Sunday, May 3, 2009

Parking on our Anniversary

Another memorable day was had on Sat 2nd May.
It began when our eyelids opened to greet the dawn, and the first words uttered were, "Happy Anniversary .............. " :-)
The day got better as it went on. After breakfast we journeyed to Barrie, a medium city of around 130,000 I'd guess. (Photo Gallery) It is about a 1 hour drive north of Toronto but is east of Meaford and takes a little longer to drive because the highway is only one lane either way whereas it is a 6 lane freeway all the way from Toronto.
The plan was to meet up with Ryan at a park in Barrie. Ryan was conveying his two kids and his brother Daryl. From almost opposite directions we pulled into the carpark a mere thirty seconds apart. What organization, eh? ;) Especially allowing for the fact we'd called into Tim's (Tim Horton's Coffee Franchise) for a "coffee to stay" along the way.
Side note: Ordering coffee here is totally different to Australia. With the exception of Starbucks, where you add your own extras, any other outlet you just order by size of cup and quantity of extras. e.g. "a regular double" is a regular size coffee with double cream and no sugar, while a popular choice seems to be " a large double double" which is a large coffee with double cream and double sugar. Ask for a "flat white" and all you'll receive will be a look of bewilderment! ;)

Everyone bailed out of the vehicles and then there was that awkward period of me meeting a 7 yr old grandson for the first time and being careful to allow a "sizing up" period to run it's course. It was somewhat different circumstance for Gramma. The playground at the park is very well equipped for healthy kids activities. In fact, it is the best I've ever seen and "little miss live-wire" was busting to get amongst it.
On the other hand, Adan, who has been to the same park many more times, was merely keen to get onto the rides so he didn't have to be a focal point of discussions as to where I would be fitting into his life. Somehow, he had been under the impression that Megan was soon going back to Australia with me and was really surprised that we were both going to be settling in Canada. When he asked why, I simply said, "to be closer to all you guys!" He seemed pretty accepting of that and played happily. He also seemed to behave better for me when taking photographs than for either Megan or his dad. Hmmm. I got a good feeling about that.
It was a great park and we had a fabulous time with the kids. We went to a Restaurant for a nice lunch, and both of the kids were very entertaining to watch and listen to.


Afterward, I had to say farewell to my new found grandkids until I move here permanently.
Ryan took them home and Megan and I drove Daryl to his home in Bradford.
Wait for me .... Don't grow up too quick!

On the way back to Meaford, Megan and I both felt very content with life. A very nice way to spend our anniversary.

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