The beginning.

Christmas 2017 and our niece Elly Parker and her now fiancé, Canadian Matt visited Australia to spend the holiday with family. The conversation turned to the possibility of visiting them in Toronto, Canada sometime in 2018 and the idea was born.

The decision was made for myself, my wife Janeane, and Ella’s nanny, Beryl Parker to visit Canada for a month at the end of October 2018 and the planning began.

Flights were booked with Qantas and we would arrive in Toronto at 9pm local time on Saturday 27 October 2018.

Janeane and I have never been to Canada or the US before (Hong Kong was about the furthest we had been) so we decided to make the most of our month.

We made an itinerary that would take in some of the eastern side of Canada including Toronto, Kingston, Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec driving a rental car. We will then fly to Boston for a few days and then on to New York, staying in Times Square. Back to Toronto to spend time with Elly and Matt, taking in Niagara Falls area for a weekend and the Amish Country.

With a little bit of time left up our sleeves we decided another location in the US could be slotted in and New Orleans was chosen for it’s fun and quirkiness.

This is trip is the culmination of a big 2018 for us with the sale of our business and the pending sale of our house of 17 years on the Gold Coast that will allow both of us to relocate to Victoria after 33 years to be closer to family and friends.

It is an exciting time for us and we look forward to our trip and putting this journal together as a lasting legacy of what should be a fantastic time.

Let the fun begin!

Bob and Janeane.

Heaps of luggage. 3 x suitcases, 2 x carry on bags, 2 x handbags, 2 x winter jackets and the CPAP machine. Lucky we are only going for a month!

Lumpy flight to Melbourne. Left Gold Coast at 35 degrees Celsius, arrived Melbourne 19 degrees Celsius.

Quick pick up from baggage with our cases coming off almost first. Cab from airport to Ciloms Hotel at Tullamarine. Taxi driver not a patch on Uber - arrogant.

Met Beryl and Trevor at Ciloms. Headed down to the bar and had a few drinks and a huge meal before retiring for an early night. 4 alarms set for 5.00am with a 6.30am bus booked for trip to International Terminal Tullamarine to board our 10.00am flight to Los Angeles.

Bottoms Up!

This is our accommodation at 304 Queens Drive, Toronto. Four levels owned by Matt’s Mum and Dad, Tim and Cindy.

Our en-suite room in the basement for two nights. Very comfortable.

Government Units at the end of Queens Drive. Don’t go there!

An example of the local architecture on Queens Drive.

Beautiful colours in the trees still.

Saw a heap of squirrels on our walk around the block.

Went up to Matt and Elly’s on return from our walk and had a nice hot cup of tea. Had a lovely breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast, Canadian bacon and jams. Matt, being a Chef, cooked everything perfectly.

After breakfast Matt prepared the smoker for tonight’s BBQ dinner. Long process in Canada, going on for hours to infuse the flavour of the wood chips and smoke in to the meat.

Whilst all this was happening, Elly took us for a drive to see a couple of local attractions. Rain stayed away which was great.

Very brisk but lovely walk around High Park including a photo of Beryl the great white squirrel hunter and a squirrel. The fort looking thing is a children’s playground.

The we visited Casa Loma, a real live castle in Toronto!

Put it on the list to return to visit the inside of the museum on a full day in Toronto.

Halloween event set up at the rear of Casa Loma. Could not get entry but would be spooky at night!

Beautiful traditional smoked BBQ prepared by Matt and Elly and a fantastic dinner with them both and Matts Mum and Dad, Cindy and Tim, sister Candice and Johannes and Jocelyn and ?.

Few local beers and wines followed by Iced Tea with Borboun and mixed berry pie, apple pie and ice cream with cheddar cheese would you believe! What a great night!

Mango Weiss bars in flight. Sorry Elly!

Arrived Los Angeles on time at 6.15am. Breezed thought Customs again with assistance given for Beryl so we got priority with everything.

LAX is a bit of a mad house! We had nearly 7 hours to kill as it turned out so checked out the terminal and listened to the madness of reps trying to sort flight to Shanghai, Mexico and other exotic places. Total chaos.

Finally boarded our Westjet flight at around 1.30pm and had an uneventful flight to Toronto arrived arriving around 10pm local time.

Raining and 6 degrees! Picked up at airport by Elly, Matt and Matt’s mate Essen. Arrived home and had a few drinks and a huge pizza for dinner! Matt and Elly are great. So good to be here!

5 degrees and snow forecast for today!

Lovely drive up north - pretty cold though. Still lots of colour in the trees.

