New England Trip, Day 4--Walden Pond, Massachusetts

Because of the season, many of the tourist places weren't open as late.  So while eating pizza we had to decide whether or not to go to the Boston Tea Party Ship or drive out to see Lexington and Concord.  Because of the time of day, we decided it would be best to stay in Boston and just have to miss out on those other small sites.  So then later when we were driving out of Boston, I remembered seeing that Walden Pond was close by.  I remembered learning about Henry David Thoreau in my English class by Mr. Walker.  He said that if we were ever in that part of the country, we should visit.  So in honor of Mr. Walker, we stopped at Walden Pond.

New England Trip, Day 4--Boston, Massachusetts

Monday, April 23, we spent the day in Boston, Massachusetts.

We started the day with a walking tour of the city on the Freedom Trail.

New England Trip, Day 3--Plymouth, Massachusetts

Some surprising advice we received from the locals was that it wasn't really worth our time to go to Plymouth.  One sister said she had never taken her family or friends who came to visit, but they always wanted to go to Salem.  We however, had watched a show that highlighted the sites in that city.  We were fascinated with it and couldn't wait to see the things that he had.  We respectfully thanked the sister for her advice, but we went anyway!

The first thing we wanted to see was the National Monument to the Forefathers.  

New England Trip, Day 3--Bunker Hill, Massachusetts

After our walking tour of Salem, we headed down to Boston to the monument at Bunker Hill.

New England Trip, Day 3--Salem, Massachusetts

After our lobster meal in Maine, we continued driving, getting into Massachusetts.

(I've been there before, but the rest of my family hasn't, so it was new states for them.)

Oh, and sorry for the bad picture...sometimes the state signs are big, sometimes they are small.  Sometimes they come right at the border and other times they are into the state a bit...and if we cross at night, it can be difficult to get a clear picture.

New England Trip, Day 2--Maine

 We may sound a bit crazy for doing a trip like this, but with our being in Toronto, we are much closer to these states than if we were back in the West.  Originally we had a few places on our list, but with these states being so small and close, it felt hard to not drive another hour or so to get to a new one.  So, still on Friday the 20th of April, we continued on from Concord, NH into Maine.  Our main--haha--objective was to see a lighthouse and to eat lobster.  

New England Trip, Day 2--New Hampshire

After our visits in Vermont, we drove a short distance to another new state--New Hampshire!

New England Trip, Day 2--Vermont

Friday night we drove through Canada and stayed the night in Vermont.  Like I mentioned in my previous post, this is a new state for us!  

New England Trip, Day 1--Canada

Friday, April 20, we set out from Toronto for a trip into the north eastern United States.  We wanted to take advantage of how close we were to these states and to the church history sites.  

(This was just a funny sculpture we saw on our way out of the city...)

April Fun

Our April seemed to go pretty quickly.  It was filled with lots of fun and tourist-y things.  We also had fun at the apartment.  Our absolutely WONDERFUL friend from church, Cecelia, came to dinner again.  We got a picture this time!

Niagara Falls, Canada

Friday, April 13, I had another doctor's appointment in Niagara Falls, USA.  We didn't see the falls on our previous trip because it had been too snowy and foggy.  And even though it was cloudy we decided to see what we could see from the Canadian side of the falls.

Ripley's Aquarium Canada, Dinner and Good-Bye

On Friday, April 6, we met our friends at Ripley's Aquarium of Canada.  Both Paul and Raul were able to get off work early to come enjoy it with us.  That was fun!

Thursday with the Gonzales Family

On Thursday, April 5 we decided to have a more casual and easy day.  We walked the few blocks to where the Gonzales, the family from Spain, was staying.  Ana prepared some spaghetti bolognese to share with us and we brought over some Jell-O with Cool Whip and raspberries.  We both wanted to share foods that were common in our cultures.

And we just enjoyed being together, out of the cold--because it was still cold.  The kids had fun playing with toys and tablets, while Ana and I enjoyed talking together.

Ontario Science Centre

We had a day of rest before we headed out with our Spain friends to do more things on the Toronto CityPass.  (The CityPass gave us tickets to the CN Tower, Casa Loma, the ROM, the Aquarium and the Science Centre.)  On Wednesday, April 4, we met up with Ana, Isaac and Andrea to go to the science centre together.  It was quite a journey out to the centre, taking us over an hour to get there by transit.  We rode the subway line, then had to transfer to a bus and then had to walk the rest of the way.  There was probably a better way, but that's what I found on Google Maps. 

Anyway, it wouldn't have been so bad, except the wind was really strong and really cold.  We were getting blown over and having our breath taken away because the wind would hit us so strong.  We were so glad when we finally arrived and could be inside for several hours.

Cheryl's Visit, Day 6--Bata Shoe Museum

On Monday, April 2 Paul headed to work while Cheryl, Glenn and I went to the Bata Shoe Museum.  We had a free pass there from the library and it sounded like an interesting place to go.  It wasn't very large, but it was filled with unique and interesting shoes and facts about footwear.  We enjoyed it a lot and would probably go again!

Cheryl's Visit, Day 5--Easter

Happy Easter!

As we had Easter with Cheryl we realized that she had been with us 5 years ago for Easter when we were in Spain!  This time we were in Canada.  So we jokingly wondered in what country we would be in another 5 years for her to come visit us.  That would be pretty funny if it happened again.

Cheryl's Visit, Day 4--Casa Loma

Saturday morning we headed to Casa Loma.  I realized when we got there that I forgot my phone at home.  :(  So I couldn't take pictures like I usually do at these places.  I used Paul's for a few pictures before it died, but they are sort of blurry and not very good.  (It is at the end of it's life and doesn't keep it's charge very long...)  So unfortunately I don't have many pictures of this amazing building in Toronto, but if you want to see what it looks like, then you should look it up on the internet.  It's really a gorgeous home!

This first picture is from the website--it didn't look this beautiful and green when we went, but it gives you a great idea of what it looks like.

Cheryl's Visit, Day 3--The CN Tower

Friday March 30, we were on our way to Casa Loma, but since it was clear weather, we changed our plans and went to the CN Tower instead.  It had been rainy and cloudy the days before, so since it was clear we didn't want to miss our chance of having a good view from the top.

Cheryl's Visit, Day 2--the ROM

On Thursday March 29, we headed to the Royal Ontario Museum, or the ROM.  

Cheryl came to visit! Day 1--Exploring

Paul's sister Cheryl came to visit us here in Toronto at end of March/beginning of April.  The first night we didn't go anywhere or do anything special--just had dinner and hung out.  The next day we all walked with Paul to his work building.  He heard about a little concert that would be happening in the PATH connection under his building.