Ontario 2019

Hello! Good afternoon from Hamilton International Airport. Today I'll be writing with my 12 year old sister, Gwenie, hoping to document our experiences in this beautiful but mountain-less province. Seriously. I miss the Rockies. Anyways, I'm gonna hand the laptop over now to my sister who will be sharing her experiences from the first few days of the trip.

Hi sisters! This is Gwenie, we landed here in Hamilton, Ontario on

Thursday, May 16, 

It was the first time I had gone a plane in 11 years! It was a day full of travel and lots of improvised singing. We arrived in Sudbury, Ontario at about 1:00 am and we were all exhausted.

Friday, May 17, (G)

Definitely a chill day. My parents left for a CFC conference, and my sisters and I were on our own. We had our aunt and uncle, and absolutely adorable cousins, but without my parents Maya was definitely a force to be reckoned with. Side note, personally the time change helped my sleep schedule since, 12:00 am translates to 9:00 pm.

Saturday, May 18, 
Our second day without our parents went pretty well. We didn't do much, but since my aunt and uncle lived near a mall, we walked around there once. There was nothing much to see since it was Sudbury. No landmarks there to be found.

Sunday, May 19, 
This was the day our parents came home. Bearing a little gift with them, my brother. It was raining pretty hard so there was nothing to do once again but, sit around and watch TV. I am still grateful for the time I spent with my family, even if it was being holed up in the living room watching Netflix. It truly felt like it was another day at home and that made me happy!

Monday, May 20, 
The rain simply does not stop in Sudbury, Ontario. We visited a nearby park for an hour or two and took a bunch of pictures. After that, we had some of that good ol' Wendy's and I would not stop trying to get my brother to tell me who he likes. (Who is it???) After that, we spent the rest of the rainy day watching The Good Doctor, napping and playing with our baby cousins.

Tuesday, May 21, 

We were on our way to the one and only, Niagara Falls. I never realized that Ontario must really like their bricks, or that they truly believed the Three Little Piggies story. Everywhere you looked there was a brick house. We arrived at our lola and lolo's house and then we were headed to the falls themselves. I never realized how powerful, yet beautiful, nature could be. The colourful lights the shined onto that shined onto the water casted a magical vibe onto the falls. But we weren't ready for the falls in the day.

Wednesday, May 22, 

We were supposed to drive up to Toronto after we visited the falls, but we spent too much time admiring the beauty of the falls. The wind was strong that day and my dad actually thought that the mist from the falls was actual rain from the clouds. The water is so beautiful but, I recommend not to look down if you're really into saving that planet and not really into people littering. All I saw was bottles upon bottles lining the ground underneath the barrier. Me and my brother had a little jam session while walking up the sidewalks. We literally stopped every 15 steps to take another picture, it was so tiring. But praise God for nature and His wonderful creations! Although my siblings and I got completely soaked once we stepped outside, it was a fun and awesome experience. We also had both KFC and Popeyes in the same day; talk about chicken galore.

Thank you Gwenie! You were supposed to write for all of the days but you're exhausted right now and up in your room so I guess I'll recap our last day in Ontario! (If you're reading this, please give a small golf clap for Gwenie, she's going to be an amazing writer/lawyer/musician one day.)



Thursday, May 23 

Ah, the dreaded day of our departure from the beautiful (although flat) and serene Ontario. We had pancakes for breakfast and said our goodbyes to our relatives who
provided us with their home and awesome music/gig/performance setup. We drove to Toronto and unsurprisingly, were met with horrendous traffic and unceasing rain. I swear, there's something with Ontario and their rainfall. Anyways, we fortunately found parking and took a little tour of the city by foot. We actually did not have to walk in the rain since there were channels of indoor walkways and paths that connected every major part of Toronto; from an architectural standpoint, I thought it was amazing! The hustle and bustle of every Torontonian was evident in the way they would speed walk as if their life depended on it. It was astounding to see such a diverse city community, all interacting with each other and their surroundings. After our little trip around the city, we had Jollibee for lunch along with my mom's best friend from her college days. It was a pretty cool thing to see how close they were even though it had been awhile since they had seen each other. Praise God for friendships that withstand the obstacles of distance and time! And finally, we made our way to Hamilton International Airport, awaiting our flight back home to the beautiful and the best place in the world, British Columbia.

This trip couldn't have come at a better time. As I find myself in the midst of school, service and just life itself, it has really taken a toll on my physical and mental wellbeing. The opportunity to spend more time with my family has been such a blessing that I am glad I am able to share with you today.

I literally slept at like 2 or 3 a.m every night I was in Ontario but praise God because I was truly able to have some heartwarming and hilarious, chuckle-worthy conversations with friends back home. I'm pretty sure that I am now sleep-deprived but oh well! I can say that it was well worth it so no regrets here.

Also, if you've been reading my past few blog posts, I am forever grateful for having had a chance to tell you about my life and my stories. I honestly have no idea what has gotten over me but it seems that I cannot stop writing!

Thank you for taking time out of your busy, hectic lives to read this and I hope you know that I appreciate it greatly. My trip to Ontario was a 10/10 but to you reading this, you are an 11.

AMDG