Canada - part seven

Tuesday 4th August 2009

9.05am
Well plans for today have changed, we had planned to go out to Elora Gorge but while we were at breakfast AB rang – twice!!! Neither her nor Connie are very well today, AB was starting a cold yesterday and it’s developed nicely! Connie has a migraine :-( We were planning on going to the bank today to exchange some traveller’s cheques and apparently Doug has said he’ll still take us to the mall so that’s the only thing we’re doing today in terms of going out. We’ve decided we might as well do some laundry today instead of doing it all tomorrow, I’ve just been doing to the laundry to check what coin we need and both the washer and drier take a dollar coin and 2 quarters each. Our change of plans also means I can go to the gym again – I feel as if I really need to with the amount of junk I’m eating!!!! And I can eat a bit healthier today if I want so I think the whole thing is a bit of a blessing in disguise.

We were picked up yesterday at 11ish as planned and headed out to Port Dover. It was a really long drive, about 2 hours in total :-o After a while AB declared she wanted a bathroom stop and then we hit a traffic jam :-o Eventually we got to a Tim Horton’s coffee shop for the bathroom stop. Because I was in the middle at the back I was quite squashed so as my mum decided to get out with AB I got up and wriggled about a bit LOL

Eventually we reached Port Dover and it was absolutely packed!! What hadn’t been thought about when arranging this trip was that fact that it’s the long holiday weekend so everyone would be heading out to the tourist places. We tried to park at the Tim Horton’s there but that was packed, we found a car park with a lad wandering round – they were charging $20 to park for the day!!! :-o :-o When she heard this AB practically had a heart attack! In the end we found a place to park and paid the $20 – at least we were parked!!

We were wandering down towards the beach when someone suggested lunch – when we looked at the time we found it was 1.40 :-o I was really surprised, I didn’t think it was as late as that! We’d just walked past a fast food place with an enormous queue so we didn’t fancy that, we saw another restaurant that had people standing round outside so Doug went over to check whether they were just having a smoke or if that was a queue to get in – it was a queue *rolleyes* We carried on walking and found another restaurant which seemed quite empty :-S I was saying I was suspicious – why was it so empty, we went in anyway.

It was quite nice, the food was ok if a bit small and the prices were reasonable too.

12.15pm
we’ve just been out to the mall with Doug, he came to take us to the bank as planned and then brought us back again. We arranged to be in the mall for an hour and it took us nearly half an hour just in the bank! In the last bank we were in we were told the maximum traveller’s cheques we could change was $500 so that’s how much we took with us – when we asked today the lady said $1500, if I’d known that I’d’ve taken all mine with me cos I only had $600 anyway *rolleyes* Other than that we just bought a few souvenirs from the dollar store and a few bits groceries and then we came back. We’re just having a snack now before we tackle the laundry – argh!

Back to yesterday.

After lunch we wandered round again towards the beach and the other shops. We saw a stall advertising a 1 hour river cruise and we ummed and ahhed whether we wanted to go on or not, in the end I said “yes!” cos everyone was just saying to everyone else “I don’t know, do you want to?” and things like that. Doug and AB were convinced they didn’t want to so Connie, mum and I decided we were going on. There was 40 minutes until the next boat ride but we bought our tickets then cos the lady said they get busy and fill up. Doug was offering the lady extra money to baby-sit us for the next 40 minutes as well hahahahahaha.

We just wandered round the shops that were close by until it was time to go on the boat. In one shop we saw a nice red hoody saying Port Dover that I tried on and decided I liked and was going to buy (on my credit card LOL). In that shop there were magnets of Port Dover but they were really expensive – the cheapest was $7 and that wasn’t very nice so we didn’t bother. When I was going to the till with my hoodie I noticed that the price tag said $50 but the one we’d looked at on the display said $29.98 so I checked with the lady and the cheaper price was right :-) I wasn’t going to buy it at $50.

When it was nearly time to go for the boat we found a bench near the water and parked Doug and AB on it while we went to get on the boat ;-D When we actually got on the boat we were waving frantically at the 2 land-lubbers but they were taking no notice of us LOL

I thought the boat would be a circular trip but it wasn’t – we got to a certain point and he said we had to turn round cos ahead was a low bridge and shallow water so we couldn’t go any further :-(

The trip took an hour and it was really nice – VERY relaxing, on the way back the 3 of us said if the seats had been a bit more comfy we could’ve easily gone to sleep :-) We saw quite a lot on the way round, there are LOADS of boats and big houses along the river. We were laughing and I took loads of photos saying that AB could choose which one she was going to have as our holiday house that she would be housekeeping for us ;-D At one point on the way out there were about 4 or 5 boats all lined up right next to each other and it looked like there was a party going on with all of them – the people were just walking across the tops from one boat to another :-) By the time we were on the way back the party had broken up and in fact 2 of the boats were travelling in front of us.

During the ‘nature’ part of the cruise the driver / pilot / guide whatever you want to call him was pointing out turtles basking on logs, at one point he was pointing out a big one – neither Connie or I saw it and we were the ones sitting on the outside of the boat!

Everyone on the river was really friendly – people from other boats were waving to us so of course we waved back :-) There was a little boy on the balcony of one of the houses and he was really noisy – shouting and waving to everyone that went past ;-D We waved to him on the way out and he was still there doing the same on the way back ;-D

At one point along the river bank there was a load of old rusty boats and the guide was telling us that one used to belong to a certain person (whose name I can’t remember) and Connie was telling us that he was a famous Canadian comedian – that’d be why we didn’t recognise the name then.

