Toronto, Muskoka, and Kitchener – Eating Good Food, Tubing and Doing Nothing

13 September 2016

You should know by now that I love food. And since mummy is the best cook in the world, I have good food thrice a day. But since Canada has such a vast selection of dim sum, which we have not had for such a long time, I have been stuffing my face. One brekky in Toronto I had three charsiu baos, two bowls of porridge, about three fried fritters, and much more. I’m sorry, but unfortunately I cannot talk about food anymore or I will drool all over this computer (not that I have drooling problems).

Anyway, so Toronto was lots of fun, but incredibly hot. Everyday the temperature reached above 30 degrees celsius. We spent most of our time walking  around, while Nicky spent most of her time with Amalia (Nicky’s best friend that flew over from Mexico just to see her). My favourite part of Toronto was The Royal Ontario Museum, or ROM. It was really interesting. My favourite part of the ROM was the Chihuly Exhibit (an amazing exhibit from an American glass sculptor, Dale Chihuly). I will attach some pictures. The glass was so detailed.

With Amalia
With Amalia
Dinner with Anne, one of mummy's friends from Toronto.
Dinner with Anne, one of mummy’s friends from Toronto.
Nicky's bff Amalia
Nicky’s bff Amalia
One of the amazing Chihuly exhibits
One of the amazing Chihuly exhibits

And Muskoka was even more fun. I slept on the top bunk of one out of five bedrooms. We spent our time in Muskoka with Anna, Mummy’s friend from university, Brent, her husband, and their children, Elliot, age 6, Grace age 9 and when we got to Kitchener (their home) she turned 10. Like always, mummy made good food, but so did Anna, and Dada and Brent on the barbie (BBQ). We had a bonfire pit, and we made a fire three times, the first with Nicky and Grace putting on an ‘advertisements show’, which was hilarious – they kept on arguing on how to pronounce it. Grace said advertisement like adver-ties-ment, and Nicky said adver-tis-ment. And the second bonfire roasting marshmallows, and the third cooking hot dogs. And for the first time ever, Mummy made her own fire, and I made the first one I have ever done without help. But my favourite part was tubing. Since I am shorter then an adult, who let their legs hang of the back of the tube, I have to kneel or sit. I decided on kneeling, the only downside with this is that when you are going at a decent speed (eg. 15+ mph), it feels like 1000 people are pummelling your knees and shins, if you kneel. I reached a top speed of 22 mph, which is a fair bit of speed. Except dada went around 28 mph! When I was going at this speed, I was so afraid I was going to fall off when I was at 22 mph for an incredible (to me) 90 seconds! The only person to actually fall off the tube was Brent, but he did it because his knees were feeling raw from skimming the lake at 25 mph! Tubing was just so fun, and the boat we rented was also brilliant. 7 people capacity, 150 horsepower, and lots of fun! Oh, and by the way, if you have a good look in one of the photos of me tubing, you will see that I have my thumbs up, which means “Go Faster”. This is going at about 3-5 mph. I had a lot of fun in Muskoka, and not just tubing but pretty much everything – like fishing, where nobody except Nesi caught one, and it was smaller than the bait! But also doing nothing, which we haven’t done for a while.

The advertisement show at the bonfire
The advertisement show at the bonfire
The boat in front of the brilliant water slide
The boat in front of the brilliant water slide
Nesi and mummy in the hot tub
Nesi and mummy in the hot tub
Mummy on the kayak
Mummy on the kayak
Nesi and mummy tubing
Nesi and mummy tubing
Nesi with the only catch of the trip
Nesi with the only catch of the trip
Me fishing off the back of the boat
Me fishing off the back of the boat

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Me tubing
Me tubing
A big splash
A big splash
Anna and Brent
Anna and Brent
Nesi having the time of her life at the front of the boat going at over 30 mph
Nesi having the time of her life at the front of the boat going at over 30 mph
The boys coming in to dock
The boys coming in to dock
Mummy driving the boat
Mummy driving the boat
Me driving
Me driving
Me kayaking
Me kayaking

Next up was wonderfully hot and relaxing Kitchener. To be honest, I expected and was looking forward to Kitchener so that I could, actually, read Harry Potter 6 again – last time I read it was two and a half years ago. And I knew Grace is a keen reader, so I assumed that they did have the series. But anyway, Kitchener was great. My favourite part was being in the basement doing stuff like 3-D printing and making a circuit with Brent. On his 3-D printer we first printed two rubber-band powered rockets, then a whistle, which didn’t turn out at all. It didn’t even make a sound, and it was suppose to be 118 on the scale of sound! Thats louder then an accelerating motorbike! But instead it was as quiet as a library for a single mouse who can’t talk but only blow air. In Kitchener I also really liked the park. Quite a nice park it was, except that everybody had their phones out playing Pokemon Go! It was quite interesting actually, watching everybody on their phones. At one point I saw a group of people playing it on their bikes! And another thing that I liked was when Anna and Brent went out and came back an hour later on Grace’s birthday with a cat! Grace renamed it Cleo.

Nesi playing with Elliot
Nesi playing with Elliot

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Oh, I almost forgot, we went to Niagra Falls while in Kitchener! It was quite fun, we went on one of the boats that goes right in the middle of the Horseshoe. Luckily I remembered to bring my waterproof camera, as well as my good camera. It was really  nice going to Niagra, but personally I prefer the waterfalls in Iguasu and Iceland, but this would be in the top five. Oh, and the article on Iceland will come out very soon, I just have to add some stuff.

Photo of falls with a boat like the one we went on
Photo of falls with a boat like the one we went on
Rainbow with Niagara Falls
Rainbow with Niagara Falls
On the Hornblower
On the Hornblower

When we left  Kitchener for Toronto we were looking forward to going up the CN tower for lunch! When we arrived at the Delta Hotel we got into shirts and dresses and headed literally across the street and up. You should know that the CN tower is 553 metres high, and the Restaurant, which rotates very slowly (72 min=one round), and is about 350 metres high. When you go down three flights of stairs, you reach the glass floor, which, when you are standing on, it feels like you are falling and makes your hands go a bit tinglish. And you are afraid that you will fall, even if the floor can hold four Orcas.

View from the restaurant on top of CN Tower
View from the restaurant on top of CN Tower
CN Tower
CN Tower

The eastern part of Canada was really fun, it was the first time I have been to Canada (other than in mummy’s womb). It was a really good first experience. And I come to my conclusion: I am going to enjoy every other part of Canada except for the fact that we have to do school. And to Ma and Pa: I am incredibly excited because you are coming over in 6 days from today.

Signing off,

Ash