A Full Day of Fun Activities for Families & Seniors Around the St. Jacobs Area, Waterloo, Ontario

Summer is upon us!  Since our summer months are quite short, Canadians do take advantage of the fine weather and try to enjoy the outdoor as much possible, young and old!

We travelled on a chartered bus to St. Jacobs, Ontario

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A couple of weeks ago, we went on a day trip organized by COTM  for seniors and visited  St. Jacobs.















COTM chartered a coach and it was filled to the capacity

St. Jacobs' Farmers Market, Ontario

St Jacobs is a town about an hour's drive from Toronto.

























 The St. Jacobs Farmers' Market is  the largest of its kind in Canada.

We have been there numerous times but my mother has never visited this market so we  brought along to this trip.


















Besides fresh fruits, vegetables and farm products, there are lots to see at the St. Jacobs' Farmers' Market.

Decorated rocks for sale at the Farmers' Market

Our favourite things to see are always the arts and crafts items.

The crafts booths and gift shop items kept us busy looking at the market.

The Blooming Onion Platter

There is never a lack of tasty and new food to try at the Farmers' Market.

On the day of our visit, we found something new. This Blooming Onion Platter included one large onion served with one pound of wings at $14.95.

The Olde Heidelberg Restaurant, Heidelberg, Ontario

The schedule of this outing  for seniors was full.

After our hour long visit to the farmers' market, the chartered bus took us to the Olde Heidelberg, a nearby restaurant and tavern frequented by locals and tourists.















This restaurant was established in  1860 and has been serving its famous German dish, Smoked Pork Hock since.

A fun outing organized by the COTM people

There were  fifty of us in our tour group and we were seated in a separate dining room on the second floor of the restaurant.

We were all there eager to taste the restaurant's most famous dish.

A generous serving of  smoked pork hock dinner

Though we have been going to Waterloo monthly for the past decade, we never dined at this restaurant until this trip.


The pork hock serving was generous!

My Mom enjoyed the dinner

It tasted much better than we had expected. Even my mom could enjoy her meal as the meat was tender and it was not salty at all.

We all enjoyed this famous German dish and many came prepared with their iceboxes to order some to take home to their families.

West Montrose,  Ontario

After lunch, we continued our outing and visited other attractions in the area.

We arrived at the West Montrose village in Waterloo.

The Bridge Place Gift Shop at West Montrsoe, Waterloo County

There was a nice gift shop with an old canoe filled with flowers.

Unfortunately, it was closed for lunch when we were there so we could not go in to visit.

The Kissing Bridge - West Montrose, Ontario

Our main purpose being in the area was to visit an Ontario historic site where a special old bridge is located.


We visited the West Montrose Covered Bridge, also known as the Kissing Bridge to the locals.

Entrance to the West Montrose Covered Bridge

Built in 1881 with mostly oak and white pine, the Kissing Bridge is the last remaining wooden covered bridge in Ontario.

The only remaining covered bridge left in Ontario

Having survived all kinds of harsh elements in the past 137 years, the bridge has become a popular place for lovers to pop the question under.

Afterwards, we visited the Picards peanut store.
















Numerous variety of peanuts were in stock and samples were available for visitors.


Customers were looking for their favourite chocolates and flavoured peanuts.


















My Mom was busy  sampling and looking for her favorite peanut snack in the store.

After the visit to the peanut store, our next and final stop was the Toronto Premium Outlet Mall in Milton. We spent about an hour there and I got a really nice brand name purse at 70% off!


We had a fun day of activities in and around the St. Jacobs area. What made us happy was my 92 year old mother was able to enjoy the trip and had a good time too!


R.T.
St. Jacobs Area
Waterloo County, Ontario
June 28, 2018

Learning about Banksy's Art Work at a Toronto Art Exhibition

I am not most current with our contemporary artists. However, while watching the evening news recently, I learned of an art show by Banksy  which was going to be held in the west end of Toronto.

Lining up for tickets to the Banksy exhibition 

What made it to the evening news was the theft that took place during the set up of the show at the Toronto venue. The video camera caught the thief blatantly stealing and walking out with a piece of Banksy's art work from the site while workers were setting up for the show.

After I learned about the art show, we took my mother downtown to see it too.








I have never heard of Banksy and I have learned a few things about him and his work from the art show.



