Weekends

Can it be that it has been a full week since I posted?  I can hardly believe it.

This past weekend saw us (the boys and I) taking a road trip all the way to the big T.O. (Toronto) to visit my sister.  It was a weekend of great food, great company, and great adventure.  I have a really wonderful sister that lives 3-4 hours away from the rest of us (the rest of us living within 6 km of each other) and I am ashamed to say that in the 10 years she has lived in Toronto, the boys have never made the trip to see her, and I have only been once, this past December (she always comes to see us).  This trip was eye opening, and now I realize that it isn't fair to expect her to do all the travelling, and now that I know how easy the trip was (I don't like to drive in huge cities, and the boys normally get car sick) I think I see some more visits in the future.  I'm posting that here as much as a self-commitment as anything else.

We didn't take a huge amount of photos but S did take a few "architectural pictures":

For N, it was all about the food:  live eels in Chinatown, whole sides of beef hanging in St. Lawrence market with sushi for lunch.  Watching a man make churros in the store front...

...their first ever churros after the best quesadillas we have ever eaten.  They ate them while waiting for the bus. N has decided he loves public transit...especially the subway.  Oh boy, does he ever love the subway.

I liked this:

The city is full of art, culture, and just all around "cool" things.  There was an entire store that was devoted mostly to cookbooks (with a few other books here and there, and a few kitchen gadgets thrown in for good measure).  I could have spent hours in there.  There are pianos all over the city, outside, that anyone can just walk up and play.  There is food every where you look.  Good food, authentic food, not multinational take- out chains  (although there were some of those too, but they weren't in your face like they are here).

My sister taught me how to make kale chips, and green tomato salad, and took us to all kinds of markets and food stores.  I am amazed that in the heart of one of the 3 biggest cities in the whole country (I don't actually know where it falls in the top three, isn't that awful?), they have access to such home grown, organic, artisanal food products.  I understand the demand for it is high, but you would think that food like that should be available in more agricultural communities like around where we live too. 

They took us to a fantastic show called Cavalia which had me, at least, quite literally, on the edge of my seat half the time.  It was amazing. If you have a chance to see it, I highly recommend it.

And to top it all off...the boys weren't even car sick.

The whole weekend was just amazing, and A...I hope you get so catch up on some sleep this week. Thank you, and I love you.  We all do.