Waterloo, Orangeville, Mississauga

Good day everyone! Jon and I have a very nice day with lots of company. This morning, our good friend Chloe made us a wonderful brunch. She made mussels, salmon and squash with brown rice and cranberry cinnamon oatmeal cookies for dessert. It was DEEEELICIOUS! She’s a very good cook. It was very nice seeing her.

After we left Chloe’s, we drove to Orangeville to see Jon’s grandpa’s friend. They have been friends for a while but never managed to meet. He and his wife were very lovely and nice. They gave us more information on the places to see as we head further east. They also showed us their garden/landscaping and let us ride in his Supercharged Avanti. They also gave us a can of maple syrup from Quebec which we’ll bring back for Jon’s grandpa. It was a very nice visit.

From Orangeville, we drove to Mississauga where we saw Jon’s grandma’s nephew. It was interesting because Jon and the nephew have an age gap of at least 25 years yet they are cousins. We also found out that the nephew’s son is the same age as Jon but Jon is his uncle. Actually, the son is older because his birthday is in August and Jon’s is in December. Funny, eh? They were very sweet and welcoming. They brought us to Mandarin, a Chinese/Japanese/Western buffet. It was delicious. They had crab legs, shrimps, salmon sashimi and much more. Everything was very tasty. It was nice for Jon to learn more about his family history from his cousin (grandma’s nephew). The nephew spoke mainly Cantonese so I had to translate for Jon. They gave us a box of Japanese cookies. We would save it for Jon’s grandma but it probably won’t last.

Jon wants to let you know that I’m bad because I ate Chloe’s delicious oatmeal cookie before Chloe’s meal and before the buffet. However, I didn’t know we were going to a buffet!

We’re staying at the University of Toronto Residence. We’ll meet up with some more of our high school friends so we’re pretty excited about that. Good night everyone!

Hamilton, Waterloo

Greetings!

Jon and I drove to Hamilton to see the Dundurn Castle. This castle has 77 rooms and was built in the 1830’s. It used the previous house as a foundation and built over top of it. It also had a room with a large pit where ice was stored, acting like a freezer. They would collect ice from the lake during winter and would surround the ice block with hay and sawdust so that the ice block would last all year. The castle had 2 flushing toilets which were considered high tech back then. The funny thing is that the toilets drained into the river where the local people got their drinking water. In the rooms with a fireplace, there would be a bell that would be rung so that the servants could light the fireplace. The bells had different pitches for the different rooms so that the servants knew which room to light. There were many types of irons, all of which were quite heavy. They had irons that looked like little lamps to iron the ribbons on bonnets and such. There were also samples of green ketchup from green tomatoes. We walked around their vegetable garden and the war museum which they had on site.

We drove around downtown Hamilton to try to find the Farmer’s market but it wasn’t well marked so we never got there. Jon drove to the old Studebaker plant where his 1951 studebaker was built.

Jon has reached his 100th punch buggy. I am trailing behind.

We are in Waterloo. We met up with two of our high school friends, Jeff and Chloe. We’ll be staying at Chloe’s tonight. Jeff cooked us really good food. He made delicious shrimp, soya sauce chicken and pizza. We also went to Marble Slab and got a green tea with blueberries. It was delicious. Chloe wanted ice-cream that’s not sweet but she got dark chocolate ice cream with almond in a dark chocolate and scor waffle cone. She wound up giving it to Jeff. Ha ha. It’s really nice seeing them.

Have a good night!

Niagara Falls

Hello from Niagara Falls!

Jon and I slept in today till 11am. That was much needed. We walked to Niagara Falls. There were 2 falls: one was the Canadian “horseshoe” falls and the other was the American one “Bridal Veil” falls. We went on Maid of the Mist and Journey behind the Falls. Maid of the Mist was very nice. The boat went near the falls so we got a very good view of the horseshoe. The Journey behind the falls sounded better than it actually was. We went down 38m into a tunnel where we saw the falls rushing down. However, you really couldn’t see much. There was an observational deck which allowed us to see the side of the falls. That was nice but it was a disappointment. We walked to the top of the falls and saw where the water rushed down. That was very cool!

Afterwards, we walked to Wendy’s to get a chocolate frosty. Jon has been talking about it for a while so we finally got it. It was okay.

