Ottawa

Once in Oshawa we got on a train to Ottawa and arrived there later Saturday evening. We only had Sunday to spend there but it was enough. We wandered around and made our way to the parliament where we took a few selfies. We love the 3D Canada 150 signs! We were waiting for Brad's friend to come and pick us up to take us to church with them. After we continued wandering. I never realized that Ottawa was so close to Quebec! Seriously, the Parliament building to on the river which borders the two provinces!

We had poutine for lunch and had a nice relaxing time in Ottawa. I'm sure that we would have found more things to do if we had the time, but we were quite content to just see the parliament and Brad's friend.

Lindsay

Here is Michelle Milne with her 3 kids
Her husband wasn't able to come

Visiting Lindsay was basically just a reunion, there wasn't much to do besides see everyone Brad served around. Sister Doering came and picked us up in Toronto on Thursday and we stayed in at her house on the farm until Saturday morning. Bradley served in Lindsay for a total of 9 months, 8 months and 2 weeks the first time and then he was able to extend his mission and serve for 2 more weeks at the very end to return for the baptisms of the Milnes.

Sis. Doering dropped us off at the church on Friday and then we wandered around Lindsay until the party. We stopped at Brad's old apartment and met up with the elders. They treated Bradley like a celebrity. (a lot of the mission records of that ward were done by Bradley) You should have heard them, "You mean, you're THE Elder Smith?!"

We visited with Cindy, and she
sent us off with a beautiful quilt.

We had Kawartha Dairy Ice Cream. Delish!! And stopped by some members houses to say hello.

Brad hates this picture

We had a bbq with a group of people which lasted well into the night, (or until the kids got cranky at least, but for some that is late). Once again I loved seeing Brad reminisce. We probably told the story of how we met a half a dozen times. But we love that story anyway so it was fun.

Sis. Doering who was so gracious
to host us and drive us from Toronto

Toronto

We stayed in Toronto from the 12-16 of August. We stayed at Sarah and Will's place (Brad's cousin but I also knew Sarah before I knew Brad) We got in in the afternoon and Sarah and Will picked us up and took us to their favourite eateries. That night we did laundry (This is very important... haha) our accommodations were planned on if we had access to a washing machine on certain days (we only brought a limited set of clothes) 

This building was actually built to house 6 wards

Day two was Sunday. We went to Don Mills ward (Bradley served there for about 6 months) and people were very happy to see us. The bishop even called us up to the front of the chapel at the end of the meeting to introduce us and have Brad bare his testimony. 

We went all over that day, to Brad's old apartments and visiting people that he didn't see at church. 

I loved meeting everyone and seeing Bradley so happy! He loved being on his mission and loved everyone he met while serving and I'm so glad he got the chance to go back.

Day three was spent in Niagara Falls. I was so excited about this, I've wanted to go for a long time. We did the Hornblower boat tour and got places right up front. It was so beautiful and astounding. At Niagara we found the first of many 3D Canada 150 signs. (This is not the last picture like this you'll see)

 Day four Sarah, Will, Brad, me, and their two dogs, Kili and Quill, went to Wasaga Beach. The longest fresh water beach in the world. On Brad's mission he served close to the area but never around the beach and ever since he has longed to visit. Wasaga Beach is on Lake Huron in the Georgian Bay.


Day five we did normal tourist things like the CN tower, Casa Loma, Blue Jays game, and Ripley's Aquarium.
We spend a lot of time in museums and therefore more time than we had anticipated (we later learned to schedule accordingly). We had gotten the City Pass which included a lot of the attractions with it. That night we visited the Legislature.

The Filipinos from the Don Mills ward invited us over that night for dinner. I tried Balut for the first time. It is a fertilized duck egg that has partially developed. It was... interesting. It is a delicacy, but usually the Filipinos don't like to look at it so they eat it with the lights off.



Day six was our last day in Toronto. We had lunch planned with Lila and Lana.
We also visited the Royal Ontario Museum before Sister Doering picked us up to take us to Lindsay.

Sudbury

Sudbury is a city about 8 hours north of Toronto where Brad served for three months on his mission. It's the home to the Giant Nickel because of their nickel mines.


Sudbury Junction isn't the easiest place to walk from with carry ons and a bunch of bags. It is kind of out in the boonies. We were going to walk the 20 minutes to the bus station and take the transit from there to a friend's house. As we were walking down the (I suppose) gravel road (mostly mud) a sweet lady stopped by and insisted she give us a ride to at least the bus station. Once in her car we told her where we were actually going and she said she was going by there anyway. We were very fortunate as we weren't quite use to the humidity and the short distance we had already walked was tiring us out.

We stayed at Matt's house (Bradley baptized him when he was there) it was so nice to finally put a face and personality to his name and stories.



There first day there we visited the Giant Nickel and did a mine tour. I now know a lot more about mining then I ever thought I would know, but it was fun. In the same building they had a bit of a science center there for kids (but we enjoyed it too) all focused on mining and minerals.




 I don't know why, but I found all the graffiti there beautiful. They actually advertise it as one of the things to do as a tourist there.

Brad also showed me around and recounted memories from his mission. We had a really good time there, and I'm glad Brad got the chance to reminisce. We are really blessed to be able to have this experience.

The Train Experience

First of all, we loved traveling by train. Sure it wasn't as fast as flying... but there was more leg room and it was better than driving. The first train ride was scheduled to leave Winnipeg at 10:30pm on August 8th. We weren't expecting it to be perfectly on time... but we definitely weren't expecting it to be 10 hours late! We didn't leave until close to 9am. Bradley was talking to some officials while I was trying to get some shut eye, and they told him that since May only four trains going from Vancouver to Toronto have been on time. (none of them quite as late as ours was) The rails are owned by CN railways and the passenger trains are owned by ViaRail, so the CN trains (freight trains) always get priority. Funny enough all 4 trains that were on time also had a CN official on... Now I'm not saying that correlation equals causation... but that is quite the coincidence.

We had brought our own snacks (bread, peanut butter, porridge packets etc) so we didn't buy food on the train because that could get expensive. We also brought a blanket with us (and boy was I glad we did). We only slept over night on two different trains (one train ride was two nights) but I also wish I had my neck pillow and a sleep mask.

The train from Winnipeg to Sudbury had an observation deck. That was a pretty popular place to sit, at least for us. Now our tickets just gave us access to the basic of the basic. No Hogwart's Express for us. Imagine airplane seating but more legroom and a seat that reclines more and that's what we got. No meals included (but there was a dining cart to buy some) and no showers. They also had sleeper berths or private rooms for 2 or 4, but that gets pretty expensive.