and really good company. We did lots of stuff together – sailed on the Maid of the Mist up to the base of the Falls, rode the AeroCar over the whirlpool, went to the sublime Niagara-on-the-Lake several times for picnics and meals – it is just 20kms from the Falls but rather like a Cotswold village. WE drove across the border to Buffalo one day – a rather grim depressed city which looked as if the GFC has hit badly – it was only brightened by an energetic black gospel choir singing their hearts out in the main street.
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Toronto
I don’t think I’ll say too much about this. Being here has not been enhanced by the 4 week old public worker strike which means that garbage is not collected, public toilets are locked and heaps of things that don’t affect us but are having a huge impact on the city – childcare centres closed, swimming pools closed, summer holiday programs for children cancelled.
We have still done some nice things -
We took the tramcar down to THE BEACHES – locals had led us to believe that it was a fab lakeshore area – we were thinking Noosa, Manly, Watsons Bay – bad mistake but still interesting.
Sunday we went to church at Yorkminster Park Baptist – Lew was summer pastor here for a month in July 1986 and our family remember having a really good time. Our ‘buddy’ back then was Mary (and her family) and we met up with her again yesterday after church and ended up having lunch with her and some friends – so nice to catch up again after all these years.
Then went to the Royal Ontario Museum – great collections of First Nations artifacts and a special exhibition of Dead Sea Scrolls.
Today we went across to Toronto Islands and had a lovely day in a very tranquil setting. Tomorrow we fly to LA for a day with Alex. It is almost a year since he left Sydney for his guitar course and he seems to have thrived in LA. It will be great to spend some time with him
Toronto
Casa Loma
The lifeguard wasn't too busy when the water was only 9 deg C!!!!
Not a pretty sight after 4 weeks garbo strike.
I was tempted to give these lovely old Musskoka chairs a new home in Canberra. On Friday on the way back to Toronto we detoured to St Jacobs and Elmira – two Mennonite towns in Ontario. We went to a museum which detailed the history and lifestyle of the Mennonites – really interesting especially because of our Mennonite friends, Moriah, Carole Anne and Clair. Both towns have both Old Order and modern Mennonites living there – only the Old Order are recognisable riding around in their horses and buggies and wearing distinctive modes clothing. A couple of notable things – the link with the reformers in Zurich where we spent time last year in the company of Jill and Thorwald – the fact that Old Order children are the healthiest in Canada – maybe because they mostly live on farms and eat lots of fresh food, don’t have TV, radio or computers but have lots of chores to do.
