Friday, June 17, 2011

Oh Canda

Spent last weekend at La Toscana di Carlotta, a bed & breakfast, at Niagara on the Lake, Canada.  (info@latoscanadicarlotta.com or tel. 1-866-577-2155)  It's "aboot" (that's Canadian for "about") 20 minutes from Niagara Falls.  The town is an eclectic, (look it up), strip of stores that are perfect for tourists who like a leisurely walk down a historic lane.  The horse-drawn carriages and the Cow Ice Cream store only add to the pleasures.  I'd recommend staying at the B & B, as the breakfasts were unbeatable, the company delightful (meaning we loved Maia, the labradoodle, but Kash & Carlotta & Sarah - Carlotta's Mom were all amazing, too) and the location was perfect. 
Niagara Falls was an awesome sight.  It was my first time seeing the Falls, and I wasn't disappointed.  We took the Maid of the Mist into the heart of the Canadian Falls.  It was well worth the money and the drenching.  Anyone going over these Falls in a barrel deserves to die.  We didn't go behind the Falls, but I'd opt for doing that, too.  (I was too cheap to pay the $32.00.  A trait for which I am universally renowned.) 
Canada held the 2010 Vancouver Olympics which used an Inuit Inukshuk rock sculpture as a logo.  That's me with a replica of the Inukshuk that was used.  It's actually 1 meter tall (everything in Canada is the metric system - so when I paid $1.29 per liter for gas, it wasn't as fantastic as I had thought).  The speed limit was often 40 kph, so I was going 55 miles per hour.  Who woulda thought kilometers are so short?
It wasn't till I got home that Vancouver lost the Stanley Cup to the Boston Bruins, and showed they can be as poor a loser as those of us in Philadelphia.  We've just had more experience at it.






By the way, customs didn't stamp our passports either out or into the country.  I was really disappointed with that.  Wait an hour to get to the border police, and they don't give a damn about you, only what plants or fruit you're bringing with you.  No more Canadian maple syrup cookies for them!

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