This visit to Toronto was my first since I was 13 and Nic's first ever, so I resolved to show her all the sights I remember, to repay the favour from Banff. This included the CN Tower, Niagara Falls, the Sky Dome and Honest Ed's. Befoire we could go on such a magical mystery tour, Nic had tomeet the Jarvis Mafia...

All of my family in Canada couldn't make the wedding due to teh short notice we gave the, so this was Nic's first time as a Jarvis with this branch of the clan. We were staying at my Gran's and I had warned Nic about the full extent of her hospitality. Food is lavished upon guests, and she didn't disappoint when we arrived, with enough rice and chicken to feed an small army. As this was the first time either of us had seen my grand parents since 2000, most of the evening was spent discussing what we had been up to, with my Nic and "the old man" starting to act like long lost friends!

No visit to Toronto is complete, without a visit to Honest Ed's. When Paul and I visited in 93, we thought we were going to On A Steads, thanks to the way the locals pronounce the name. This, along with the fact it stocks the greatest supply of tat in the northern hemisphere, means it was a place I couldn't wait to visit. since my last visit, On A's has grown and must now be one of the worlds great junk emporiums. They stock everything from food, to watches, to clothes to beer glasses... its like Harrods really! We spent hours inside the store admiring all that it has to offer, including the sayings plastered around the place ("Only the floors are crooked"), before returning for more food.

I'm sure over the months, you will have picked up that Nic isn't much of a cricket fan. So to make up for this, I took hre to a game of baseball - the next most boring game ever invented. Luckily, it is played at the Sky Dome (now renamed the Rogers Arena, after Ted Rogers) (see pic of toronto with blog), which is a great arena that sells expensive beer. The game was, in a word, slow. I don't think I'll be hurrying back to my local diamond anytime soon, but it was well worth going along. We were all American (or Canadian if you please) for the evening, with dogs, candy and large soda pops all night (rough translation; hot dogs, chocolate and pop).

The following day we headed round to my Aunties for, you guessed it, more food! Lisha put on a BBQ for us, which had the biggest steak I've ever seen. Due to high liqour prices in clubs, we decided to drink a fair amount at the barbie before heading downtown with my cousins, Cath, Geoff and his wife Amy. I'm not sure if its the 7 months of travel, moving through time zones, not sleeping enough or just getting old (Nic is 30 next year you know!), but we all faded early on in the night. Cath tried her best to rally us all for an after hours bar, but it lasted for one drink. Although, I was glad of it the next morning, when the kids (not ours) decided to have a pillow fight with my head as the main target. Wonderful.

The kids... Geoff and Amy have two - Justin 11 and Julian 5, while Cath has 1 and half - Ashley 4 and Tatyana 8. Never in all my days have I met four more beautiful, polite and well behaved children (pillow fight notwithstanding). I've realised my manors need brushing up after being put to shame by these children all under 11. Looking back now, the trip we all took to Niagara Falls, could be one of the highlights of the trip.

If was a like a road trip for the Cosby's when we all piled in mini vans and headed to Niagara, with yet more food prepared and Nintendo DS to keep the kids happy. I threw the first (and only) tantrum of the day when Justin kept beating me at Mario, so I decided to leave the gaming to the kids.

Niagara is breath-taking. No other word to describe. We decided to go on the maid of the mist (our final wedding present) as well as walk behind the falls. The falls looks spectacular from the top, with rainbows and spray seen for miles, but from the bottom, it is something else. The Maid takes you right into the horse shoe and gets you completely soaked, while worrying that the boat might go under and cause the end of all of us! Some of the younger kids found it a bit frightening (Nic), and it ruined the hair of most of the girls too. Walking behind the falls feels much safer, but is just as wet. On this tour, you get within feet of the back of the water, thanks to tunnels carved years ago. The power and noise of the water is immense and if it wasn't so cold down there, we would have stayed longer.

But even with all that water all day, the high pint of the trip, was watching Julian giggle in the back of the car when he had to wee in a bottle because there was no services close enough. Pure gold!

The Toronto leg of the trip really wasn't long enough. With so much family ot see, we barely saw any of the city itself, not that it bothered us. We had a really great time eating, talking, eating, drinking, eating being tourists and eating some more. It's a shame we don't see the Ontario Baranch of the Jarvis Mafia more often, and we're ot going to leave it 15 years before our next visit.

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