Busy Bee

So mostly pictures today; I took a lot of them with Eryn because Mike and I were showing her around the area. Meant I got to take lots of pictures! A lot of them turned out well, and it was a good visit, so I thought I'd share some of the better ones.

After Eryn's flight was delayed in Calgary for two hours, She finally got in to Toronto. I didn't mind the delay THAT much, because it meant that Mike got home and could make sure I went the right way. Really, he wasn't much use at all, but it was comforting to have someone else there! We took Eryn out for supper with Lauren, Mike W, and a few of our friends. Lauren and Mike requested Turtle Jack's for the video games, so we caved and went to meet them there. It actually provided some dinnertime entertainment, watching the two of them try to beat each other at the games! Eryn was pretty tired, though, so we just went home after eating.

Mike took Saturday off work so that he could come to Toronto with us. We ate breakfast at Apple Annie's in Burlington, which we all agreed was delicious. From there we parked at the GO train station, and took the train into Toronto. No fuss, no bother! The train let us off right downtown, and we did some window shopping and wandered around downtown Toronto. When we got tired, we just hopped on the train back to Burlington, and picked up our car. Eryn had a lot of fun on the train, it was something fun to do! Mike and I decided to take Eryn out to Dimitre's, which is a dessert place that also happens to serve dinner. The dinner we forced ourselves to eat was pretty good, and the desserts were delicious!

Sunday we showed Eryn the nature that was around Dundas. We went to three different sets of waterfalls, and a bit of a nature hike, then did some more window shopping at the most organised Winners we'd ever seen. I found a blazer to go with my pants for my interview, and a muffin tin. We also drove around the new development area - houses for millionaires! Mike and I stumbled across it by accident a few weeks ago, and decided to show Eryn the ridiculously huge houses there. That sparked a tour of Lakeshore Road in Burlington, where even more millionaires hide out. After such a long tour, Eryn was only too happy to make us her famous chicken parmesan for supper.

Tews Falls were the first falls we visited. They're on part of the Bruce Trail, which connects all of the Niagara Escarpment Parks. Tews Falls are a pretty good example of escarpment falls; typically the water tumbles off a very sheer cliff and finds a valley to flow through. It's part of the Webster's Falls Park system, and is protected by the city of Hamilton, which assumed ownership of the park when the surrounding areas were amalgamated into the city of Hamilton in 2000.

Tews Falls is connected with Webster's Falls by a short trail, only about a kilometre or so. Webster's Falls Park is part of the Niagara Escarpment Parks and Open Space System. There are a lot of local conservation agencies that, along with the government of Canada and the province of Ontario, have been purchasing and protecting historically significant park lands. Webster's Falls is part of the Spencer Creek System, which runs through the town of Dundas. In the early 1800's, a dam was built at the top of Webster's Falls, to provide the surrounding industrial area with power. There were a lot of dams constructed on Spencer Creek throughout the 1800's and into the early 1900's.

Ashbourne Mills drew on the power of Webster's Falls, and was constructed in 1830. It was used to mill flour, grist, and oatmeal until it was destroyed by fire in 1898. The cobblestone bridge that currently spans the creek used to be a dam, but was converted to a bridge in the 1930's. The bridge became the focal point of the park, and was a popular tourist attraction for many years. Eventually the bridge became unsafe, and was shut down to the public. It was repaired by the Optimist Club of Greensville, and re-opened on Canada day 2000.

Our next stop was in Waterdown, which is one of the oldest towns in the area. Mike took us down to Smokey Hollow, which had another waterfall in it. The waterfall belongs to Grindstone Creek, which was a busy milling area during the 1800's. The industry started in 1805 with a saw mill, and soon grew. With all the industrial smoke, the valley soon became known as Smokey Hollow. In the early 1900's, the source of power shifted from water to steam and electricity, which resulted in many of the mills closing down. There were numerous fires, and when the railway was constructed through the valley in 1912, the mills gave up for good.

You can actually see quite a few remnants of different buildings along the banks of Spencer Creek, and other watersheds in the area. It's interesting to go for a walk along a river here, because you just never know what you're going to find. Grindstone Creek is just one of many. The railway does in fact go right over the creek, as does the current road.

As we drove back towards Dundas on Sunday, we took the Lakeshore Road route, which takes us past, you guessed it, the lake shore! We stopped at a little lookout point to look off at the horizon. It's easy to forget it's not the ocean after all; there were the same Canada Geese (and their resulting poop) everywhere, there were the same large waterfront houses, and it even looked like Crofton out in the distance. But no, it's actually Hamilton, and it's actually a lot bigger than Crofton ever could be! That and it doesn't smell like the ocean. But it was still fun to just look out and say "wow that's big!".

On Monday Eryn and I intended to go for a walk around Dundas and see what we could see, but we woke up late and it was raining, so we bought groceries and I introduced Eryn to Bulk Barn instead. We went into Cambridge to visit Mike and work, and Eryn took a fast car for a test drive, and had a blast doing so! We stopped at Costco on the way home so Eryn could buy some delicious cheese, and then we went bowling after supper. Laser Light Rock-a-bowl, and we were the only people there. Ten pin, too, which Victoria doesn't have any more!

Tuesday Eryn and I actually did our tour of Dundas. We took the historical walking tour, and all of the building pictures are from our historical tour. They're some of the older houses and buildings around town. I showed Eryn where Lauren and Mike live (theirs is the white house with the gray shutters and porch). We also stopped at the drive-in park. I'm still not sure why it's so important to be drive-in, but it had some cool old stonework and an interesting purple dinosaur which Eryn had fun on (she looks so good in this picture I had to include it!), so it was fun. There are a lot of old churches around town, and a lot of the houses date back a few centuries, which is sweet. We finished the day by taking a picture of the front of our building, which is a converted warehouse, built in 1918.

Tuesday night was supper with Mike's parents, and then they joined us for trivia. It was overall a great night, everyone got along well, which is always good! Wednesday Eryn packed up her things, then we went out to breakfast in Hamilton, and drove out to the airport. It snowed on the highway as we were driving, which I found exciting, but Eryn wasn't quite as excited about. I saw that she got on the plane fine and dandy without any major delays, and then drove home all by myself, and didn't get lost! Wednesday night was hockey night of course, and the boys played their worst game yet. The other team was up 8-2 and still trying to pick fights and hitting our team. Josie and I were getting very annoyed at the other team... At one point the other team's goalie was punching one of our forwards! We were not amused.

More to come later, but I'm written out right now. It's been busy!