Washington DC – rain on our parade, NO WAY!

We have now arrived in DC and it is great. Holiday Inn Capitol is perfectly positioned – so close to the museums, Washington Monument, Capitol, and other places. We even have the FEMA office connected to our lobby.

Mitch is just loving all the new sights and went totally crazy happy at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. I think he was just watching his dad go nutso and followed suit. “Look up at the planes Dad!”

So much history just right in front of your face. Space craft, airplanes from the Wright Flyer to the latest commercial and military offerings including satellites, rockets and drones. So much to cover and so little time. Plus admission is FREE…

I apologise for the lack of pictures, but until someone tells me how to get my Sony Cybershot pics onto our iPad, they will have to wait until I can wrestle a business centre desktop from one of the high school kids staying in the hotel. Any tips would be great. I still love the iPad but this is a pain.

More Washington DC tomorrow but 10 inches of rain is predicted in the next few days and we will be dodging it the whole time. We did plan an afternoon watching the Nationals (baseball) just a short walk away from the hotel, but the first game of the series has already been rained out – bit of a shame. See how it goes.

Updates to follow. Pictures are a maybe.

GT, J and Mitch.

Toronto – more fun in the sun

Toronto weather has amazing. Warm and steamy seems to be a struggle for the locals, but for this clan it is a blessing.

Friday was spent checking out the local environs and doing a little food shopping. Picked up the local versions of Coke, chocolate and chips (Coke, Cadbury and Cheetos – not so different). We also went in to town for lunch and visited G’s office – nicest building in town. It is the old general hospital transformed into a technology centre.

Toronto is very much like home – flat, grid pattern streets and streetcars down some of the main roads. Ding Ding.

CFL football at Rogers Centre was on the menu for Friday night. BC Lions visited town to take on the Toronto Argonauts. Good to see my plane buddy from Vancouver Tim Brown of the Lions do well. Toronto outclassed by the visitors in front of a small crowd. And the mayor here wants an NFL team…

Labour Day long weekend in Canada, so we travelled to Midland to stay with two of the loveliest people we have met. Carole and Joan opened their beautiful house to our little family and made us feel at home. It was almost as if we had known them forever.

Mitch enjoyed running under the sprinkler and getting Carole soaked with the hose. Burgers, salads, ribs, and other fine fare were consumed with gusto. Such a great couple of days.

We leave Tuesday for Washington DC to visit Obama and family. We say goodbye to our Toronto/Canada family with heavy hearts but terrific memories. Thanks to G, Rena and Sandra for letting us take over their house (especially Sandra’s bedroom/car) and hopefully we can reciprocate the hospitality in the future.

Photos will be uploaded once we get to a PC – hard to do from the iPad.

Australia to Toronto – 10,000 miles

We have now made it to Toronto via Sydney and Vancouver. Long plane ride and plenty of action aboard.

Virgin to Sydney from Melbourne to connect with the Air Canada flight to Toronto via Vancouver. Air Canada decided to split the three of us up, with Mitch being assigned his own seat behind us – great work Air Canada. After some tears and jiggling on board, a great bloke from Quebec swapped seats and gave us our own row of three. Thanks mate.

Then commenced 14.5 hours of tears screaming, tantrums and headaches. After 9 hours Mitch went to sleep, and we had a break. J and I were knackered and needed a rest.

Landing at Vancouver meant getting off the plane, clearing Customs, getting checked bags, checking bags in again, new security scan, then running around the airport again to get back on the SAME PLANE in the SAME SEATS! Well we had two of the same seats, with Mitch seated behind us again…

I decided to take the seat behind to save the shuffle for the small four hour flight, so I was seated between the starting running back and defensive end for the BC Lions! Great to chat to them both and find out their backgrounds and own paths to the CFL. Even weirder is the fact we are all going to the game on Friday night between the Toronto Argonauts and the BC Lions at the Rogers Centre (Skydome). Will be great.

The house in Toronto is great. Thanks to Sandra for letting us camp in her room for the duration of the stay. Updates to follow later and maybe some pictures if we can.

GT