Canadian wildlife

So we decided to try our luck at the casino across the border.  Dean worked in Toronto yesterday.  Bernie & Sue picked me up and we met up with Dean for dinner before going to make our donation to Canada.  We decided to meet at a place called the Swiss Chalet....a restaurant chain I remember from my days in Ft. Lauderdale....one of the favorites of my parents and their neighbors....early birds dinner at 3 in the afternoon!  The chain is Canadian owned and they apparently closed the US locations.....but I digress....the restaurant in Ontario is 5 minutes from the casino in a very busy, tourist-y area....lots of car and foot traffic.....high rise hotels, etc.  We come out of the restaurant and as I'm getting into the truck I look over at this little patch of grass next to the road.......and there, lounging, is a large rabbit!  I figures that he would take off as soon as I approached but other than turning his back to me, he stayed and let me take his picture!

O Canada......

On Sunday decided to skip golf (Dean) and church (me) and take a ride to Canada.....we crossed at the Lewiston Bridge.....what a change from my days living in Buffalo....when it was 25 cents to cross the bridges (it's now $3.50), no passports were needed and there were rarely any lines....of course that was over 35 years ago!  Anyway, it took about a half hour to get to the customs booth.....the young lady was very nice and after a few questions (where are you from?  where are you going?  how long are you staying? are you bringing any firearms into Canada?) waved us through.  Our destination was Niagara-On-The-Lake, located in Southern Ontario where the Niagara River meets Lake Ontario in the Niagara Region of the southern part of the province of Ontario.  It's a picturesque town....although quite tourist-y.....gardens line the streets....along with shops and restaurants....you can take a horse drawn carriage ride (we opted to walk).  There is also a lovely park with more gardens.  There was an afternoon concert scheduled but we were hungry and wanted to get started home.

 

 Before heading out we visited another park with a magnificent view of Lake Ontario.....

 

Sir Isaac Brock

As we headed home we noticed a statue high on a hill, rising above the treetops....we stopped by a lookout point with several other cars.  As we got out of the truck a tour bus pulled in....Dean asked the guide about the statue....it is Sir Isaac Brock.....a British army officer, responsible for defending Upper Canada against the United States during When the War of 1812 broke out, quick victories at Fort Mackinac and Detroit defeated American invasion efforts.  Brock's actions earned him the sobriquet "The Hero of Upper Canada".  Ha!  You didn't expect a history lesson, did you???

We then continued the journey home, along the river.....

An interesting little side....the border patrol agent going back into the US was quite the opposite of the one going into Canada!  Maybe he was having a bad day!

Another "Lesson Learned"..........Mondays have been my housework days....clean up, laundry & grocery shop....so yesterday morning as Dean headed into his office, I headed out.  Before I left I started a load of wash.  Dropped Mischka off at the groomer and stopped at the grocery store.  Got home and was putting the groceries away when Dean noticed that the area in front of the laundry closet was wet.....REALLY wet!!!  The little area rug was sopping!  Further inspection found the edge of the carpet going into the bedroom soaked and the laundry closet basically flooded!  We got out every towel we could find along with a roll of paper towel and started mopping up.  Checked all the hoses and the washer....nothing seemed out of place.  Dean called our contact at the dealership.  We finally figured out that it was a problem with the tanks....one that WE had created when trying to get the kitchen sink to drain.  (One of the neat things about RVing is that neighbors are generally ready and willing to help each other.  One of ours came over and helped Dean get the washer out so that we could mop up behind it.)  Long story short, problem was solved, everything is back in place and we have fans running to dry out the bedroom carpet.

The adventure continues..........

In light & love,
Tobi