Leaving Canada

Here we are heading on the bus to Detroit.... Good bye Canada.. see you in june 2010

Judo

While in Ontario i looked up Kevin and Karl Doherty... two long time national judo team members ... They had come to work in Faro in the Yukon one summer while they were going to university so i got to know them very well.... I went and worked out with their club... well i did the warm ups and the games and worked with the juniors..... I am glad that i no longer feel like i have to take on the young guns to prove anything.... well actually it would have proved something.... that it is time to leave the serious fighting to the next generation... hey i guess we do get smarter with age... (although i do wonder if i could still have taken any of them... ha ha)

Temple

Wow.... what an incredible morning we had visiting the Bahai temple in Chicago.... we wandered around the gardens and area then had about 20 min by ourselves in the temple.... so we looked at everything up close and personal.... it is hard to describe the beauty of the place....and the energy .... we were sitting to one side when a catholic family from italy came in.... the kids who were jumping around and we could hear them coming all the way up the stairs... went very quiet .... the father said something to his kids in itallian and when he realized how amazing the acustics were... he sang a prayer or song in Italian..... i did not feel the urge to sing but was moved by him and his family....

Bahai National Office

Aja and i were treated to a great visit to the National office.... we met Enyat Rohanni who is a long time friend from the Yukon days and had a delightful visit with him with tea in the room where the National Assembly meets... in the room are many priceless treasures that radiate the spirit and history of the Bahais in Canada... the spirit was amazing....

crowded highways

They say if you stay on the 401 highway into Toronto long enough you will see everything..... unlike most other vehicles these things had the trunk in the front... actually we saw many accidents where the engines and trunks were facing the wrong way.... Aja loved the elephant ride... she said it was easier than riding the horses back home.... although i think she would change her mind about easy if she had to shovel out the elephant stalls....

Chicago

While in Chicago we looked forward to being hungry so we could go to one of the different neighborhoods and try the different ethnic foods... chuck was a gracious host and we stayed in his condo one the 26th floor overlooking lake Michigan and the city of Chicago... if we looked real hard we could see Oprah in her high rise apartment.... the big thing in Chicago was deep dish pizza... a combination of anything you want and cheese in a pan like crust... we went to Millenium park and played with the giant silver jelly bean which reflected the downtown buildings... saw a Chineese festival of arts and walked through the Art gallery gift store... chuck gave us heck for being cheap and not going in.... we watched a bit of the video in the gift store.... he said it was not the same.... ha ha.... we have to go back to Chicago to fly to Dublin next week... may be we will try and see it then... all in all the windy city was amazing and warm ... in all ways

Windsor

Chuck came half way to canada to pick us up.... We met him in Windsor ... i went to work out at mark lemon's aikido club... while in windsor we wandered around the international buskers festival.... juggilers...magicians.... musicians... artists and con men and women of all sorts.... As well the windsor blues festival was on and we took in a few of the world class acts.... (by took part in... i ment we walked along the board walk and listened and danced and looked arcoss the water at detroit and listened to the music)

From the past

Otto...married to lynda one of leah's cousins was asking me which was better in the martial arts strength or technique.... so i told him a story told me when i was 17 by a very successful canadian olympic athlete who was part of the canadian wrestling team for 8 years... named igan byler... anyway the reason i remembered igan was that he gave me a pair of his wrestling shoes as us yukoners had no real gear.... he liked my wrestling and just gave them to me... and i have always remembered his act of kindness to a younger wrestler (me)... anyway i digress... igan who was canada's most technical wrestler.. when in the olympics he was way better than the russian so quickly manages to dive and get a great hold on his legs... then he said it was like grabbing onto a tree trunk.... the russian was a rock.... so which is better.... both strength and technique are needed... i think technique is better and so does igan... as i was telling the story to otto he said that his dentist was named igan byler.... so we went and met him and told a few old time stories..... small world....

African Adventure

yes in ontario you can see the world and as you can see it continues with an african experience... it was a great day seeing parrots and owls and eagles as well as a host of african animals and animals like buffalo's.... etc.... aja got to ride a pacaderm.... ..... it was very cool.....the funniest and most entertaining part is the monkey section.... we saw the monkeys that tore the stuff off the car papa had borrowed from kenny a couple of years ago...papa was still a little jittery and kept calling them hoodalums...and saying they are plotting... ha ha.... we caught the bus in instead and laughed and watched the monkeys swarming the people that had driven their cars and vans and trucks in....... was a long walking day but lots of fun ...

