CELEBRATING CANADA DAY

July 1, 2012 is Canada's 145th birthday for becoming a self-governing dominion of Great Britian since 1867. The colonies later became provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario and Quebec. Now there are 10 provinces from coast to coast. It was called Dominion Day until 1982 and officially known as Canada Day. The celebrations include a range of events, parades, festivals, fireworks displays and new citizenship ceremonies for New Canadians. Celebrations are held in Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver and other big towns to mark the occasion.

Our family celebrated the occasion our own way which was memorable to us. As usual, the driver of the car had a lot say for the passengers were dependant on him to take us to our destination. We are thankful to God for bringing us to Canada as we are now citizens of this beautiful and peaceful country.

Mississauga is 29.3 km or 18.2 miles from Toronto and about 26 minutes driving time. Recently, Mississauga became world famous for her newly constructed "Marilyn Monroe" twin towers. On Jun 14, 2012, the Chicago based Council on Tall buildings and Urban Habitat, a non-profit group of architects and engineers declared that the new "Marilyn Monroe" twin towers were among the world's new skyscrapers. The towers were likened to Marilyn Monroe due to its curvaceous figure.

The architect was Yansong Ma, founder of the MAS office, Beijing/China who won the contest to design the building. Construction started in 2007 and completion was anticipated in 2009.

The four of us left our condominium apartments about 11:13 p.m. for Dim Sum (Chinese snacks) and drove to Happy Jade Restaurant in Mississauga.which was about 20 miles away. The food could not compete with the food in Toronto. Very surprised to see a group of Indians eating at a Chinese restaurant. They ordered the full meal, and not the Dim Sum which was enjoyed by many other nationalities other than Chinese. From Mississauga we proceeded to Shelburne.

SHELBURNE

From Mississauga my brother-in-law Charles drove us to Shelburne where we saw a great number of wind turbines on both sides of the road. I have seen the wind turbines in pictures but not real ones. What I noticed was that they seemed to go round anti-clockwise. Just wondered why? Their blades are more pointed than those of windmills.

A wind turbine is a device that converts energy from the wind into mechanical energy or wind power. Other energy is electrical power which can be converted from sun panels on the roofs of houses. They are probably more advanced than windmills which are used in Holland. This is much more high tech than windmills though both utilize the wind as energy. They cost from $39 to $5,000 for each depending on the chosen model.

The nest destination was Eugenia Falls. We specially chose Eugenia Falls because my sister Eugenia passed away due to breast cancer. My sister Winnie and I went to Australia to stay with her for about 3 months when she was diagnosed with 4th stage cancer. The destination was chosen as a tribute to Eugenia.

Eugenia Falls is a 30 metre tall waterfall situated in a conservation area that encompasses 23 hectares of Niagara Escarpment, river valley and upland forests.

www.day-trips.ca/content/eugenia-falls

In addition to the waterfalls, the site also features a war memorial, hiking trails, and also a picnic pavilion. The river is diverted for power generation, and the flow over the falls can get pretty thin in summer, so it is best seen in the spring. Eugenia Falls was first discovered in 1852 when it became the scene of a Fools Gold rush. Soon, Eugenia Falls became the location of five mills and a small private electric plant. Eventually, it was chosen to be the site of the second hydroelectric plant in Ontario in 1905.

We could see someone climbing the rocky cliff on the other side of the Falls. The brother was watching him with binoculars as he gingerly climbed towards the top. From Eugenis Falls we made our way to Meaford where we dropped in at Tim Horton for coffee and doughnuts and some rest from our journey. Our next stop was Blue Mountain Village, which was north of Eugenia Falls.

Blue Mountain Village is a ski resort but there are lots of activity to do all year round with its unique shops, restaurants and entertainment. You can have a burger to an Italian pizza or gourmet food. We came here on Canada Day in the afternoon and could not find a parking spot, but only look at the pictureseque array of interesting shops. It was rather disappointing for us because we could not find a parking spot. I recalled vaguely my stay at Engleburg, a ski resort in Switzerland ages ago when I went on school holidays with the students of Pitmans College in London, UK. I was so excited with my first encounter with snow and thank God for the experience.

