Life at home in Elora

Some things we like about our new town of Elora:

• The gorgeous downtown -just enough quaint shops, lovely old buildings and homes and bridges and just a few really nice cafes.
• The Gorge Cinema -great daytime and evening program in a lovely old building less than a 5 minute drive from home.
• Beautiful river and gorge running right through town
• Green, green and more green, lots of spring flowers.
• Bike and walking trails everywhere -kids riding to school everyday.
• No front fences -lots of lawns
• Our dear friends John and Kathy (and James and Nathan) who have made the whole thing easy, fun and it is such a joy to have them teaching our kids.
• All the new friends we have made in our street and through J & K who have had us over for dinner, loaned us tables, guitars, sewing machines, toys, helmets, car seats. The town has a great community feel.
• Seeing the kids make new friends, try new activities, become more independent and cope so brilliantly with all the changes and differences. (eg. Daniel has to do French at school four days a week and has just joined a local Soccer competition, Gemma learnt to ride her bike in one day, Elsie is hitting a good tennis ball already)

Vegas to LA and on to Toronto/Elora

We somewhat reluctantly left Las Vegas for the drive back to LA. This time the trip was quicker than anticipated, so we arrived at the inglorious LAX Travelodge by early afternoon and with enough time to take a short drive and find dinner down at Venice Beach. After collecting two suitcases we had left in LA, and returning the Jeep, we re-packed for an early transfer to LA Airport. The day's highlight was looking at the GPS as we drove through mazes of infamous LA freeways - the roads show up as yellow lines, and at times the screen looked more like Carbonara than California.

After another re-pack and purchase of an extra bag at the check in counter, due to suitcases being overweight, we finally got to the boarding gate and all looked promising for an on time departure. Alas, the door on the plane required repair and we were delayed for two and a half hours! So, our carefully planned arrival in Toronto at 6pm, turned in to a 9pm arrival having not been fed on American airlines. We then had over an hour in Immigration getting appropriate Work and Study visas stamped in our passports followed by a desperate lunge at the only remaining pizza in the last cafe open before locating the "red car" for our transfer to Elora.

And so, we arrived on a cold rainy evening in Elora after Midnight. We were greeted by John and Kathy who were patiently waiting for us in our new home - little mooses on beds for kids, house furnished with almost all that we need and more- baskets of fresh goodies, bikes in the garage - we felt so welcomed and excited and relieved to have finally arrived and to see some familiar faces and suddenly the day didn't seem so bad at all!

A long overdue set of photos of beautiful little Elora will follow soon. Love to you all!

Viva Las Vegas

How does one describe Vegas....pictures tell it all and everything else fits under the heading "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas". Twenty years ago maybe, but for this trip pictures tell it all! We had two nights at the Circus Circus where the kids loved the "all you can eat" buffet in between trips to see the half hourly circus acts and games arcade. Fran got to ride on the rollercoaster in the hotel, and we all won more soft toys than we needed. We were glad to be back in the Desert heat and we walked "the strip" by day and by night. We were able to pretend we were in Venice, Paris, New york and the Carribean -the extravaganza has to be seen to be believed.

The flowers and the choreographed fountains at the Bellagio were highlights as were the flamingoes at The Flamingo, and dinner at the Trevi in Caesar's Palace (inside dining pretending to be outside!).

We also took the kids to the Sahara to see Rick Thomas whose magic show included levitating tigers, disappearing motor bikes, scantilly clad women in boxes being dissected and having their heads spin and Pete and Fran on stage while Pete's watch was made to disappear.

It was all sensational and exceeded our expectations. We thought four days would be more than enough, but we left feeling there was so much more to see, smell, touch, taste and buy - I think Vegas (and the US in general) had the exact effect that it was designed to -you leave wanting more even though you are completely overloaded!

Williams, Arizona to Las Vegas

Possibly the highlight and certainly the most novel of all accommodations on our trip was in this Caboose, after we left the Grand Canyon and returned to Williams. Williams is a town focussed around Route 66 diners and the Grand Canyon Railway. Apparently the Disney movie, Cars featured some footage from the Diner (pictured) where we ate. It snowed again, but the kids were undeterred and spent a couple of happy hours loading and unloading tyres in the playground outside our "Caboose" before we set off for a five hour drive to Las Vegas. The five hours became closer to seven or eight after a car accident blocked the road for over an hour and traffic was banked for miles - a great photo opportunity for windswept desert shots and the amazing approach in to Vegas via the Hoover Dam.

We were lucky enough to get a last minute booking at the El Tovar Hotel -a grand lodge in the heart of the Grand Canyon village, built in 1905, just after the railway to the Canyon was completed. Views over the Canyon from our room and a magnificent dinner in the fine dining room were highlights. (That's not our dinner remains in the photo!). Freezing cold nights, lovely warm fire surrounded by a taxidermists feast of stuffed beasts -elk, moose, deer, bear heads made for a great atmosphere.

The Canyon defies description and its miles and miles of grandeur is difficult to capture in photos. It's hard enough to take in standing at the edge. It looks like one of those surreal painted backdrops in old movies. Seeing high-flying birds of prey were many metres below us helped give some perspective. Next time, we'll go on a helicopter flight.

We were able to do a couple of short walks, and some shuttle bus trips but as previously stated - scenic views hold children's interest for limited periods. They did however enjoy meeting the rangers, who introduced them to some owls and other wildlife. The highlight was dissecting the owl "pellets" to see what they had eaten for dinner!

P.S. A short note about different senses of humour.

Crayons and paper are provided in many restaurants, and were given to our kids at El Tovar. Our server showed a party of four elegantly dressed adults to their table, then came back for us.

"I notice that those people didn't get crayons," I quipped.

"Oh no sir! The crayons are only for CHILDREN," she explained.

Fran had to explain that her extremely humorous husband was only kidding, and her glance reassured all that there would be no more kidding for several days.

If you're reading this, Paul Shaw: I remember you saying you made various extremely funny comments in the US (quite possibly even funnier than my example), nobody knew what you were talking about and after a while you decided that you might as well laugh, even if nobody else was going to. Got it.