Our Journey Across the Northern Border Ends

The Canadian adventures for the cast and crew of “Little House on the Prairie The Musical” have ended and everyone has packed up to head south for two weeks in Florida.

We all hope that the “weather gods” look down on us favorably. We haven’t seen anything approaching warm weather since the first of the year when we headed back out in 2010.

Arkansas was sub-zero during our week there and Omaha and Madison, WI, were snow-filled and cold. Toronto, which is on Lake Ontario, and has its lake effect breezes whipping through town, has been a little better but it's still “winter” here.

Don’t get me wrong, we’ve had a great time here, but, even five weeks in a really great city tend to wear on everyone.

Granddaughter Taylor Bera and her two classmates have been exposed to a number of educational opportunities that I wrote about in earlier blogs.

Last week was no exception.

On her day-off Monday, Taylor and I and four others drove to Niagara Falls about 90 miles away. We got a spectacular view of Niagara Falls. It’s not a big tourist hotspot in the winter because it’s really, really cold. Only one of the portals (viewing areas) under the falls was open because the others were frozen over.

Neither the Maid of the Mist boat ride or the Aero Car ride over the whirlpool was operating because of the frozen conditions, but we had a lot of fun anyway. We sure weren’t rushing along by the crowds that wife Helen and I experienced a few years ago during a better weather visit to the Falls.

We stopped 15 kms to the north (about 10 miles) at Niagara-on-the-Lake for lunch and found two great places if you have a chocolate urge. One had every kind of fudge imaginable including one made with Frozen Wine, The other place was appropriately called “The Chocolate Fix.” You probably can imagine our reaction when you walk into the store and there’s a huge display of “samples for tasting.” There’s no way you can resist trying almost all of them and buying your favorites.

No one kept track of how long we were in the store, but no one complained. We did get back to Toronto despite the heavy snow that was falling by late afternoon. There are some pictures of the “Fix” in my collection but I’m sure none of anyone’s purchases lasted long enough to be packed away for Florida.

Taylor also got an unexpected extra day off from school, so she and I packed up early in the day and headed off to Ontario Science Centre. We spent the whole day there and the local crew at the venue for our show, Canon Theater, was right when they said you can’t see it all in one day. We barely scratched the surface even though we were there for six hours. You see some of the sights in my photos except one exhibit, Body Worlds, didn’t permit photos and I couldn’t let the camera in my phone go wild.

Body Worlds is an an artistic and anatomic display of plastinated human specimens, including whole bodies as well as individual organs and transparent body slices.

Here are some pictures from our last week in Toronto:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp?token=311775443803%3A1504465263

What did I learn from my time in Canada—some good and some bad:

1. I kinda like the coin system for dollars. They have $1 coins called “loonies” and $2 coins called “toonies.” You might retort that you won’t want to have a pocket full of coins, but you actually use them up rather end up with a pocket full of $1 bills. Check your own bankrolls. Besides, the coins last longer than paper.

2. I learned how to put vinegar on French fries rather than ketchup. All of the fast food places here have packets of vinegar readily available.

3. The best place for breakfast in downtown Toronto is about 5 foot wide and maybe 10 to 15 deep. They make the best Belgian Waffles you ever tasted. Of course, it’s takeout and sometimes there’s a line waiting to get in. Kinda like the deli on the Seinfeld TV show.

4. I overcame my problem with the north and south directions on the subway that loops the city and also found out another plus to the system. The city buses have terminals in each major stop along the line and you can ride them free without having to leave the subway. Unfortunately, I found out about this after Taylor and I were going to the Science Centre. We exited the subway station and couldn’t find a bus stop. I asked a passerby and he said we shouldn’t have left the subway. Rather than pay another two fares, I went back to toll booth and told the man on duty my plight. He waved us through without another fare. Can you imagine that happening in NYC---I don’t think so?

5. I hate to admit that it took me five weeks to actually understand curling. I thought it was just another version of shuffleboard or darts. I couldn’t understand why they didn’t try to hit the center area more often and get more points. I thought the center was worth more. Actually, the rings are only for reference and each rock closer to the center is worth one point. I also never realized that the rocks they throw weigh between 39 and 45 pounds each.

6. Body Worlds really gave you a close up view of a human body and every organ in a human body was sliced and diced to let you “look inside the human body.” I’m not so sure I feel more comfortable knowing what I look like inside. They are looking for donors to donate their body when the time comes, but I don’t think that’d be putting me on view. The bodies in our display were pretty athletic looking. I’d probably end up as transparent body slice (in plastic) that they’d pass around for you to look at and touch or one of my body organs would on display as an abnormal one. I have some of the donation cards if anyone is interested.

7. Taylor also learned something—her “dresser” Michele Munn taught her how to do needlepoint. Taylor liked Michele so much that she said it was too bad she wasn’t traveling with the show all the time.

8. I never really understood the Celsius temperature scale but it was really confusing to wake up most mornings and find out it was -4 C or lower. It’s a confusing conversion method and best done by a computer program or a cell phone program. A -4C temp converts to about 25 F. The folks on the local crew said the best method if the C temp is on the plus side is to double it and add 30. If on the minus side, you have to use a formula.

Well it was great being in Canada but we’re happy to be heading back to the U.S. We flew to New Jersey last night, and picked up Helen to head for a couple of weeks in the Florida sun. Little House plays next week in Tampa and the following week in Naples.