July 8 - 9: Our Last Adventure: A Flood on the Way to the Airport

This is the highway that Aunty Lorraine would normally have used to take us to the airport
(Highway 427). Obviously we went a different way.

After we went to the Toronto Zoo, we had to drive to the airport. It started raining as we were leaving the zoo but we didn't realize how bad the rain was. (It was not as bad where we were, until we got to Toronto).

These are pictures of the flooding that was happening in Toronto while we were trying to get to the airport:

This was a major highway called the Don Valley Parkway, closed down by the rain

This is a road by Aunty Lorraine's house in Toronto. Luckily, we could avoid this road.

Our flight was delayed for a long time so we had to wait in the airport from 7:00 pm until 1:15 AM!  Lots of flights were cancelled completely.  But we got home to Calgary safe and sound, at about 4:30 AM, and we got to stay at a hotel at the airport because it was so late.

This is the hotel we stayed at.

An Interview with Aunty Lorraine About My Trip

This is an interview which Aunty Lorraine did with me and dad, about the trip, on our way to the airport to fly back. Aunty Lorraine does the Question and I do the Answer.

This is the scariest thing
I saw on the trip. We saw
this on the internet!

Question: what was the funnest thing you did on your whole trip?
Answer: We are on the way to the zoo but other than that I liked boating on Stoney Lake the best

Question: What was the strangest thing you saw on the whole trip?

Answer: The strangest thing on the whole trip was when we searched for  scariest animals on the Internet and saw some  awesome scary animals.
Question: Of those animals we saw on the Internet, what was the scariest one that you can remember?

Answer: It was one that looked like a little toy duck and it looked really crazy and it looked like it ate someone.

Question: What was the craziest or funniest thing you saw your dad do on this trip?

Answer: The funniest thing I saw dad do was when we were taking a picture and it looks like we are going to Niagara Falls and it looks like he was smiling with a crazy smile.

Question: What is the thing you are looking forward to the most when you get back home?

Answer: Telling my friends what I did in Ontario.

Question:  Dear brother, what was the funnest thing that you did on this trip?

Answer: I think it was the Niagara tour but we needed some more time to explore things.

Question: So, dear brother, if you came back with that be the number one thing to do on your list?

Answer:  I think it would be number to the number one thing would be CN Tower edge walk.

This is what my dad wants to do when
he goes back to Toronto

Question: what was the craziest or funniest thing that you saw Asher do?

Answer: I think the craziest thing was when he was looking for zebra mussels when we went Burleigh Falls and he rode on Uncle John's back in the deeper water, hanging onto Uncle John's back.

Question: I hear that your son wrote a special poem for you during this trip. Should we put this poem  onto the journal blog?

Answer: Sure why not

Question: Asher, can you tell us what the special poem is that you wrote for your father on this trip?

Answer: Why yes I can. It's called the sleep farter in my room.

There's a sleep farter  in my room.He farts he farts he farts
He farts all day, he farts all night 

He farts he farts he farts


Question: Asher, that's a fantastic poem. We loved having you come and visit us, you think you ever come back again?

Answer: Yeah I am going to try to come back when I'm  like 20 or something

July 8: Toronto Zoo

Today we got up and Uncle John made us French Toast for breakfast. Then we drove to pick up June and went the Toronto Zoo.


The Zoo was amazing. My favourite animal was the tigers.

The zoo is really big. It is one of the third biggest zoo in North America and has more types of animals than any other zoo.

We walked and walked and walked. We also took a Zoomobile ride.





My favourite experience at the Zoo was getting to ride a camel. I did not expect to ever do that. It was fun.

Everyone was making a big deal about the pandas that are visiting from China.  We went to see them. They were ok, but not that great. They just slept and looked stupid.

We also got to see other animals, like elephants, gorillas, kangaroos, giraffes and stuff.

July 7: Curve Lake First Nation

Today we went to Curve Lake

This morning, I woke up early and started reading my comic. 

After breakfast, we went to Curve Lake, which is a First Nation reserve close to where Aunty Lorraine and Uncle John live.

We went to church at Curve Lake with a bunch of Native ladies and a 91 year old man named Murray Whetung. He was nice. Aunty Lorraine played the piano at church. I sang and I like singing.