         

Banksy started his work as a street artist drawing his art on street walls

In fact, very few people have met or known much about Banksy except his close partner. He is an anonymous artist and does not  appear even in his own art shows.

Based in England, Banksy is a  graffiti artist and started drawing on the walls of streets.

He became famous after his art show in L.A. where people lined up for hours  to see his work.

Who could forget the image of the brave man facing the tanks alone?

Banksy garnered a lot of attention when Hollywood celebrities such as Brad Pits and Angelina Jolie showed up for his show as well.

Jesus with gift bags

I found Banksy's work dark in some way and different as he tends to choose famous subjects but put in his own twists to create a new satirical message in his artwork.

Very often, the messages are quite ironic such as these  two here.

For example, who could forget the image of the brave Chinese man standing and facing the tanks alone in the Tian An Men Square massacre in China in 1989?  Banksy took this famous picture and put his own twist to it and created a new message. 

The work on the right with Jesus being crucified on the cross. Banksy added some gift bags in Jesus' hands.
Yes, Jesus' death and resurrection is the greatest gift to mankind.

Have a nice day, really?

A girl hugging a bomb?

The current Banksy's exhibition in Toronto contains about 80 pieces of the artist's work which is the biggest collection in the world.

Due to popular demand, the exhibition will be extended until the middle of August near the Lansdown TTC subway station.















Visitors to the Banksy exhibition can learn more about the art pieces by listening to a self guided audio tour.

R.T.
The Art of Banksy Exhibition
Toronto, Canada

Good Pasta Dishes at the Monte Carlo Inn, Oakville, Ontario

Monte Carlo Inn, Oakville, Ontario

 We spent our Canada Day long weekend in Oakville, a little more than half an hour drive from Toronto, not far at all.

Lobby of the Monte Carlos Inn, Oakville, Ontario

The three days/ two night retreat was to allow all the participating couples a quiet, relaxing time from their regular routines so that they could focus their time on each other.

The hotel is a little different in that it does provide a little bit of  European flavour in its deco in some of the guest suites.

When we visited our leaders' suite, we were surprised to see a three quarter wall made with glass bricks with a marble column separating the sleeping area from the sitting area.

A hint of European style in the suite providing some privacy and  a reminder of Roman architecture !

We dined in a separate dining room during our stay at the inn.

During our stay,  the inn offered guests a nutritious complimentary breakfast at its restaurant. I liked the breakfast as it had a good supply of fresh fruits so that I could choose to eat more fruit and less carbohydrate. But I had to skip the nice pastries as I was on a special diet.

During both lunch and dinner time, our group dined in a separate dining room giving us some privacy so that we could conduct our presentations and sharing.

The food was good; we especially enjoyed the meaty pasta dish even though we had it twice during our three day stay there.

There is no swimming pool at the hotel,  however, Monte Carlo Inn does have a room with some gym equipment.

 We were too busy with our retreat program and did not even set foot into the exercise room.












We did take a break after dinner and walked over to the strip mall located near the hotel. It was a nice walk on a hot summer evening. However, this same walk to the small shopping mall would not be easy during the winter months.

We found the hotel clean and the staff friendly. It was a good choice for our couples' retreat.




R.T.
Monte Carlos Inn
Oakville, Ontario, Canada
Weekend of June 30, 2018

Learning to Appreciate My Spouse in a Marriage Enrichment Retreat in Oakville, Ontario

The couples' retreat was organized by CFC, Canada

Over the Canada Day weekend, instead of travelling out of town for a long weekend holiday, my spouse and I did something different this year.

We learned about the couple's retreats run by CFC sometime ago and heard a lot of positive comments about them. This time, we finally had the opportunity to take part in this marriage enrichment retreat.











I was really looking forward to this three day/ two night retreat in Oakville. We left the city on early Saturday morning and arrived at the retreat site before 10a.m., the starting time.  J. and N. were there at the entrance of the hotel greeting the participants and directed us to the third floor conference room.

We took part in a marriage enrichment retreat on the Canada Day weekend

There were nine couples taking part with four leading couples. A very good ratio indeed!

However,  when I first read the program at the retreat, my heart sank as the schedules were packed for the three days with workshops and activities leaving little free time to us.

The program started right at 10a,m and went all the way to 9pm with only an hour for lunch and dinner and an 1/2 hour free time after lunch and  before dinner.

