Day 4 - The Centre of the Universe

July 30th, 2008

Nothing beats a vacation with a little golf. Matt once again in heaven, Joe took the boys and I to Silver Lakes for the Beckett Ontario Classic. First course I have played in a long time that doesn't have a home on it. The driving range was a lake with targets in the water. Just absolutley gorgeous. I spent a little time in the trees that outlined the fairways. The weather had all the seasons in it minus snow. Luckily I managed to take the invisible cup back to BC so Joe can challenge for the title again in September. The boys played well and had a good time.

While we were golfing Chelsea went to her first Ikea. Luckily for our bags she came home with little. But she wants to go when we get back... so next trip Vancouver Ikea. At least they have $1 breakfasts.


The afternoon brought us to Downtown TO. Saw Union Station after taking the TTC (subway)First stop and a long one was the CN Tower. What ruined the experience was the wait for 2 hours and then another 30 min down. We played games on our phones to kill the time. But forgetton once seeing the views below. It was the boys first time too!

We met Clara & Joe at the Hard Rock in Dundas Square (Canada's Times Square) also seeing Eaton's Centre. We also walked to see City Hall and the Much Music building. Just bagged tonight i think all of us wanted to sleep on the subway home but didn't want to miss our stop.

Off to the US tomorrow, but stopping in Niagara and Buffalo before landing in NYC!!!

Day 3 - The T.Ohhhh

July 29th, 2008

Today was an early one as we were heading in to Toronto with Teresa. Halle slept in so we didn't get to say goodbye but I'm sure we'll see her again soon.

When we arrived at the Beckett's house Joe, Clara, Pat, and Jay.

were all awaiting my and Chelsea's arrival. It was another relaxing day, simply catching up with the boys, who are now huge!!! Jay and I look pretty alike with our facial hair.

Joe took us around to all the places where Mom, Tara, Jerry, Joey, and Dad lived while in TO. Now I know what all you guys were talking about finally... after 24 years! We also toured around Downtown, driving through seeing all the condo developments, unbelievable!

We are doing that tomorrow! Its all our first times, including Jay and Pat...

Dinner was a nice piece of beef. Joe is quite the BBQ-er. Yummmy! Derek and Kelly also joined us. The night was capped off with some rock band.

It was an early night as the boys, Joe and I are heading to the links early... pray for sun for us all.

Day 2 - Cobourg

July 28th, 2008

Today was a great day. We started the day off by heading to the beach. Cobourg is right on Lake Ontario. It was just a beautiful out there. The beach gets groomed each morning. The sand was almost looked like brown sugar it was so dark. We threw the frisbee around. Lucas seemed to get better and better with every throw. After that we toured the rest of Downtown Cobourg seeing the marina with a sign that should've said, "Yacht's and $300K sailboats only!" Really nice.

Heading in to town we stopped at Victoria Hall. It is a huge historic building with some history that not too many know about. Originally in the 1800's, Cobourg was supposed to be the capital of Canada. The only problem was the harbour was too shallow, so they went up the road to Ottawa. It surprised me. So they built this building as there City Hall/Parliament. When we went in we looked behind some closed doors and an actual court case was going on. The court room looked fantastic, not your modern day court room. Unfortunately wasn't allowed to take any pictures in there, but if you're going to go to court, not a bad place to go.

Our next stop was Sue's Coffee Shop "the Human Bean". It was renovated in a TLC show called restaurant makeover. Really funky atmosphere serving fair trade and organic coffee beans. After that we headed down to Teresa's pet store. It was half pet store, half doggie daycare. It would be a sweet place for a dog.

The rest of the afternoon consisted of an overdose of Vitamin D. I'm not quite lobster colour yet. The pool was certainly used a lot yesterday. Halle reached a huge milestone in her short swimming career; she swam back and forth through the deep end. Now no fear.

Shelene and Zak did the most amazing Thai dinner ever! Will never forget it. Peanut sauce was everywhere, I was in heaven.

After dinner, we began games night. We kicked off with a competitive game of doubles darts and beer. We actually learned how to play darts too! Shelene and I took the first game in an amazing come from behind victory. This was followed by many games of pool and more beer. It got to game 5 were Shellene and I were competing for the tie breaker with Zak and Chelsea. We all had some awesome shots but Shelene and I finished them off sinking their hopes and dreams with the 8 ball.

This day was pure relaxation... off to TO tomorrow morning with Teresa.

Day 1 - Cobourg

So I finally had a nap in the car after arriving in Cobourg. We were waiting for the Liquor Store to open so we had some time to kill before heading over to Zak and Shellene's. Don't worry parents...

Zak and Shellene's house is just beautiful. To wake my self up i jumped in the pool and the hot tub with Zak and Lucas. Definitely needed that. Halle and Lucas are sooo cute! Halle is beside me now asking me what I am doing. She even knows what an ! is. Lucas is the swimming champ. After a quick catch up, the company started to arrive. Zak hosted a BBQ where my uncle Chris, aunt Chrissie, Emily and her new husband DJ. Teresa, Scott and their kids Dillon and Rhea. The BBQ was great however ended due to the west coast like rain storm that just rolled in. It poured and apparently its been like this for the last week.

Today we are touring Cobourg, going golfing and hitting the beach.

Chelsea: Matt also forgot to add that during the BBQ he sat on and broke a very nice chair to very nice outside patio set lol! I missed it because i fell asleep for 3 hours but I'm sure it was humorous. I have cut him off junk food from here forth. It is very beautiful here and I'm going to live in a house like this one day!

No Sleep til ... Brooklyn!!!!!

Saturday, July 26th, 2008

So to kick off this blog or to kick off our trip the title says it all. Dad dropped us off at Harbour Air. The pond hopper was right on time it took 15 minutes to get accross! Beat that BC Ferries (thanks VG). We arrived at the Flying Beaver, which to those that don't know isn't a strip club... LMAO - Sorry Jackie (Chelsea's Mom))We sat out on the deck to enjoy the view and have food and bevies. We decided to head to the airport and HAir sent us in a taxi for free (good service). As much as I wanted to walk to Jerry, can't say no to a free taxi. So we toured the airport bars receiving horrible service at Milestone's. Maybe its just me but when they call last call, would you think they actually call it out or at least ask their paying customers if they one more bellini??? Ok so its not just me then.

So after a few hours of lubrication, we were ready to fly and wake up in TO. I guess our brains had other plans. Along with the usual loud children that kick your seat, our over exhaustion worked against us. I got about 2 seconds of sleep and Chelsea close to the same. The seat were a little uncomfortable or oh well. We both looked at each other when we got off the plane and said now I know why its called the red eye...

Upon arriving at the gate, my brother Joe was there waiting for us. What a pleasant surprise! That was nice as we didn't really know where to pick our car up. So the rental place was a little bit of a joke but a memorable one. This is now 8 am, the car attendant opened shop at 7am so he could've woken up by then after a night of who knows what. The first car he brought looked good until we drove it... brand new car. Nothing like a rental. So we were finally on our way and Joe lead us out to the 401. 16 lanes WOWZER! Traffic was good we got to Cobourg in about 50 minutes.