After church, we went across the road to a place called the Whetung Gallery.  There I found out that Aunty was exaggerating again, because she told me there was a fierce tribal cat and it was only a nice old pussy cat who liked to be petting but I couldn't pet him because dad said I would get allergic.

The Whetung Gallery was pretty big. It had two downstairs plus a big main area. I saw a lot of cool rocks, jewelry, and knives. There were also a lot of books, fake bow and arrows (which I got by the way and the guy said the rule was that you couldn't shoot the arrow at something bigger than you). There were lots of paintings, and sculptures, and moccasins, stuff made of fur, lots of Indian clothing, and lots of other stuff. 

After that we came home to Lakefield and had lunch and after lunch Aunty Lorraine and I looked at information about the Toronto Zoo, where we are going tomorrow. While I was looking at the information I accidentally snapped my retainer and it broke. This made me really sad. Aunty Lorraine and my dad fixed it with special glue for skin that you use instead of bandages. Now it feels better but I will have to get a new one.

Then we went for a long walk. We went with Uncle John and we went to see the bridge and locks in Lakefield close to Uncle John and Aunty Lorraine's house. We walked across the locks and we went downtown. While we went downtown it was getting late so Uncle John left without us to pick up food for supper and then we had to find our way home which took 15 or 20 minutes. Uncle John cooked supper, and then I did my journal, and now we have to go to bed, because tomorrow we are going to the Zoo and then we are going back to the airport to fly home.

July 6: Stoney Lake

We got up really early this morning and it was really hot outside. I was even sweating inside the house. It was 39 degrees with the humidity.

By 9 o'clock we left for Stoney Lake because we wanted to get on the lake before it was too hot.

This is what Stoney Lake looks like

When we got to Stoney lake, I saw a heron.   We picked up a boat at McCracken's Landing and after when we got outside I saw the heron.

McCracken's Landing, where we
picked up the boat

Heron

The boat had a green sun canopy on the top and had three seats in the front and two in the back that were joined together and flat. It was called a steel deck boat.

When we were on the lake, I tried my water sword out. It shot water really far.

We had a bag of nuts and bolts and I had an airhead fruit squeezer. We also drank lots of water.

This church was on an island right by
Tony's family's cottage

On the lake, we saw boat houses, people sea-dooing, and lots of other people boating.

We stopped to swim at a cottage that belonged to Tony's family. I only went in for five seconds because I felt so weird being in water where there were no rocks that you could walk on.

After that we went to a little island called Juniper Island and right where we went up the hill where there was a little brown building that had walls that folded up. It was a dance hall.

Then we went to a place called Viamede Resort, but they only served private lunches in the main building so we had lunch at the boathouse on the dock. We had to move our boat three times so that bigger boats could come in.

This is the Viamede Resort, where we
stopped for lunch

Then we back to Juniper Island because at 2:30 they were having a free concert with a clarinet and an oboe.

After that we headed back to the dock because everyone except me was tired out.

We picked up stuff for supper and then we came home and had supper and went to bed because we were all so tired, except for me.

I even got the chance to drive the
boat for a little while in a safe area

Uncle John's hat looked like a pirates
hat whenever the boat went fast

My dad after swimming at Tony's family's cottage

July 5: Peterborough

Go cart racing with my dad

Playing accordion with Uncle John

Today I got up and read comics and played accordion with Uncle John.

Then we went to Wild Water World but everything was closed except for the go carts because of a thunderstorm waring. I went on the go carts with dad and went really fast and raced my dad. I beat my dad a few times and maybe a few times he beat me. 

This is the skatepark, it was good

After that I went to the skate park in Peterborough. I scootered with uncle John and showed him how to do a few tricks, like pop-shove-its. The skate park was really good 

After the skate park we went to hear a band play and Tony was in it. Tony lives in Aunty Lorraine's house in Lakefield. I got two face paintings, one of a tiger and one of Spiderman and also I coloured three pictures.

This is the band that Tony plays in

Before I came home we stopped at a Giant Tiger store. We picked up a few groceries, and a swimming tube and  water shoes for me, and a drinks that for me for when we go on a boat tomorrow.  After that I went home to Aunty Lorraine's and now I'm doing my Journal.

