Our First Canadian Week.....

The view (through the mesh screen) from our Lounge Room in our hotel room.

I can't believe that we have been here over a week already. So far things have been really great for us here. We picked up a hire car at the airport when we arrived and it was a Dodge Caravan - one huge arse minivan which we duely filled with all our luggage. The next day we swapped it for a more economical car, the guy at Avis had us down for a Hyundai Sonata but when we got there we asked for something esle so that we had the opportunity to drive a car that we would not have in Australia and so we are now driving a Pontiac G6. It is quite a nice car, very close to the ground though kinda like a race car. Driving on the WRONG side of the road has taken some getting used to and I still have to have my thinking cap on, especially when I go to turn left. I have also hit the car door a couple of times looking for the gear stick or handbreak (as they are now on my right as opposed to on my left in 'normal' cars LOL) but all in all it has not been too hard. The kids and I have been out house hunting most of last week with our appointed Real Estate Broker. All of the houses here have basements which is a totally new thing for us and Riley has been having a ball discovering what the basement of each house we look at holds. The neighbourhoods here are just gorgeous too, so clean coming from Joburg, there are so many beautiful trees and I am really looking forward to seeing them change colours as we approach Fall (or Autumn as we know it) and then again in Winter being covered in snow. The hotel we are staying at is really nice and the staff here are all so friendly too, both kids seem to have made a good impression on everyone (thankfully) and so everyone knows us when we come downstairs for brekky in the mornings or dinner in the evenings which is nice.

Brad and the kids surfing the net.

Today we went and explored a little of the waterfront here, Lake Ontario, we picked up a couple of pizzas for dinner and ate our dinner overlooking the water. The feel of the place reminded me so much of Mackay Harbour about 15 years ago which was really nice. After we ate we went for a little walk along the water and found some people feeding a whole bunch of bread (about 4 big bags full - I think they own a subway type store and were getting rid of the end of day bread rolls) to the ducks, geese and of course swooping seagulls. We stood and watched for a little bit and Riley asked me if we could ask the man to share his bread with us so we could feed them also. The man heard him and came and took him down closer to the water and set him up with a massive roll. So we spent about 10 minutes feeding probably 50 ducks, geese and seagulls. It was so lovely, clean and SAFE to be out there in public and I am looking forward to getting set up in a neighbourhood and getting out more with the kids riding bikes and taking walks etc.

The park that we visited at the waterfront.

Brad and Riley scoping out a nice place to sit and eat our pizza.

Emily looking unimpressed with her lack of freedom.

Riley looking out longingly at the boats, he wanted to go and ask one of the owners if he could have a ride. Not sure how that would have gone down LOL.

Pic of the lighthouse at the end of the pier, there were so many photo ops this arvo but I did not have my memory card in the camera and the internal memory was already full, Dad & Bec you guys would have spent hours there snapping off shots at everything. I will go back again another day soon and take some pics of the gardens there for you both.