Wow!  It has been while since I have had a chance to update this blog.  We have just left Ottawa, heading for Trois Rivieres, QB.  Time to brush up on our French!
We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Toronto, visiting and touring.  Our last weekend was a busy one - golf and lunch with Walt and Ingrid on the Friday morning then lunch and overnight with my cousins in Etobicoke, just west of Toronto.  So good to see them and catch up on family stories from my mom's side. 
On the Saturday, we caught a Farmer's Market in Etobicoke and wished we were closer to our trailer - so much awesome produce in season now!! Enjoying fresh corn and peaches from roadside stands.  Later on Sat, we met up with Chris, Shon's son, and he showed us the lab where he is doing robotics programming - cool stuff which I am may never totally understand!  Still,  I am impressed!  We then went with Chris to the Ontario Science Center - fully worth the visit but 2 hours just scratched the surface!  We then watched an Omnimax film about polar bears - some amazing footage of a mom and two cubs in their natural setting.  By that time, we were hungry so drove to Little India for an Indian food buffet before dropping into the free Beaches Jazz Festival at Woodbine Park.  We caught a Chicago tribute band - sounded just like the 70s band, Chicago - wonderful!  We finished off a very satisfying day with a gelato in a litle neighbourhood place near Chris'

Great people watching

Sunday, we drove north to Stouffville for a pleasant lunch and visit with Shon's cousins, Jeanette and Andy - thanks again, you two!  That about concludes our visiting for this holiday - we will be on our own from now on. Thanks to everyone who has hosted us - you have all been wonderful to us!!!
Monday was a regrouping day around Walt and Ingrid's with laundry, grocery shopping, repacking the trailer, etc.  Once we were all hot and yucky from that, we drove over to Walt and Ingrid's daughter's where they were doing daycare for the grandsons - and jumped thankfully into their lovely back yard pool (-:  That evening, we ordered in Chinese food at W and I's while the four of us old folk were babysitting their other grandson, 5 month old Luke.  Luke and his parents had arrived from Edmonton on Sat - Ingrid was running a hotel for all of us. 
Tuesday, we pulled out of Toronto and drove to Peterborough where we watched boats being moved up and down a 19.8 m hydraulic lift lock, part of the Trent-Severn waterway.

Shon as a judge in the Federal Appeals Court in the Supreme Court building, Ottawa. 

 We then spent a couple of hours in the beautiful, interesting Canadian Canoe Museum - well worth the stop as it is like learning Canadian history through canoes and kayaks.  We stayed that night in Perth, Ontario, one of the prettiest towns we have seen so far - felt like some of the towns in Europe with its canals. LIstened to some great music in a little pub there, too - a duo named Beau Lawrenson, I think.

evening light in Perth, Ontario

Now we have just spent a couple of days in Ottawa - always a beautiful city.  We drove out to Gatineau Park one afternoon, toured the Supreme Court and spent a morning at the Canadian Science and Technology Museum, another place where we left whole galleries unexplored after 3 hours. 
We hope everyone's summer is going well (winter for you Aussies reading this) and send hugs to everyone!  We love to get emails and hear what you are doing.  Joan, we have watched many boats going through locks in many places - if you enjoy your experience in France this fall, you would probably love to do the same in Ontario - beautiful scenery!

Toronto

I just realized that some of the posts that I thought I had published earlier in the trip were still labelled as drafts.  I have now posted them so you may want to go back and catch up on more detail of our trip since we left Winnipeg.  Sorry about that!

We are still here in Toronto, having a lazy, around home day at Walt and Ingrid's.  Shon has had an oil/lube done and a new battery put in the truck.  Glad that it showed signs of not starting while we were here, not in the boonies somewhere!  We took their grandsons to a large urban park, Rouge Valley, today and had a picnic along the river after walking through the forest.  It is much cooler and more pleasant today.

