Basically Jalie blog tour

Trip to Canada, June 2007. Part 1.

I've put off writing about this trip for almost a week. Let's see if I can still remember the details. My memory isn't good with these. I tend to jumble events up so it's good to write it down when it's still fresh.

Friday evening - June 29th, 2007.

We went and got the rental car. Having sold our Honda Civic 2 weeks prior and not wanting to take the gas-guzzler MDX for such a long trip, we had decided to get a rental. We got the Volvo sedan. It was nice, easy to drive. I was supposed to drive when DH got tired, however, I only drove the Volvo for twenty minutes from the rental place to home on Friday. Girish drove it to and from Canada. Yes he did! He said he wasn't tired but I know he was.

We were supposed to get to bed early and start the morning early, while Mehul was still sleeping so we could cover some distance in peace. I was afraid of him throwing tantrums every 2 hours. But we didn't go to bed until 12 that night. Mehul was showered, dressed for the next day (Yes, that was the plan), and in bed at his usual time. We kept the suitcases in the car at night. Snacks were to be packed in the morning.

Saturday - June 30th 2:00 AM.

Mehul started stirring in his bed. We have been transitioning him to a separate bed in our bedroom. We have kept it in the adjoining sitting room so it is easy to get to him as needed. Eventually, he'll be transitioned to his own room. So he started to wake up. Girish and I woke up. Girish went and calmed him down. Repeat at 2:30. And then at 3:00. I got up and said I'm wide awake. Can't go back to sleep. What's the point anyway? Plan was to start at 4AM (though we were sure that was just on the books; never to be actually carried out). Let's just get ready and go. He concurred and goes off to get ready. By 4AM we WERE on the road! What an achievement LOL! Mehul was sound asleep for the next 3 hours until his usual waking up time. We covered a little less than half of the distance by 8:15AM. We wanted to stop for some breakfast at 8:00. Made a mistake at the PA turnpike. We were on the toll road, Girish tried to take an exit but it had a toll plaza (and the toll was steep) so we turned around from the plaza and accidentally took the road back, which made us go back 13 miles before an exit was visible :\ So we took the exit and came right back. Anyhow, we had breakfast after crossing the PA Turnpike. Funny, we had made the same mistake on our trip 5 YEARS BACK. Think we'd learn?

I had taken 'Private Practices' by Stephen White along for the trip and managed to read about 200 pages the entire trip. Reading in car makes me sleepy so I tried to do very little of it. Mehul kept himself entertained with the 'Cars' DVD though I had packed some puzzles, writing pad with eraser thingy, books, crayons for him. Never touched any of those. Next time, I'm just packing the DVDs. The next time would be very soon. I love Niagara Falls.

Incidentally, no pictures were taken on the way (or back) which is unusual for me. I usually keep the camera out but didn't for this trip. Anyhow, the rest of the trip was pretty much uneventful. Mehul nodded off at some point and woke up when we stopped by the duty free shop at the border to get some liquor (For uncle. Girish doesn't do hard liquor). I think we reached their place around 2:30 and were hungry as anything. Massi (his aunt) had prepared lunch and they were waiting for us. After lunch they shoo'd us to our room and kept Mehul to themselves. He wasn't sleepy but we were! Had a good nap and went to Downtown Toronto at night.

And it was COLD on June 30th in Toronto! I was thinking will I ever experience any hot weather in Canada? Do they have such a thing? Last time I was there, it was -22C and this time it was about 15C. Not that cold but still! DH's cousin said it only got cold this week, last week was perfectly warm. Ofcourse it was :( I had to borrow Massi's jacket and Girish borrowed Karan's. Thank goodness I had packed Mehul's sweater and jacket. On the trip 5 summers ago, I had to buy a jacket at Niagara gift shop. Never trusting Canada's weather again.

L-R: Arjun, Massi, Karan, Me, Girish, and Mehul

A Red and White CN Tower for Canada Day!

I had taken the Canon Rebel DSLR for this trip and discovered 2 things why it's not a good idea to just take that one.

1. I didn't know how to take good night shots with it. There is a night shot auto setting but without critical knowledge of light conditions and exposure, it was useless. I took some really crappy pictures (as seen above). Eventually, I realized what was happening and was able to take exactly ONE good photo (the one shown here in an earlier post of Niagara Falls at night). But that was towards the end of site-seeing. Boohoo.

2. One day the battery wasn't charged. It takes proprietary batteries so there was no recourse. I just took very few pictures that day.

Man, this post is getting long. I'll have to break here and recap the rest tomorrow. Hope you'll be back to read the rest of it :)