Ottawa Day 2

Ahhh, it is now day and I see the parliament buildings in the light.  It looks just like all the photos I have ever seen of it.

Also saw the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier with two guards.  Kristin said that since the shooting of the guard, (was that a year ago?) they now have small house to stand by as well as they now carry rifles.  Damn those terrorists!

This we passed on the way to our Hop-On, Hop-Off Bus Tour.  That is a great way to see the city and learn about the different areas.  The entire route was 1-1/2 hours. 

                              

We hopped off by the Art Gallery so we could visit the Mint.  We first had a pizza lunch which was Kristin's suggestion and it was so good!  When we got back to the Mint it would be an hour wait for a tour and the only way to see the mint was with a tour.  I didn't really want to hang around for an hour, plus the Mint made collector coins, not our money coins, so we hopped back on the bus to continue on.  

Museums galore in Ottawa.  We drove past the War Museum.  Those small windows on the wall of the museum spell out "Lest we Forget" in Morse Code.

We stopped at a park that was featuring MosaiCanada.  This is a representation of all the provinces and territories of Canada in plants.

This is Anne of Green Gables waiting for a train.

Here we have a fisherman in a dory on a wavy ocean.

Kristin is standing in front of a train made out of plants!  Apparently the sunflowers just bloomed last week so we were treated to a sea of sailing yellow faces.

Here is the Yukon's representation.

It was fun.  We spent a whole day on the hop-on hop-off.  I saw a lot, learned a lot and had good company to boot.  It was an excellent tour of Ottawa, the city I FINALLY got to see.  Thanks Kristin for opening up your home to me.  I truly enjoy my visit!

Ottawa Day 1

On Monday I flew from Hamilton Airport to Ottawa via Montreal.  I arrived mid afternoon after an hour delay with the plane in Montreal... the passengers and the baggage didn't jive so they had to unload all the bags and reload them, leaving the extra bag at the Montreal airport.  But, it worked out fine as Kristin was then able to pick me up at the airport in Ottawa.  I dropped my bags at her apartment and we took a walk around the downtown area.  Above is Kristin by the old railway station building.  We ate dinner at a pub then walked around a bit more.

My first view of the Parliament Building was after the sun had set.  I know it is difficult to see, but all those people on the front lawn of the Parliament Building are doing YOGA.  All of them!  Where is my friend Debbie.  She would have loved this!

Everything looked so pretty at night.  The canal was all lit up.  We did a bit of shopping at my new favourite store Simone's, then went to Kristin's apartment for the night.

Hamilton August 17 to 27

I know, this is a picture of my drive into Toronto.  But as the end of my Ancaster visit drew near  Deb and Tex had a farewell bar-b-que at their house.  It was nice to have everyone together one more time before I left.  Thank you to my family who always make me feel so welcome during my stay.  It was so good to see you all and to have a good visit with you.  Till next time ...

The Glass Castle

We wanted to go to a movie.  The only movie showing that was of interest was The Glass Castle (I have to say not counting the super hero movies of Spiderman and Wonder Woman, both of which I have already seen and both of which were not of too much interest to the others).  It was rated very low - 49% on rotten tomatoes.  But many of the others had read the book, so we went.  My expectations were low even though it starred Brie Larson and Woody Harrelson.  The movie is based on the book of the same name - a true story of Jeannette Wall who grew up in an extremely poor environment with dysfunctional parents and yet carved out what she though was a successful life only to find out that family brought happiness, not all the material things.  Although the movie didn't have extreme highs and lows there were many hidden levels and depths that increased when you started to think about it.  For a movie that was so lowly rated, it seemed everyone was talking about it when they left the theatre.  It was a performance that stayed with you.  Woody Harrelson's performance was exceptional having to move back and forth from loving father to troubled alcoholic and doing it so convincingly.  Should I love him or hate him??  I don't usually read the book AFTER I have seen a movie but with this one I am reading it.  The story was intriguing and the acting was excellent.  For a movie I cannot get out of my head, I give it 4 out of 5 Stars.

Beautiful

Dave drove us (me, Debbie, Tex and Teri) from Ancaster to downtown Toronto to attend the Ed Mirvish Theatre where my sisters surprised me with tickets to:  

Beautiful, The Carole King Musical!!!!