Driving

All the teen foster boys go on and on about how they can drive .... even when they are under 14 and do not have drivers licence .... anyway Aja has her story now because she drove from Manitoba to Ontario.... and has the photo to prove it....

Here is Papa butts throwing his way to 4th place in canada... he also went around encouraging and inspiring the young players who are now way better than him.... i guess it is true that the students should excel teacher ... if the teacher is any good.... so papa must be a great teacher because all the students have excelled him.... kenny and tina have been amazing helping papa and nana... lending them their trailer and giving them lots of encouragement... aja and i also had a few quiet days at their house.... it was wonderful ...

we went to niagra falls yesterday... it was quite wonderful... the raw power and beautiful energy of nature..... all of man's small buildings and planning seem so small in comparison..... we did the whole maid of the mist thing and the behind the falls thing.... got up close and personal with it...well mostly soaked... then went down river and looked at the rapids.... category six... i can tell i am getting older because i did not even feel tempted to get a barrel and make my way into the history books...yes you can't help but be moved by nature... relatives kim and steve took us and treated us ... i will post a picture of them treating us to the keg overlooking the falls.... when they first said we were going to the keg i wondered if they were talking about a barrel... wondered if they wanted us to do the falls .... it was a great and they are great.. today karen is coming to take aja to a water park .... probably won't be as exciting as the falls... but at least you feel comfortable sliding in the water.....although you don't get your pict in the history books...

Today we went to try a new hairdo for Aja.....something light and easy to manage as we wander about buying combs and brushes everywhere we go as they seem to keep disappearing... at least that is Aja's story when i ask her to comb her hair.....

Eating well

We have been to Paris, London, Kingston, Washington , an international tour and we have not left Ontario.... and you would think we were in Newfoundland with the lobster feed we had..... mmm tasty.... i had to quit after 3... (in the pict left to right... nana, otto, lorne, papa, dorothy p, lynda, and tina marie.)

Terry Fox

Perhaps the most emotional and inspiring stops of the trip across Canada was at Thunder bay to visit the memorial to terry fox.... it was great.... we packed a lunch and stopped to eat in the park beside the monument..... even papa did not seem in any rush to move on.... although he was happy to get a free map of Ontario

we went by the bad lands to the tyrell dinosaur museum...someone called "aja" it was a family from metchosin .... small world... or maybe everyone just eventually ends up in a dinosaur museum.... i have loved dinosaurs since i was a little boy.... and found that i still carry a great affinity and interest in them.. Aja loves dinosaurs too so to see the fossils and the life size reproductions and real fossils was amazing... humbling in so many ways so imagine man’s small time on the planet ...

Corner Gas

Although papa complained... we had to divert a ways off our path to visit Corner Gas.... we ate ice cream and milkshakes at what used to be the police station.... the girl that served us served ice cream served ice cream in one of the documentaries on the making of the show.... that made her a pretty big star so we had our pictures taken with her.... no trip would be complete without a visit to dog river...

Across the Praries

Crossing the praries

traveling with my daughter i have already learned that where i see the travelling as the journey and a goal unto itself... she like most kids is looking for a destination and so does not yet know how to enjoy the ever changing topography... well i think i will have to wait till we are out of the praries to start teaching her that..... as we joke about being able to see the cn tower from where we are in Alberta... ... although i have no real direct experience of the beauty of living in a flat land where i keep looking over my shoulder expecting to see something different... like something is missing....but nothing ever changes my dad talked about the rich beauty and spirit of the Praries from his childhood in Saskatchewa... a fondness for the land that he carried all his life even into the Yukon..... i hope i can sense it deeper but may be it will take standing on the rich earth instead of cruising at 11o kms across its surface... actually i just realized that it is not the land that is magical... it is the sky and the land.... the sky goes on and on like the land and they seem to become one.... yes i get it now.... my dad only talked of the land but it is also the sky....... the big feeling i get is that of being very very small.... a tiny speck ..... yes this land makes me feel insignificant.... little but in some way part of something very large.... nice...