Blogs from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, North America - page 76

On September 1st, Michelle and I will be sitting on a plane bound for Europe. Our first stop will be London, England for a short 4 hour stopover, where we will then board another plane bound for Rome, Italy. If everything goes according to plan and if the planes are on time, we should be crashing at our first Bed and Breakfast (B&B) late at night on September 2nd (Rome time). For the next few days, we will continue our preparations for the journey, including buying some new clothes, packing, and otherwise getting out stuff in order (exciting journal so far eh?). These preparations include compiling and organizing Michelle’s nerd binder of travel planning, which includes hotel information, google earth satellite image maps of various parts of Italy, flight information, travel documents with important passages highlighted ... read more

The last few days were filled with mixed emotions as we stressed about planning and preparation, said goodbye to friends and family, and finally realized the excitement that we're actually leaving on our trip. It's one of those things that you plan for so long and all of a sudden our departure date is here! We spent last Wednesday to Friday in St. Paul visiting with Kathie's parents. We went for one last spin on the quads, played with all the new kittens, and finalized insurance and banking info. We also got to have one last visit with Furball who we adopted from Kathie's sister Karyn when she went to Bermuda (Furball is spending the next year in St. Paul). On the way back to Calgary we stopped by Sylvan Lake to have a really nice ... read more

Our son and I went on a tour of the Rogers Centre stadium - formally known as the Sky Dome. This is the base of both the Toronto Argonauts North American football team and the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team. The stadium can support both sports by moving the seats and changing the artificial surface of the pitch. As well as changing the pitch, the roof can also be opened and closed according to the weather. It’s an amazing stadium. Integrated into the stadium is a hotel, a restaurant and a Hard Rock Café, all with rooms or tables overlooking the pitch. We looking at getting a replica baseball shirt, but at £69 a shot we decided against it. And of course, the price needs to be inflated with the state tax, federal tax and, no ... read more

Hey All!!! My first proper blog entry since I started my trip. Enjoy! Got into Toronto on the 20th August. Had a delay on the flight so got in later but not too bad. The flight was ok, more leg room then I thought. Ended up sitting next to some nice old dears who seemed to like me coz I gave them my carrots and scone. Got in and got pulled by immigration! Had to go through 3 sets of people asking me questions and they were all pretty rude. Especially the 2nd guy. I was really worried but I made it through. No signs to the airport express bus, had to ask but got that and went to my hostel. The hostel is ok, pretty clean, fair sized room. I got a bottom bunk which ... read more

Just got word from Ruri in Tokyo that our Certificates of Eligibility have been sent. We're having them sent to Vancouver since we'll be there for Jeff's wedding. This is great news for us because if they hadn't arrived by now we would have had to fly back to Toronto and wait, losing time and money better spent in Asia! Once they arrive we'll take them to the Japanese Consulate and apply for the visa. We've been told this takes about 4 or 5 days. If all goes according to plan we'll be in Japan as early as the first week of September!!! exciting times! ... read more