Canada

Obama and Me….

| Mairead

We’ve seen lots more beauty in the past two days since leaving Kilkee but we got a great surprise in a small town called Moneygall.

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(Beautiful place on Loop Head called Bridges of Ross)

Around noon I was hungry and we saw a cute little cafe in the town but it was closed so we travelled on for about a kilometre when we spotted a large service station that served Tim Hortons coffee.

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(Amazing view near the lighthouse at the tip of Loop Head)

The same coffee we had become addicted to in Canada! We stopped off and had some coffee. Then while we were there a lovely couple from America arrived.

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(Swallow feeding her chicks outside our bedroom at a farmhouse near Killaloe)

I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time to get a picture with them…

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(Me and Obama)

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 Turns out it’s their holiday home in Ireland. Who knew? Mairead.

Wake up Time.

| Mairead

19 9b

(Agawa Canyon… picture by Doris or Grahame (forgot to ask!))

I’m rushing off to a course this morning (more later) so instead of a post here’s a story from the book Being Peace by Thich Nhat Hanh that explains what waking up from unconscious living means.

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(A huge rainbow filled the sky one night as we left Staples (stationery shop) in Niagara, it was so big it couldn’t fit in my camera)

A little boy wakes in the morning and realises the whole family has slept in and the whole family will be late for school. He runs to his favourite sister’s room and very gently shakes her awake, “Wake up, wake up we will be late for school.” She awakes and is very angry with her older brother, so she shouts at him and kicks him. He is very upset, because he was gentle when he woke his sister and now she is angry with him. The he remembers that she was coughing in the night and probably didn’t get much sleep and may be very tired. With this realisation he understands his sister and he has woken up from upset. She is his favourite sister again and he is love.

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(A rock in a lake on the way to Agawa Canyon. There’s beauty everywhere to help us wake up)

In an instant the boy could let go of the upset because he “woke-up”. We’re upset when people treat us badly, we’re upset when things don’t go our way, we’re upset when we can’t do what we want to do, we’re upset when we’re not as strong as we’d like to be, we’re upset when we’re not as wealthy as we planned, we’re upset when we’re sick, when we’re tired, when we’re sad. What if it was possible to let go of the upset and return to love? Being in our natural state of loving is much more comfortable than being in an unnatural state of upset.

We can wake up in an instant, Mairead.

Canada, the summary…

| Mairead

Day 1 Leaving Dublin.

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(Waiting to board our plane to Toronto)

Day 2 The CNE (Canadian National Exhibition.)

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(The Sky Ride at the CNE)

Day 3 Resting and remembering our Tiki Float.

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(Our team of bead throwers for the CNE Parade)

Day 4 Trip to the Mall (maul.)

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(Outside the Georgian Mall)

Day 5 Trip to Toronto.

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(The view from the balcony of the CN Tower Toronto, the wire mesh for safety)

Day 6 Trip to the Library…..

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(Very useful book!)

and the beach.

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(The beach)

Day 7 Road Trip to Sault Saint Marie.

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(All set with Timmy’s, water, blanket and crochet)

Day 8 Train to Agawa Canyon.

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(Our train)

Day 8 Road trip home to Barrie.

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(Stop for water and ice cream on the way home)

Day 9 Resting with the squirrels.

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(We spotted this squirrel running along the garden fences with a monkey nut in his mouth)

Day 10 Rainy day road trip to Niagara Falls.

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(Thunder and lightning near Toronto)

Day 11 Niagara Falls in the Maid of the Mist.

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(View from our boat of the boat in front about to get very wet)

Day 12 Breakfast at Timmy’s before trip to the power station and Niagara on the Lake.

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(Porridge with berries and filter coffee, nice)

Day 13 Medieval Times in Toronto.

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(Knights and food eaten with fingers)

Day 14 Saying goodbye to family and Canada.

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(Denis says the car rolled over his toe…..)

Still a bit tired… Mairead.

Friday Quote – Begin it!

| Mairead

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(When my sister began planning her move to Canada I wonder did she ever dream of this picture of her daughter swimming at their private beach?)

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, magic and power in it. Begin it now.” – Goethe.

(Attributed to Goethe… may not be his… still like it.)

What are you dreaming you can do? Mairead.

Hot and busy at Niagara on the Lake

| Mairead

13 9b

(The flower filled main street)

We left Fort George at lunchtime and went on to visit Niagara on the Lake. We had noticed that the town centers we have visited so far in Canada are generally deserted and most of the activity takes place in the shopping centers and malls on the outskirts. Not so for Niagara on the Lake – it was full of people walking, shopping, having lunch or just drinking coffee.

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(Maybe they came from Cork?)

We found a place to park at the Prince of Wales Hotel (established in 1884) and took a short walk to a beautiful little cafe called Balzacs.

