We drove by a place named Stewiacke, the sign for which proudly announced that it is half way between the equator and the North Pole!
I’ve never been so close to Santa’s place before. How exciting!
I wonder if he likes getting visitors…
Made Me Smile
Dover.
Driving from Halifax to Peggy’s Cove, we passed through several small bayside villages.
We drove into a village named Dover.
Sean said, “Give me some white cliffs!”
I responded with, “And some bluebirds!”
Best conversation so far today.
Carousel.
Yesterday Sean and I returned to Port Dalhousie to see the carousel. It was built in 1903 and was restored painstakingly in the 1980s.
The carousel has over 60 hand carved animals and some benches that look like sleighs. A calliope organ plays songs from the early 1900s that make a ride on the carousel a trip into history.
A ride still costs only 5 cents.
Whaaaaat? In Australia, someone would be charging $5 and blaming it on the price of insurance.
We had a lovely ride that lasted over 5 minutes. It was simply delightful.
Shopping list…
Sean was making a shopping list for groceries. Then this conversation happened:
Me: “You wanted yoghurt. Is that on your list?”
Sean: “Yes.”
Jenn: “Do you have enough granola for your yoghurt?”
Sean: “We have that coming out of our wazoo…”
Me: “Is that what that was?”
Jenn: “Wazoo flavoured granola…”
Me: “What other flavour could you want?”
Niagara Falls at night.
In continuation of my love affair with Niagara Falls, I returned last night to see them lit up. What an incredible experience!
Since 1925, the Falls have been lit at night in order to add another dimension to the Niagara Falls experience, and to further highlight the beauty and majesty of the falls. It’s safe to say that both objectives are fully achieved.
Throughout the evening the colours changed from time to time. For two hours, I watched, mesmerised, as the enormous falls changed colour and continued to pour relentlessly into the Niagara River below. The plume of mist changed colour accordingly, from fiery red to deep purple, teal, green and yellow. In the fully white illumination, the mist created its own rainbow that was almost as entrancing as the rainbow-coloured falls themselves.
Around us, city lights of hotels and towers shone down from above the trees and gardens that line the Niagara Parkway. The casino and the Skylon Tower also changed colours in a neon-like harmony with the lighting of the falls. In the near distance, the Skywheel at Clifton Hill illuminated the skyline, vivid white. Horse-drawn carriages decorated with strings of lights bore people along the parkway. The Hornblower cruise boat was lit with colours too, as it sailed on the river below the falls. None of this detracted from the lighting of the waterfalls, though. It was as though all these other lights, and even the illuminated American falls, were merely the chorus in a show where the star was definitely Canada’s Horseshoe Falls dressed in Joseph’s technicolor dreamcoat.
The experience left me without adequate words to describe how I felt. To say that I was awe-struck does not suffice. To say that it was almost a spiritual experience is not an exaggeration.
All I know is that I will never, ever forget the overwhelming joy that I have experienced at Niagara Falls, both in daylight and with illumination on a beautiful, starry September night. I will always be in love with this place. I truly have left a part of my heart there.
Port Dalhousie
Port Dalhousie sits on Lake Ontario near St Catherine’s, Ontario. It’s a gorgeous place with a beautiful beach, marina and waterfront area that boasts not one, but two, lighthouses. It also has a carousel with a calliope!
We visited fairly late in the afternoon, so the carousel was closed, but we walked along the pier in golden autumn sunshine and watched the sailboats, fishermen in small boats, and windsurfers enjoying the beautiful weather.
My first impression walking along the pier was that the waterway and marina reminded me a lot of Port Fairy in Victoria, Australia, not far from Warrnambool, where I work. It’s another very pretty spot with a marina on the moth of the Moyne River that I have blogged about before.
After walking along the pier, we sat on the beach and had the most Canadian of sandwiches: crusty white bread, old cheddar and Montreal smoked beef with mustard. Those sandwiches were incredibly good.
Our picnic was also attended by a lone seagull and a very attentive wasp. Thankfully, we did not provide any food for either one of them.
Having just finished winter in south-eastern Australia, this was my first opportunity to enjoy time on a beach. It felt so good to get my bare feet in the warm sand and squidge it between my toes. That’s one of the things I love about summer afternoons, even though I don’t really like hot weather. Yesterday’s 23C was just perfect for a beach picnic.
Driving out, we passed some lovely pubs and shops that I would love to go and visit sometime. A very old brick building serves as a coffee house that looked incredibly inviting.
I am already thinking that I’m going to have to make another trip to Canada.
Damn. That’s just heartbreaking.
In the wild.
As we were driving to Toronto Zoo, we saw a deer in the wild, eating flowers on the side of the road.
There were no antlers, so I assume it was a doe. She looked up from her feast, saw the car, and bolted into the grasslands further from the road. She moved with incredible speed, yet her movements were fluid and graceful.
There was no time to take a photo, but I was very excited to have seen this magnificent creature in her own environment. I like to think of her out there, in the wild, enjoying the delicious flowers that grow by country roadsides.
What an extraordinary, unforgettable moment.
“Meet the Aussie”.
This afternoon a bunch of people came to Sean and Jenn’s for the “Meet the Aussie” pot luck supper.
It was a really great time. Everyone just chilled and chatted and ate – holy Toledo, did we eat. There was so much good food, and a number of things I hadn’t tried before.
Pumpkin tarts. Oh. My. Goodness.
Those are amazing. I only had one, mainly because I was minding my manners. I could have eaten ten without any trouble.
Butter tarts: these would be more aptly named ‘Caramelised buttery fruity deliciousness tarts’.
These are really good, but the pumpkin tarts were better.
In return, I made two classic Australian desserts: a pavlova and a chocolate ripple cake.
Both were a huge hit. I think I scored a million brownie points with the pavlova. It was pretty darned spectacular, even if I do say so myself.
And, in a ‘karma smiling on me’ kind of way, we had an extra guest visiting in the yard with us. This little guy sat on the fence for some time, and kindly did not run away when I wanted to take his picture.
All the Canadians thought it was funny that I was so excited about a squirrel, until Sean explained that we don’t have them in Australia.
The following conversation was all about Australian wildlife and all the dangerous critters we have. That’s more fun than telling ghost stories around a camp fire because it’s all true.
As the sun went down and the temperature dropped, people went home and we finished the day very well fed and very tired.
Oh No, You Didnt!
For some time, LMC has been saying things she’s heard on American tween TV shows.
One of her favourite phrases is “Oh no, you didn’t!” when someone says or something she doesn’t like.
Today I was browsing in a shop when I heard stuff land on the floor and an employee say “Oh no, you didn’t!” in exactly the same way and with an accent that LMC had perfected far better than I had previously realised.
It made me smile.
Even more than that, it made me miss my girl.
Larry.
I just met a great guy named Larry who runs a store called Clothes Encounters in Farmington, a suburb of Detroit.
I’ve met lots of friendly people here, but Larry is just that bit nicer, funnier, and sweeter than most. We chatted, talked about politics and the state of the world, we joked and laughed, and then I walked out of the store feeling great. I think Larry is the sort of guy who has a gift for making the day better for everyone he meets.
If you’re ever in Detroit, pop down to Clothes Encounters in Farmington and tell Larry I sent you. Maybe we can make his day great, too.
An Aussie Maple Leaf, adrift on the wind... 