Arrived Kingston at around 5.30pm, dropped our bags in the room and headed off for a feed and a few drinks. Found a lovely restaurant called Olivea which had great food, great drinks and great service. Janeane had the chicken al Mattone cooked under a brick and I had BC Halibut stew...just beautiful.

Beautiful hotel with a bit of history below.

After breakfast headed out for a walk to take in the local sights. Gorgeous town with a lot of history. Would have like to have had more time here than just one day.

Drove up to Fort Henry on one of the last open days this season. So happy it was open. Well worth the visit.

Looking from Fort Henry across to Kingston.

Departed Fort Henry for Ottawa.

Found a pumpkin sale just outside Ottawa.

Onward to our hotel, Cartier Place Suites in Cooper Street, Ottawa for two nights. Checked in and went for a bit of a walk around the local area.

Went to Deacon Brodies on Elgin Street for dinner. Had poutines, a club sandwich and haggis! Wee dram with the haggis was very very potent!

Had an afternoon rest back in our room and then venture out for dinner at the Sir John A pub in Elgin Street. Fairly busy place with a good beer list and menu reasonably priced.

Had chicken bites, deep fried pickles, chicken parmigiana and a burger. Too much to eat so left a bit on the plates. Had a special Halloween beer based on pumpkin....most unusual.

Hotel across the road from the St John A lost all power earlier in the day and had to be evacuated.

Lots of construction going on in Ottawa so got the Cook’s tour of the place. Lovely old buildings.

Departed Ottawa and drove north east up the Trans Canada Highway. Lots of open fields and some corn growing.

Arrived at our beautiful little Hotel, Le Relais. On the third floor overlooking the Latin Quarter. Had a lovely walk around. Late lunch at the recommended pizza place, some live music at Bistro and Blues followed by dinner at 3 Brewers. Neane had a burger and I had Sauerkraut.

This church is known as the ‘sailors church’ as sailors of old came here to receive blessing for their upcoming trips across the Atlantic or give thanks for their safe passage.

69 Steps up takes you to a lookout on the spire with view over Old Montreal.

12 more steps take you up to the bell tower.

Found a very cute Christmas shop!

A must see is the Notre Dame Basilica of Montreal on Notre Dame Street West. Absolutely breathtaking and not a huge entry fee.

There is also a locked section off the crypt that you can ask to see. It is a section of the archaeological excavation showing foundations of the original church, post holes and fire pits from early Indian times.

Not wishing to waste a day sitting in our Hotel room we rugged up and ventured out.

Given the prevailing conditions we decided to seek entertainment in doors as much as we could.

First visit was to the Port of Montreal Cruise Terminal to check out the History of Ships exhibition. Small, but interesting display on shipping in Montreal. Was warm inside and gave us a chance to dry off a bit.

Remains of the old cemetery located deep underground.

Old fireplace.

Part of the old plumbing system.

The old sewers.

Timber piers.

There was a very long queue opposite our restaurant that never seemed to get any smaller. Turns out all these people were queuing for an exhibit on sustainable living - not recycling but the abolition of waste altogether. A noble cause for sure but glad we didn’t queue out of curiosity.

Early day for us. Went back to our Hotel to warm up. Takeaway pizza and lasagne for dinner from the same place we had lunch at on the day we arrived. Won’t be long out of bed.

Off to Quebec tomorrow.

Took a bit of a detour to off the highway to check out some of the scenery.

View going up in the Funicular.

Small ‘bowl’ of coffee at Hotel 1640.

Long board of local produce for one at 1640. Absolutely delicious!

New hats!

How to dress for touring Quebec in early November!

Renovation works! All manual here. Guy at bottom left is hoisting material up by rope.

Construction to far left of photo is the refurbishment of a toboggan run.

Early night again with a nice dinner at D’Orsay Pub and a wine back in our hotel. Off to Boston tomorrow!

Caught a cab to our Hotel Envision at Everett, Boston. Checked in and went for a walk to The Chelsea Firehouse to have a few local beers, cheese plate, lamb lollies (lamb chops done in maple syrup), ragu and strip loin. Delicious meal and well worth a visit.

Back on The Freedom Trail after lunch.

Home of Louisa May Alcott, the author of Little Women.

All houses here are fully protected - no changes are allowed to me made to structure or even colour.

Captain John Parker, a Minuteman was wounded in the skirmish at Lexington dying sometime later.

8 Americans were killed and 1 Englishman was wounded on this very park on April 19th 1775.

Off to New York at 3.11pm tomorrow.