Little Falls

The weather this past Sunday was quite unsettled ... was it going to be rain or sun? The skies couldn't decide, so rather than head for the beach and possibly get rained out, I decided to visit St. Mary's, a small, historic and delightful town about 1/2 hour away. St. Mary's is known for being home to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, boasts of Timothy Eaton's first retail store, and is the burial place of Arthur Meighen, Canada's 9th Prime Minister. In the park that marks it's founding, there is an interesting set of falls fed by the Thames River, and lent the town it's nickname, "Little Falls". Although perhaps not large by Niagara standards, it still moves along at an imposing speed with plenty of froth and spray, and of course, water fowl.












Contemplating ...



Takeoff!

Mid-Week Holiday

I've been on vacation part of last week and all of this one, and didn't have anything in particular planned for the most part other than catching up on yard work and trying to head to the beach, maybe even get in some fishing. But the highlight was all set up sometime ago, an overnight trip to Toronto for some shopping with Kim and then John Mayer at the Molson Amphitheatre in the evening. In between the stores and the concert, we were treated to a promotional meet and greet at our hotel, the Fairmont Royal York, with an a cappella group "Naturally 7", who have been opening for Michael Buble and would be doing so that same evening at the Air Canada Centre. With just enough time for a quick bite, we went to this very polished Japanese restaurant, "Ki", for a wonderful sushi meal, easily the best I've ever had! Then on to the concert for Kim and I, while Pete headed back to the hotel. Pete had arranged an upgrade to a suite with an adjoining separate room, and it was positively luxurious, definitely the topper to a marvelous mini-holiday!

Exiting the train station and on my way to cross the street to the Royal York ... I heard this voice, amazingly over all the street noise, and there was Kim hanging out the window!




Just inside the entrance, Kim and Pete's suite to the right, my adjoining room to the left.







On our way out on the town!





A quick shot of my trip's souvenirs ...




The Amphitheatre is a partly covered, acoustically-engineered dome-type structure, with the main stage being down in the "bowl" and the seats fanning up and out from there, including thousands of "seats" available on the expansive lawn. It's down at the shore of Lake Ontario, and last night was just perfect for an outdoor event. Not being a Mayer expert, but certainly an admirer, I gained a whole new perspective of him as a performer, just as much for his guitar skills as his obvious appreciation of his fans. He's an engaging and talented artist, and pretty darn cute, too! It was a stellar performance and a sensational evening.



A You Tube video of "Naturally 7" opening for Michael Buble that same night, just down the road from the Amphitheatre.






And a fan's posting of one of John Mayer's numbers from last night ...

Happy Birthday, Chelsea!

My daughter's birthday (won't say which number :)) was this past weekend. On Saturday, we had family over for what has become our tradition, an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. Seems to really hit the spot every year for the only mid-summer birthday! At the guest of honour's request, we featured a Batman theme.




Naturally, Rustle had to help supervise blowing out the candles.





The next day we headed to the Build A Bear for the second part of our celebration. So many choices, not just bears, but dogs, horses and cats in a variety of colours and styles.




Chels with her choice, an adorable but pretty much flat and two dimensional fuzzy bear.




Next step, transforming this bear into a more huggable state. Frankly, it looked more like he was getting a medical procedure ...




After the stuffing, comes the fluffing and a bit of brushing out ...





All ready to get dressed ... so many choices ...






New clothes picked out, now to try them on.





And into the box, ready to go home.