We are alive and well and in Canada

Aargh - no posts for 10 days, just not the right times or energy levels it seems to sum it all up at the end of the day!

In v brief we had a wonderful last week in NYC. We had a another fun weekend with Eileen and Bob and family and even attended a big Pow Wow thingy (called schemitzun) in Connecticut - native American tribes from all over the US - very cool.

Spent a day over in Staten Island, cruising past the Statue of Liberty on the ferry ride over - lovely day at historic Richmond Town, a nice change of pace.

Went down through Little Italy, Chinatown (amazing Chinese food at crazy prices) and walked past Ground Zero - surreal, and despite the evidence so unimaginable how it must have been that day and those days, weeks and months that followed.

We took B and E's lovely kids walking over the Brooklyn Bridge to an amazing outdoor swimming pool that is in a barge tied up by Brooklyn Heights. Just opened this July, so a cool new thing to do.

Had lunch with my old school friend Jane Hercus - she and I were in NYC at the same time in the early 90s but she stayed on and lived in Manhattan for another 10 or so years, Ironically she has been back in Welly for over 3 years but we hadn't caught up in years, but managed to when both on holiday here at the same time! Lovely to see her, We had yummy brunch at a place called Fetch - dog themed, has to be seen to be believed. Dogs everywhere in the city - mostly small ones, but also some regular sized - seem strangely non dog-like if you know what I mean, with their city/apartment existences. I expect there may be fewer children' s face-biting incidents as a result, however...

So we sadly said goodbye to Peggy Wednesday morning to begin our scheduled 10 hour but actual 13 (!) hour train ride up to Montreal. Bless those Canadian customs/immigration officers who took 2.5 + hours to process 100 passengers (usually takes an hour). So we arrived 3 hours late, just lovely with 2 small, tired, hungry and cooped up children and DVDs that wouldn't play on my wrong-zone laptop. Ye gads - could have been hell-ish but actually people were great and the children were too. We were very glad to get off though, met by my lovely aunt Sally, complete with a care parcel of sandwiches, cookies, juice and fruit!

We stayed two nights downtown at the Canlie Suites and pottered around nearby, including a lovely meal with Sally and Patrick at a Swiss place nearby the hotel - fondue, mmmmmm.

Then tonight we are at Sally's and we had a nice BBQ with my uncle Charles and family here, great to catch up with them after such a long time.

Off v early in the morning on the nice Canadian train (no customs - yay) to Toronto osemary, so best we get to bed. Night!

We very much enjoyed catching up with famille in Canada - they were wonderful with our motley crew, with our lovely stay with Sally and Pat in Montreal and despite the extreme tired and grumpiness of der kinder in Toronto (I hope you have recovered from the longest day, Rosemary!).

We also went on the most amazing "Hippo Tour" (grazie Rosemary) - a great bus tour of Toronto that also goes into lake Ontario -freaky! Great fun all round. A cool city.