I consider mentioning the bug suit.
I consider telling him about the sheer number of mosquitos he's going to meet whilst camping.
I stop considering and remain uncharacteristically quiet.
Sunday, 29 July 2018
Awesome Huntsville.
We came here en route to Algonquin because they were having a festival this weekend. Huntsville is a really pretty town, sitting on a lake a couple of hours north of Toronto. The festival was really well organised, the locals were friendly and very helpful (including our host). All the activities were all free.
Programme and info.
Official photos. We saw the 'Pay Attention' guy, but we didn't understand..
There were women performing on high ropes, accompanied beautifully by a string quartet called Ghost. They asked people to write their fears on a piece of card, they then randomly chose one and performed it. The one that got us laughing uncontrollably was 'pooping my pants'. An adult wrote that: pooping.
Then the Ontario flying hover board team did a performance, arriving like dolphins they did all sorts of water powered acrobatics, reaching 10m+ in height.i was too busy watching to take a photo, but there they are
Watch the crazy hover flying loons here..
Then we watched an amazing German fire whip cracker called Seb Whipits.
Cracking celery out of someone's mouth.
Bear dancing.
Canadian poetry.
NN1 plays the 'bunions'
After that we watched a medley of songs from the musicals, which turned out to be highly suggestive and probably pretty inappropriate for a 16 year old, well that was my first thought. My second and third thoughts were that they always have shows like that in France which young children watch and they have a healthy attitude to sex as a nation and there's much worse on the Internet. We watched the whole thing. Had a laugh and went home to our purple room.
The beauty of being an adult with a credit card is that if you don't like somewhere, you can move. We booked a motel for Sunday night, I couldn't cope with the smell, the purple and the lack of curtain on one small window, he couldn't sleep well in his bug suit. We moved.
Barely purple room.
Tea and chocolate on the decking.
Sat on the stoop.
NN1 learns how to handwash. Starting with socks. It's all part of the rock n roll lifestyle..
We're off canoeing tmw for a few days. So we'll be offline, in the wilderness, with the loons and the moose.
Programme and info.
Official photos. We saw the 'Pay Attention' guy, but we didn't understand..
There were women performing on high ropes, accompanied beautifully by a string quartet called Ghost. They asked people to write their fears on a piece of card, they then randomly chose one and performed it. The one that got us laughing uncontrollably was 'pooping my pants'. An adult wrote that: pooping.
Watch the crazy hover flying loons here..
Then we watched an amazing German fire whip cracker called Seb Whipits.
Unicycle fire whips.
After that we watched a medley of songs from the musicals, which turned out to be highly suggestive and probably pretty inappropriate for a 16 year old, well that was my first thought. My second and third thoughts were that they always have shows like that in France which young children watch and they have a healthy attitude to sex as a nation and there's much worse on the Internet. We watched the whole thing. Had a laugh and went home to our purple room.
The beauty of being an adult with a credit card is that if you don't like somewhere, you can move. We booked a motel for Sunday night, I couldn't cope with the smell, the purple and the lack of curtain on one small window, he couldn't sleep well in his bug suit. We moved.
We're off canoeing tmw for a few days. So we'll be offline, in the wilderness, with the loons and the moose.
The road to Huntsville.
The drive is about 2 and a half hours. It's sunny and pouring down alternately. The car is an automatic. Junctions on the motorway are a bit weird. The A roads are long and straight.
We stop at a farm shop called Hy Hope Farm which had an amazing bakery and fruit and veg shop. There is a band playing and tractor rides for the kids. It's great. NN1 is fast asleep in the car, though, and it's pouring down. I but a blueberry bun, some pies and two cookies.
When I get back to the car he's fast asleep but the smell soon wakes him up. We eat the bakery food and watch people out in the downpour.
I have to stop a couple of times for coffee and a sleep. Tired. Eventually we arrive in Huntsville and find the house where we are staying. The landlady isn't in but she has left a key under a 'Big Rock' . We go up to the room.
It's overwhelmingly purple. The colour reminds me of a hostel I stayed in many years ago where there were fleas in the bed. Unthinking, I recount the story to NN1. He starts to scratch. 'I feel like there are are bugs here now,' he says, scratching. He takes the bug jacket and trousers we bought for our canoeing trip from his suitcase and puts them on.
It's overwhelmingly purple. The colour reminds me of a hostel I stayed in many years ago where there were fleas in the bed. Unthinking, I recount the story to NN1. He starts to scratch. 'I feel like there are are bugs here now,' he says, scratching. He takes the bug jacket and trousers we bought for our canoeing trip from his suitcase and puts them on.
This is how he spends the afternoon.
'Taranna'
Is pretty much how the locals pronounce Toronto, which is where we woke up on Sunday morning. Well, we actually woke up in Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo Airport, Buffalo 🐃 downtown, the border crossing and then Taranna.
View from the coach at 7am.
We really needed something to eat, so we went for omlettes and potatoes at Eggspectation. It was smashin'.
Took a while.. We were going around in circles until we found it...on a roof. What a view!
They'd run out of cars, so took us to another place nearby where we got our pre-booked car. All efficiently sorted, I was given documents and an image on which to mark any scratches. We were then sent on foot to another car park to pick it up, a five minute walk and we'd arrived but couldn't find the attendant.
NN1 wanted this car.
We waited a while, checked the car, noticed some very minor scrapes, waited a bit more. Couldn't see an attendant. There was a phone on the wall. I picked it up, it rang automatically. Lovely man downstairs answered the phone.
'Erm hello,' I said, 'we can't find the attendant.'
'Ok' says lovely man, 'Is the car OK to drive?'