Collingwood is a town in Simcoe County, Ontario situated at the southern point of Georgian Bay. It is also known for its annual week-end Elvis Presley festival, which attracts Elvis impersonators from all over the world in late July of each year. The year 2009 marks the Elvis fifteenth anniversay and this year would be the eighteenth anniversay.

What a relief to get out of the car and walk around the beach and visit the rest room. The sun was bright and there was some breeze blowing. Someone was hang gliding in the sky. We watched the glider for some time and then it was time to move on to our next destination. There were rather many people on the beach watching the bay. Quite pleasant but it was time to move on to Wasaga Beach. From Toronto on Lake Ontario in the south, we had come to Collingwood on Georgian Bay in the north..

Wasaga Beach is a year round recreational resort about 2 hours drive from Toronto. It boasts of the World's Longest Freshwater Beach. You can take advantage of many recreational activities including hiking, mountain biking, beach volleyball, sunbathing, great fishing and snowmobiling in winter. Unfortunately when we were there, there was a traffic jam in the town. We allowed the police car to overtake us and there was another police car behindf us. We could hardly move! It was not my first visit there. We were there with a group and was able to move around visiting the different shops along the beach. This time we were not so lucky being escorted by the police force. However, it was still fun to be part of the crowd on Canada Day. It was geting dark and we were hungry and it was time to set out for home.

We decided to go for a Malaysian meal before hitting for home. We headed for Gourmet Malaysia, but to our disappointment, the restaurant was closed. Our hope of a tasty spicy meal was dashed. Instead we headed for Memories of Japan.

We were not disappointed for we ordered hamachi neck dinner, sashimi dinner (different raw fish slices), baked codfish, green tea ice cream and red bean ice cream. The meal was appetising and delicious. Our hunger was satisfied and appeased.. It was about 9 p.m when we set out for home.and the full moon came out in the sky, and as we drove home we could see firework displays in the distant darkening sky.

Eventually my brother Tuck and I arrived in our condos around 10:15 p.m. I looked out from my living room and counted three or four firework displays after 10:30 pm. My condo faces east and there are no tall buildings obscuring the landscape whereas Tuck's condo in the building faces west where there is a plethora of tall buildings so he could not see any firework displays.

My sister and brother-in-law live fairly close by and hopefully they would have a good night sleep that night for the gay parade celebrations would end at about 12 midnight. They live near the Gay Pride celebration area. Praise and thank God for a very enjoyable Canada Day. We thank God we were able to celebrate Canada's 145th birthday. We had travelled over a hundred miles satisfying our appetite and feasting our eyes on the varying towns of Ontario. It was quite a day and we thank God that we are able to celebrate Canada Day. Thank God for a peaceful day and no major disaster on this special day.

Our family is very grateful that God had brought our family of 8 children out of the east to the west except Eugenia, the youngest who migrated to Australia with her husband. From a land of spiritual intolerance to a land of freedom of expression and tolerance we have come a long way. As other immigrants we had problems at the beginning adjusting to our new employment, but we did not look back to the past, but settled down. We are thankful that God brought my father to start a new church which had its beginning in Beijing, China, a non-denomination church in 1917 which was the third largest Chinese Church in China. However, since the Communists took over China, the church does not have communication with the outside world, but is spreading despite China's intolerance of religion.

This year we receive good news from our relatives that the house where we used to live and taken over by the church was given permission to build a building adjacent to the house. The church was refused a building permit until now. So 40 years after my parents left, the church will have a new address eventually. We look forward to the new church building which will be completed this August. This is a very memorable Canada Day for the family celebrating 145th Canada Day and the new church building in Malaysia. All Glory to God.

ONBOARD QUEEN MARY 2: NOVEMBER 21-29, 2008 http://einron.hubpages.com/hub/queenmary2nov21-29-08

PICTURESQUE NIAGARA REGION http://einron.hubpages.com/hub/picturesqueniagararegion