Our 3 day schedules were full  with workshops and hands on activities

However, as the day unfolded and different couples leading the workshops, we found ourselves  enjoying the workshops and the many planned interactive activities.

Lots of sharing at the couples' retreat

Of the numerous workshops we had at this couples' retreat, there was one that touched everyone in our group.

 It was called the Depositing in Your Relationship Account.

We have learned that in order to improve our relationship with our loved ones, we need to have a high "Deposit" in our Relationship Account and avoid " Withdrawals" from it.

What is a Deposit in our Relationship Account?

Anytime we take our time to thank our loved ones and express to them how much we appreciate them is a Deposit.

On the contrary, every time we criticize or hurt our loved one's feelings intentionally or unintentionally, we are making a Withdrawal from our Relationship Account.

We learned a lot from our leading couples

Our leading couple taught and demonstrated to us the steps needed to follow when making a Deposit in our Relationship Account followed by our turns to practise the proper steps with our spouses.

When it was our turns to Deposit in our account, we each expressed our appreciation, thanked our spouses and told them what they meant to us.  There were not too many dry eyes in the room and it was a touching moment for all of us!

R.T.
Marriage Enrichment Retreat
Oakville, Ontario

Visiting the Aga Khan Museum During the Annual Doors Open Toronto

Aga Khan Museum, Toronto, Canada

There has been a building boom in Toronto for the past decade or more.

Entertainment was provided at Doors Open at the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto

We have driven past a magnificent building many times on the Don Valley Parkway wondering what the building was all about.

Islamic designs were used throughout the Aka Khan Museum including its walls.

During the recent 2018 Doors Open Toronto weekend, many famous and beautiful buildings in Toronto were open to the public.

The  floors in the courtyard also reflect the Islamic architectural designs.

We took my mom to visit the Aka Khan Museum and had a guided tour of the place.

It was all for free during the Doors Open weekend.








The Aka Khan Museum is a relatively new building where Torontonians can learn about the Muslim culture, religion and architecture.











It is the first museum in North American that is dedicated to Islam art and Muslim culture.

We saw this beautiful mural on the left in the museum's gift shop. We proceeded to the exhibition area and saw various arts including pottery, clothing, jewellry, wall cravings  etc.







After visiting the museum, we explored the grounds of the museum. We found ourselves standing amid a beautiful generous size urban park with gentle quieting running water fountains shimmering in the afternoon sun.

We explored the well kept grounds of the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto, Canada

The water was running so quietly and gently that we had to touch it to make sure it was real running water in this uniquely designed fountain.


On the opposite side of the Museum is another building in the shape of a pyramid which is the Ismaili Centre. This is where the Ismaili  congregation gathers and worships.

The Ismaili Centre at the  Aga Museum, Toronto

We needed to line up in order to get inside the Ismaili Centre.


Constructed with Islamic architectural designs and details, the Ismaili Centre is made up of a number of different rooms where people gather to learn, socialize and worship.

An open space at the Ismaili Centre, Toronto

I was surprised to see many Muslim women volunteers at the centre who wore their hair just like ordinary people!

I learned that the women from the Ismaili sect of the Muslim religion do not cover their hair.

The restaurant at the Aga Khan Museum
 

During the guided tour, we were directed to certain parts of the Ismaili Centre and we also needed to adhere to some strict rules prior to our entry to the worship area such as removing our shoes and no photography allowed.

As a result, I didn't have too many pictures of the Centre.






After our visit to both the museum and the Ismaili Centre, we went for a break and something to eat at the museum.

There were two choices for us: a cafe serving sandwiches, pastries and desserts or a proper dining room serving some genuine dishes from the Islamic cultures.

We enjoyed the food at the Museum;s restaurant

We always like to try dishes from other cultures and decided dining in the restaurant.

It was a nicely decorated place and the food was good! My Mom liked it!

I was happy that my Mom enjoyed the outing to the Aka Khan Museum. It was a new experience for her learning about a different culture, religion and tasting food very different from her own. She was very happy and this made me happy too!

The Aka Khan Museum is located in the Don Mills area, easily accessible by  TTC -Toronto's public transit system.

Anyone can visit the museum for free on Wednesday evenings from 4pm- 8p.m.!

R.T.
Aga Khan Museum
Don Mills, Toronto