'Yes,' I tell him. 'I think so.'
'Well, Madam, then please drive it.'
'Erm, I'm happy to, I just need some keys.'
'Shit, I didn't give you the keys?'
Bilal came down to I've us the keys. 'We're keeping a blog, I tell him. Can we take a picture of you giving me the keys? It's a funny story. '
Turns out Bilal is totally game and a complete star. We take a photo.
' Now let's take a photo with the car. ' suggests Bilal.
' Hmmm, I don't look very sheepish. We should try again. ' He tells us.
View from the coach at 7am.
In Taranna (Canada being an officially bilingual country) everything is written in English and French. The motto of Eggspectation is, 'Grab life by the eggs.' (it was translated in English on the other side of the napkin) but they don't say 'oeufs' they say 'cocos', which fascinates me. Am wondering why. Wondering if its sort of a cheeky slang for grabbing life by the balls?
T'internet says:
Etymology 3
Noun
coco m (plural cocos)
Synonyms
- (egg): œuf
Ah. OK then.
After eggs we went to look for our hire car place. We passed the town hall.
NN1 wanted this car.
'Erm hello,' I said, 'we can't find the attendant.'
'Ok' says lovely man, 'Is the car OK to drive?'
'Yes,' I tell him. 'I think so.'
'Well, Madam, then please drive it.'
'Erm, I'm happy to, I just need some keys.'
'Shit, I didn't give you the keys?'
Bilal came down to I've us the keys. 'We're keeping a blog, I tell him. Can we take a picture of you giving me the keys? It's a funny story. '
Turns out Bilal is totally game and a complete star. We take a photo.
Finally satisfied.
We love Bilal from Thrifty.
Saturday, 28 July 2018
How we did New York on a budget.
Accommodation was Airbnb. There have been some negative things written online about using Airbnb in New York. This is apparently due to the local government wanting to clamp down due to fire regs, tax and because the hotels don't like it. I like Airbnb, though. You get to meet real people, they give you great local tips and the places are often quirky. I like a home from home.
We stayed with Victoria and Michael on Staten Island. They were really helpful, super friendly and we had a great stay. Staten Island is much, much cheaper than Manhattan and is easily accessible with regular transport. The ferry is free, for instance, and we got to see Carole every day. Accommodation needs to be booked a bit in advance to get the best bargains.
For activities and transport. I'm not a great planner and I rarely have an itinery (or a clue). I booked the Yankees game at home via Ticket Master. There is a real range of prices, I chose the block numbered 200 because its physically lower and you get a great view of the game (100 lowest, 400 highest). I also pre booked the one world observatory, but only so we didn't have to queue. Otherwise, we just looked for free stuff to do.
In terms of transport, we bought a 7 day metro pass for $32 each - total bargain-and used this to hop on, hop off and go where we wanted. This option takes you anywhere on the metro. There is a version which includes buses for $60 ish. Another plus point about the metro is that the carriages have air con. The metro is pretty easy to understand, but less intuitive then you'd hope. Some connections are hard to find and at some places you need to get out, go up, cross the street and descend again if you have made a mistake (for example..ie we did) and are going the wrong way. Overall, it's clean, safe and easy to use.
We had $60 a day for food, drink and treats for two people. Its easy to find mega cheap options for food (supermarket noodle pots $1.49 / street vendor hotdogs $2) but we didn't want to eat like that. We asked for local recommendations and we searched online when we were in a given area. We ate one good meal for about $20-$30 each, inc drink, daily.This included a good tip (15-20%) wherever we went. This is fair and important. Coffees and other drinks are about $4-5 dollars each, so we really limited ourselves on those. I didn't really drink any alcohol. He illegally sipped my beer when I went to the not a restroom. during the game.
We had a good time, used a taxi once and didn't feel like we were missing out. This really is a place where you can holiday for $60 bucks a day, or $600.
We stayed with Victoria and Michael on Staten Island. They were really helpful, super friendly and we had a great stay. Staten Island is much, much cheaper than Manhattan and is easily accessible with regular transport. The ferry is free, for instance, and we got to see Carole every day. Accommodation needs to be booked a bit in advance to get the best bargains.
For activities and transport. I'm not a great planner and I rarely have an itinery (or a clue). I booked the Yankees game at home via Ticket Master. There is a real range of prices, I chose the block numbered 200 because its physically lower and you get a great view of the game (100 lowest, 400 highest). I also pre booked the one world observatory, but only so we didn't have to queue. Otherwise, we just looked for free stuff to do.
In terms of transport, we bought a 7 day metro pass for $32 each - total bargain-and used this to hop on, hop off and go where we wanted. This option takes you anywhere on the metro. There is a version which includes buses for $60 ish. Another plus point about the metro is that the carriages have air con. The metro is pretty easy to understand, but less intuitive then you'd hope. Some connections are hard to find and at some places you need to get out, go up, cross the street and descend again if you have made a mistake (for example..ie we did) and are going the wrong way. Overall, it's clean, safe and easy to use.
We had $60 a day for food, drink and treats for two people. Its easy to find mega cheap options for food (supermarket noodle pots $1.49 / street vendor hotdogs $2) but we didn't want to eat like that. We asked for local recommendations and we searched online when we were in a given area. We ate one good meal for about $20-$30 each, inc drink, daily.This included a good tip (15-20%) wherever we went. This is fair and important. Coffees and other drinks are about $4-5 dollars each, so we really limited ourselves on those. I didn't really drink any alcohol. He illegally sipped my beer when I went to the not a restroom. during the game.
We had a good time, used a taxi once and didn't feel like we were missing out. This really is a place where you can holiday for $60 bucks a day, or $600.
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