The Edge

I know, I know ... these are getting totally boring. And, well ... boring! But I think I'm nearly done. Nearly ... *nervous laugh*

So, we finally hit Toronto in this set of pics. Honestly, I didn't take as many shots in Toronto as I thought I would. I was super, super excited about visiting this city. But, once I arrived, I have to admit it didn't appeal to me as much as I thought it would. I'm not sure why. Maybe I wasn't in the mood to sight see ... or I just had the "blahs" ... or something. But, to me, it was a lot like vacationing at home: big city, some nice people but many rude ones, lots of cars, noise, honking horns, etc ...

Anyhow, this set has some shots from the Royal Ontario Museum, the Toronto Harbor, and Union Station. I'm kind of lumping them together because I didn't take a ton of pics in any one place. I wasn't able to visit the Royal Ontario Museum -- other than looking around outside and in the gift shop -- because I didn't have time. I am still disappointed about this, and it would likely be enough to persuade me to do a return trip to Toronto. Because I really, really want to see this museum!

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These are still in Niagara Falls, but all of these pictures are from the Butterfly Conservatory, which is located there. I love, love, love visiting this Conservatory. It is beautiful and almost magical -- and full of "free range" butterflies. Needless to say, I always end up taking lots of pics here.

Pics under the cut, as always!

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Oh yes ... like those boring people no one ever wanted to invite over for a dinner party because they would, inevitably, show up bearing fakey grins and all their vacation slides ... I shall torture LJ-at large with my own summer vacation pics!!!

I know. It's horrible. Hide the pets and the kids. o.o

So, for summer vacation, we all (me, hubby, kiddo, and my parents -- who happened to be visiting at the time) traveled to Canada. We kind of decided on taking everyone along at the last minute. And we decided to drive. The whole way there. And back. It was about 8-10 hours there (8 to Niagara Falls, where we stayed for a couple of days) and then another 2 hours to Toronto. And it was about a 12 hour trip back from Toronto to our house -- mainly because we encountered a LOT of traffic on the way home. Which sucked.

So, for my first installment ... the "road trip" pictures. For most of the road trip, we were in Pennsylvania, which is lovely. Lots of farmland and pretty little houses and barns. And rolling, green mountains. I believe we were driving in and around and through the Allegheny Mountains. And most of these pictures were, of course, snapped from our moving car. I like it. I think it gives interesting results ... but it's not for everyone.

Anyhow, (lots) of pics behind the cut! Woot!!

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So ... I'm finally getting around to posting some of my pics from the Vancouver trip. Overall, I had a great time. It was relaxing, although the trip back really took a toll on me. I'm still exhausted from both it (and jet lag), as well as having to jump right into my normal, hectic schedule as soon as I came home.

I decided to split this up into three posts, just so I didn't overload folks with tons of pictures. This first set are assorted pictures from around our hotel, as well as the harbor right next to our room. We had a great view of the harbor and a lot of Vancouver from our hotel room, so that was pretty neat. Also, we took a (really really LONG) walk around the harbor to get to Stanley Park. Some of the pics are from that stroll.

So, on with the pics!!

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So, I'll just jump in to the whole picture thing without bothering with much blather up front. =D

These are from Stanley Park and the Aquarium (which is in Stanley Park):

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