July 12—Ontario Place and GBS

We’re in Toronto for the day. If traffic is moving well, it takes about an hour to get to Toronto (or T.O. as it’s called around here). Of course, this is a tremendously huge city, so if there’s a wreck or commuter traffic, be prepared to hang out on the highway for a while.

Ashlynn fell asleep on our way into Toronto. She's been going full speed ahead for weeks now! She's just "Tuckered" out!




We spent the day in Ontario Place, which is an amusement park. Ashlynn enjoyed the water park play area the best (as usual!).

They’re setting up a new section that will have different things representing cities from all over the world. This one section from Asia is made entirely of plates, cups, and spoons. It’s really going to be something once it’s set up.

Here are the girls with T.O. in the background. That's the CN Tower sticking up like a needle.












This was very similar to the ride at Santa's Village, but had a greater fall. Ashlynn loved it!

Ashlynn’s favorite ride was the one where you’re in a “log” going down a river, then go over a waterfall and have a big drop. This drop wasn’t as big as the one at Disney or Six Flags, but it was fun. Well, Ashlynn was worried about me getting wet, so she wrapped me in her towel and tucked me in Angel’s bag. The first time they didn’t get wet much at all, so they decided to go again. The line wasn’t very long, so it didn’t take them long to get back to the front. Well, there was a group of three girls just ahead of them, and family members kept joining these girls, until there was about 10 people in total. This would not have tested my patience so much except that I was stuffed inside a towel in a bag, remember? Well, they all got to go down the ride, then the two people in front of us got in the log boat and the ride broke. Or at least jammed up somewhere. So our brave three decided to stick it out until it was working again, which only took a meager 40 minutes or so. Where did all this patience come from? Once it got working again, we were the first group to go because the two in front of us gave up waiting on the ride to be fixed and left. We got to the fall, and when we hit bottom, Angel, Ashlynn, and Damon got soaked. Drenched. Saturated. Nearly drowned. It took them all by total surprise, considering how dry they remained the first time down. It took all the rest of the afternoon to dry because it was a cloudy day and because it started raining.

That evening they went to a Great Big Sea concert. This band is from Newfoundland, and they are terrific. Ashlynn LOVES them and was so excited to get to go to their concert. This was really her first proper concert, and it was wonderful. Of course, it rained on them again, but what did that matter now? It was really a great big sea of people, as the Molson Amplitheatre was packed. It was the only time during this trip that Angel has seen such a concentration of nothing but white people in Ontario. Judging by the population in every place she’s been so far (including Wal Mart), Ontario is being taken over by Indians and Asians. Anyway, back to the concert. Great Big Sea plays Celtic-influenced rock music, sea shanties, and Newfie folk songs. There was a super couple beside us at the concert from Newfoundland.

The concert was over about 11 pm, and wouldn’t you guess—there was a wreck on the highway and only one of the three lanes on our side of the road was open. It added almost an extra hour to our trip. Ashlynn slept the whole ride home and had no trouble sleeping in the next morning!