Toronto

We arrived in Toronto on Sunday.  My friend Molly, from the Rimrock, lives in Toronto so she kindly picked us up from the airport with her father, and we stayed with her for a few nights before moving onto the hostel.  We didn't do nearly as much sightseeing as we did in Chicago, but it was a welcome break to not rush around trying to see as much as possible.  While Toronto was a nice city, I think I could take it or leave it.  I definitely preferred Chicago and Vancouver.  Sorry Toronto.











During our stay we ventured up the CN Tower, which is the second tallest in the world, and with sweaty palms we made it up the sky pod to the very top.  The view from here was brilliant.  In a couple of months it will be possible to walk around the ledge using a harness... we will not be signing up for this!!

Next we had a look round Fort York, which is an historic site of military fortifications built by the British and Canadians in the late 18th century.  It was built to try and defend Toronto, then York, from the US.  We took an informative tour, but the guide was a little strange constantly repeating jokes and standing staring without saying anything for extended periods.  I think he was waiting for us to ask questions, but we didn't really have any as it was pretty self explanatory.





Have you ever wondered what Nick would look like if he was a tree?  Well, we happened across a tree near Toronto University which was "born" on the same date as Nick... therefore if he was a tree he'd look like this...

We also went to Casa Loma (spanish for Hill House), a Gothic Revival style house, built for financier Sir Henry Pellatt.  He was originally from Glasgow, and brought hydro-electricity to Toronto.  The mansion had over 200 lights and 50 telephones!  Sir Henry sounded like a great man, but unfortunately and rather sadly ended up dying near penniless from bad investments.  The mansion was amazing, and even though it was built in 1911 didn't really seem that dated.  Nick decided he could live there now.  The gardens were also resplendent, but we did feel a little superannuated walking around and spotting flowers that we knew.

On Wednesday we went to Niagara Falls.  Words cannot describe how awesome the falls were so we'll just put up some photos on its own post so you can see for yourself.

I had been put in contact with Anne, a very distant relation on my dad's side, who lives in Nanticoke, Toronto.  So yesterday we ventured out to see them and to meet up with some other distant relatives who she had managed to gather together.  There we were given a tour by Anne and her son James (my 6th cousin) of the town and the graveyard, followed by dinner.  It was interesting to see the place where they had settled looked very similar to Lincholnshire from where they had originally come.  Huge flat arable fields and long straight roads.  After dinner, Donna showed me just one of her books where she had collected photos and other memorabilia, which was really interesting to see.  She had two more, but it got pretty late and we still had to get back to Toronto.  Donna and her husband John kindly drove us back to Toronto, which was greatly appreciated.  Next time I'm sending dad out to come meet them.  It got very complicated trying to work out how we were all related!