– I love Air Canada Airline! To be fair, this could be partly since I was able to get a free can of Diet Coke (and even got a second one!). I had in-seat entertainment and my 4 hour flight from Cuba just flew by as I watched movies and TV shows and honestly had one of the most pleasant plane rides in a long….long…long time! I also was finally leaving Cuba and was so ready for that and on my way to Canada to visit my Aunt Sharon, Uncle John, and cousins Adam and Ashley…I was so excited!
– When I cleared customs, my Uncle John and Adam were there to meet me and it was such a treat. I think this was the first time in the past 15 months that someone had met me at an airport or train station (as I always made sure to meet my arriving friends to make the transit easier) and it honestly was so nice to be met at the gate and whisked away in a car chatting the whole way (and in English which was great). I guess I could say I was ready to come back to a developed country with lots of luxuries.
– I knew I was back in a normal country as I went to dinner with the family and got overwhelmed at the menu. The place we went had over 100 items and all the choices sounded so good, were foods I hadn’t had in months and I really I wanted to have everything I read. Once I settled on a dinner, it was such a huge portion, my dinner could have fed 2-3 people. Crazy potion size but so tasty!
– My first full day in Canada was a little bit of prep time as the whole family was going to be together for dinner. So my Aunt wanted to run and do grocery shopping and I asked if I could come. It had been so long since I was at a big grocery store, and I wanted to see everything and maybe buy a few things I hadn’t had in months. What my Aunt didn’t know was how long it would take me to fully enjoy the grocery store. I was like a kid in a candy store as I wanted to go up and down every aisle, get lots of veggies and fruits I hadn’t had in a while and of course, normal American ice cream and tasty cheeses. I had such a fun time at the store and was already starting to feel a little more normal.
– On top of that, we got to go to a wine store. Again, loved all the choices and I was able to find a lot of my favorites wines that I sampled around the world. I was walking around with my Aunt explaining a few of the wines and trying to decide what we should get for dinner based on the food. But then there was a funny man (little bit of a hillbilly if there is such a thing in Canada) that must have been listening to us talk about wines. I know he was trying to be helpful, but out of the blue, he asked what we were having for dinner and then thrust a bottle of red wine into my hands and said we had to have this for a few reasons. It was a little odd, and we just said thanks and held on to it. He never asked if we wanted help or wanted recommendation (and he was just a customer like us…not even a worker). I remember telling my Aunt that this wine he selected was not a good one, we were not buying it and I would casually put it back once he left the store. As we continued to look for more wines, the same man reached over a full aisle of other wines to hand me another bottle and said this is a great one and quite a value. I really wanted to laugh as we never asked for help, I know a lot about wine, and both of his choices were poor. So my Aunt and I just laughed in the store, put both bottles back and purchased three nice bottles from New Zealand, Chile and Argentina. On top of that, this store sells my favorite Irish Beer, Kilkenny (which isn’t available in the states). So we had quite the international purchases and I couldn’t wait to enjoy them all!
– I was dying to cook and realized my first project would be guacamole as I heard that Ashley really likes it and I enjoy making it. It was a great hit for our appetizers and that night my Aunt made a wonderful chicken parm for dinner and we just had a wonderful dinner. I also got to meet Adam’s girlfriend Lisa and it was a fun night of fun family, tasty food, great wines and just hanging out. This was really something I had missed traveling.
– On Saturday, we were off to start some sightseeing (or so I thought). My cousin Ashley was in charge or a project at her summer camp that she worked at, and we ended up shopping all around different stores for most of the day. Again, most people would look at this as running errands and boring stuff, but I was so excited to explore the Dollar Store, drug stores, party stores and had a great time plus we ended up strolling around a fancy town and having a tasty Thai lunch (another cuisine I really missed!).
– I really wanted to see the camp that Ashley worked at as she both attended the camp as a kid and has been working there in the summers for six years. So we drove an hour away from home to drop her back off and the camp grounds were so beautiful and right on a lake! There here hundreds of Canadian geese walking around the grounds. I really liked them, but Ashley told me they are really a pain as they poop everywhere and you have to avoid the bird poop and not track it indoors…so I can see how much of a pain that may be. Seeing all those geese made me think of my mom as she loved when a family of Canadian geese would migrate to the golf course in our neighboring town and she always thought they came to see her as a fellow Canadian. So it was fun to see them all and think of her.
