GlobeToddles

I always thought I'd prefer Canada to the US - be it the landscape, the people, or the culture. After all, it's the Scotland to England. The New Zealand to Australia. But you know, I lived in Australia for six years and I really  liked it - and I have some very dear Aussie friends now. Heck, my husband is English. Sometimes the underdog mentality only really comes from the underdog itself - or in this case, a fellow underdog: yours truly. And so I found myself and my preconceptions back in Canada. To be fair, Canada does not perpetuate the myth of being America's slightly estranged half-sibling, so I ought not to be comparing the two directly, but rather I'm looking at Toronto in relation to the other cities we're visiting on this trip (which happen to mostly be in the US). We spent last summer in Vancouver (which you can read about in some of my early posts ) and really enjoyed our time, though by the end we did feel like it was a splendid place for a summer (o

The next city on our trip was Toronto, but before arriving there we'd planned a night at Niagara Falls. It's about an hour and a half before Toronto, but as the drive from Boston was eight hours we thought we should do this famous sight justice and stay in one of the many hotels nearby so we could properly appreciate it the next morning. After a lot of research we decided to stay on the American side of the Falls (specifically we stayed in the  Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott ) - the view isn't as spectacular on this side but the hotels are cheaper plus most of them include free parking and free breakfast, and also we wouldn't have to worry about potential delays at the border crossing at the end of a long journey. The plan was to get into the hotel, use the indoor pool if the kids were a bit wired having slept lots in the car, have a quick breakfast the next morning then head out to see the Falls first from the American side before crossing over to admire the vi

Arguably that should really be the title of this whole blog, eh? Although here I'm specifically referring to this, my final Boston post: after the previous one which interested the history buffs this post is all about the fun stuff we did in Boston, and there are more photos of the kids, so it's a nice lighthearted snapshot for you all. Enjoy. Harvard, MIT - the images conjured up are of deeply studious environments, with a weighty seriousness quietly but undeniably present on the campuses. Well, nobody batted an eyelid when Master H enjoyed doing big jumps off some handy rocks in front of the iconic MIT Great Dome building (his new favourite hobby; stone-throwing has taken a bit of a back seat this year due to a reduction in lake visits). Famous scientists' names adorn the perimeter walls that flank the dome building, so it was somewhat amusing to think that giants such as Faraday and Newton were overlooking two tiny people happily chasing each other and pic