hey y'all,
guess i am overdue for an update. so, since i last wrote i flew into toronto and met up with jolene. we travelled from toronto to kitchener where we have been staying at an older couple named dwyer and sheila who are friends of jolene's and have been lucky to be able to use it as a bit of a home base.
after a few days of soaking up each other's awesomeness and trying to unpack as many stories and pictures as possible, we started to prepare for our bike journey to the niagara region. and shortly after taking in a few comforts from home, we embarked on our journey.
we biked from kitchener to guelph to meet with a rad couple named pam and colleen who are friends of jolene's and camped in their backyard for two nights. we spent the days checking out an street art festival, going to the farmer's market, and hanging out with pam and colleen's 4 month old and 3 year old girls.
on the third morning we got back on the o'le iron horses and biked to burlington and stayed at a really terrible and overpriced rv-park. the next day we rolled down the escarpment and hit lake ontario and biked along the shoreline for the entire day... after our "great" experience in the rv-park, we decided to take our chances and set up tent on the side of the road that night somewhere near port-dalhousie. we found a little patch of tall grass near a train-line and called it a night. it was a pretty good experience overall, minus the passing trains that were more of a full-body experience when the passed, haha.
the next day we continued biking along the shoreline and then cut down to a little campground about 15km south of niagara-on-the-lake town, and stayed at that campground for the next 4 nights as we did day-trips around the area.
we spent one day biking around to a couple vineyards and doing some tastings and tours. we got a really rad tour and the jackson-trigg's winery, which was really informative and made me realize i know nothing about wine. it also may be the first time i found a wine that i actually really, really liked.we spent another day biking around the old-town of niagara-on-the-lake. it's basically a bunch of outrageously large and expensive lake-side victorian style homes with a main street that was pretty much the same as the main drag of banff. it was really touristy and kind of weird.
it was at this time that the culture shock really set in. coming from a place where people live on a dollar a day and being one of the only white people for miles around; to being in a place where there is nothing but old, rich, white people walking around and going to vineyards and buying up all the ice wine and maple products the tourist stores could offer.... it was a pretty big swing. the cultural spectrum was about as diverse as a blank piece of paper.
but, we did get to check out a bunch of historical sites relating to the war of 1812. it was pretty cool, especially since it's the 200th anniversary of peace in that region, so they had some pretty cool stuff going on.... it was also really interesting just to read about the war and the stuff that went on. turns out i really knew nothing about canada's history, heh.
and then on our last day in the area, we headed down to niagara falls.
if i could describe this portion of our journey... i would use the word 'surreal'.
on top of the fact that the falls themselves were one of the most breathtaking things i've ever seen... it was also just a total sensory overload.
we decided to embrace the touristy side and do the maid of the mist, which was the best idea we made all day. i thought i knew what we were getting into becuase all i could think about was jim carrey in that blue poncho during 'bruce almighty', but it was way crazier than i could have imagined.
'maid of the mist' is a bit of false advertisement.... more fitting would be : 'how about you pay 20 dollars to drive this little boat so close to the waterfall that you are literally being pelted in the face with buckets of water to the point where you can't actually even open your eyes without feeling like your eyeballs are sandblasted'. that said, it was actually so much fun, and i'm so glad that we did it. but it did feel like i put on a poncho in order to step into a shower. 
after that we decided to check out clifton hill... which leads us to the worst decision we made all day. i am still reeling from this part of the trip, haha. it was an absolute debauchery having this gaudy, tacky street so close to such a marvel of nature. it was like walking out of a place of serenity into the stampede midway. it was awful.... plus, who decided that when people go to see a waterfall, they probably want to follow it up with a trip through a wax-museum and a 4D movie? 
anyways... enough ranting. we finished our day by hiking down to the whirlpool, which is a few km's north of the falls and had a picnic and just chilled by the river before watching the sunset go down with a bottle of wine. it was a great end to our time in niagara.
the next morning we woke up and biked back to kitchener in a physically gruelling 2-day stretch, and then crashed back in kitchener.
so that's that....
now we are just chilling in kitchener and spending our time getting ready to head into toronto and check out a few concerts and take in a jay's game. after that, we'll be preparing for our delegation in kenora.
sorry this is so to the point, but i'm finding myself not wanting to spend much time on the computer with so much to take in and so much going on (plus, having such a good-looking date all the time). but, hopefully it gives a good overview of our last few weeks.
peace.
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