– We finished off our day driving out to Lake Erie, one of the great lakes and I guess Pennsylvania was on the other side. So close! Wandering around a small lake side town, with home made ice cream and little fisherman on the pier…it was a nice time. Long drive back home, and I was already exhausted yet I felt we had done a lot in in the two days I had been there. Plus so much more to do during my visit!
– The next morning was going to be a full day of being a tourist. My Uncle had mapped it all out and we were off early. First stop was at the locks to see the ships raised and lowered to pass from the ocean to the lakes. We stopped at one of the locks in the Welland Canal. This canal had eight large locks, and it was built to allow ships to pass around Niagara Falls as they moved from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie. We got there right as a ship entered the locks and was raised up to meet the lake. Really cool how fast it occurred and we got to chat with an old man that was a volunteer and ship expert so I got to ask lots of silly questions about the ship and shipping costs (as i remembered it was super expensive to pass in the Panama Canal).
– As I love wine so much, I wanted to go back to the wine region in Niagara as Canadian’s make such wonderful ice wines. Ice wine is so different as you have to wait till the grapes freeze on the vines and then only have a short window of time to pick them and crush them to wine. What is produced is a very sweet and thicker wine which is more of a dessert drink. I was amazed to learn that a normal bottle of wine takes about 2 pounds of grapes to make. To make a bottle of ice wine (which is half the size of a normal bottle of wine) it takes 22 pounds of grapes since they are so small and concentrated when they freeze! Makes me appreciate the ice wine much more (and the very expensive price!) We started off at Chateau des Charmes and really loved all the wines there. Next stop was at Inniskillin but we didn’t really like too many of the wines and later learned most of the good wines were already sold out so they didn’t have any left to taste. This seemed a little strange to me that all the good wines were gone already. But that is half the fun of tasting, you find good and bad wines and buy what you like.
– We spent some time at Niagara-On-The-Lake which was a quaint little town right on the lake. We drove around and admired it and got out to walk a little. We even got to witness a very casual wedding under a gazebo. If appeared to be a Scottish wedding and very simple. Sadly, the bride didn’t have any close friends to tell her that her dress was completely see through in the back and we all got a nice look at her underwear. It was hard not to notice but at least that won’t show up in her photos!
– Next stop…Niagara Falls! I was so excited to go back to the falls as this time we would visit during the day, and we could take the Maid of the Mist boat down into the falls. Last time I did the Maid of the Mist, I was 13 years old (which funny enough, we realized that the last time my Aunt and Uncle went down into the falls was with my family 20 years ago in 1989!). So it was a fun time and we got really wet. Even though we had beautiful blue plastic rain slickers, we still got wet and got up close with the falls and I loved every minute of it! We really could feel the power of the falls as the boat was pushed so hard against the water. Such a highlight!
– I thought we were heading home, but since we were so lucky and didn’t get a parking ticket (yet we were 2 hours over our time limit), we threw more money into the meter and decided to wander more to see the touristy street.
– The area surrounding Niagara Falls is one of the most touristy areas ever. It’s right up there with Pier 39 in San Francisco and full of wax museums, roller coasters and candy shops. So of course…I had to wander into the fudge store and was mesmerized by the man making fresh fudge. That is until I saw how much sugar and butter he added to the little chocolate. The ratio was way off and I decided I didn’t need any of this fudge!
– Again I thought we were heading out, but we were talking about the casinos (as there are two). So we thought we would pop in for a while and decided to go to the old one that was closer since I already went to the newer one on my last visit. After wandering around and seeing way too many old people playing slots…I decided to play a little blackjack and said no more than 10-15 minutes. So I sat down and started to quickly lose my $60 and thought it was over, when I finally won a hand. Then I got a little more aggressive and started to bet it all and won three hands in a row with a blackjack and quickly had turned my $60 into $160. To make my friend Debs proud of me…I decided to walk away (as she always wants me to walk away when she came with me to gamble). I was thrilled as I won and had some free cash. I tried to take my aunt and uncle to dinner, but they wouldn’t hear of it and told me to use it when I get home since I don’t have a job. So this helped with my flight costs to get to Canada and was wonderful to have a win!
– Since it was almost 8pm, we were going to head home but by the time we got home, it would be too late for dinner, so we decided to stay and eat at Niagara and I noticed a Macaroni Grill (which I used to love to go to with my volleyball team as it’s upscale Italian). ends up this is a new place in Canada so we had a yummy dinner and finished at 10pm. As we were leaving, we got to enjoy fireworks, which occur every Sunday night. I just pretended they were for the Fourth of July (even though it was July 5th). It was my Independence day fireworks a day later and I was happy with it. After almost a 2 hour drive, we were home and I finally said…I needed a day off. I was exhausted from so much fun and running around and my Aunt and Uncle agreed. Monday would finally be a day of rest!
