VIA Rail to Toronto

The menu. We had the Boston bluefish.

Yesterday I celebrated my 60th birthday with a trip to Toronto with Susanne. As I have a long service pass for VIA Rail it was on them. The main reason we go to down town Toronto these days is to visit the St. Lawrence Market not far from Union Station. We also love to have lunch at one of the many booths. This trip it was fish and lots of it. It is hard to believe in downtown Toronto one can get a great fish meal that one can not eat all of for $10. Well at the market one can.

We spent part of the afternoon walking Yonge St. and can back through the Eatons Center (not sure if it is still call that since Eatons is now gone) and the underground walkway to Union Station

On another note Susanne sure seemed to be on a shopping spree in Toronto...hey I thought it was my birthday?  With the 60th mark one gets their Canada Pension early and yesterday Susanne was sure working hard at making sure it goes to good use....George

My order had 4 pieces of fish, onion rings and a good helping of home made coleslaw hidden underneath.

Buster's fish at St. Lawrence Market. Great place to get a fish dinner.

For some reason Susanne felt like she should spend my first Canada Pension check in Toronto.

Last Weeks Wind Storm

Although the wind has settled down the water it still high. Note a portion of the pier has washed away and the fence is gone. It must have been quite a storm.

Last Tuesday Susanne and I were up in Goderich visiting with our friends Brad and Jill. On the way up we stopped by to check on the boat cover as there was quite a blow a couple of days earlier. All was OK. We also took a ride down to the lakefront basin. I noted as we drove over to the pier the water was way up in the basin....about a foot below the all time high mark. We got a surprise when we got out at the pier. A lot of the gravel walkway was gone which leads to the pier. The fence that keep people off it had also been washed away. The beach is all underwater with a good portion of the berm and dunes gone. It will be interesting to see what the spring brings. I talked to the crew still working raising docks once again this fall. On our way home we stopped in at Grand Bend and noted the north pier light had been changed out....George

As one can see the beach is well underwater with a lot of the bank gone.

Vermont Cheese

I took this photo to record the cheese we purchased in Vermont this fall. Good to have a reference post of what we liked to look back at when up that way again. Blogs posts can be good to refer back to.

I took this photo of all the Vermont cheese and butter we brought home during mid October. Well we have been really busy eating our way through it all and I think we need to take another trip pretty soon...George

Display one's Driftwood

Driftwood on display.

Over the last couple of years Susanne and I have collected a good amount of interesting small pieces of driftwood along the beach in Bayfield. What to do with it.....well just display it in a glass cylinder or vase.....George

Dunkin'

Got to love your Dunkin' Donuts....George

Meet Boyan Slat

I always wondered about the mess our generation is leaving behind on this planet and if future generations will be able to stop and change our mistakes. Well it looks like they just might.

 19 year old Boyan Slat a high school student from Delft, Holland for his final thesis spent six months figuring out how to rid the ocean of its plastic pollution. The aspiring engineer has figured it out and with 1,500 e-mail a day of support and funds collected in the first month of $1.46 million...that is a good start. Boyan figured why move through the ocean when the ocean can move through you. Slat`s ocean cleanup system of floating arms harnesses the seas natural current, guiding  plastic trash to a solar sorting platform.....it actually does work. Read more at theoceancleanup.com.....George

The Past Weekend

We meet up with our load of reindeer's at Mohawk Raceway parking lot just off the 401.

This past weekend we did a couple of road trips. Friday we made a trip to Grand Bend and Bayfield for their Christmas kick-off. It was a windy and snowy day there. I could not believe how high the water level was in the Bend. If the water rises much more the pier will be underwater. In the river the docks one need ladders to board boats are not needed at the moment. At Bayfield I had to check out our basin. The docks along the wall had been raised about a foot or so in September. They currently are all in the water or under it. The crew was in the process of raising them once again. Have not seen the water this high in decades. And by the way there is a sailboat still in the water at our basin.

On Sunday Susanne and I drove to Milton to pick up a trunk load of reindeer's for our family. I had only room for 6 in the car. We found a guy that make these nice looking log reindeer's. He had our order done and a parking lot meet near the 401 was arranged. Now to deliver them all to the kids......George

Hard to believe we fit 6 reindeer's in our PT cruiser. One is out and being delivered at this time.

Susanne got her mom a smaller version of the others we have.