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(Too hot to sit outside)

Now that we’re back in Ireland it’s difficult to imagine walking on a hot sunny afternoon but thinking about our trip brings it all back. On that day I was really looking forward to wandering around the town doing some window shopping, maybe some real shopping but we were only able to manage a couple of streets before the heat was too much. We spent the next hour in the air-conditioned cafe looking out the window!

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(The history)

On the way home we stopped off to fill the hire car with petrol and thought it might be interesting to note the price… so we took a picture of the pump. A reminder of something my Dad loved to do. Whenever we travelled away from home my Dad would frequently stop into petrol stations (you might remember he had a petrol station) – not for the petrol – to check if their prices were any lower than his. He didn’t have a camera so he kept all the information in his head. I’m not sure if he changed his prices when we got home or if it was just a hobby.

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(We got the regular (cheapest!) petrol and were very happy)

Anyway, as you can see from the picture the price of a litre of (regular) petrol in Canada is $129.90 and that means  €102.96 – nice eh? We couldn’t bring any home though because they have a lot of restrictions about carrying petrol in your luggage…

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(Busy and pretty)

Cloudy and hungry in Greystones, Mairead.

The passionate (and very funny) guide from Fort George.

| Mairead

12 9a

(Everything in Canada is in English and French)

After the power station we went to Fort George, (you can watch a video about its role in the Canadian (British) – American war of 1813) an old British Army Fort. The original fort was constructed in the late 1700’s but had fallen into disrepair by 1815. The present buildings were constructed in 1937. All the buildings are wooden and very pretty. When we arrived the tour had already begun so we ran to catch up with it in the barracks. This is where the ordinary soldiers lived. It was one big room with bunk beds. Soldiers had a really hard life and had to sign up for seven years with little pay and not much comfort. Often they had to stay a further seven years to pay outstanding bills possibly for their uniforms, losing even a button was costly and had to come out of wages.

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(The background)

The officer’s quarters were much better and they had a much better life, as it was the rich who became officers. (In wealthy families the first son inherited the estate but the second and subsequent sons were given money to buy a job!) They could also pay for good food. While the ordinary soldiers had watery stew for dinner every day, the officers had six courses, often with foods imported from Europe.

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(Pretty…)

After the tour we were sent out to watch a demonstration of a musket by a really amusing guide. He was obviously passionate about his job and went into great detail telling us about how a musket works and then demonstrating it. Turns out it doesn’t work very well… it misses more often than it hits; it creates a huge smoke cloud when it’s fired, bit of a problem for camouflage; it takes at least half a minute to load one shot; it’s very heavy. But at the time (1800’s) it was the best they had and everyone had the same disadvantages.

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(Our musket guide)

He told us stories including one about the time he (accidentally) pushed the bayonet into his finger and had to go to the hospital still dressed in his red uniform. When the demonstration was over the assembled crowd didn’t want to leave, we were all smiling waiting for another story and he seemed to be enjoying himself too!

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(His funny face!)

Was it Confucius who said “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life“? In the end we left because the temperature was hitting thirty degrees and we were off to the beautiful town of Niagara on the Lake.

Choose a job you love! Mairead.

Is it time to eat yet?

| Mairead

11 9c

(Can’t have too many pictures of Niagara Falls)

We’re back from Canada….. in body anyhow, not so sure about mind yet, well maybe not body either. We have to get up by the clock and eat by the clock and go to bed by the clock because so far the rhythm of the day doesn’t feel right here. Before we left I read an article about living with jet-lag. On the plane I forgot to follow the instructions to eat and drink nothing and go to sleep. Instead, I stayed awake and ate and drank everything…. oh well. The one tip that I had heard a long time ago was get plenty of sunlight and that seems to be helping.

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(The crane-like structures in the background are where the electricity story starts, the green water in the centre is where the Niagara river pours over the falls)

Anyway, there are still some things that we visited and I haven’t told you about so today it’s the power station. You might remember we also visited a power station in Scotland? This one was in Niagara, between the Falls and a beautiful town called Niagara on the Lake.

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(and one more of the falls…)

On our way back from our visit to Niagara Falls we decided to fit in a couple more attractions. The first was the Sir Adam Beck Hydro Electric Power Station. This station started producing power in the 1920’s and it’s very interesting how they did that. In Grahame’s itinerary for Niagara Falls he had mentioned that the Maid of the Mist didn’t run early in the morning because the water levels are not high enough due to hydro-electric demands…. So I thought there must be a power station at the Falls…. there isn’t. It’s much more interesting than that.

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(Tunnel underground to the power station)

The power station is 8km down the road from the Falls at a spot over the Niagara River where the drop is even higher than at the falls. Higher drop = more power. But back in 1917 there was no water dropping from any height here, so… that diverted the Niagara river. At a place before the river went over the Falls they diverted it, and they reversed the flow of another river (can’t remember its name) that was flowing into the Niagara at that point. The picture might help to explain.

