Trip to Canada, June 2007. Part 1.

I've put off writing about this trip for almost a week. Let's see if I can still remember the details. My memory isn't good with these. I tend to jumble events up so it's good to write it down when it's still fresh.

Friday evening - June 29th, 2007.

We went and got the rental car. Having sold our Honda Civic 2 weeks prior and not wanting to take the gas-guzzler MDX for such a long trip, we had decided to get a rental. We got the Volvo sedan. It was nice, easy to drive. I was supposed to drive when DH got tired, however, I only drove the Volvo for twenty minutes from the rental place to home on Friday. Girish drove it to and from Canada. Yes he did! He said he wasn't tired but I know he was.

We were supposed to get to bed early and start the morning early, while Mehul was still sleeping so we could cover some distance in peace. I was afraid of him throwing tantrums every 2 hours. But we didn't go to bed until 12 that night. Mehul was showered, dressed for the next day (Yes, that was the plan), and in bed at his usual time. We kept the suitcases in the car at night. Snacks were to be packed in the morning.

Saturday - June 30th 2:00 AM.

Mehul started stirring in his bed. We have been transitioning him to a separate bed in our bedroom. We have kept it in the adjoining sitting room so it is easy to get to him as needed. Eventually, he'll be transitioned to his own room. So he started to wake up. Girish and I woke up. Girish went and calmed him down. Repeat at 2:30. And then at 3:00. I got up and said I'm wide awake. Can't go back to sleep. What's the point anyway? Plan was to start at 4AM (though we were sure that was just on the books; never to be actually carried out). Let's just get ready and go. He concurred and goes off to get ready. By 4AM we WERE on the road! What an achievement LOL! Mehul was sound asleep for the next 3 hours until his usual waking up time. We covered a little less than half of the distance by 8:15AM. We wanted to stop for some breakfast at 8:00. Made a mistake at the PA turnpike. We were on the toll road, Girish tried to take an exit but it had a toll plaza (and the toll was steep) so we turned around from the plaza and accidentally took the road back, which made us go back 13 miles before an exit was visible :\ So we took the exit and came right back. Anyhow, we had breakfast after crossing the PA Turnpike. Funny, we had made the same mistake on our trip 5 YEARS BACK. Think we'd learn?

I had taken 'Private Practices' by Stephen White along for the trip and managed to read about 200 pages the entire trip. Reading in car makes me sleepy so I tried to do very little of it. Mehul kept himself entertained with the 'Cars' DVD though I had packed some puzzles, writing pad with eraser thingy, books, crayons for him. Never touched any of those. Next time, I'm just packing the DVDs. The next time would be very soon. I love Niagara Falls.

Incidentally, no pictures were taken on the way (or back) which is unusual for me. I usually keep the camera out but didn't for this trip. Anyhow, the rest of the trip was pretty much uneventful. Mehul nodded off at some point and woke up when we stopped by the duty free shop at the border to get some liquor (For uncle. Girish doesn't do hard liquor). I think we reached their place around 2:30 and were hungry as anything. Massi (his aunt) had prepared lunch and they were waiting for us. After lunch they shoo'd us to our room and kept Mehul to themselves. He wasn't sleepy but we were! Had a good nap and went to Downtown Toronto at night.

And it was COLD on June 30th in Toronto! I was thinking will I ever experience any hot weather in Canada? Do they have such a thing? Last time I was there, it was -22C and this time it was about 15C. Not that cold but still! DH's cousin said it only got cold this week, last week was perfectly warm. Ofcourse it was :( I had to borrow Massi's jacket and Girish borrowed Karan's. Thank goodness I had packed Mehul's sweater and jacket. On the trip 5 summers ago, I had to buy a jacket at Niagara gift shop. Never trusting Canada's weather again.

L-R: Arjun, Massi, Karan, Me, Girish, and Mehul

A Red and White CN Tower for Canada Day!

I had taken the Canon Rebel DSLR for this trip and discovered 2 things why it's not a good idea to just take that one.

1. I didn't know how to take good night shots with it. There is a night shot auto setting but without critical knowledge of light conditions and exposure, it was useless. I took some really crappy pictures (as seen above). Eventually, I realized what was happening and was able to take exactly ONE good photo (the one shown here in an earlier post of Niagara Falls at night). But that was towards the end of site-seeing. Boohoo.

2. One day the battery wasn't charged. It takes proprietary batteries so there was no recourse. I just took very few pictures that day.

Man, this post is getting long. I'll have to break here and recap the rest tomorrow. Hope you'll be back to read the rest of it :)

Trying hard

I don't want to be at work. Having a hard time coming out of vacation mode. Anyone have any tips? I need a nice tall cup of Tim Horton's French Vanilla rightnow. Alas, there aren't any in the US. I do have a box of it at home that I got on this trip, but I need it NOW. Ah well..

Oh, and the BIG news. Actually, I have two. Both are equally good. Only a mother can equate a NEW car and a Potty Trained Toddler. LOL! Yes, I have a brand new Honda Civic! And Mehul is ALMOST POTTY TRAINED!! He has been staying dry for a few weeks in the morning and mostly throughout the day. He is almost there! Soon we will say goodbye to diapers!

My new toy - Honda Civic 2007 LX - Royal Blue Pearl.



We had a busy weekend. Saturday was our regularly scheduled Potluck dinner (5 families). It was my turn to host this time. I'm good at snacks and main course dishes. I'm not good at desserts hence the request for recipes a couple of weeks ago (Thanks, Suz). I made something similar to the recipe she posted - premade Dessert cups (made of cake) with whipped topping, strawberries, and strawberry Jello. Everyone liked it. The kids LOVED Jello. I should have made some extra. Even the resident non-eater loved it.

