London and Toronto

London

Haven't posted anything for a while so I thought I would update everyone on my progress:) Last weekend on Saturday I went with my Aunt Margaret and Uncle Jack to Port Stanley, which is this small cute town on Lake Erie. That night we got pizza from my cousin's husband's pizza place in downtown London. Yum!

Sunday I got up early and my cousin Kerry and I drove to Canada's Wonderland, which is a huge amusement park north of Toronto. We met up with two of her friends in Kingston and all drove together. It worked out well because one of the friends liked riding at the front of roller coasters like me, so that's what we did while Kerry and her other friend watched or rode further back. We did convince them a few times but they didn't seem as into keeping their hands in the air the whole time. It's the best way to ride! There are more than half a dozen coasters, and we rode all of them a few times. Leviathan and Behemoth were the two biggest, fastest ones and my favourites!

Toronto

Monday I headed out to Toronto to spend this week with Dacia! So nice to see her again. When I got here we walked downtown, which is a good 5km walk, and I got to see the huge billboard screens, and they also had tv screens set up in the main square for the Olympics. Tuesday we went to Yorkville, which is an area with a bunch of different shops, including frozen yogurt. We also went to the Eaton Centre, which is similar to Edmonton Mall in that it has a lot of stores and we spent way too much time there! But I was good and only bought one thing. Wednesday we hung out at Dace's place (she lives in a house in a pretty nice neighbourhood) so she could get some work done, but she ended up having an almost all-day meeting with her rho sorority sisters, and I relaxed and watched movies.

Thursday we went to this place called Kensington, which has a bunch of neat spice shops and food from all over, as well as beautiful murals and graffiti. The car in this picture had plants growing out of it! We also walked through the Chinatown area, which is near Kensington and had fried and steamed dumplings. That night we went for drinks with a few of Dacia's friends to this place called, no joke, Philthy McNastys.

Friday we drove the two hours south to Niagara Falls with one of Dacia's friends, Warren. It was definitely worth the short drive to see it, though I almost liked Kakabeka Falls more because there was lots of walking trails and forest around, whereas the falls are right in the city of Niagara, near casinos and with boats constantly in the water. Where we parked the car there was a Jamaican truck so we had some delicious food. On the way back to Toronto we stopped at Warren's friend's winery - Harbour Estates - and did some wine tasting, as well as getting a tour of the vineyard. The owner's daughter was getting married the next day and there was a tent set up at the back of the vineyard near the lake and a cello playing while they did their rehearsal. 

Saturday we went to St. Lawrence Market, which is a farmer's market with produce and bread and cheese on Saturdays, but also has fresh fish and meat markets, and other knick knacks. Warren got a bunch of groceries for dinner and made us (Dacia, her friend Kweku and I) an amazing three course dinner. He is a chef and owns a smokehouse. The first course was zucchini fritters with curry cream sauce; the second was homemade leek-filled tortellini with shrimp in this amazing sauce he cooked separately with veggies; the third was pan-roasted halibut on warm lentil salad. It was so good! We also went out to Empire club that night and danced it up.

Today was a pretty restful day, but we went for dim sum in Chinatown, which I've never had. The waitresses came by with carts and we got lots of dishes with shrimp in them, like shrimp in rice noodle, shrimp stuffed taro, bok choy, and green onion and shrimp cakes, which were my favourite. Tomorrow Dace and I head to Montreal for a few days and then I continue on East! I have now officially seen all of the great lakes!