Oh Canada!

On the 14th of August we all packed up the van as one big happy family and started a 12 hour road trip to Canada. The land where the maple syrup flows, and the honest humor hits you from every direction. The van we rented had a TV in the back. So the boys played xbox for the majority of the trip. I tried to watch a movie but car sickness got the better of me, and Preston played the iPad for what felt like 5 hours straight. Our first stop before Canada was Michigan where Jen's mum lives. I can't say I've ever had a desire to visit Michigan. Which was a whole lot of what I like to refer to as woop woop. A lot of farms, grass, and small towness. But it's another state to cross off I guess. 

On the way, so excited clearly!

Isn't he just the cutest

The whole trip I knew I would be meeting family, and old friends of the family. Which I also knew meant the weekend would be full of awkward chit chat. So having prepared myself for that I met the first lot of family friends when we were having dinner with them at 10 O'Clock at night. The journey to michigan had taken 10 hours and by this time I was tired. But seeing as we were only their for one night we had to see as many people as possible apparently. So I did all the awkward greetings, saw more stunned expressions when people found out I was Australian. Got asked about the wildlife in Australia (I'm honestly not sure why they all care so much), then proceeded to do my dutiful role of entertaining the children. 

The next day we hung around with Grandma for a while, had some "world famous pizza" for lunch. Then headed off for the two hour journey to the Canadian border. When we got to the border it took us an hour to get across the bridge. Paul thought that they would pull us over cause I was with them. But I just smiled politely, answered all their questions. They stamped my passport (which excited me cause I have another page stamped now), and sent us on our merry way. In 15 minutes we were at Paul's parents house. Who thankfully were normal and weren't awkward. We spent a couple of hours there. I met Paul's brother who lives just around the corner. Then we headed off for dinner at Paul's sisters house. Now that was the fun family affair. Everyone was there. But I found that Canadians and Australians have a similar sort of attitude towards life. They are more relaxed and more humble than Americans. They also treat me more like an adult, than a child. Are also very warm and friendly, making everything a lot easier for me.

The next day was the big family reunion. I of course was a little worried about going, cause i'm not obviously related to anyone there and everyone else is. But it turned out to be ok. It was held on a farm (not so fun). But everyone was really welcoming and friendly. I even met some people who had been to Tasmania before, I thought what are the odds of that (not very high). I was asked many questions about Australia, more specifically about the wildlife. I'm not sure why everyone has this perception that in Australian we basically co-exist peacefully with snakes and reptiles. It's like they think that to everyone person in the population, that there is also a creature, and they roam the streets freely with is. I have a felling that Steve Irwin may have had something to do with that. My other favorite thing is when people start to try and guess where i'm from. Most of the time I get British first, then they arrive at Australian. But a couple of times I go from being British, to New Zealand, to South African, and then we eventually arrive at Australian. It was one of those family reunions where you play the old games like three legged race, sack race, shoe kick, tug of water, and water balloon toss. For us it was all whilst in the rain. It was defiantly an interesting afternoon, but it was nice to finally meet Paul's family and see where he grew up. 

Preston in the sack race

Preston on the ground

Fun on the farm. AKA Whoop Whoop

Sunday rolled around and we geared up for the long drive home. We drove to Niagara Falls this time to cross the boarder there. Niagara Falls was incredible. It's certainly breathtaking. It was one to tick of the bucket list. We then crossed the boarder and were on our way home. It was a quick but fun trip and i'm glad I got to see another part of the world.

USA side of the falls

Famous Horse Shoe

Me and Morgan

From the boarder bridge