Back from Toronto

We reached home around 6:30 last night. Had a great time. Took lots of pictures. I'll be writing a detailed post with pictures soon. For now, one of my favorite shots of the Niagara Falls at night.

Morning Craziness

We overslept this morning. Wake up at 7:45 instead of 6:45AM. Everyone rushes to get showered and dressed as fast as humanly possible. Mehul skips shower. He doesn't like it anyway. I have a daily conference call at 9AM that I generally take in the car. DH remembers *he* has a meeting at 10 and we will certainly be late. Since we've sold my car (yay! I'm getting a new one soon), we have to carpool. No time for breakfast he determines. I toss a package of cheese and crackers towards Mehul and off we go.

We drop M at the daycare at 8:30 and reach my office at 9, promptly in time for my conference call. Something is wrong. The traffic light isn't working. There is no electricity in the area! The building has a generator but that can only support the lights, elevator, etc. Our servers are on battery power for a while but LAN is down. Wireless network in the company isn't working either. How long will my laptop battery last? It will be a couple of hours before power is restored. We finish the conference call in which it is determined that I have to finish something urgently in order for the rest of the team to continue testing. Great.

They ask me to go home! Yay! Except, I don't have the car. Carpooling, remember? A colleague offers to drop me home on the way to his home. Perfect. I reach home and call DH. He says his meeting is in 5 minutes. LOL! I went to work and came back and his call hasn't started yet? We should have had that breakfast.

Slightly Religious Post

I don't think I've ever done a religious post here. I have been thinking of making a poster for my favorite stanza from The Bhagwad Geeta - Hindu religious text. It is known as Geeta Saar or the Essence of Geeta. It gives me strength in the bad times and happiness in good times. I want to hang this somewhere I can see it daily.

Not one of the most stellar LOs I've done, but I wanted to keep this simple and focus on the text.

Geeta Saar

Among other news, we are leaving for Toronto next Saturday. Our Aunt has been calling us for a couple of years (!) and we're finally going this time. On our last trip, Mehul was 2.5 months old. We went by air that time and it was the Christmas weekend. Nightmare! Not something I wish to repeat. BTW, he turned from tummy to back for the first time in their house! Now he's 2.5 years old. We'll be returning on the 4th of July. I have the 5th off as well. I have a couple of novels for myself (including Harry Potter - Half Blood Prince for a re-read) and coloring and board books for Mehul. It's a 9 hour journey by car. The longest he's been in the car is 3 hours for Ocean City and even then he had a meltdown. Let's see how he holds this time. We'll be taking breaks every couple of hours.

Today is cleaning day. Couple of loads of laundry, deep cleaning Master Bath, Powder room and Kitchen, dusting and vacuuming and picking up wherever necessary. Fun.

Couple of LOs

Splash!

I made this one last night from Miki Ferkul's newest "Freezy Pops" kit yet to be released to Scrapbook Elements. I just love the summery feel of it. Yes, this is the kid pool I was talking about in the last post.


Credits:
Miki Ferkul's newest "Freezy Pops" kit to be released on June 24th at Scrapbook Elements.
Staples from Jenn Patrick available at The Digi Shoppe. I call them "The Best Staples Ever".

Milk Mustache

Who can resist this face??

Credits:
Paper: Lisa Whitney's A Beautiful Mess (I still love this kit) at ScrapArtist.
Cardboard Flip: Linda GB at ScrapArtist
Star: Lisa Whitney
Buttons: In Memory of Miles kit
Flower: Christina Renee Urban Buds freebie on her blog
Stitches: Lisa Whitney Ultimate Stitches II at ScrapArtist.
Photo Frame: In Memory of Miles kit (pretty sure it is)
Swirl: Lori Wiley at Scrapbook Bytes

That's it from me today. I have to get back to work. I have a special LO that I've saved for a separate post, hopefully tomorrow.

Summer is definitely here

This weekend was so relaxing. We did not have anyone over, we didn't go errand-running (except a trip to Walmart - Diaper Emergency!), heck I didn't even clean the way I usually do. Mehul and I went to the library on Saturday but that was a short trip. Mostly, we just stayed inside or played in the backyard.
Saturday - DH helped us setup the Slip-N-Slide in the backyard and then he went to get the car fixed. Mehul and I stayed outside for about 2 hours. I put my chair next to him and continued my reading. He really enjoyed it. After this, trip to the library. I am so impressed by our Library's Collection. So far, there are *very* few books I've wanted to read and haven't found at the Library. There are actually 6 branches and I can request books from other branches too. Their catalog and request system is online as well, it's very convenient.
Sunday - Father's Day. I made DH one of his favorite dishes - Puri Aloo for lunch. I also let him sleep-in in the morning and had breakfast ready when he came down (he usually makes breakfast on weekdays). Later in the day, Mehul and I baked a cake for him! We're actually cutting it today because we all were so stuffed yesterday. We inflated a kiddie pool for Mehul. We actually got a high efficiency pump for it and still it was such a pain to inflate the pool. We're just keeping it inflated indoors (basement is unfinished so no one really goes there). I took pictures! I'll share them soon I promise.

Here's a Summer themed LO. I actually did it a couple of weeks ago but never got around to posting it.


Credits:
Michelle Coleman's Beautiful Journey available at Little Dreamer Designs.