First Snow

Hello Everyone!

Wednesday the 19th, Etobicoke (e-tow-bee-co) got it's first snow. I'm told that the amount of snow we got Wednesday, about 3.5 inches, is nothing. But I was happy anyway because I haven't seen snow in forever!!

It consistently snowed all day Wednesday, and when I woke up Thursday morning, I was as excited as a 5 year old on Christmas morning.

This is the courtyard tree from our bedroom window...


(Look! Do you see the snow??)


Well, Vincent and I decided to go for a walk in the snow. I was not prepared. Going for a walk while it is snowing requires mittens or gloves and something to cover your ears, because your fingers and ears are the first to get frost bite. And mine got VERY cold. Also, it's not a good idea to walk around in Chuck Taylor All Stars. This is hard, since these are the only shoes I wear. They are canvas and the sole is not very thick, so my feet were FREEZING. But I'm learning.

Here are some pictures from the walk....




(Walking down Lake Shore Blvd.)





(From the enterance to our apartment building. This is the front lawn.)






(Looking at the front of our apartment building. The FJ in the foreground)

(Snow on the pine tree. This is in the Midas parking lot where Vinny is getting all-season tire prices.)

And that's it for Etobicoke's first snow. As a matter of fact, most of it has melted away. It's only November and there will be many more pictures, I promise. I know a lot of people back home are suffering from the effects of the terrible fires. I feel a little bad enjoying the clean, ultra-crisp air out here. If it gets unbearable, you can come visit!!!!

Thanksgiving in Niagara

Yesterday, October 13th, was Thanksgiving out here in Canada. Canadian Thanksgiving always lands on Columbus Day in the states. Vincent and I decided to celebrate the holiday by going for a drive to Niagara Falls. Niagara Falls is a little more than an hour away from Toronto -

It was a pretty drive because the leaves are changing....

We had to cross a couple of bridges and a canal before we got to the border...

There is a Niagara Falls, New York and a Niagara Falls, Ontario, so we saw this sign before crossing the border...

(It reads, "Welcome to Niagara Falls")




The bridge into the United States actually crosses the Niagara River. Crossing into the US, you can see the falls on your right...

(Those buildings are on the Canadian Side of Niagara. The other side of the river is the US)

We are in line here, leaving Canada and entering the states....

Then we crossed the border into New York....

We went to Walgreen's really quickly to pick up a prescription because Canadian pharmacies won't fill a US prescription. The Walgreen's in Niagara Falls, NY is in Little Italy....

Little Italy is pretty scary. We didn't even take pictures. The houses are kind of falling apart and the people are intimidating. (aka...the ghetto). So we left right away, and headed back to Canada!

We crossed the border again, but not without getting attitude from the lady in the booth. She had a hard time believing we were only in the states for a few minutes, but we told her it wasn't that great and that we wanted to come back to the touristy part of Niagara.

(Crossing back to Niagara, Ontario)

We drove around the lake, rivers, and falls before deciding where to park....

It is very interesting here. We did not expect the Canadian side of Niagara to be the touristy part. But it is, and once you drive into the city, it looks very much like Hollywood. This is where all of the souvenir shops, restaurants, hotels, casinos, and stores are. So we parked and walked through the town, back toward the falls....

After walking through the town, we crossed the street and were at the falls. One side of the street has all the buildings and the other side is an extra large sidewalk with look-out points and towers for taking pictures of the falls....

There are actually two falls at Niagara. The farther one is the larger fall and it has a continuous plume of mist. The sidewalk is all wet and people walk around with panchos and umbrellas. Vincent and I weren't prepared and didn't feel like getting wet, so we only walked to the first one....

(Boat tours are available, but you get wet!)

It was very nice and pleasant, but very humid! Across the street from the look out points are the Niagara Parks. There are lawns and gardens with picnic tables and benches. It looked like any other park with people sitting and laying on the grass, having picnics, and walking their dogs.

After walking around the falls area, we walked back through the town and hopped on the "Sky Wheel," the local ferris wheel....

The Sky Wheel has individual climate-controlled buckets complete with air conditioning and a narrated history of the area.

For $9.99 a person, you go around 3 times, and once the narrarator is finished, they play classical music. It was quite relaxing. So here are som photos taken from the Sky Wheel....

And when our ride on the Sky Wheel was over, we decided to drive around the area again.











We drove around the river and ended up in a small town called Chippawa. We visisted a little cemetery in Chippawa called Holy Trinity Cemetery...







Then we drove back onto town for dinner, where we opted for Planet Hollywood...

After dinner, we drove back home. Traffic was much worse driving into Toronto and it took longer than it did earlier. Nonetheless, it was a fun and relaxing day!!