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(That’s the Niagara River flowing from top to bottom of the picture. Those white blobs on the top left are the falls (Canadian and American.) That fuzzy line on the left corner of the screen is the tour guide’s pointer – he’s pointing at the place where the Niagara river water is diverted down a canal (blue line running from top left to middle.) The yellow lines running from the diversion point to the power station are underground tunnels built in the 1950’s when more power was needed and a second power station was built. The two Canadian power stations are in the foreground on the right bank of the river and there’s an American power station on the left bank.)

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(The yellow turbines – well, the tops of the turbines. Notice the workers get around on tricycles)

More water going to the power station might mean more power but it means less of a splash at the Falls, so…. the diversion only operates at night and in the morning all the power of the Niagara river goes back over the Niagara Falls. The tourists are happy and the Maid of the Mist can operate.

Is it time to go to bed yet? Mairead.

Rain and Snow at Niagara Falls

| Mairead

06 9a

(View from our window – that low cloud on the right is mist from the falls)

A very busy day yesterday (Wednesday) in Niagara. We got up early and had breakfast at the IHOP (international house of pancakes) across the road from our hotel, omelette for Denis and pancakes for me. Then we set off to buy our Niagara Falls Adventure Pass. With the pass we could go behind the waterfall, see the history movie, walk along the white water rapids boardwalk and board the Maid of the Mist boat. At each attraction an attendant gives you a rain mac, yellow mac going behind the falls.

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(See the boat in the background – those people are getting very wet… so am I)

We went behind the falls first and got very wet, then we went to the movie…. and got very wet. We were given a blue mac going into the movie (first clue it would be damp). I loved the movie. There was a cartoon to start and then we were ushered into a circular cinema to stand on a platform. The floor was wet (second clue.) When everyone was in place the screen showed frozen wastelands – the ice age – and it began to snow. Not on the screen… it began to snow on us! It felt and looked like snow. Then the ice on the screen began to melt and the rain came… on us. It was heavy rain and I had decided to leave my hood down so I was screaming…. with excitement. I continued to scream through the thunder and lightning and the rocking platform and the helicopter ride (on the screen). Loved it.

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(Maid of the Mist boat going towards the Canadian Falls)

Then it was time for the boat trip. Again we were given the rain macs – blue. We queued up with everyone and found a good spot on the top deck. It started off gentle enough with just a little mist as we passed the American Falls….

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(American Falls – so named because that side of the river is USA, this side is Canada)

But when we got close to the Canadian Horseshoe Falls the rain came in showers, of course it wasn’t rain it was mist coming off the falls but I was screaming again. Loved it.

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(Part of the Canadian Falls)

Off to Niagara on the Lake today, but first… porridge at Timmys, Mairead

Fear and Lightening on the way to Niagara Falls.

| Mairead

05 9e

(Treats at Tim Hortons)

We set off for Niagara Falls this morning (Tuesday). Denis went to pick up the hire car while I packed enough for the two days away. Something lovely happened when he got home. You remember Doris’s mum Bobba? Well… long story short, just as Denis arrived back with the car Doris and Bobba pulled up to the house with umbrellas (it’s raining today and well… Doris thinks of everything!) and a package. Bobba, knowing I love to crochet had crocheted me a blanket! I feel very special.

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(Sat-Nav)

After lots of hugs and kisses we set off but we hadn’t gone far when we realised we had to stop the car – Denis couldn’t pass Tim Hortons (it’s only been a week but Tim Hortons has got hold of him.) So just ten minutes down the road we stopped again. Everyone out for coffee and Danish. Everyone back in and power up the Sat-Nav. To make sure we got the most out of our trip to Niagara, Grahame (who lived and worked in Niagara for many years) typed up an itinerary for us and yesterday Moira programmed the Sat-Nav with all the locations so we were ready to begin. In spite of my dislike for planning, I do appreciate when someone else does it!

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(Gone a bit dark over here)

We got onto the 401 (highway south from Barrie) easily enough but just as we were getting close to Toronto we hit a thunder and lightning storm with torrential rain. The rain was so loud we couldn’t hear the little voice on the sat-nav and so heavy we couldn’t see very far in front. Something we’ve noticed about the drivers on this road – they like to drive close together, possibly something to do with slip streaming and saving petrol? Whatever it is, it’s very scary, especially in the rain. We passed two accidents where the car behind could not brake in time!! As I’m a nervous passenger at the best of times I was prepared with my crochet (very calming) and the storm soon passed (as they always do…) and we arrived safely.

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(More rain – yippee)

I’m sitting writing on one of the two ginormous beds in our hotel room. We’re on the 9th floor and have a great view… well it would be great except for the mist and heavy rain, but I’m not complaining I have a new sense of respect for rain (yes Isabel!) – it’s cooling and there are no biting bugs. I’ll be consulting Grahame’s itinerary soon and we’ll go for a walk in this soft Canadian rain.

From an Irish-looking Niagara Falls, Mairead.