The Tourists

We're back from a whirlwind trip to southern Ontario, playing tourists in our home province.

The only disappointing part of the weekend was that our hotel (a) did not have wifi in the rooms (seriously!), (b) even the plug-in Internet crashed on Friday morning, never to revive while we were there (what the heck?), and (c) treated us to an impromptu indoor waterfall. This latter happened when the fix-it guy who came to replace a flickering lightbulb was instead drenched with water as soon as he removed the light shade.

We saw Niagara Falls. Having grown up in southern Ontario, it almost escaped my mind that my own kids hadn't seen the falls. Tsk! Tsk!

We went to the Butterfly Conservatory. (I stayed in the gift shop - the thought of all those insects fluttering around me was a little off-putting. I prefer my insects two-dimensional.)



On Saturday, we visited the Royal Ontario Museum and saw the new "Crystal" addition, designed by architect Michael Lee-Chin. What an artist!

New meets old.

We enjoyed our visit to the museum, but I'll spare you all the pictures we took. (Why do we keep trying to take pictures of objects behind glass? If I'm going to keep trying that, I need to read up on how to do so properly.)

But the highlight of the trip was getting together with (most of) my family. You may see a family ressemblance. That's right: the good-looking ones are all in-laws.

Unfortunately, one of my brothers couldn't make it, and my mother and her husband called in sick. But it was still a good crowd and I really enjoyed catching up with them. A lot can change in a year and a half.

To sum up, we experienced:
- waterfalls and water falling
- butterflies (and a snake, but I didn't post that picture. You're welcome.)
- architecture, history, dinosaurs, and cultural relics
- Toronto traffic, which MapQuest clearly does not understand. 23 minutes, my foot.
- quiet evenings NOT surfing the Internet
- lots of hugs from family

Time well spent, I think.