– Relaxing on Monday, a little shopping and really waiting for the big event….watching “The Bachlorette” on TV. Adam’s girlfriend Lisa had mentioned to us on Friday night that she was watching it with some friends and I got really excited (as I miss both TV and TV nights with friends). When she saw how excited I was, she invited me and my aunt over to watch and we made a fun night of dinner before and the show. I felt so normal hanging out, catching up on what happened in the show (as it was down to the final 4 guys) and enjoying the company. Sometimes it’s the little things that are so fun!
– My final day in Canada was another full one. We headed out early for downtown Toronto. I hadn’t been sightseeing since I was 13, so I wanted to see more and my uncle really wanted to be the best tour guide and put together a plan for us to see it all. We started off at the CN Tower. The CN Tower is Toronto’s most celebrated icon and gave me a perspective not so much on Toronto as on the city’s position in this corner of North America. It’s also the world’s tallest free standing building (well for a little longer as once the building in Dubai opens…that will be taller). But I can now say I was in the tallest building in the world at 1,815 feet tall, and it is considered one of the seven modern wonders of the world! If it’s a clear day, I was told I could see all the way to Niagara Falls, but we were there on a cloudy day so no luck. There was a glass elevator all the way up and I loved looking down as we rushed up the tower in one minute. Once we were at the top, my uncle was able to explain what we were looking at and provided me a great tour of the city from way up tall. Plus we could see the Sky Dome from the glass floor. When I stepped on the glass floor, I started to jump up and down and really freaked out another girl that was standing by me. She couldn’t believe I would jump on a glass floor, but i have done this on many tall towers with glass bottoms and it’s this reaction that I love to get. Hee hee
– I was able to see the SkyDome from the CN Tower and was bummed I couldn’t go see a Toronto Blue Jay’s game while I was in town, but the team was on the road for 2 weeks straight, so no baseball for me 🙁
– Final stop of the day was at Casa Loma. This is really a castle (vs just a casa or home), and it’s on a hill that gave me an inspiring view of the sweep of the city. We got to be tourist and use hand held guides to walk from room to room and learn the history of the castle and it was impressive. At the end, my uncle and I took the long trek underground to the horse stables, but I really just wanted to take the secret passage way. It was a fun afternoon but again very exhausting.
– The drive back should have been long as we would hit rush hour traffic. What we didn’t expect was complete stopped traffic. We later learned (when we passed it), that a horrible accident was on the other side as we saw a crushed car, about 25 police cars on the side of the road, and a tent covering half of the car (so rubbernecks couldn’t see in). Plus no traffic was on the freeway with the accident on the side. We later learned on the news that something was thrown from an overpass and hit the driver and killed him. Crazy how one item thrown at the wrong direction could have caused such a fatal accident. So that slowed our drive down as every driver had to slow to look at it. After that, our drive was fast and I think we made the journey in a little over 2 hours when it should have been one hour. Oh well. At least we were safe and not in the accident.
– So my time in Canada was super wonderful. I had an amazing time catching up with my Aunt and Uncle and didn’t have to share them with tons of others. That was a nice treat as when our family gets together, it’s a large fun event, but you don’t really get so much time to talk to everyone one on one, so this time I feel like I had a real solid visit and got to spend quality time. Plus they were so gracious and treated me like a princess and treated me to everything. I really tried to treat them to a meal or something, but they wouldn’t hear of it (but I was able to sneak in purchasing a couple small things. I can’t say thank you enough for taking care of me and treating me to everything. THANK YOU!!!
– I had booked my final flight from Buffalo, New York as it was way cheaper than Toronto and my Uncle said he would drive me (as it was a little further than Toronto airport). So I got to cross customs in Livingston, New York. I knew they could search my bag if they wanted, but when we stopped at the customs, he took my Aunt and Uncles Canadian passports and I went back to using my American passport and after the brief chat we had about my duration in Canada (as that is all he asked me), he let me go. Good thing as I had two bottles of Cuban Rum and Cuban Cigars (not marked so I could have passed them off as another country of cigars).
– Now I was returning to New York after 15 months traveling around the world….but I didn’t think I was done. Japan is still on my brain as a possible trip this summer. So the journey may continue…