Dear Perry,
I was glad to read your post. Yes, Toronto is a very cold city in the winter. I'm glad you are enjoying it, anyway. One of the reasons it's so cold is because of the dampness of the air due to the Great Lakes.
Ben and I spent our honeymoon in Toronto in January. It was all we could manage then, but it was bitterly cold that time, too! Buffalo, N.Y., nearby in the USA gets much more snow than Toronto, but Toronto gets a lot, too, and the wind off Lake Ontario (a huge inland sea), is icy. Have you been able to visit Niagara Falls yet? A place that I always found interesting in Toronto is the Royal Ontario Museum. I hope they haven't changed it too much.
I hope you passed your driver's test! When you get a chance to drive I hope you will be able to see some of the sights of the area.
Be sure to go to see the great and beautiful Niagara Falls and the parks around it. If you go in a cold time be sure to visit the Niagara Parks greenhouse in the park near the Falls. However, the best time to visit is in the spring when the trees have fresh little leaves and all the beautiful flowers, bushes and bulbs are in bloom.
It is definitely well worth it to take a trip on "The Maid of the Mist", the boat that shows you the falls from the river down below. It is also worthwhile to take the walk under the falls, where you wear a yellow water proof slicker. Also stop to see the huge Niagara River Whirlpool as you drive down the Niagara River Parkway to the Niagara School of Horticulture. You enter from the left side of the road. There is a gorgeous park there around the school. It is a very worthwhile visit, except in winter. Continue to drive on in the direction of historic Queenston and visit Queenston Heights park where there was a great battle between Canadians and Americans in 1812. There is a beautiful park there full of tall old trees, and the old earth-works of the fortifications. It's definitely worth a visit, especially in spring or summer for a picnic. There's a tall column in the park, (the column is called Brock's Monument). It has hundreds of steps inside to the top,where there is a fine view through something like portholes, in four directions. David and I had relatives fighting there in the Battle of Queenston Heights in the War of 1812, when General Sir Isaac Brock was killed. It was fought to keep Canada a separate country from the U.S.
Go along a little further to the beautiful old historic town of Niagara-on-the-Lake. Once it was the capital of Canada. The Americans burned it. So Canadians went down and burned the White House in Washington, D.C. We had relatives living there at the time, too, and also across from the huge Niagara River whirlpool. In 1789 during the American Revolutionary War, Canuck's and my ancestors left the New York state area on the Hudson River, where they had lived since 1630, to continue to live under the British Crown and British justice, rather than under the new revolutionary government that became the United States of America after the American Civil War in the mid 1800's.
All along the way, for all those twenty or so miles along the Niagara River from Niagara Falls to Niagara-on-the-Lake, you will be driving through beautiful parks, in one of the most historic areas of Canada.
There are two forts at the mouth of the Niagara River facing each other. Our ancestors took refuge in the big stone fort on the American side of the river, called Fort Niagara. It is the original fort they lived in. They often were at the fort on our side, called Fort George. Fort George was a British headquarters. Now it's a restored fort set in parks. At Port Dalhousie there is a park and midway. There is a very old merry-go-round there that is a lovely old thing. Rides used to cost only five cents. I expect it is still kept to a very reasonable cost. There is a long pier with a lighthouse at the end, at Port Dalhousie.
I hope you can make this trip one day because it is a wonderful trip. In winter it is still very interesting. Usually near the great falls where the spray freezes on everything and there is ice on the river is the best, and in the Niagara Parks greenhouse.
I am much nearer China now than you are now! :-) We are in a dry interior valley so even though it snows it never gets very cold like it feels in Toronto.Anyway, you have made me a little homesick!
Warmly, Mary