Jon wanted to do the “Laser Maze”. Think of a spy trying to get to the treasure by dodging laser beams. That’s what it is except only 2 minutes and 15 seconds long. It sounds cool but it probably isn’t that good especially since the person who worked there said that laser tag was better. Jon didn’t do it at the end.

We then walked around Clifton Hill which is the main street where tourists go. We had dinner at Pizza Pizza. We ordered a medium Canadian pizza. We learned that in addition to HST (13% tax), Niagara falls has an additional tourist tax of 3% so in total, it’s 16%. Sad. It’s too expensive here.

Jon and I returned from seeing the falls at night. It was lit with different colours. Jon and I thought that there would be fireworks but there wasn’t. Instead, Jon was enjoying his camera. He took really cool pictures. One of them, he told me to hold his cell phone and make words/shapes with it. It turned out pretty good. It’s 11pm right now so we’ll have to shower and go to sleep as soon as possible.

We’ll be seeing two of our high school friends tomorrow in Waterloo!! Have a wonderful night everyone!

London, Brantford

Good day everyone! Jon and I spent 30 minutes trying to find a place to get an oil place. The street that we were on had lots of auto shops but they were all busy. So we drove 2 miles down from our accommodation to find a Jiffy Lube. We were in and out by 20 minutes. We were quite happy with that. We then drove to Tim Horton’s to get 2-12 grain bagels with herb and garlic cheese cream. It was tasty. I haven’t had Tim Horton’s in a while but we did see some in Detroit.

Then we drove to downtown London to see the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame. This place honours the people who have made significant contribution to medicine. There was Banting and Best who isolated Insulin. There was also Michael Smith from UBC who created a methodology to isolate and mutate specific genes, also known as “site directed mutagenesis”. Jon would like me to point out that there was a Chinese guy (Dr. Tak Wah Mak) who uncovered the structure of the T cell receptor (T cells are part of your immune system). Jon was pretty grossed out because there were images of the brain cut in half.

After that we drove down to Ivey Park to take pictures of a “waterfall” but it was more like “several big hoses” as Jon describes. We then drove to Canadian Tire to purchase coolant. Jon was finally able to use his stack of Canadian tire money. The Canadian Tire we went to had a gas bar. Jon wished that there was a gas bar in Vancouver so he can get Canadian tire money after filling up. I asked him if he would really fill up his car with CT gas and he said “probably not, I would fill up my mom’s car”. Ha ha.
We then drove to Brantford where we went to Wayne Gretsky Sport Center to see memorabilia from him and other athletes. We then drove to a supermarket to buy apples, bananas and cheese sticks. The cheese sticks were very difficult to eat. Jon said that they were “rubbery” and “full of undeliciousness”.

Afterwards, we drove to Bell Homestead national Historic Site where Alexander Graham Bell conceived the idea of the telephone in 1874. There was also another house called Henderson House where the first Canadian telephone business office was. They had 2 old fashion telephones for us to try. One of them, you had to crank the knob to ring the other phone. It was interesting.

We’ll be staying in Niagara Falls tonight and visiting it tomorrow. Jon spent about 30 minutes in the rain using his bug remover cloth which he bought at Walmart to clean the car. He was soaking by the end of it and smelt funny. Ha ha. I guess I can’t complain as I didn’t help him but I did make dinner (while watching Toddlers and Tiara).

Jon is now swinging his damp shirt at me in a violent circular motion. ARRRRGH! We’ll sleep early tonight for a long day at the falls. Good night everyone!

We’re back in Canada! Jon and I crossed the border from Detroit to Windsor not too long ago. We had to pay 4 USD toll to come home.

Jon and I drove to Dearborn which is about 15 minutes from Detroit to see the Henry Ford Museum. We took the factory tour of the Rouge plant where we saw the construction of the Ford F150 trucks. The Rouge plant is special because it was the first plant to be “vertically integrated”. This means that the plant can process raw material, manufacture car parts and build the car all in one site. The tour consisted of 5 stations.