Walt teaching Mason about nature along Highland Creek

Chris and Shon at Mill St brewpub

CN Tower at night

Yesterday, we picked up Chris -Shon's son - from work and took the subway downtown.  We wandered through town to the new-old Distillery district, an old industrial area being re-imagined as an urban neighbourhood full of galleries, restaurants and shops - like Vancouver's Yaletown.  We had dinner at a brew pub there then wandered back to the downtown core and up Yonge Street, the centre of Toronto's life after dark.  Great people watching as Toronto is very multicultural.  I love seeing cityscapes at night as I am more likely to look up and see the buildings than in the daytime.  I agree with Chris though that Toronto as a whole isn't my idea of a dream city - it lacks the natural setting that Vancouver has and the soul/spirit that Montreal exudes.  However, we have seen some natural areas that most tourists would never find and I am enjoying fresh raspberries from Ingrid's garden and red cardinals flying through the trees.  The traffic I won't miss - Highway 401 has 16 lanes through the city!!!i

Toronto is hot and humid - thank goodness for air conditioning in cars and houses!!  And, no, we were not involved in the shootings here in Scarborough although they did take place about 2 km from our friends' place.  We did hear many, many sirens as we were going to bed that night.

Grundy Lake

We have been here since Sunday, visiting, doing laundry, swimming in their daughter's pool, cycling.  Yesterday, Shon and I went to the Royal Ontario Museum then Shon met his son, Chris, for swimming and dinner (although they ended up not swimming cuz no length swimming at that time).  I took the subway and Go train home.  The museum was very interesting but had WAY too much to see in one lifetime!  On the way into Toronto, we stopped at the McMichael Art Collection gallery, an incredibly beautiful stone and wood building on a wooded property, full of Group of Seven, Emily Carr, Inuit, and First Nations paintings and other art works.  Definitely worth a stop!  We didn't get to see the sculpture gardens because the skies opened in a torrential downpour just as we were leaving the gallery.  Another awesome stop was at Agawa Bay along Lake Superior to see pictographs on rock walls by the lakeshore.

Agawa Bay pictograph cliffs

The day before we arrived here, we stopped at Grundy Provincial Park for a walk around a lily filled lake then a swim in another lake in the park. Felt very good to jump in that lake after our hot - but lovely -walk.   Other stops in Ontario have been in Kenora (could have stayed there longer), Thunder Bay (bushplane museum was a fascinating place), the Terry Fox memorial just east of Thunder Bay, and the Big Chute Marine Railway.  This railway moves boats 17 metres up or down a drop in the Severn River.  The boat drives onto a railway-type flat deck, is strapped on, then the whole railway car moves on a track up or down to the other level.  Very cool!  They didn't build a lock there because then the invasive lamprey eel would get into the river system from the Great Lakes area.

The Big Chute Marine Railway

Not sure what is on our schedule today - Walt and Ingrid are doing daycare this week so the boys (7 and 10) have just arrived for the day.

The Soo

Shon by Ostafiew Farm Road in Winnipeg, the site of the Ostafew family farm up until 1933(note the older spelling of the family name; some branches of the family still spell it that way.

camping in Kenora

We rolled into The Soo (also known as Sault Ste. Marie) late this afternoon so will stay over and see the Bushplane museum and the Art Gallery tomorrow morning.  I just realized that I have not been on the blog since Winnipeg!  Seems like a long time - and many, many kilometres ago!!  We passed the half way point on the Trans Canada today but have put on more kilometres than the half way point says because we started by going north through Edmonton so have now put on well over 4000 km.  We have also passed the point where all waters flow into the Atlantic rather than Hudson Bay. 
Since leaving Winnipeg, we have spent nights in Kenora (a beautiful city - did a lovely morning bike ride there and had coffee in Ho Joe's, their equivalent to Vernon's Bean Scene), Kakabeka Falls Prov Park (beautiful) near Thunder Bay (enjoyed that city, too, especially their redeveloped area along the waterfront), and White Lake Prov Park ( mosquito land but pretty).  The scenery along Lake Superior has been beautiful, especially when the lake is in view - looks a lot like an ocean as it is the largest fresh water lake in the world.  We have enjoyed some beautiful picnic spots along the way!  Today we climbed down to some native pictographs along cliffs by the lake - done hundreds of years ago (but after white men arrived) by the Ojibwe - stunning scenery along there, too.  Finally saw a moose today after driving along so much perfect moose habitat - unfortunately, this one had met an untimely end and was being feasted upon by crows.  Saw a small black bear yesterday - alive and cute.

