Toronto

We have visited Toronto on two occasions while visiting friends. I have combined the pictures of these two visits on one page.

	That's me on a green of a golfcourse which we found next to lake Ontario on our way to the Niagara Falls. I just wanted to show my fellow golfers back in South Africa what the golf courses look like this time of the year.
Here's a picture of the Niagara Falls.
	Another picture of the falls.
This is the most recent picture taken of us at the Niagara Falls.
	This picture was taken in the CN Tower where we stand on the glass floor on the observation deck. For those not familiar with it, the glass floor is exactly that: a glass floor! Enough said! We're not really afraid of heights, but walking on the glass and looking down was really hard for us. But we felt that we couldn't leave without taking a picture of the occasion. We look really nervous on this picture as Yolanda took her time in taking it.
Vanessa took this picture through the glass floor of the ground below. This is what it looks like when you look down. The worst is that you see people lying on the glass floor facing down. No way, we get our kicks in other ways !

Vanessa with the CN Tower in the background.

John and Yolanda took us to a shop that sells South African food products. Just before we entered the shop we saw this sign on the take-out restaurant next door. It said: "Try our boerewors on a roll". For those not familiar with Boerewors, it's a beef sausage made in South Africa. We never thought we'd saw a sign like this so far from home.

	This is John and Yolanda's home in one of the suburbs of Toronto. It really is a beautiful house.
Vanessa, myself, John and Yolanda having dinner in John and Yolanda's home. This truly was a great weekend and we hope to return and visit them in the summer.

During our second visit, we were flying to Toronto and the plan was to pack on Thursday evening, go to work on Friday with our luggage and leave for O'Hare airport from work. At 16:00 as we were about to leave for the airport, Vanessa asked the dreaded question: "Where's our passports?" This is the kind of question that sends chills up one's spine. We weren't sure whether we were happy that we remembered before we boarded the airplane or whether we were unhappy because we forgot it in the first place! Anyway, this meant that I had to run, yes run, back to the apartment and get it, since the car was left at our apartment. Luckily, our apartment is only about 500 meters from where we worked, so apart from the heat, this was not a difficult task.

So, I returned to work all hot and sweaty, but very happy to be in possession of our passports. What lied ahead was a 5 minute walk to the train station and a 5 minute ride to the airport (very easy considering the events of the earlier 15 minutes). Without any further problems, we boarded out flight on Air Canada to Toronto.

We arrived in Toronto at Pearson International Airport, where Gerrie and Karen and their daughter Chantelle, were waiting for us. We haven't seen them since we went to Santa Fè, New Mexico in December of 1997 with them. We spent the first evening in a restaurant, just doing some catching-up.

Gerrie and Karen own a speedboat and the plan was to do some water-skiing this weekend. Late on Saturday morning, we packed some extra clothes, hooked the boat to the truck and headed north. We did not have any reservations to stay overnight and figured that we'll find a place when we get to our destination. The plan was to ski at Rocky Crest Golf Resort (the golf course only opens in July 2000), about a 2½-hour drive north of Toronto. They didn't have any place to stay, so we headed further north towards Parry Sound. The stopped at several hotels/motels along the way to enquire about vacancies, but without any luck.
	One hotel told us that the Quality Inn Hotel in Parry Sound had 10 rooms available about a ½ hour ago. We immediately drove to the hotel, since we were quite desperate for a room. Along the way, Karen got the idea to phone the hotel using her cell phone and ask for availability. Using the directory assistance, she got through to the hotel as we pulled into the hotel's parking lot. Gerrie and I proceeded to the hotel lobby and found the lady at the front desk on the phone. As she put down the phone, Karen came running into the lobby, saying that she just booked us the last 2 rooms available!
I can't remember if there were other people in front of us in the lobby, but I'm sure if there were, they would have been very upset. The reason the town was so busy, was because there were a motorcycle rally and they were just everywhere to be seen. After checking into the hotel, we went skiing in nearby Georgian Bay. That evening we had dinner at The Bay Café Restaurant in Parry Sound.
	The next morning we headed back to Rocky Crest Golf Resort. The plan was to spend the day here and head back to Toronto later that afternoon. The day was slightly overcast, which meant it wasn't hot al all, in fact, it was just perfect. We literally spent the whole day on the water with everybody skiing and wake-boarding. From the lake, we could see the highway going back to Toronto and the traffic was already slow.
We decided to have dinner at the resort first and drive back later that evening. During dinner we decided that we'd stay over at the resort if they had any accommodations available (and they did), since we were so tired after the day's skiing and being in the sun the whole day. Fortunately, they did have accommodation available, so we now decided to drive back the following morning, but not before we had an early morning ski before we left. Unfortunately, our bodies were so bruised after the weekend's ski, that none of us woke up early enough to go skiing. So we had a big breakfast and headed back home.

When we reached Karen and Gerrie's home, there was just enough time to unload the boat and get packed to catch our flight home. Gerrie even gave me a six-pack of Castle Lagers. Soon we said our good-byes at the airport and it was back to Chicago again. The weekend was great and we're glad we saw Gerrie, Karen and Chantelle again. Hopefully, we can do it again some time soon.