My theatre companions were:

Teri & Dave

Debbie & Tex

And Lisa

We sat down, then decided to change our seating ...

We did a bit of seat juggling ...

But finally we all settled in.  

The show was excellent.  The theatre was beautiful and the show was one of my top favourites that I have ever seen.  Carole King is so talented and together with her first husband they wrote so many songs that made the top 10 (if not number 1 on the top of the charts) on the hit parade.  The acting was superb, the singing excellent (I knew most of the words to most of the songs) the sets interesting and the story true.  Thank you sisters.  I couldn't have enjoyed anything more!

McMichael Art Gallery

We visited the McMichael Art Gallery in Kleinburg.  There are many windows in this gallery all with interesting views.  Above is one of the first views we saw.

One of my favourite paintings of the day (although there were many many more as well).

There are often rest areas as you tour the gallery.  And many of the rest areas are by the windows.  Very peaceful.  Above Deb and Will take a rest in the Tom Thomson and Joyce Wieland section.

Then again in the section of the gallery that is the original house.  Oh how I would have loved to live there.

We all took our time in the original house dreaming of what it would have been like to live there.

And then we started to get silly, so we soon continued on the gallery tour.

Lisa and Kate taking in the beautiful scenery.  

Even though these photos show us "resting" a lot, we did all enjoy the paintings and drawings on display.    We would have walked through the grounds but it was raining so we went to an Italian restaurant for lunch.  It was a wonderful day, full of culture and beauty.

Hamilton

Will's ball hockey team was in the finals of the championship.  We watched two close matches in which his team won the Silver.  It was fun watching hockey in August.

Above his his team.

One day we strolled downtown Hamilton.  It is quite the vibrant city.

Kayla made a purchase for her new apartment in this shop.

Hungarian Day

If I'm not mistaken, this is the 3rd Annual HUNGARIAN DAY.  This year, thanks to Jennifer's suggestion, we painted our nails in the colours of the Hungarian Flag.  It was such a hit, next year we may set up a booth and paint everyone's nails.

I (with the help of Teri) displayed some to the information on our Ancestry website.  We pasted it on boards the colour of the Hungarian Flag (what else??).  I used Google Translate to translate the heading "Our Family Tree" and on the red board this title was proudly displayed.  Uncle Joe looked at it and asked what "Our Family Doughnut" means.  So much for Google Translate.

Above, some Hungarians gathered around the table outside.  Check out Aunt Liz and Uncle Joe's (Hungarian) caps!

And four Hungarian sisters in the kitchen.

Lisa & Kate.

Lisa and cousin Barb (Lisa got around).

And Lisa's embroidered jeans.  Very Hungarianish.

One group ate Hungarian food inside (note the flag on the window).

Another group ate Hungarian food outside.

It was fun to see cousin's Barb and John there, pictured above with Mom.  I haven't seen them for about 20 years!!!

Two more Hungarian sisters.  Aunt Liz is 87 years young and mom is 93 years young.

The food was sooooooo good and my favourite food (dessert) didn't disappoint.

It was another successful Hungarian Day.

Egészségére!

(And if that doesn't say Cheers! don't blame me, blame Google Translate again)

Edmonton Aug 14 to 16

My first stop in Edmonton.  Now I'm ready for holidays!

Even though Brent was working while I was there, he always made us dinner  ... delicious dinners I must add.

Dawson was feeling ill and had been for some months prior to my arrival.  Unfortunately he stayed home on the couch most of the time.

And Little Jenny was my driver.  She was most accommodating taking me to wherever I wanted.

I noticed that the Pixar Exhibition was at the Science Centre and luckily Brent was able to get us complimentary tickets to the event which was excellent as it was quite expensive per person.  Dawson felt a bit better this day and was able to attend the exhibition with us.

There were lots of hands-on displays and explanations of how pixar does their animation.  It was all very interesting.

Above is just one of many of my faves of the Pixar world.

And here is a cast of another of my favourite characters.

The last night I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express at the airport as I had a 10:00 AM flight to Hamilton.  DON'T EVER EVER EVER STAY THERE.  Besides two trains per hour whistling past their window, the bed was totally lumpy.  I let them know a new mattress was in order for my room and the girl said OK, she'll let them know.  The least I was waiting for was an apology but I didn't even get that.