Kakabeka Falls,near Thunder Bay. The newer photos have not yet been downloaded and Walmart and McD's are closing now. Good night!

Ooops, meant to put the pics after the text.  New National Human Rights Museum, due to open in 2012, now set for 2015 and overbudget.  We had hoped to tour it but.....

You  may have to download this to read it but it is a list of how the First Nations used the various parts of the bison.

Jazz in Assiniboine Park

Leo Mol sculpture garden in Assiniboine Park setting for the jazz.

I thought I would post a quick update before we leave Winnipeg tomorrow. Don't know when we will have easy internet use after we leave my cousin's here.  We have had a good visit with them and have enjoyed the sights of Winnipeg with them - the Forks district yesterday (like Granville Island in Vancouver) complete with a boat ride on the Red and Assiniboine Rivers; a drive around the Exchange District (business core in the early 1900s with many beautiful buildings from that time); a drink in the venerable old Hotel Fort Garry; an evening walk along Sturgeon Creek trail near their place.  Today we spent time at Fort Whyte Alive, a nature centre with a bison paddock, marsh boardwalk, a prairie dog town, and forested trails.  We then went to a city park to listen to live jazz in a sculpture garden - a lovely way to spend an afternoon.  Bonus - very few mosquitoes!!!

Winnipeg

Three weeks of meandering the western provinces has brought us to Winnipeg where we will stay with my cousins for the weekend.  We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Fort Qu'Appelle, Sk - a beautiful spot.  Thanks so much, Nadine and Darcy, Stetson and Scott for everything! 
After leaving there, we stopped at the Motherwell Homestead, former home of Sask's first minister of agriculture, Mr. Motherwell.  There we met an interpreter in period costume making turkey soup for the children who were at a day camp, also dressed in turn of the century clothes, learning what life was like on the farm - mucking out the pig pen when we saw them.  Turns out the interpreter lived her hippie days in a cloud of funny smoke on Silver Star Mt in the late 60s (-:

canola field from farmhouse

Crossing the border into Manitoba, we stopped at a car museum - not my cup of tea but it turned out to be very interesting. I had no idea there were so many car companies back in the very early days of the industry, including some who evolved from making horse drawn carriages.  The place also had many more unique curiosities - doll carriages, all metal tricycles, old fire engines, etc.

The mint

This morning we toured the Canadian mint here in Winnipeg and learned all about how coins are made - another fascinating place.  They also make coins for many other countries.

And here are the photos that I was unable to add before dinner tonight.Downtown Regina - we liked it!

Mission Lake, one of 4 lakes by Fort Qu'appelle - a beautiful area of Sask.  Note the ski hill in the background.

Sunset ceremony at RCMP training depot, Regina

Fort Qu'appelle, Sask

Here we are at Stetson Sciog's parents in Fort Qu'appelle, Saskatchewan.  Stetson is my nephew's girlfriend and they are here, too.  Full house as Stetson's mom has 4 or 5 foster respite children plus she runs a day care with another dozen children,  Here's a photo from last night of the darlings

Here we are Tuesday July3 and we have another tornado warning for many parts of Saskatchewan, except where we are. For this area they are foercasting high winds and thunder storms. We did have a bunch of bubble clouds as we saw in Saskatoon but the winds are calm at this time so maybe we are in the center of the storm.
Canada Day in Regina was a lot of fun - bike riding around Wascana Lake, touring the Sask legis buildings, watching the 'plywood boat' race (teams had 90 min to build the boat) across Wascana, enjoying music in two different parks, learning about Sask in their provincial museum (excellent) then finishing off at the RCMP depot for their sunset ceremony - heightened by a flock of pelicans flying overhead in formation as the police cadets were marching in formation around the parade grounds - great timing!!  Nature's fireworks ended the day with a wonderful lightning display!!  Oh, we have thunder here right now - here comes the storm!
Dinner time so no more photos now.