Ask for the washroom, think in kilometers

Okay so John and I have arrived in the superbly clean city of Toronto, and boy is it nice. The kids are settled at Joe and Kathy's and we're just hoping that the kids don't make their grandparents or aunts and uncles too exhausted. We are grateful to be here.

Here we are upon leaving...finally a nice day in Michigan after a snowy start to the spring.


We went across the Blue Water Bridge at Port Huron-Sarnia, and exchanged our American dollars for Canadian. The exchange rate was $1.24 Canadian for every $1 U.S. Later on the radio, we heard that Canada has a trade surplus and is doing well economically, and the exchange rate was a penny worse by the end of the day. I also found out if you don't exchange your money and pay with U.S. cash, you get ripped off by merchants, so I will avoid that scenario!

The roads are neat here...no big potholes. The speed limit is 100 kilometers per hour, which is about 62 mph. There was nothing but farms from Sarnia until Cambridge, but we stopped in a little town called Lambeth and ate a small lunch at Tim Horton's. John took over driving -- a good thing, since I don't have my city driving chops anymore, and Toronto is as big a city as Chicago, and you have to watch out for pedestrians.

We're settled at the Holiday Inn on Bloor Street, which is in the area called "The Annex," and it's near the University of Toronto. There are tons of people here, and I don't know if it's just because they're young college students, but they are SKINNY. No fatties here. To the left of our hotel, there is Louis Vuitton, Prada, Williams Sonoma, Chanel ... to the right is every ethnic restaurant you'd ever want try, lots of Japanese, Indian, hot dog stands (even with veggie dogs), and of course our dinner choice tonight – THAI!

We ate so much that I can only stomach the thought of posting one picture: John's calamari:


We are painfully stuffed...we ate like two people who never get vacations and never get Thai cuisine.

Bloor Street has some unbelievable architecture. I snapped this shot of the Anglican church, but this is sort of modest compared to the beauty of the museums and historic buildings that I didn't think to snap shots of:



People are scurrying up and down the streets so quickly that it's hard to stop and snap shots...but the Canadians don't get mad or rude, they just walk on past ya.

Here is John on our stroll:


And here I am:


Downtown Toronto is right on Lake Ontario, which is awesome. Love these 5 Great Lakes. Tomorrow, we're hoping to go to the CN Tower.


I do really like Canada. Nice place.