We arrived in Toronto in the evening and by the time we had cleared immigration it was quite late and we were very tired, so we crashed into bed the minute we got to the hotel. Next day we picked up our hire car and drove a wee bit out of Toronto where I spent a lovely day with a friend. She and I started off as penpals many years ago and have managed to meet up on a few occasions. From sometimes bitter experience I am here to tell you that meeting penfriends can be disastrous, but luckily that doesn't apply to R. We all had lunch together and then the boys went off to do stuff, and R and I had a lovely girly time looking round the shops. I don't want to sound like a stereotype here, but where I live there really aren't that many shops to browse and although I have many and good friends they aren't shop browsing people really. So although I would never take it up as a hobby, or make it a general every Saturday thing, it is lovely to do it once in a while. We went to the Mall where I bought Son No 1 a tea infuser and some specialty teas for his upcoming birthday, and a pair of PJs and a top for myself. We went to Chapters, a wonderful bookstore where I bought some magazines for a friend back home. And we went to a wool shop where I bought, well yes, some wool. More of that at a later date. Of course I totally forgot about getting a photo of the two of us together (d'uh!) but here's a photo of the Mall decked out for Christmas.
and for good measure here's a couple of the Mall in Windsor where the family is.
I came to the conclusion that Canadians definitely take their Christmases seriously. Many of the houses had beautiful outside decorations and I wish I'd tried to take pictures of some of those. However they looked best after dark when they were all lit up and we were usually going past them in the car at that stage so conditions not ideal for snapping blow up penguins (yes really) or illuminated reindeer.
The weather was much milder than we had anticipated, in fact the temperatures were higher in Windsor than they were at home and out of all the days we were there we only wore our coats once. (Gather it's turned a fair bit colder since we left though) As proof, here is the daughter in law ready for a trip out
See? T-shirt weather.
We went for a drive up to Lake St Clair where there's a wetland bird reserve (just like home really) and had a walk there
It was beautiful and there were hundreds and hundreds of birds there, although too far away for my little camera to capture them
Another day we went to the historic township of Amherstburg. This was the day when we gave in and put on our coats, as it was a bit chilly.
former fur-trappers post
memorial to the men who kept the Americans out!
oh look, a black squirrel. Proud of myself for catching this one 'at rest'; they're very lively and very quick
My beautiful boys, all together for once. Hard to believe that in photos from when they were young it's difficult to decide which of the two sons it is. Practically indistinguishable then, totally different now.
And that was about it, apart from an all too brief lunch meeting with a fellow Raveller on our way to the airport to catch the plane home. Also a great success, also an occasion when I forgot about taking photos.
We flew home in a 'Dreamliner' aka a Boeing 787. If you get the chance to fly in one of these, take my tip and don't. Cramped, uncomfortable and the 'click together' interior panelling showed a nasty tendency to unclip of its own accord, decanting panels onto the heads or feet of those below. Gives you a lot of confidence in the plane as a whole (not).
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