Words cannot explain how wonderful Josh’s 3 week visit was :). It was more than I could have hoped for.
It all began as it always does with a trip to the airport. I got all dolled up for Josh’s first trip to my native land: Canada! It was amazing to hold my man in my arms again after 3 months. He looked so bloody handsome. Dad had to point him out because I didn’t want to wear my glasses :p. The three of us went to The Ace in Toronto for some awesome burgers then headed home. It was surreal having him in my house and my room for the first time.
On his first day here we went for breakfast and to the farmer’s market. Then took a trip to Erin so he could see my hometown. I took him to my high school, to the farm I grew up on, and we visited some old family friends and had tea and biscuits. It was a wonderful, lazy trip down memory lane. That evening we stayed in and cooked a delicious vegetarian tikka masala with vegetables from the market and had a quiet evening in. Usually we are so busy on our trips we never have time to relax and do normal couple things so we made sure to make time for the little things on this trip and it made such a positive impact.
The next morning we went to my aunt’s house where Josh tried water skiing for the first time and I made my famous peach pie as it is peach season in Ontario :). We also went tubing and Josh saved me from a scary spider. Josh met my brother, sister-in-law and nephew and we all went out to Wild Wing. We had a good laugh playing ping pong against my dad whose embellished antics make him look like he’s doing an interpretive dance rather than playing ping-pong.
The next few days were spent back at home: Josh tried Poutine (the most well-known Canadian delicacy… fries and cheese curds smothered in gravy), tried buttertarts, we went to the movies with a long-time friend of mine, visited the British pub in town, Barbequed, watched the Austin Powers movies, toured the badlands, went to the doctor’s… Josh held my hand while I got a terrifying needle and blow-dried my hair for me when I didn’t wanna use my arm after, and he even got me to go for a run. This was shocking news to all who know me as it is common knowledge that I am extremely un-athletic. In fact one friend said “when you told me you went for a run with him I knew it must be serious.” Ha-ha.
I took my man to the Hockey Hall of Fame where we got our photo taken with the Stanley Cup. This is a big deal to any Cannuck but of course Josh had no idea what the Stanley Cup was… I tried to explain by saying imagine the highest award you can win in “football” (soccer) in England… that’s like the Stanley Cup here. It’s weird finding out that things that are really important in your country are completely overlooked in others. We had a nice lunch at the Harbor-front and then we took a trip up the CN Tower. I was gonna chicken out of standing on the glass floor but Josh got me to go on it.
We spent a day at Wasaga beach with one of my best friends from high school though Josh and I weren’t brave enough to go in the water. This summer has been unusually cold, but we had a great day anyway; talking, snacking and reading Cosmo aloud. Josh got to try funnel cake for the first time.
We also went to a Toronto Blue Jays game (the first for me and Josh) with my dad. It was one of my favourite days. We all got dressed up in blue and the atmosphere at the Skydome was so fun; it was a sold-out game. It also ended up being the longest game in Blue Jay history! A typical game has 9 innings, this one ended up having 19 innings and lasted almost 7 hours! We stayed right til the end and while Josh and I didn’t understand anything at the beginning of the game, we got the hang of how baseball works by the end :p. And after allllll that… we WON! The last few stragglers went wild :p. My favourite part of the game was all the fun musical cues.
After the game we went to one of my favourite eating spots: The Spaghetti Factory! It’s one of Toronto’s oldest gems and has an abundance of cool things inside. You can eat in a streetcar, on a bed, on a carousel, and history adorns every wall and crevice. I especially liked their grand stained glass mural which after closer inspection we realized was of the Blue Jays! :p. We walked around Toronto which looked magical lit up at night, and stopped by our one and only castle: Casa Loma.
In between quiet evenings in cuddling, watching movies, reading together, drinking lots of tea, eating ice cream, watching Big Bang Theory, browsing through old photo albums and watching home videos, we also took a trip to Guelph and toured my University, went to the drive-in movies and saw the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and saw Guardians of the Galaxy in 3D, Josh tried Tim Hortons coffee and Timbits (very Canadian although he didn’t order a double-double which would have awarded him true Cannuck status). We then got dressed up in our formal wear just for fun and got very lost going to Woodbine to watch the horse races but did eventually get there two hours late and made some small bets on the races. It was so much fun, especially since we mostly won on our 1-3$ bets.
I got Josh addicted to my favourite guilty pleasure: cheese stuffed bread from Little Caesar’s pizza and we had a lovely Star Wars pizza night. We also went for a night out on the town in Waterloo with some friends and to the car races with my dad and brother where Josh got to go down the track in their sports cars.
We spent a day at Niagara Falls where we toured the beautiful Canadian side and spent the better part of the day throwing balls at clowns at the arcade (we beat the high score and got 250 tickets on one go), ate a Beavertail (dessert pastry), survived Nightmares haunted house together, then went across the border (with some trouble) to the American side to ride the Maid of the Mist and go to The Mulberry Italian Ristorante in Lackawanna New York. The. Food. Was. Amazing. Especially the meatball and caprese salad. This is the third place we’ve gone to off the show “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives” and all have been delicious. Of course our GPS stopped working while in another country and we had to stop and ask a nice police officer for directions on getting back to Canada.
We spent a day at Canada’s Wonderland mostly standing in lines but Drop Tower, Behemoth and Leviathan were pretty intense and awesome. And White Water Canyon was fun even though I got soaked and had to change into Josh’s swimming trunks which looked ridiculous. We spent another two days at my aunt’s boating, baking, eating treats from the British store in town, and having some nice family time.
It was great having a boy around to do all those boyfriendy things like opening jars and putting windshield washer fluid in my car and fixing my laptop that had a virus and holding my hand and tooting. Wait, scratch that last one. Haha. One more quiet night in cooking and watching a movie saw us to our last day together. My family and friends all agree that I’ve “picked a good one this time” and dad said he’ll miss having Josh around. It was so wonderful to finally be able to make that step in our relationship of meeting my friends and family.
Saying goodbye at the airport was hard. I snuck a few treats and a letter in his carry-on as per usual. But we know we will be together again in a few months, and that a one-way ticket is in order in the springtime. I feel closer to my man than ever and feel so lucky to have a partner in crime, a fellow adventurer, and soul-mate willing to do this crazy long distance journey with me.
It’s not goodbye, it’s see you soon my love. ❤
Just for my sweetheart:
P.S. To the BBC! BBC one! BBC two! BBC three!…
P.P.S. Something smells rotten… must be the rubbish bin hahah
ldr13 