Canada Part Two: Bears, Dog Walking, and Birthday Parties

trucking at dusk in Ontario

Superior beauty

a place to buy worms

We left Winnipeg and drove past some lakes called Ontario.  It took three days. We saw some bears – a mama bear and her two cubs – and some really beautiful scenery.  We looked and looked for a moose and although we passed through many moose crossings, we did not see see any mooses.  We saw pictures of mooses and restaurants and cafes named after mooses and uncle Alec has a moose sculpture in his yard, but in the end we did not see a live moose.  However, Ontario is a beautiful province and has lots of wildlife.  We’re happy that Keeana gets to enjoy it for the next few years. 

Vince exploring the woods

Because we tried to take a ferry between a couple of the lakes but were thwarted by our computers, who both thought we were still in Qatar, we arrived at Elora late and Keeana had already been gardening with Uncle Alec for a couple of hours.  We had a delicious dinner with them and a late dog walk and bedtime.  Next day we helped Keeana set up her long-awaited bed and other belongings, and then got back to Alec’s for late dog-walking and bedtime.

On Friday I helped Keeana with more furniture buying and Vince spent some time with his mom.  The plan was to meet in Toronto: the men folk to take in a Jays game, and the girls to join Karri at the Broadway show “War Horse!” After a busy but productive day, Keeana and I had a horrific drive into Toronto.  My Torontonian friends often told me tales of the 401, but I think it is one of those things you have to experience yourself.

The ferry we didn't take

  Also, our handwritten Google directions (the printer I brought for Keeana didn’t have the disc, oops) weren’t quite clear and we had to ask passing drivers for clarification a couple of times.  But eventually we made it to our destination – The Royal York – only half an hour late.  By that time, of course everyone had gone on without us, and we had to find the theatre ourselves, but War Horse was worth every harrowing moment on the 401 and beyond, including the twice-around-the-block search for The Royal York Parking Garage Entrance.

beautiful Guelph

Saturday Keeana and I attempted to put furniture together – definitely a job for an engineer after all.  On Sunday we had the big day.  Gramma’s birthday celebration started with the one-time-only complete Morden family mass.  We all descended on the local church in our Sunday best (or better than what we were wearing earlier that week, anyway) and saw some of our new family for the first time as we joined Gramma in some hymns and enjoyed a baptism.

Afterwards we drove with Karri and her friend Jeannie to Mount Pleasant, where Gramma lived as a little girl and young woman, and had cocktails and then dinner at Devlin’s Bistro, which  used to be the general store where Gramma rode to on her bike to get the mail.  The party was a lot of fun and an awesome opportunity to meet and talk to the cousins, aunties and uncles, and meet Gramma’s friends and neighbours.

Finally we got to spend one more evening with Uncle Alec.  On Monday I took Keeana to visit our old friend Amy and her two little girls, Elizabeth and Katherine.  I made it back to Alec’s with the old van only a teensy bit late and we weren’t late for our flight back to Europe.

I got IDed trying to buy congratulatory wine for Amy!

Winnipeg – An Entertaining visit to the Murder capital of Canada

hula-hula girl does not like the rain

a big teepee

We left Calgary at the crack of 3:30 pm in our trusty van in the hopes of making it to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan before midnight.  After a couple of minor set-backs – Vince’s AC/DC converter wasn’t powerful enough to charge his laptop on the fly so we had to stop at Canadian Tire in Brooks, where we didn’t see Heather but we did buy a bigger and more powerful power converter, and we almost ran out of gas somewhere near Gull Lake because we couldn’t find Vince’s bank card, but a trucker rescued us (trucker rescue number one of our cross Canada road-trip adventure) – we made it to the beautiful town of Moose Jaw and had a wonderful sleep at our one-and-a-half star hotel, the Knight’s Inn Moose Jaw.  Eastern Alberta and Saskatchewan are flat and it rained.

another great-looking van

Next day, we hit the road bright and early.  When we stopped for a coffee and pee break (in one end and out the other) Vince noticed that our tail pipe was riding lower than before, so we experienced trucker rescue number two when a kindly trucker went and found us a big fat length of wire from his truck so Vince could sort out the tail pipe.

They still have grain elevators in Saskatchewan

We then found Winnipeg and Dale’s house all by ourselves.  Dale was surprised to see us because he hadn’t thought we’d be able to traverse the confusing streets of Winnipeg without guidance.  But we did!  We sat on his sofa and had a wonderful catch-up visit of several hours before finally going to sleep.  Dale, being the extremely gracious host, gave us his room and he slept on a very thin futon or something in his guest bedroom, and claimed that he had the best sleep he’d had in weeks. 

flea-markety goodness

In the morning Dale took us to his neighbourhood flea market, which is a proper flea market.  Booth after booth of fantastic antiques and junk and garage-sale type stuff – we bought a few little nutty things.  Afterwards we met up with my old friend Amita, whom I know from teaching in Egypt, and we all went on a little fun evening out in Winnipeg together.  We went for delicious sushi, and then we went to play Karaoke.  Finally we were all too tired to keep having fun so we were forced to go home and sleep.

On Sunday morning, we met up with another couple of friends that I had taught with in Egypt, Valdine and Barry, and we went to Cora’s for a delicious breakfast.  Afterwards we went on a Borrowman historical tour with Dale as the tour guide, because Amita (who was planning a fun Winnipeg tour for us) had to go into a clinic because she had a knee injury that was acting up. 

misbehaving at Borrowman Place

paying respects

enjoying the first sunny day of our adventure - with Amita

 Our Borrowman historical tour started with a drive to Borrowman Place, where we got out and tried to uproot the road sign post, but it was pretty firmly stuck in the sidewalk.  Next we found Great Grandfather Leroy Borrowman’s house, at 1192 Wolseley Ave, but there was nobody home there so we weren’t able to see inside our ancestral home, just outside. 

1192 Waverly, former home of Great 
Grandfather Leroy and Great Grandmother
Edith Borrowman of Wolseley Elm fame

Edith Borrowman and her friends defending the Wolseley Elm in 1957

Then Amita was released from the clinic, so we picked her up and the four of us started looking for the sight of the Wolseley Elm, but despite asking countless pedestrians of the Wolseley area, were unable to find it.  Finally we continued on our journey of Borrowman ancestral discovery with a trip to the Chapel Lawn Memorial Cemetery.  For more info on our illustrious Great Grandmother Edith Borrowman, read this: http://timemachine.siamandas.com/PAGES/winnipeg_stories/WOLSELEY_ELM.htm

haberdashery

caryatids at the exchange

our album cover art

vince carried me through this long scary tunnel

After all that Borrowman ancestral heritage, we went to a part of Winnipeg called “The Exchange” which is pretty old and neat, and we were going to get coffee but the fair-trade coffee shop was closed.  However the haberdashery was open, so Dale bought a cool new hat.  Then we went to a place called “The Forks” and had delicious food-court food, and bought a few souvenirs.  Finally we said “goodbye” to Amita and came back to Dale’s to blog.  Hope you are enjoying reading about our adventures! Stay tuned, because tomorrow we resume our cross-Canada road-trip adventure through Ontario.

winnipeg is alright