Ontario, a wedding, kids and lots of leaves...

So after almost a year of waiting, a cancellation of flights due to Zoom going bust, and a relatively smooth journey from Scotland to Toronto (if you exclude almost going to the wrong airport, forgetting my passport with my entry visa to get back into the UK, and forgetting where my passport was in line to get board) we finally arrived in Toronto to start our 2 week holiday. Penny was excited because she had never been to Canada, never met most of my friends and family including my sister and her new husband Shaun (I hadn't met Shaun either!) and was looking forward to the Canadian Autumn, and Thanksgiving with my family.It was a whirlwind stop, we landed in Toronto on Friday, spent time with my parents before Penny crashed out at 9ish in the evening, and I stayed up chatting to my parents. Then Saturday we met up with Barry and Sherry, along with Sarah. Barry BBQ'd for us and we had a great time catching up with them and their kids. Then Barry dropped us off at Rob and Christine's wedding, which was awesome. It was pretty much how a wedding should be, church, very happy looking bride and groom looking great, and then a big feed and a few drinks to celebrate afterwards! It was great to see everyone again, and there are more photo's of the wedding here:Sunday morning after the wedding, we went to catch up with Clan Medeiros, at the Medeiros petting Zoo...man you wouldn't believe what a day we had. 11am and we were drinking shots of Beetle Bob's special drinking sauce, and dropping portuguese berries of death into the shots as well. It was all good though....some pizza, beer and good friends. We pulled out the guitar, sang a few tunes and then headed out to Georgetown's unofficial petting zoo where we checked out the kittens, dog, chickens, and their chicks, pigeons, shetland ponies....oh and don't forget the emu....Monday we went to see the badlands of Cheltenham which were a set of eroded dunes outside Georgetown where I grew up, and they were pretty cool. Straight out of a Star Wars set! Penny and I were quite impressed. Tuesday was all about getting to Toronto where we caught up with Morgan McGoldrick a family friend and then spent the day walking around Toronto Shopping and we also managed to get over to Central Island for a wee walk about where we feasted on Pizza Pizza pizza...as we sat by the beach in the sun looking out over the water....not working. Awesome. Next up was Niagara to visit Shaun and Marita, it was great to see them, and Marita kindly drove us to Niagara Falls the next morning where Pen spent an entire day fully and unabashedly as tourists! Niagara Falls has so much more than just the falls, we blew $50 in the Casino, topped up our Tim Hortons levels, enjoyed a Wendy's burger and went into one of the many haunted houses....Pen reckons I was more scared than her....but that's only cause it was dark and she mistook my sounds of laughter for shouts of hysteria....ahem. That night we went out to dinner with Shaun and Marita and had a great meal, and got to know the new additions to our families a bit better....good night, except that I had rather intense discussions with my sister (a lawyer) on social etiquette when travelling and another one with Shaun (who's in finance) on the credit crunch and other global financial dilemma's....safe to say that after Shaun and I had sunk a few Slivo's (see Slivovitz) and beer we called it a night at roughly 3:30am...yup we agreed we all need to spend more money! We took off the next morning for North Bay where Penny and I were debating moving if and when we move back to Canada, and with blue skies, beautiful coloured forests, and cheap housing Penny was impressed. We also met up with a few of my college mates and had a good night reliving memories and just having a general blether over beer. Penny was all for moving to North Bay, when you can get a house, and an acre or two for around $180,000 surrounded by nature, and 15 mins to a city with 50,000 people....it's tempting! After our visit to North Bay it was back to Georgetown and mom and dads. We arrived on Saturday and managed to get in a few frames of bowling with my cousin Tony and family. It was a good night, especially when Tony went for contact bowling and ended up on his butt. Sunday was the perfect way to end our week, Barry and his wife Sherry popped by to say bye, and we also had a thanksgiving lunch prepared by my mom, with loads of turkey, wine, blue skies and warm weather....not to mention a back yard full of friends and family.....perfect way to spend our last few hours in Toronto before heading over to Vancouver. Thanks to everyone who made us feel so welcome, and for taking care of us while we were out. We'll definitely be back, what a great week! Vancouver story and photo's coming soon!!

Photo's not in sequence....really, but you can click on them to enlarge them.

Penny bowling for the family fun...with my cousins

Brenda's boy Justin with some chick he met

Ashley Medeiros, Matt Medeiros and his girlfriend, Tracy, Brenda, Brenda's girl Elizabeth, Stu, Nels, Karen, Penny (with Cadence), Erica, Jason. Kids up front....Justin, Saul one of Nels/Karen's twin boys, Stu/Tray's son Jacob, Nels/Karen's girl Taylor, the other twin (can't think of his name..doh!), Stu/Tray's Cadence and Jason and Erica's boy Jace the motor man up front.


The emu, who could forget the emu?

Todd (the grooms brother), me, Trev, and Stu before everything went pear shaped for Stu doing shots of something or other....

Craig and Christine's Sara(h)? doing her best tiger...simply awesome.

The bride and groom Rob and Christine

Close friends Trevor, Craig, and Rob .... perhaps too close?

Tracy and Penny sitting in a tree...k-i-s-s-i- wait, that was the above photo...

My mom's roses, still looking good in October!

Trees turning at the bad lands of Cheltenham

The wild and whacky bad lands of Cheltenham, not the Australian Outback

Me Pen, Barry and his daugher Abigail...or Abby.

Barry's other wee fella Camden, doing his best Maple Leafs impersonation

My mom and her very big British Dairy Milk

Dad and Abby

The Canadian National Tower

A monarch butterfly in one of Central Islands Gardens

View of the CN Tower from Central Island

Penny in Mountain Equipment Co-op trying to decide which backpack to buy!

One of Toronto's many towering buildings

A North Bay waterfall we visited with Steve and Christine

The mighty Niagara Falls

The mighty fish at the falls

Even on an overcast and grey day, they're still awesome!

Penny, Shaun, my sister and me

Puppy, my sister's dog.

North Bay get together...Christine, Steve, Dave, Julie, Jo-anne, and me...oops, sorry Jo-anne.

Found a new friend in North Bay, Pen totally freaked out because he let us get so close.

Brad Steve and Christines fellow.

and Vanessa their daughter who is not short on character....

Sarah and Aiden....who was pretty happy till this photo...

Marita and Carter, Curtis, Adrianne, Vicky, Mom, Judy, Paul (kneeling) Pen, Dad, Shaun, Tony, and me being attacked by a speed of light puppy in my parents back yard

Me, Pen, Marita and Shaun

The colours in North Bay around one of it's many lakes.

The symbol of Canada, the maple leaf

Another example of the Canadian Autumn...or fall as we call it for obvious reasons.