The first station was a video on the history of Ford. The second station was an artistic video of a Ford F150 being built. The neat thing about this station was that the screens were separated into several panels and surrounded us 360 degrees. Our chairs had the freedom to spin 360 degrees as well. However, as Jon pointed out, they mainly used 3 screens. They also sprayed us as the truck was being spray painted and used a variety of strobe lights to match the video. The third station was on an observation deck. It overlooked the whole plant. The roof of the buildings contains a plant that helps insulate the building, and absorb 60% of rain water.

The fourth station was the tour around the manufacturing plant. We saw the assembly of the windshield, headlights, seatbelt, door, stereo, headliner, and dashboard. We also saw how they put the cab (the front of the pickup truck) and the bed (back of the pickup truck) together. We saw how they tested the truck for performance and where the faulty ones went. It was very interesting. Jon was very pleased with the tour!

The last station was a showroom of the most famous cars built by ford. There were the Model A, Mustang, Thunderbird, and the 1949. We wanted a souvenir but everything was quite expensive. They had really neat utensils (fork, knife, and spoon) but on the other end were wrenches and pliers. There was also a belt made from a seat belt. Since we couldn’t afford anything, we made 2 penny pressed mustangs. We made 2 because the first one didn’t turn out so well.

We then drove around to find a oil change place but to no avail. We’ll get it done tomorrow as we’ve driven over 5000km. We went to Target and bought $60 worth of goodies. I bought a pair of shoes and rainboots because I don’t know where my citrus ones went. They had some cute dresses. However, when I would ask Jon for his opinion, he would say “yeah that would look nice...if you want to clean toilets”. Gosh. Never asking him for his opinion again. Jon bought brown flip flops to deter people from stealing them. Ha ha. We also bought water and 3 packs of parmesan goldfishes, Jon’s favourite.

We are now in London. We’re staying at Knight’s Inn which has a nice flat screen Samsung television. As we were driving here, we were listening to Slash featuring Adam Levine’s “Gotten”. I was singing along until Jon said “This is my favourite song to listen to... with earplugs”. Sigh.
We ate at a local Vietnamese restaurant. I ordered Pho with beef balls and Jon ordered lemon grass chicken on rice. The pho was okay. The soup didn’t taste like much but it tasted better with hoisin sauce. Jon’s dish was quite tasty.

When we returned to our accommodation, I was detagging Jon’s flip flops. As I was doing so, I noticed the words “Women” on them. Ha ha. Jon bought women flip flops. You can’t really tell because they are very generic looking. However, we should have known because this was in the women's section. Jon was saying that there is less space between the end of the flip flop to the back of his heel. Ha ha.

Also, there has been some concern about my one "black sock" in some of our photos. It's an ankle brace to support my ankle. I sprained it a few years ago as I have 2 left feet. so you'll notice that if we're doing lots of walking or hiking, I usually have it on.

Have a good night!

Great Lakes Crossing, Detroit

Hello Everyone! Jon and I are staying in Detroit, Michigan at Extended Stay America. This place has a full sized kitchen with a refrigerator and a freezer, microwave and stove. It’s quite spacious. The person at the front desk also gave us free internet. Normally, we would have to pay $4.99.

Today, we drove from Grand Rapids to Auburn Hills where we shopped at Great Lakes Crossing Outlet Center. Jon bought a wallet and black socks. He still doesn’t have flip flops yet. I bought a navy top which is very cute. We also ate at Auntie Anne’s. In Minneapolis, we received a pretzel stamp card where you buy 6 and get 1 free. We had 3 stamps already so Jon wanted to get another 3 so the can get his free one. We had a pretzel dog, pretzel sticks with cheese dip and an almond pretzel. For our free pretzel, we choose a garlic one. It was not so good.

When we arrived in Detroit, we drove downtown to see the GM plaza, Kobo Convention Hall, and Hart Plaza. We made dinner tonight. Actually, Jon made dinner. He made udon with chicken broth, eggs and bacon. He was going to fry the eggs but we didn’t have oil so it was cooked with the udon. We bought a small tub (1 pint) of cherry cordial ice-cream.

Have a great night everyone!

July 25 Studebaker Museum in South Bend, Indiana

Good day everyone! Yesterday's post has been updated. Jon and I went to the Studebaker museum in South Bend, Indiana. It had 3 levels of cars and wagons ranging from the 1800’s to 1966. There were also really cute pedal cars for kids. We went there because Jon owns a 1951 Champion Studebaker which he and his grandpa restored. His mom also owns 1962 Hawk Studebaker too. It was interesting to see how comfortable cars were back then. Some cars looked like a sofa on the inside. I bought Studebaker t-shirt for $8 because it was a kid size 14-16. Jon bought a model car that looks like his 1951.