Connie and Doug go to Port Dover quite a lot – Doug used to be a biker and on every Friday the 13th they have a big biker rally in Port Dover that Doug loves to go to. While we were on the boat and chatting Connie mentioned that she’d always wanted to go on this river cruise but Doug had never been interested so Connie had to wait until we came so she got chance to go on it.

Our River Cruise finished at 5pm so by then the town had quietened down a lot so we were able to walk more freely and wander round the shops. We wandered back in the direction of the car but also taking in some other shops along the way. One shop we went into called itself a bakery but it was more of a sweet store really, I’ve been looking for fudge for a while over here (in a portion size that isn’t enormous) and I got it in that shop :-)

After that we went back to the car and headed back towards home. At one point Doug went the wrong way and nearly got away with it cos AB had wanted a cash machine and he found one for her, it was only as we turned back and went the way we’d just come she asked had he gone out of his way for her – at that point he admitted he’d screwed up hahaha.

We’d planned to go for fish & chips for tea last night so Doug took us there, when we arrived we discovered it was shut!! That meant then that there was a bit of a debate where to go next. Doug had gone to use the bathroom in McDonald’s so AB and Connie were trying to think of somewhere. All different names of places were bandied about until AB thought of “the something family restaurant on highway 5 and 10” which Connie didn’t know LOL When Doug came back AB was trying to describe to him where she meant and Doug appeared to know where she meant so it was decided that was where we were going.

When we got there we found it was called the “Orchard Family Restaurant” and thankfully it was open :-) AB had said we were going back to hers to finish off the desserts from the barbecue so we weren’t to have dessert and Connie decided she was only going to have a toasted sandwich cos she wanted to have plenty of room for dessert LOL Doug, myself and AB had burgers and my mum had eggs with potatoes. When the meals came Connie discovered the egg in the salad had celery mixed in and she didn’t like it so she ate half the sandwich and then asked for some toast and jam instead. When the lady was taking the other half of the sandwich away she asked was there something wrong with it so Connie explained about the celery. When the toast was brought over the lady said they weren’t going to charge for the sandwich – that was really good :-) The meals there were a lot bigger than we’d had for lunch and by the time I’d finished I was really stuffed.

We finished tea at about 9pm so mum and I decided we didn’t want to go back to AB’s so we asked Doug to just drop us straight at the hotel. All day I’d been in charge of buckling and unbuckling the seat belts for all 3 of us in the back seat and as we got out Connie said “who’s going to unbuckle me now?” hahahaha.

Mum and I had our dessert when we got back to the hotel – I had a muffin left from breakfast but I can’t remember what mum had.

Might as well keep today updated now LOL

We sorted out our washing a little while ago and we figured we had 4 loads of washing :-o Our plan was to do 2loads today and 2 tomorrow. We took to the laundry what we thought was 2 loads but when we started putting it into the washing machines we found that one of our loads was too big for 1 machine so it had to be separated into 2 :-o One of the machines had a little bit of water in the bottom of it, we didn’t think anything of it until we closed the lid and the machine started up without us having put any money in :-S The person before us had obviously not let the cycle finish so our washing set it off and we had to wait for that to finish before we could start again with our cycle *rolleyes*

When we got back to our room we discovered that there’s a big thunderstorm going on outside :-o We don’t mind cos we’re snuggled up inside the hotel. It seems Connie and AB picked the right day to get sick LOL.

I *think* there must be quite a high wind as well cos I feel as if the building is moving just ever so slightly and as we’re on the 6th floor I guess it’s not outside the realms of possibility.

6.55pm
When I went down to collect the washing from the drier it was all still damp and I didn’t have any money with me so I had to go back to the room to get money to put it on again. When I went back up to the room mum was on the phone – AB had rung. Apparently tomorrow night’s jaunt with Liz is still on – neither of us particularly want to go but if we say so Liz will get a huff on – she’s already jealous of the fact that Connie and Doug are taking us to places and she’s not in on it *rolleyes*

Once the washing was actually dry mum said she’d sort it and I could go to the gym :-) I did ages in the gym today – over an hour and a half :-o When I first got on the treadmill though I was too ambitious and ended up with a really bad stitch so I stopped at 7 minutes, had a rest and then started again. Once I realised I couldn’t push myself *that* hard it was fine – I did my normal 25 minutes so in total I actually did 32 minutes :-)

Unfortunately I’ve realised I need to start eating properly cos my clothes are all feeling tight :-( The trousers I’m wearing now I used to HAVE to tie the strings but now they’re tight without tying them :-( As it happens I think I’ve had enough of junk anyway, I WANT to go back to eating healthily – or at least as is possible when I’m not totally in charge of what’s available to eat.

9.30pm
My last update today and I’ll actually post this this evening rather than tomorrow morning – tomorrow’s update will probably be very boring.

We went over to the Courtyard Café for tea – so much for my healthy eating!!! I had a half rack of ribs with chips and veg, I also had all of my mum’s green and red peppers from her pasta dish. The food was very nice but quite expensive for what it was. For just 2 meals with tax and tip included it cos us $35 :-o When we went in the café was absolutely empty – we were joking with the waiter (or whatever his official job was) that it was so busy we had nowhere to sit – he really didn’t get it hahaha. There was another lady working who came and took our order, she was very nice. We were chatting to her and it turns out she was in England just a couple of weeks ago, she’d just recently got back from holiday. She was in Dorset though – almost the other end of the country from me! It was her who brought the food out and she nearly threw it at me LOL, as she was putting it on the table some of the chips and veg slid off – AND the waiter had thrown my water at me at the start of the meal :-o hahaha

We charged our meal to our room and came back to our own hotel straight after our meal. We had dessert here – mum had her Danish pastry from this morning and I had a small chunk of my fudge that I bought yesterday. We also had a tub of mandarin oranges each as well.

Now it’s bedtime

NN (wave)