Canada trip - part 2 - trips to the cottage, Toronto, Kingston

We arrived in Toronto on Monday and went for dinner with my parents and Barbara and Jason:

We went back to Barbara and Jason’s new house:

Ayako was delighted that Barbara had made an Oreo cake for her:

The next day, we went with my parents up to the cottage:

We all enjoyed a restful time up at the cottage:

Ayako even didn’t mind doing the chores:

Or using the outhouse:

We enjoyed swimming in the lake:

Although we did find the water a bit cool for us:

We also had a nice canoe ride one day:

We went to the nearby dam:

And took photos by the river going to Gold Lake:

It was also a good chance to get some photos of some wildlife:

We came back from the cottage on Thursday and went down to Toronto to meet Robin, Insung and Adam on Friday:

Adam enjoyed going on the car rides:

But he didn’t like “Frog Hopper” as much:

We were also able to go to a small party in the evening where we had a visit with my friend Julie:

On the Saturday, we went shopping at the Eaton Centre, had lunch in China town and went looking around Kensington market. We had another nice visit on Saturday evening with Barbara and helped her with some the preparation for her wedding.

On Sunday, the was a party at Jason’s parent’s house where the people in the wedding party got to meet each other:

On Monday, Ayako and I drove down to Kingston to visit the Hamachers. Ayako enjoyed taking pictures of the scenery on the drive:

She was also interested in the square and round bails of hay:

We had a nice lunch with the Hamachers:

It was also good to see Jeff and Emi since they would not be able to make it to Barbara’s wedding:

The next day, Aunt Elizabeth showed us around her garden:

We also went with her on a nice walk along the shore of Lake Ontario and around the area where my grandparents used to live:

Here a picture of what grandmother and grandfather’s house looks like nowadays:

On Wednesday, I showed Ayako around Peterborough, including the Lift Locks:

On Wednesday night, we had expected to meet Auntie Kath and Uncle Terry at Barbara’s, but the plane was delayed, and so we didn’t see them until the next day. We did get to see Auntie Mo though:

As well as the Nobles:

Here was another nice family shot taken:

On Thursday, we went with Auntie Kath and Uncle Terry to Curve Lake Indian Reserve where we bought some nice souvenirs:

On Thursday night, Janis and Mike came with their newborn, Jack, whom I got to meet for the first time:

Canada trip - part 1 - Vancouver

Our first stop of our trip was in Vancouver, where we stayed for 2 days. We stayed with my friend Rich and his girlfriend, Christine:

Since Ayako had lived in Vancouver for 2 years, she was happy to visit places she remembered, such as a café:

And Kits beach:

She also enjoyed going to the Naam restaurant for breakfast:

Unfortunately, the city workers in Vancouver had been on strike for over a month, which meant no garbage pick-up and public pools were closed. This pool by the beach had been taken over by gulls:

The next day we stayed with Craig, Jihyeon, and their singing dog, Munchi:

We enjoyed a day at the beach:

And got to watch Craig and his team play 3 games of beach soccer and win their division of the tournament:

We had decided to go to a Greek restaurant for dinner and by chance, met our co-worker Emiko waiting in line at the restaurant:

Since the line-up was too long, we went for Mexican food instead:

After dinner, we went an ice cream shop called “La Casa Gelato”, which had 218 flavours of ice cream:

You were allowed to try as many samples of the different flavours as you wished before ordering:

The next day we were off to the airport to fly to Toronto:

Trip to Narita

On our trip to Canada, we had a 9 hour stopover in Narita city, so we decided to look around the city. Near downtown, there is an old part of town full of shops and restaurants for visitors. We found a number of eel restaurants, which surprised us since eel is also famous in Hamamatsu. In front of one restaurant, you could watch them slicing up the eel, which I had never seen done before:

We then went to a famous temple in Narita called Shinsho-ji:

While it was a nice clear day at the temple, it was about 34°C and humid. I wish I could have been in the ponds by the temple like the turtles were:

Unpacking

Well, we've moved into our new place on the lake. Right now, there are boxes everywhere and we've got lots of unpacking and cleaning to do. Sorry, no exciting photos to show right now. Actually, I can't figure out which box I put my camera in. I wanted to take a picture of 2 hawks that were sitting on the hydro wires next to our house today...but no camera. I also wanted to take a picture of 3 cats having a meeting on the bicycle path outside our house...but no camera. I would also like for everyone to hear the neighbor's dog who sings with the music that is played in our area at 7 am, 12 noon & 5 pm, but you'll have to come here to hear that. Hopefully once I do find my camera, I'll get some nice shots of the area that we now live in. That's all for now.