First Stop - Toron'o
Well....this week I learned that Toronto is considered central Canada, and not east coast! But to me, anything 5 hours east of Vancouver (by plane) is east coast in my books! Toronto was a nice city and the trams reminded of home in Melbourne. The buskers festival was on that weekend. There was an Aussie street entertainer from Sydney. He was able to fit is whole body through a squash racquet - what a freak!
Aussie street entertainer 'Alikazam' fitting through a squash racquet, tennis racquent and toilet seat!
Mel outside the (Ice) Hockey hall of Fame in Toronto.
Second Stop - Niagara on the Lake
The main purpose of the trip was to attend a training course. It was a soft skills course where we learnt how to lead a team. It was a national training course where colleagues flew in from all parts of the country. The course was taught in both English and French. There was a very distinct divide between the english speakers and the french speakers. One of our tasks was to make a video. 3 groups did the video in english and 1 group did the video in french. All the english speakers had no idea what they were saying in the French video.
One night after dinner we went to see Niagara Falls. The view from the Canadian side is definitely much more spectacular than the US side.
American falls at nightLast Stop - New Jersey & New York
My last stop was New Jersey to visit the 'relos'. A solid 8 hours was spent shopping at the Woodbury Common outlet in New York State. The credit card got a good bashing that day. We witnessed the 'Coach' phenomena where you had to queue to go into the store and not a soul came out empty handed!
We also spent a day in Manhattan, NYC. Being a Sunday on a long weekend, NYC was a ghost town with only tourists wandering the streets. We went to ground zero and I was surprised to see that it was still a construction site! No visit to NYC is complete with a visit to Chinatown. We went to the BIG WONG restaurant (which has not changed one bit since my last visit 5 years ago!) for a cheap but good feed. Then washed it all down by eating dou fu fa in a nearby park while JJ played in the playground.
Mel & Cousin JJ in New Jersey