We realized that we lost another hour e.g. we’re 3 hours ahead now. Too bad we found out when we were at the Museum because we had one less hour to spend there.
After the museum, we went to Mcdonald’s to get a Oreo Mcflurry. We asked for the large one so that Jon and I could share but they gave us the normal size. Apparently, they don’t have large ones like we have at home. Surprising eh? We were a little disappointed.

We are staying at the Travelodge in Grand Rapids, Michigan. For dinner we went to a Chinese/Japanese Restaurant. We ordered potstickers, sweet and sour pork and house special fried rice. The potstickers were quite good. The others were “edible” as Jon describes. The owner of the restaurant was actually asian. She was from Taiwan. Earlier, I picked up a take out menu which said that the fried rice was $2.99. However, when we sat down, it was $7. The special was only for take out orders. However, we didn’t know it at the time so we decided to eat at the restaurant. When we were seated we looked at the menu and saw $7. As we were about to ask for take out, the Taiwanese owner came and talked to us. Jon and I felt bad so we just ate there. At least we have breakfast for tomorrow.

Jon attacked me with a Twizzler again. He tried to poke my nose. He was unsuccessful. Haha.

Have a good night!

Chicago day 2

Good Evening! Jon and I came back from a long day in Chicago. I will elaborate on what we did tomorrow as tomorrow will be a driving day and I’m tired. As a summary, we first went to the Science and Industry Museum which was fantastic. Then we were going to go on top of the Willis Tower, formerly known as the Sears Tower. However, due to weather conditions, it was closed. The weather when we went there was warm but not too hot. It wasn’t raining nor was there lightning but it wasn’t open. Afterwards, we walked along the Magnificent Mile which contained lots of high end stores. It was our Robson Street. As we were walking along there, we saw a group of street performers and decided to watch. They were a comedy/hip hop group. I was pulled from the audience to stand in a row with 5 other people while a member jumps over us. I was SCARED but I survived! Again, I will write more about today tomorrow. Thanks for your patience my lovely followers.

Edit: Yesterday, we went to the Science and Industry Museum. It was a large 3 level museum with several interactive displays. There was a display about science storms, the development of babies in the womb, planetary landscapes, science inventors/innovators, and Jon’s favourite, U 505 submarine. There were many more. The best part is that you can play and create what you’re learning. There was an area where you can create lightning, control a vortex/tornado, and much more.

The U 505 submarine is a submarine originally belonging to the Nazis and was captured during WW11. The exhibit explained how it was captured and the dangers of capturing an enemy ship. There was a submarine game that Jon and I played but lost. We had to control the submarine by lowering it in the water or raising it, depending on what the game wanted us to do. I think I contributed to our lost. Jon agrees.

I really liked the future exhibit which introduced us to many inventors. There was a person who lived in Africa that created a wind mill out of scraps so that his home can have electricity. It was very inspiring. I also liked the Science storm exhibit where you got to create your own tsunami

Jon really enjoyed playing with ferrofluid which are really tiny, nanoparticles of ferrous in liquid that has magnetic property. You can create little spikes with this fluid just by changing the amount of magnetism. He also liked the racing car exhibit. He was in his glory!

Afterwards, we went to the Willis Tower (Sears tower) but it was closed as mentioned. The Willis tower is 1451 feet tall and it has a glass ledge so you can see how high you are. It sounded really cool but unfortunately we couldn’t go. We then walked around the Magnificent Mile which are 8 blocks extending from Michigan Avenue from the Chicago River to Oak Street. This was where we saw the street performers and where we got 6 bottles of Cran-energy by Ocean Spray. It is a cranberry pomegranate drink with green tea. It tastes okay.

When we returned to our hotel, we watch Jerry Maguire. Jon also broke one of his flip flops. Now he only has 1 functioning flip flop. Haha. He started out with 2 pairs. The first pair was lost at Radium Hot springs. The second one is damaged. Poor Jon. We’ll go get him new ones later today. I did tell him to buy an extra pair but he didn’t listen.