Niagara Falls - Part Two

Hi Everyone!

I was planning to write this as soon as I got back from the holiday but jet lag has left us all wiped out. Anyways, here it is.

As part of the Niagara Falls experience we went on the Maid of the Mist, which Joanna and Nick did on their honeymoon. The Maid of the Mist is a boat which takes you really close up to the Horseshoe Falls.

The Maid of the Mist

It was very popular but the wait wasn't as long as we all anticipated. We picked up our blue ponchos and made our way onto the crowded boat.

Before the 'Falls Expreince'

The trip took half an hour to go past the American Falls and the Bridal Veil Falls and really close to the Horseshoe Falls.

American and Bridal Veil Falls

We definitely went over the U.S boarder which excited us and it was incredible to get so close to the waterfalls in the photo above.

Another view of the American Falls and the Bridal Veil Falls

Coming up to the Horseshoe Falls

 As it was such a hot day we were really glad to get sprayed (it felt like drizzle) from the American Falls but it was nothing like what hit us at the Horseshoe Falls.

Rainbow on the water, at one point there was a double rainbow

So yes, we got soaked but it was very nice after such a hot day and even if it had been cooler it still would have been worth it. The Maid of the Mist just topped off the whole Niagara Falls experience and made us forget about the fact we were heading home the next day.

Visiting a vineyard on the way home

A flying Canadian flag

On the way back to downtown Toronto we stopped at a vineyard and a fruit stall by the side of the road which had lovely fresh peaches and driving through some more of Ontario was lovely.

So I hope you enjoyed Part 2. There will be one more post on getting and being home and I am working on another tab going on the top about Toronto and Ontario, like the one I did about Newfoundland. Ta ta!

Niagara Falls - Part One

Hi Everyone!

 

As it was the last day of our trip we decided to do something big so we forgot about the fact we have to go home. We saved the best till last and rented a car for the day and went to Niagara Falls.

 

 

The Skylon Tower (mini CN Tower)

Those were two of the things that I spotted and liked on the way to the falls. It was like we were travelling on the highway, saw everyone turn off to the U.S and then suddenly the most amazing sight was there.

 

The Bridge to the U.S.A

The Horseshoe Falls

 



The American Falls and The Bridal Veil Falls (New York State in background)

It was honestly most of the incredible sight ever and I am so pleased I was able to go. I am afraid this is all I have got time for folks because it is bedtime and we will be getting up quite early tomorrow but on Friday I will post Part 2 in the morning which will include the Maid of the Mist!

 

By the way, some people reading this blog were wandering who wrote which blog post. I (Maddy) have written all of the blog posts apart from the one Nick wrote when I was at camp. I really hope you are all/have enjoyed the blog and there will only be a few posts left to write. Bye for now.

 

Ta ta!

Toronto Zoo!

Hi Everyone!

 

Today we went to Toronto Zoo. It is the 3rd largest zoo in the world and the largest in Canada and it was amazing.

 

Yesterday we went to see some of Mums old university friends and we went swimming in their pool. We had had a really casual day and just sunbathed, went swimming and had a picnic at the beaches. I find it awesome that the lake water isn't salty, it's so big it's like the sea and so I assumed it would be salty but no. One of Mum's old university friend has a car and said she would drive us to anywhere we liked that we couldn't reach by public transport and we had really wanted to go to the zoo so today she took us.

 

 

A Grizzly Bear

They had different parts to the zoo, African, Canadian, American, Eurasia, Australia etc. and the Grizzly Bear was in the Canadian Domain. It luckily was right in front of us and then went to sleep. Despite the size it was actually really cute and at times looked like a moody teenager because it had it's head on its paws and looked bored and moody.

 

They have two giant pandas at the zoo and have a big Giant Panda Experience. Because it was so hot the pandas didn't move at all really but they were still amazing. They looked like soft toys because it was just incredible that they were right there. We were really lucky at the zoo because all the animals we went to see were just in front of us.

 

Other animals at the zoo

There were some other really cool animals as well that we didn't catch on camera, things like eagles, penguins, porcupines, monkeys and the best one we didn't get a photo of was the polar bear.

 

The polar bear was the last animal we saw and we were wandering around, trying to find it when suddenly it was there. It was really close to us and was all hot and sweaty, just pacing up and down. We thought that was the only polar bear but when we walked round the side we found a huge pool with another polar bear swimming. It would loop around, three quarters on its front and then one side on its back. Every time it went on its back it would push itself off from the wall and float along. This may sound a little odd to find cute but we all loved its feet. They looked like huge fluffy slippers but were really little compared to its body. If you have ever seen a polar bears feet, you might know what I mean!

