Home to Canada for a Visit - Part 2 (Sept. 20-Oct. 3, 2012)

After dropping my parents off at the airport I made a brief stop in Georgetown for lunch with Ryan's family, then Ryan and I headed to Waterloo for a fun-filled weekend.  It started with board games at Ryan's cousin's house, and then off to Evan and Steve's house for more fun and board games.  That evening was fairly uneventful (although really fun), but it was great to catch up with good friends I hadn't seen in a long time.

Saturday morning Ryan and I went to my old favourite place: the St. Jacob's Farmer's Market.  I used to love going there as often as possible when we lived in Waterloo, so it was a must-see on our visit.  Ryan's brother flew in from New Brunswick that morning, so we met Ryan's family at the market and enjoyed traditional apple fritters and shopping for fall produce.

That evening we had our big party at our favourite local bar, the Huether Hotel.  That was also really awesome because I got to see even more good friends.  The girls from my synchro team came, my old boss from RIM, a few people we hung out with while we lived in Waterloo, my cousin, and a few Georgetown friends too. 

The icing on the cake was that the next day I went to lunch and shopping with my old co-worker/friend Su.  It was really great to see her and catch up after a year apart.

On Monday I left Ryan and headed to Guelph to spend a few days with my sister, who is now going to school there.  We caught up on some girlie movies, did crafts, cooked, shopped, and I went to her classes with her.  I'm so glad I went because I didn't get to spend much time with her at the wedding, and we needed some serious sister time!  Other than spending time with her, the highlight was definitely Trivia Night at one of the university bars.  We didn't do very well, but there were at least questions we had a chance of getting right!

Sidenote: When my mom saw this picture, she said "Oh, is that Jill's new friend?"  Uh...no...mom, that's me!  Yes, my hair is that long.  Jill straightened it for me a few times, which was a cool change for me.

The University of Guelph campus is beautiful, but unfortunately the leaves hadn't changed at all there.  Everywhere else was brightly coloured, but it was still green in Guelph.

That Thursday I left Jill, which was bitter-sweet because I was headed to Toronto to visit my best friend Karen and her boyfriend Ben.  She recently moved there, so it was great to see her new place with an amazing view.

We didn't really have any plans for the weekend, except that I needed to finish off all of my Canadian shopping, and we were seeing a baseball game on Friday night.

Friday morning we headed to Vaughan Mills to do some outlet shopping, and I was surprised at how huge the mall was.  We got some great deals, and I loaded my suitcase up even more.  That night we met Karen's family at the SkyDome for a Jays vs. Yankees baseball game.  Lucky for us it was Fan Appreciation Day, so there was tons of free stuff up for grabs!  We got to play Plinko (some of you may recognize this game from the show The Price is Right, where you drop the ball down a wall covered in pegs, and it lands in a prize slot in the bottom), roulette, and mini golf, and we won lots of Jays swag.

We also got to see them close the Dome while we were in it (an engineering masterpiece), we caught prizes that were thrown out into the stands, AND, most importantly, we were on the Jumbotron!  Seriously, despite the game not going well, BEST GAME EVER!  It was also really great to see Karen's family again.

On Saturday we did even more shopping at the Eaton Centre, then our friend Cassie took the bus into town to meet us for dinner.  We went to the Hot House Café which was having a Garlic Festival, and the highlight of the meal (other than great company, delicious food, and wonderful conversation) was the black garlic brownie I had for dessert.  Mmm mmm!  As luck would have it, that was the same night as Nuit Blanche (a city-wide art festival), so we wandered around Toronto in pursuit of weird art and great people-watching.  It was cool because they closed down Younge Street, and it's pretty rare that you can walk down the middle of it without getting hit by a car!  The art was disappointing, but overall the night was fantastic.

My last day in Toronto, Sunday, we didn't have any plans until we randomly heard from an old friend that the Tragically Hip were playing an impromptu free concert in Kensington Market that afternoon.  It was a beautiful day so we figured we had nothing to lose by checking it out.  Turns out they were playing 15 minute sets, on the hour, for about 5 hours I think.  Sure enough, right on time, that's exactly what happened!  We watched the first set from the back (of a small crowd) and it was great, so we decided to stay for a few more.  For the next one we worked our way up to try to get autographs, but unfortunately we didn't quite get close enough.

 In between sets we wandered around Kensington Market checking out the neat stores, the food stalls, and the other random bands that were playing in the street.  Closer to Chinatown we came along an awesome band called the Intergalactic Jug Defenders.  They played kind of old timey music, and when they finished their first song we asked if they could play the jug that they had sitting on the ground.  Sure enough they used it in the next song.  They were awesome so I bought their CD.

Later that evening we went to Chinatown for dinner and Karen managed to find some green tea ice cream in a grocery store, so it was the perfect ending to a great day.

Monday morning my visit to Toronto was over and I had to say goodbye again.  I met my aunt for lunch just north of Toronto, since I didn't see her at my brother's wedding, and then headed back to Ryan's house in Georgetown to conclude our visit in Canada.  The last day we just relaxed and played board games with his family, then after what seemed like no time at all, we flew to Holland.

Thanks to everyone in Canada who made our trip awesome.  I hope I didn't forget anything!  It was definitely a wonderful vacation, and it was great to be home in Canada again.