O Canada Part IV - Y.A.N.A. (Final Thoughts)

Our last night with my relatives, my uncle's three sons came over for dinner with their wives and children.  Actually - that was a neat little shocker.  "Surprise!  You're an auntie, Vic!  Kind of makes you feel old, doesn't it."

(OK, technically - first cousin, once removed, but it was a heck of a lot easier to say "Aunt Vicky", and given the age difference, made a lot more sense to the kids.)

I was pretty nervous to meet them, and reasonably so, I think.  Remember - I hadn't seen these people in twenty-some years.  That means I went from a toddler to a grown-ass-adult in their eyes.  What would we even have in common?  Meals from previous nights were mostly silent on my end - my uncle's English is pretty good, but he was much more apt to use Mandarin around my mother and aunt.  Though I understood maybe 60% of the conversations, I certainly couldn't participate.  Would I sit awkwardly in silence again tonight?

Fortunately, all my cousins spoke perfect English and tended to switch back and forth with each other, their spouses, and their children.  Also fortunately, the middle of the three brothers was pretty loquacious.  And quite fortunately, it is impossible not to talk about babies when small children are present.  Toddlers and baby-talk:  the great equalizer.

O Canada Part III - Part of Your World

As I indicated in my first post, not all of my trip to Toronto was touristy. My last full day in Canada, our first stop was the local Buddhist temple by my uncle's house:

O Canada Pt II - The Castle and the Highest Tower

Unsurprisingly, much of my time in Canada was spent site-seeing.  My uncle and aunt were determined to show my mother and me as much of Toronto as possible without the use of a Time Turner, taking the train more times than I can recall.

And also proving that I cannot escape this place, even when I am on vacation

As a blogger, I am immensely grateful for this, but as a person, I must admit that it left me pooped.  At heart, I am quite a homebody, so multiple days of touring around such a big city was a little tiring -- but well worth it.

O Canada Part I - The Falls, The Family, and Driving Ms. Laisy

My mom's first reaction upon seeing Niagara Falls from the top was, "If you fall into the water, don't bother swimming.  You're pretty much done."  And they wonder where I get it from.

As you might guess, our first stop in this trip was the world-famous Niagara Falls, Ontario.  I had planned some odd months ago with my mother to set aside a few days to visit the area.  She had wanted to visit, partly out of nostalgia, partly to see my relatives in Toronto, and partly on a whim.  It had been 20 years since my last sojourn out that way, when I was all pigtails and frills,  so I said why not.  Canada is lovely.