Toronto, Niagara and Montreal

Last weekend was a busy one.  Fortunately I had a meeting in Montreal on Monday so I decided to make the most of it.  I flew to Montreal on Friday night and then to Toronto on Saturday morning.  I was so excited to be going to a Prince concert at the Air Canada Centre on Saturday night!  I had purchased a VIP ticket, a table seat right next to the stage.  The concert was amazing, it went for almost three hours and Prince played all of his hits, Purple Rain, Kiss, Let's go crazy, 1999, Controversy, Cream, Nothing compares 2 U, I would die 4 U, Sign O the times, Raspberry Beret, Alphabet St and the list goes on. 

On Sunday I took a day trip to Niagara Falls.  It is the low season right now and it was overcast and drizzly, although there weren't many people there so I had great views of the falls.  I didn't realise that the Canadian and US sides of the falls are two separate falls (same water source) and it is true that the Canadian side is more spectacular!  The falls were really noisy and at this time of year more of the water gets diverted to power stations downstream so it would be even louder in summer.

I went up the Skylon tower nearby for a different view and had a bit of a look around the place.  To be honest, apart from the falls the town is a bit dreary.  A casino, lots of tacky tourist activities and the US border.  The facilities were pretty old looking with paint peeling off and hardly any good signage to read. The drive along the river was lovely, especially with brown and gold leaves still on the trees.  We also visited a town called Niagara on the Lake which had some great little shops and a bakery with pies! The day trip was good and I was glad to have visited but I don't think I would make the trip back.



At the top of Niagara Falls

USA side of Niagara Falls

Horseshoe Falls, the Canadian side of Niagara Falls

Trick or treat - Halloween 2012

We were more prepared for Halloween this year and much more excited.  Everyone left work at around 4pm so we could go home and get the kids ready for trick or treating.  I bathed and fed the boys, dressed them in their PJ's with thermals over the top and then their costumes.  Ryder dressed up as Batman and Cooper was Optimus Prime.  They were so excited and couldn't wait to get out the door, it was a pretty good night but they still had to wear their snow boots, mitts, hats and scarves.  We were out on the street by about 5.15pm and knocking on doors, TRICK OR TREAT??

We did a big lap of the block, criss crossing across the road, looking at all the Halloween decorations.  We were amazed.  Some houses had their indoor porches all decorated with characters, sounds and lights, lots of people were dressed up, we even saw a dog with a pumpkin costume on, Cooper thought this was hilarious!  Best of all, everyone had treats galore, handfuls of candy and suckers (lollies and lollipops), loot bags, cans of pop, gum, chips, crayons etc.  It didn't take long for the kids to fill their bags.  Ryder couldn't wait to eat his candy, on the walk he ate two bags of chips, three lollipops and a Kit Kat.  By 6.30pm it was starting to get dark and colder, the kids were worn out so we headed back up the street to go home.

Trick or Treat?

Back at home Steve had started to give out the loot bags Cooper, Taylor and I made up a few weeks ago.  Everytime the doorbell rang the kids would race to the door to check out who was there and give them a loot bag.  The costumes were great; twin chickens, Hoops and Yo Yo, fairies, princesses, monkeys, gorillas, witches, Harry Potter, wrestlers, Flinstones, babies, super heroes and more.  We made 60 loot bags and ran out, Taylor ran downstairs and brought up a giant tub of candy leftover from her Halloween party on Saturday night.  By 9.15 we were out of candy, we had at least 80 kids stop by our door.  We turned off our porch lights and our second 'real' Halloween was over.



Impersonating pumpkins

Our inflatable halloween decorations



Our cat is 9 feet tall

Ryder's first ice skate

Today we went to the town Halloween ice skating  party at the Lab City Arena.  Every time we go to Cooper's ice skating classes Ryder asks if he can go on the ice and skate so I bought him a pair of bob skates which have two blades on each skate.

Waiting to go onto the ice

The arena has plastic frames to help kids learn to skate so Ryder used one of these.  At first he was trying to lift his feet, almost running, causing him to slip all over the place but it didn't take too long for him to slow down and glide using the frame for support.  Ryder kept skating across the rink and banging into the wall before turning around and going back again.  He was on the ice for the full hour, getting more confident and telling me, "Me do it myself!" and skating away from the frame.  Meanwhile Cooper was skating around with his Spiderman cape on, zooming past Ryder and giving him plenty of encouragement.

On the ice.

Cooper helping Ryder skate

On the Rock

This weekend just gone I flew to St. John's, the capital of Newfoundland province.  I went with my friend (and neighbour) Leighann for an Xmas shopping trip and some sightseeing.  We had a great time, St. John's is such a beautiful city, right on the water it is the oldest city in North America.  The crooked, hilly streets are lined with adjoining colored houses, downtown is full of quirky little stores and you can smell the salt air and the fuel from the fishing boats.  We drove up Signal Hill and took photos of the view and a giant black Newfoundland dog, he had an enormous glum face and was so hairy.  We also ate out at some very trendy restaurants downtown and had a massage and pedicure at the Spa at the Monastery.

On Sunday morning I ate a Newfie breakfast of fish cakes, eggs and toast and we took a walk along Battery Road, checking out the houses set into the rock of 'the island' as it is known.  We were very fortunate with the weather as St. John's is known for being rainy and wet but we had sunshine and clear skies for all three days we were there. On our return to Lab City we found that the snow fall from Friday had melted and the grass is still green.  Stay away snow!

The city of St. John's NL from Signal Hill

A typical street in downtown St. John's

Newfoundland dog on Signal Hill

A sprinkle of snow

We got through the whole of September without any snow! Today we were out the front at 8am and there were very fine snow flakes falling.  There is a light covering of snow on the ground and it almost looks like frost.  I am hoping that we get a couple more weeks of fine weather before the snow begins, not looking forward to putting on coats, boots, mitts and hats before we step out the door.

Buddy Wasisname

Last night we went to the local Arts and Culture Centre to see Buddy Wasisname and the Other Fellers These guys are icons in Newfoundland and the place was packed.  They trio sing traditional Newfie songs, play piano accordians, mandolins and guitar, tell jokes and perform skits.  We were warned that we wouldn't understand a word but much to our surprise we understood most of it and could laugh at all the jokes.  Most of the songs and jokes were about Newfoundland and the Newfoundland way of life; moose, duck hunting, salt beef, codfish and their funny accent.   It was a great night.

Halloween Preparation

This weekend we went shopping for Halloween!  There are three aisles of costumes, decorations and trick or treat loot at Walmart which appears to be moving fast, we didn't want to miss out.  Top of the list was an inflatable decoration for the front yard.  Would you believe we found a 7ft inflatable pirate ship with three skeleton pirates on it?  Straight into the cart it went!

We also bought a pumpkin carving kit, pumpkin stencils, a battery operated pumpkin saw, flickering pumpkin lights, black cat solar lights, spider webs, spider web lights, a ghoul for the front door, gargoyle trellis for the garden and a big pumpkin shaped bowl for our trick or treat bags.  For our trick or treat bags we have two boxes of 100 chocolate bars, gum and popping candy, plus rubber rats, glow in the dark skeletons, spider rings and plastic flies. 

I think we are ready for our second Halloween in Lab City!