 

Well tomorrow it is our last day, but we are going to Niagara Falls which I will blog about either tomorrow or in two days time as on Thursday we will be flying all day, 8.55am Canada time to 9.05pm UK time. It will be a long day! Ta ta! 



The Beaches and St Lawrence's Market

Hi Everyone!

 

Yesterday we went to The Beaches and beforehand we stopped off at the St Lawrence's Market to pick up some lunch.

 

 

As it was a Saturday morning they had a really nice Saturday morning market. They mostly sold fruit, meats, cheeses and even a British Foods stall. Outside they had more craft and jewellery items and you can see behind Bels head in the centre of the photo a hat like the minions in Despicable Me 2! We loved that.

 

The Gooderham Building which you could see from St Lawrence's Market

We then picked up some bagels and a spread called Lox which was cream cheese mixed with smoked salmon and took them to eat at The Beaches.

 

 

As you can tell it was an amazingly sunny day, in the high 20s temperature-wise and it was lovely sitting on the beach.

 

 

There were these really cool kites that were right by us and the man using them was really good at steering it. He had a teddy which he could pick up off the ground and zoom around in the air and then put back down on the floor. In this photo teddy was in mid fly.

 

Some amazing bubbles and the CN Tower

The Beaches was just really nice and relaxing and today we are going for another picnic lunch.

 

We then went to get some ice-cream at Summers (a place where Kate Hudson and Ashley Tisdale (who was better known to us at Sharpay Evans) has eaten) and the ice cream was really yummy. We also looked at the outside of the museum because the building was really awesome and got very Canadian things in Roots.

 

The museum building

We then went home and we ordered delivery pizza which Bel and I had whilst watching a baseball game which really excited us because getting a pizza delivery is not something we do at home and it felt really North American. Mum and Dad had Chinese.

 

After that we quickly went up to the roof top of our condo building and saw the CN Tower change colours!

 

 

 

We don't have long left here in Canda which is sad but this blog hopefully shows what an amazing time we have had. Ta ta!



Photos of the CN Tower and what we have been uo to

Hi Everyone!

 

This will be quite a short blog post today because we haven't actually done that much.

 

 Yesterday morning Nick had to check something for work and so Joanna, Bel and I had a little shop in the Eaton Centre again. Even the walks to these places, however long, are amazing.

 

For lunch we just came back to the condo and ate lunch there and then Joanna and Nick set off to look for Rush tickets for Anything Goes that is currently on in Toronto. Rush tickets are when you queue up the day of the show and try and get any remaining seat tickets for whatever show it may be. The tickets are also really cheap which is a bonus. Luckily there were four in a row that we were able to get in a pretty good place in the theatre and so we were able to go to the theatre!

 

Before we went we needed to eat supper and so we went up to the roof top for a BBQ. The view is stunning and this time I took the camera up and took some lovely photos.

 

 

In the first photo is the CN Tower and a really tall skyscraper next to in. In the second photos you can see the Blue Jays stadium and the lake behind it and more skyscrapers. Pretty cool right?

 

So then we went to see the show which was absolutely amazing. It was such a fun performance and the singing was incredible. We all loved the tap dancing best I think because it was so fast and what amazed me was that they could act, sing, ballroom dance and then they just get up and tap dance as well!

 

That's all I have got time for folks. Ta ta for now!

 

P.S: You can see the little fish swimming around to the right hand side of the blog post? If you click on them you can feed them and they are getting a little hungry. Just a bit of fun!



Toronto and the CN Tower

Hi Everyone!

 

We are loving it in Toronto. Its so different from Newfoundland which I miss a lot but it is a nice change. I heard from a friend I had made at Goddess Camp that the weather has turned pretty bad in St Johns and it is a really nice here. So yesterday we went up the CN Tower.

 

If you do not know what the CN Tower is, it's basically a 553m communications and observations tower in downtown Toronto. We went up 346m in 58 seconds which was really cool as the lift had a glass door and you could see the high rise buildings around shrinking as you went further up.

 

The stunning view of the city

The view, as you can tell from the photo, was quite incredible.

 

 

At 342m there was a glass floor which you could stand on and look down at the ground below. When we lay there if we turned and look down it felt like it was a trapdoor and I was going to fall head first. Obviously it was fine.

 

Other than the CN Tower we have also been to the art gallery, we have been to the Harbour Front, we ate at the St Lawrence Market and of course shopping!

