Niagra Falls, Toronto, and home!

Whew! I'm back! I'm not really sure what time zone I'm in, nor do I have a clue what's going on, but at least I'm home again and I really only have a small trip next month so I've got a bit of downtime.

Monday night I was picked up by a dear Canadian named Laura, who obviously was nice if she shares the same name as one of my BFF's. We negotiated our way through customs with minimal confrontation (we've found that if you have one american and one canadian then you get through either border much easier). We found our way over to Niagra Falls, Canadian side (I guess the American side isn't very exciting). They've built up their side of the falls with casinos, amusement parks, hotels, and all sorts of entertainment which you can tell in the Summer becomes a really happening place.

In the winter everything is dead and frozen. Can you see the lump of white among the falls? That's not an iceburg, those are frozen trees on a little island. They're so caked in ice that you can't tell from far away that they're not a solid block of ice.

Brrrr! It was freezing! The mist off the falls was collecting on trees causing them to be encrusted in ice and to split. I hopped out of the car to take photos and in the minute I was out of the car my eyes were watering from the cold. Everything close to the falls was caked in ice.

The locals informed us that they had already had their Spring thaw. Thaw? What Thaw? I can only imagine what it looked like before all the ice melted off. I guess in Deep winter they have a colored light show on the caked ice. The falls themselves never totally freeze from what i've heard, but there is so much ice on everything that it looks really cool.

Then I taught workshops in Toronto for a couple days. This is a typical scene of what my workshops look like. Imagine 50 ladies in a room huddled around tables with piles of little things to color. Each class is about 7 hrs. and all we do is color, talk about coloring, and then we airbrush and color. It's a really hard job, but somebody has to do it!

After my class on Wed. I got to scramble to the airport in Toronto in a Pakistani taxi (there are tons of immigrants in Canada). I did purchase one touristy thing at the airport becuase I couldn't resist, which is saying a lot because I also don't buy t-shirts for my kids. This t-shirt however, was perfect for little AnnaMae.

Elmo Loves Canada

It's a little large, but it's the smallest size they had. She was very excited and kept running around scraming Elmo! Elmo! I'm glad to know that someone was happy about my trip.

When I got home from the airport at midnight the family had made me this fabulous sign on the garage. We took this photo Thursday morning so you could see it. It's now hanging in the garage so I'll know just how much they miss me when I leave home. Note: the garage door now works! WhooHoo!

Thursday afternoon it was so nice that after work we headed down to the playground at Skinner's Butte. As always, this helped brighten up the kids and wear them out, even though Luke got his fingers slammed in the car door. Ouch. Now it's back to the same old, same old.

I think I really like Canada. They're nice folks and they have a good view of all the foibles of America without having to react the same way we do. If I ever wanted to immigrate I hear it's pretty easy, since they had this ad in their national newspaper. It's now hanging in my office at work: Immigrate the easy way with just one spray of Instant Eh!