My uncle's place in Kitchener, Ontario

My post yesterday talked about the worst snowstorm that happened in east coast of North America (specially in Canada) last March 2008 during our trip to Toronto.

We came to Canada to visit our relatives (my uncle and his family) just as the snow started to grow worse. They live in Kitchener which is an hour-away drive from Toronto. Snow got even worse when we got to their house.


We tried to drive around and look for something to do. When we arrived in the area where a lot of commercial establishments are situated, it seems that it was a bad idea for us to leave the house. The locals were already warned to stay at home.


Instead of eating out, we just had a take-out for luch from Kings Buffet and headed back home.


This is the situation in our uncle's house where we were staying. This is supposed to be an outdoor veranda at their backyard but it was already covered with snow.


A couple of hours passed by and the snow outside is getting much thicker. The winds started to blow harder and most people stayed indoors so the streets are virtually empty.


My cousins wanted to go out and play with the snow. Since it is the first time for me and my mom to experience a snowstorm, we decided to join them. The snow is mostly as thick as this when I stepped out of the house.


They, at first, played outside the house but we decided later on to head to a park nearby.


The park is empty when we got there (as expected). My cousins played for about 30 minutes and we headed back home because the wind grew stronger.


Me, fooling around amidst a snowstorm


We still went out that night to hear mass at a nearby church.


Come late at night, the wind and the falling of snow gradually decreased. The weather became a bit stable and we started to shovel our lawn and sidewalks to make it passable to pedestrians.


It was a beautiful day the next morning, the sun is shining and the snow have stopped falling. The thick layer of ice is still present in the streets however.


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Ontario, Canada

After Washington, DC, my mom and I went to Canada by plane with the main intention of visiting our relatives whom we haven't seen for years. Our entry point in Canada was in Toronto Pearson International Airport, an hour away from downtown Toronto. From there we took a bus that connected us to a Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) train station (Kipling). From there we transferred trains until we got into College Station.

Our hotel, Courtyard Toronto Downtown, is just a couple of blocks from College Station of TTC.


We got a suite for less than 500 USD for 3 nights. This is how our room looked like. It was big and spacious for the two of us.


It was hard for us to go around the city. It was drizzling and snowing already and the roads were slippery for walking. We also were not "armed" with heavy weather clothing.


So that we have something to do, we decided to go out and do something else. We planned to have dinner in a good restaurant that night but we had the whole afternoon with nothing else to do. We were looking for not-so-expensive clothing shop because we have been out of the country for a week and my mom will soon deplete her supply of clean clothes to wear. We passed by these scenes on the way to Eaton Centre


College Park


Restaurants and shops


Toronto Eaton Centre, the largest shopping mall in Eastern Canada and is a famous attraction among the locals and tourists alike.


On the way to the tower, we passed by the Union Station, a historical train station that was built in 1927.


CN Tower. We had our dinner in the revolving restaurant on top of this tower. I'll blog about this experience next.


If you have been following my blog, I made mentioned in a blogpost that I have the habit of checking out local softdrinks that are not available in our country. For this trip, I had a great find of Diet Coke with Lime. Years back there was a Diet Coke with Lemon in the Philippines for some time but this has been discontinued already.


The next morning, the snowstorm was getting worse. My uncle and cousins came over our hotel to pick us up that day. We planned to stay overnight in their house in Kitchener, Ontario.


When we got in Kitchener, the storm was already getting worse. Yet, we were still happy to see real snow falling on my head. We stayed here for a night.


We came back to Toronto early next day because we are booked for a Niagara Falls tour. We came back just in time for us to be picked up in our hotel lobby.


Niagara Falls


When we came back to Toronto that night, we had a take-out dinner from Sushi Sky, a Japanese restaurant in Yonge street serving sushi, teriyaki, teppanyaki, tempura and other popular Japanese dishes. Authentic taste, very palatable and most of all, affordable. We had tempura, beef teriyaki and some miso soup.


Our hotel at night


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