 

I don't think I have ever walked so much in my life. So far we have walked at least three hours every day because everything is so "close" we don't need a car or public transport. We will set off and then find it actually is a lot longer away than first expected.

 

Ta ta for now!



We have arrived in Toronto!

Hi Everyone!

 

Well yesterday we arrived in Toronto. We haven't got any photos yet of the place, that will be coming but I have Wi-Fi full time now which is a relief to all of us. The flight went very well and it was amazing seeing the mainland of Canada beneath us.

 

It is so different from St Johns. I am missing the little city and the bright houses and our family. It is amazing here though, Joanna hardly recognises it because its grown so much, especially in height!

 

Joanna and I went for an hour and a half walk around us, we are very downtown, and we saw all the people going to work with their takeaway coffees. Today we walked down to the lakeside and also had a little look around the Eaton Centre and may or may not have purchased a few things...

 

This is only a short blog and there will be a longer one tomorrow I promise. Just to let you all know at the top you will now see a tab saying Home and a new tab saying Newfoundland, check that out! I had a little problem with that however which I will try to work out but there is a pretty good amount of writing there which I have been working on all day.

Regatta, Sailing and Stuff

Hi Everyone!

 

I'm so sorry, I haven't had Wi-Fi for ages and if I did it wouldn't let me get it on my laptop. So tomorrow we will be in Toronto (!), I can't believe its that time already. We have had an amazing time and because I haven't been on Wi-Fi for ages I will update you all on all that has been happening, which is a whole collection of different things.

 

First up the Regatta. I told you I would blog about it so here we are.

 

 

It was very very busy and fun. We watched some of the races but it kind of became in the background after a while. There were some really nice stalls, I found out I was a super taster (finally an excuse for not liking broccoli , super tasters apparently won't like it) and lots of food (the lack of coffee was astounding).

 

Overall it was very fun. Later that da we took Amelia to Banaman Park. She saw some people throwing and catching a baseball and was amazed by it because she had never seen it.

 

She always sits down when she concentrates really hard on something and that seemed to be something worth concentrating hard on

Right then the next day we took Amelia out for coffee (she loves it there, tell you more about that later), Bel and I went out with Yvonne for lunch and then Bel and I went to see Despicable Me 2 in the movies which was very funny. We went with the people who invited us to the bonfire a while back.

 

Then we went sailing! We have lots of photos.

 

Basically we went to have breakfast at the Royal Newfoundland Yacht Club and then a guy from Wales came and talked to us and we found out he came to his boat all summer and back to Wales in the winter. He then offered us the chance to go for a sail round a little island and to try cod jigging (no luck there).

 

 

The stunning uninhabited Kellys Island

 

Where have it got to now? Yesterday I think. We took Amelia out for coffee. She stands in the window and smiles and giggles and waves at everyone going past. A couple of people even walked into the coffee shop to say how cute she was.

 

The sweetest little window seat that Amelia loved.

 

In the afternoon a lady came to our Aunties house and used our makeup to show us how to use it all and created a makeup look for us. It was really fun and as a result we went out and got a couple of things she suggested.

 

Well that's all I have got time for. I will write tomoz from TORONTO! Whoop whoop!



La Manche

Hi Everyone!

 

A bit of a long post today. Yesterday we went to La Manche which is where I hiked at the Goddess camp. I liked it so much I wanted to show my family what it was like.

 

Mum said it is the most beautiful place she has ever been.

 

The photo is taken on the spot where I had my tent

 

Because it had been raining since I went a little waterfall had developed behind the suspension bridge which was really pretty and quite loud.

 

We went to the warm (ish) pool that is to the left of the bridge and actually decided to swim!

 

The beautiful pool



 

Mum was planning to go in nice and slowly but the rocks were very slippery and she fell head first into the water. It is such a stunning place and it was lovely to swim.

 

We then made the trek to Doctors Cove and on the way there were some more stunning views.

 

A view on the way to Doctors Cove

 

Walking with style over the Suspension Bridge!

 

Doctors Cove was also very pretty, the very steep walk down to the cove was treacherous but we made in!

 

Doctors Cove

 

It was a lovely and relaxing day overall but what really topped it off was the idyllic place where we ate our picnic lunch...

 

Stunning wild water lilies and wilderness......

  

By a highway.

Today is the Royal St John's Regatta and every shop including supermarkets are closed in St Johns apart from... Tim Hortens! We had been wandering around the Regatta surrounded by all these people walking around with Tim Hortens in their hands and we couldn't resist. Tomorrow I will post all about the regatta because here in Canada the day is young.

 

That's all for now folks!