July 4: Burleigh Falls

This is Burleigh Falls where we went swimming

Today we went Burleigh Falls. I went with Uncle John and Dad. I thought it would be a swim place where there is an indoor swimming pool but actually it's a natural swimming place and there wasn't really big falls but there were rapids. At first, I didn't really want to sleep because it was deep and there were zebra mussels but I did go and it's pretty cool swimming in nature. It was beautiful.

This is what poison ivy looks like

I also learned about poison ivy. It has three leaves and the leaves are a little spiky. I saw some at Burleigh Falls.  I didn't get any on me but at first I thought I did.

After we left Burleigh Falls we went to Craig's house. Craig is a mechanic and he is a friend of Matt's. We met Craig at Matt's house last weekend. Craig was fixing up Aunty Lorraine's volkswagen camper van. As soon as I opened the door to Craig's house, two big dogs ran out and started licking me. I had to wash that off later, because they gave me hives.

This is what Aunty Lorraine's Volkswagen
camper looks like

We also stopped at Pirates Cove which is a little shack close to where Matt and Craig live, where you can get pogo sticks, fries and pulled pork sandwiches. 


Then we came home. Aunty Lorraine picked up Superman comics for me from the library, so I will read those in the morning before everyone else gets up.

July 3: Toronto

Today I got to sleep in because I had an exhausting day at Niagara Falls yesterday.

We went to Lake Ontario. We took the street car to the Lake, from Aunty Lorraine's house in Toronto. The most interesting thing about the streetcar was when I got on the street car and started going I realize how fast it would go, and I didn't sit down yet, so I was like flying towards the back. What makes the streetcars run is that it is hooked to a line that is hooked up to other lines overhead and some posts, and it uses electricity to run.

Then I scootered a little bit. Seeing Lake Ontario was interesting because it was very smoggy and also it had a lot of rocks. When we went there, my dad and I skipped rocks and he got one to skip two times and I got 3 to skip two times.

This is how smoggy it was on Lake Ontario

Then Aunty Lorraine picked us up and drove about an hour to pick up Lena and June and went for supper o a place where there was eight different places you can eat from. After I ate all my supper I got a double double coffee ice cream. After we dropped off Lena and June again, we drove to Aunty's Lorraine's house in Lakefield.

July 2: Niagara Falls

This is the bus we went on

I had to get up really early today to leave for the Niagara Falls bus trip.
When we got to where the bus stop was, it was near the Hard Rock cafe and I needed to stop and take a finish my drink and dad needed to get some money from the bank machine.
We got on the bus and drove for an hour and a half.
I slept the whole time, I was really tired.



When I woke up we were near the Skylon Tower in Niagara Falls.
I got pictures taken with my dad. In one picture we were standing behind the Skylon Tower and in the other picture we look like we are going down Niagara Falls in a barrel.

After that we went right up to the falls and we got on a boat called The Maid of the Mist. We had to put on raincoats and we actually went under the water fall and we got soaked. When I got a lot of waterfall water in my mouth, I said "So that's what waterfall water tastes like."




After the Maid of the Mist we went to the town of Niagara and I got a candy apple that looked like a monkey and we met this girl named Phoebe and she stayed with us while we were walking around the town and she had an ice cream and we tried some fudge. And it was good.

After we went to a wine tasting tasty but I didn't try any wine, just my dad's and Phoebe did and I had two great big glasses of water.

After that we went back to Toronto. it was an hour and a half to drive back and I slept the whole time.

When we got to Toronto we had a rest for a little bit at Aunty's Lorraine's house  and then we went to High Park which is by her house and I got to see some of the animals in the zoo in the park but I didn't go the whole way because I was using Uncle John's scooter and part way down the hill I fell and scraped my leg.

After we went for supper at the restaurant in High Park and I had a sandwich and some soup. A seagull came and stole this kid's burger patty right next to us but they gave him a new one and one guy went on the roof where the seagull took the patty and he took the patty down and then we left but I forgot my retainer came and Dad went back to get it.

And then we want went home and now I'm still doing my journal even though its almost 9 oclock  I should've been in bed late 20 minutes ago.

This is the dam that makes power at Niagara Falls

This fudge was called Asher's Fudge!

I got a candied apple that looked like a monkey

On the bus with Dad