just got home from a weekend visit with my friends bess and donna. i had great time and felt totally relaxed and at home. i couldn’t have asked for a more perfect weekend. having spent time with the locals i noticed a few differences between our countries, such as canada does not sell liquor in their grocery store, not even beer or wine coolers. you have to go to a beer store, yes they have beer stores, or a liquor store. they never go out and about, they go oot and aboot. i stopped at three gas stations while in canada, two were full service, nearly unheard of in my neck of the woods. in fact the only full service station i know of is about a 30 min drive from home. not only were they full service, but you could not pay at the pump and the pump does not automatically shut off. they sell gas by the liter, not gallon, so i was never really certain how much i was getting. once i crossed the border into new york and saw the gas prices there, i wished i could go back to canada , at least it felt like you were paying less, even if you weren’t. (gas in buffalo was $4.23, in painesville ohio, $3.69) canada requires passengers in the back seat to wear seat belts. (some states may require this, but not mine). if you order ice tea in canada, it’s pre-sweetened and flavored iced teas, other than lemon, are practically unheard of. i confused the waiter at the toronto hrc when i asked for a raspberry iced tea, he brought me a raspberry lemonade, and a plain iced tea. while driving in canada i kept forgetting that the road signs were in kilometers, i kept thinking miles, which meant i kept getting to my destination a lot quicker than i expected!
i left friday morning and took my time driving up, i stopped in erie pa at presque isle state park. good thing to know about pa, you do not have to pay admittance for state parks (at least not this one). presque isle is actually a sand bar, surrounded by water on three sides, tons of hike and bike trails, and of course beaches. i just drove through for lack of time, but i totally want to go back this summer or fall. the word presque means “almost” , so the name of this little sand bar is actually almost isle. one point of interest i did stop to see was the light house. closed to the public, you can only see it from the beach.
from here i continued due north until i arrived at niagara falls, i had originally only intended to stop on the american side due to the fact that it is a state park, and new york also does not charge admittance to their state parks. (at least not this one). once i crossed the border i couldn’t resist and i stopped to view the falls from the canadian side as well, you really do get a better view, my sister and i were just there a few years ago, so i didn’t do much as far as attractions.
the american falls
the horseshoe falls, canada
double rainbow over by the horseshoe falls
speaking of rainbows, i crossed the rainbow bridge into canada and the border guard was bitter, serious sourpuss. people like that should not be permitted to work on bridges with beautiful names like rainbow and peace, just sayin’.
after a few brief stops in the falls area i headed onto toronto, bess and donna spent the next two days running me all over downtown toronto, and i am so grateful they did. i was going to try to navigate this myself, it would not have been fun. tornoto is canada’s largest city, and it is a city of many flavors, we drove to kensington market.
which has just about everything you can imagine, for sale. our first stop on the toronto yarn crawl was lettuce knit.
which is down in the kensington market area. i actually spotted the yarn harlot in her natural habitat. as always she was funny, and fun to talk to. i actually envy people like her that can strike up a conversation with anyone, i get so shy and introverted, especially around people i do not know. i respected her privacy and did not ask for a picture, after all this is her home and her down time, i didn’t even try to kinnear her. i think i would’ve made any canadian proud, i didn’t acknowledge to my friends that i had just met a knitting celebrity until we outside of the store.
i like to go to yarn shops when i travel and look for something i can not buy at my own lys. let’s face it they can not carry every line of yarn in the world, and it would be overwhelming to have that much yarn to choose from at once. i always bring home souvenir yarn, from lettuce knit i bought socks that rock in cobblestone county colorway.
i had already bought yarn for my friend jen, i owe her a pair of socks. i found her yarn on line
jen loves bees, but i found this lorna’s laces at lettuce knit, and liked it a little better so i picked it up to make her socks with.
looks like jen will get two pressie’s, i’m sure she’ll be distraught. we stopped at two more yarn stores and i managed to get out with out any purchases, then we stopped at the final store on the tour.
the knit cafe. bess and donna helped me pick out some sock yarn from fleece artist which is made in canada.
and finally i fell in love with this yarn.
i loved the bottom skein, but it was the last one she had so the girls helped me pick out a contrasting color to work with, it’ll be a scarf, or perhaps a hat and scarf someday. the name of the yarn is peace fleece my color is sheplova mushroom, the contrasting color is glastnot gold. i knew as soon as i saw the name peace fleece there had to be a story behind it. the label actually reads warm wool from a cold war. i took a few excerpts from their web site.
A yarn company committed to helping historic enemies cooperate and prosper through trade. Peace Fleece offers knitting yarn made from a blend of Russian, Romanian, American, Israeli and Palestinian wools as well as felting supplies, batts for quilters, Russian handpainted knitting needles and wooden buttons, patterns, knitting and felting kits and roving for hand spinners.
The Peace Fleece office is a barn on a sheep farm in Maine. Peter Hagerty and his wife Marty Tracy started buying wool from the Soviet Union back in 1985 in hopes that through trade they could help diffuse the threat of nuclear war. Since then they have worked with shepherds in Russia, Kyrgyzia, Israel and the West Bank, as well as in Montana, Ohio, Texas and Maine. By working with people who tend livestock every day, they hope to find a common ground that slowly leads to mutual understanding and economic interdependence. After twenty-one years, their goals remain the same.
as we traveled through the city we saw china town. beautiful old buildings
some amazing old churches
and fun fountains downtown, the kids had a blast running through the water!
some day i’d like to go back and stay in the city, and just walk around downtown photographing the architecture. (and of course go back for more yarn, there were at least 6 more stores we didn’t hit!) one thing i did notice about the city was how people got around, there was a lot of traffic out, even on sunday. (cars/cabs) lots of pedestrians and cyclist. the public transportation was impressive, besides buses, there was a trolley, subway, and something called a go train, which i guess is similar to chicago’s L. i think it would be fun to stay downtown and relatively easier to get around by public transportation, rather than driving myself.
we spent sunday afternoon at casa loma, but it’s been a long day driving home, so we’ll save that for another post.
