Good-bye London, hello Toronto again

Tuesday May 26, 2009

We could have taken a later train to Toronto but M & M had to work that day and we felt safer getting there early anyway. The train trip from London to Toronto is about 2 hours long. M1 had to come home from work to drive us to the train station. I'm sure we got Tim Horton's coffee on the way, because more often than not, if you're driving around in Ontario, you're sipping on a Tim Horton's coffee. He dropped us off and went back to work. Thank you M & M for having us, feeding us and driving us all over the place!

Inside the train station I was standing in line at the ticket counter while Glenn was relaxing up in the lounge. The only person ahead of me was an Iroquois man. I know that because it said so on his bag. I felt like saying, "Wow, I've never met an Iroquois person before!" but figured he would think I was an idiot so I just chatted a bit. He offered to let me go ahead, twice, which I thought was mighty nice because who ever does that except at the grocery checkout when you've got one item and they've got 50? But I declined.

The train left at noon so we got lunch. I love sitting there getting fed, like in the old days on airplanes.
Top left: they always bring you hot towels first.
Top right: main courses come after. Glenn had pasta and I had fish.
Bottom left: cute station at Woodstock.
Bottom right: train station in Toronto.

It was a cool, grey day in Toronto. You barely need to go outside though because covered walkways go for blocks and blocks. They pass through malls, split off in different directions and aren't terribly well marked. Here, a big Kleenex ad hangs over a doorway.

Niagara-on-the-Lake - A playwright & peanuts

Monday May 25, 2009

Niagara-on-the-Lake is a charming little place. Neat and tidy. I think no poor people live there.

Even the side streets are tidy.

The Shaw Cafe & Wine Bar.

And the Shaw statue. The plaque with it reads:

George Bernard Shaw

1856 - 1950.
Born in Dublin, Ireland
Noted spokesperson and playwright,
awarded Nobel Prize for literature 1925.

Amazingly I didn't buy anything in the bakery but we had just eaten lunch in a place called Bistro Six-One. I did buy some nicely boxed jars of jam in another store.

Although we had to get back to London because my brother's wife's (M2) parents were bringing back their little daughter and staying for dinner, my brother (M1) left enough time for a visit to Picard Peanuts. Who knew they grew peanuts in Ontario? I've never seen or heard of so many different types of peanuts: beernuts, honey roasted copper kettle, Virginia fancy redskin, jumbo cocktail peanuts, Ontario grown Valencia salted and unsalted....

And then there were the chipnuts: original regular, BBQ, ranch, white cheddar, nacho cheese, blazin hot, sour cream, onion & garlic, etc. You can sample all these nuts as you tour the store.

Lest you go away thinking we ate nothing but poutine and chipnuts on this trip, that really wasn't the case. We only had a few bites of those things and ate good food most of the time. For instance, we had a very nice dinner at M1 & M2's the night before. We could probably learn a thing or two from them about healthy eating. On this night, after being out all day, they picked up Chinese food, which was a refreshing change for us because we don't often have it. We visited with M2's parents a while before zipping off with M1 to buy lottery tickets. People at work are always commenting that winning tickets are so often from Ontario and Quebec. Unfortunately, ours wasn't a winner.

So that was our last full day in London. I realize now that we have no pictures of London itself. M1 took us on a little driving tour down tree-lined streets of pleasant neighbourhoods that made me think of 'Leave It To Beaver' days. The next morning we would hop on a train to Toronto and begin the journey home.

London Ontario - A big glitch

Sat. May 23 to Sun. May 24, 2009

Or - How to make yourself unpopular with the relatives

First a big thank you to J and T for taking us in and driving us all over!

After the warplanes museum they drove us to a midway point where we met my sister who already had our luggage in her car. Glenn and I transferred to her car and she then took us to our brother's place in London, another town I'd never seen.

Brother 'M1' and his wife 'M2' have a 2-year-old girl 'M3' and three cats. Their house, which my brother built, has a suite where we would stay. Sis stayed overnight as well in another room and would head home the next morning.

On the bright side, at least I didn't leave my purse, for example, on a train

M1 had interesting plans for our first full day in London. Unfortunately we were about to blow that because of a mistake we made the day before.

When we arrived at the warplanes museum the previous day I had asked if Glenn really wanted to bring the camera bag in with him. He then put it in the trunk. When we switched from one car to another, we first we checked inside the car trunk and didn't see anything.

It wasn't until the next morning that I realized the camera bag was missing. A gut-sinking feeling set in that we'd left it in Tracy's car, which was all the way back in Alliston. It had slid up toward the front and, being black on black, we didn't see it. In the bag were all the rechargers and cords for the cameras and laptop. This was unfortunate because without them we couldn't charge any camera batteries and we couldn't download pictures onto the laptop. We considered trying to buy an extra battery for the camcorder (we only had one extra) but I knew from experience that, because this camera is relatively new, the batteries are hard to find. I located only one store in Victoria that had them in stock, at close to $100 apiece.

We still had some sightseeing to do including Niagara Falls! This was no time to run out batteries or photo space. J and T offered to take it to Toronto where we could pick it up before our train trip home, but we decided that we'd rent a car and drive all the way back to Alliston to get the darned camera bag. M1 wouldn't hear of it though and insisted on driving us there. I think he should have let us rent the car and just had a nice relaxing day at home because by the time we undarkened their doorstep, he was exhausted.

Well, at least I got to ride along with my sister back to Alliston and see one of my nephews one more time (his wife was out). Before picking up the camera bag we stopped for lunch where I tried poutine once more. M1 said it wasn't the way it should be though, so I'll say that I still haven't really had poutine. But, ick, just looking at it makes me think of clogged arteries anyway.

Then we parted company with my sister and drove back west back toward London.

Now, a big thank you to my sister for touring us all around, the care package at the B&B, for dinner out and the wonderful big dinner you put on!