Best Day ever!!!

A couple of days ago while out wandering the lovely Riverside Park, we came across a paddle boat rental spot.  Thinking this would be a fun thing to do with Alisha, we rented two boats.  One for the boys and one for the "goyles".  A life jacket was provided for Alisha to wear.  She was very apprehensive which should been a big indicator that she really was not to keen on getting into this tiny yellow paddle boat and sailing off into the big lake.  We did try to tell her that it was only a small meandering river (the flow of the water, does not really match the name:  Speed River).  Anyway, being the over zealous Nana that I am  and trying to cram as much fun into a week that I can and you know,,,,, build some memories,,,, I told Alisha that it really was very shallow and even Mermaids can't live in it because it is not deep enough.  We did give her the choice of going with Papa and Bradley or with Mommy and Nana.  Of course she picked the the ladies, because after all "Goyles Rule".  You can see by this photo that she was not impressed and after about five minutes, we peddled our way back into the dock to let the little Princess put her feet back onto dry land.  I honestly thought she just might kiss the ground when she disembarked the Titanic!!



 

We can't always plan things for this little kidlets thinking that they will "love" things that we may really like to do, when in reality what we may chose may either bore them to tears or terrify them!  So when we decided to take a drive over to Stratford which is internationally recognized  for its annual Shakespeare Festival, I thought this would be a trip to bore her completely.  The town is beautiful and quaint.  I would love to come back here and take in some of the festivities.  Little did I know, or maybe I did know but had forgotten, that Justin Beiber is from Stratford.  Mind you, had I known or remembered, it would not have made any difference to me one way or another.  But to one little girl who was riding in the back seat of the truck, it certainly meant a whole lot! 

 

After finding a parking space which was extremely difficult as tourists from everywhere were also searching for a vacant space to park their car, truck, camper, motorcycle or bus!  We managed to get a spot just down the street from the Avon Theatre.  The Avon Theatre is a beautiful old vaudeville house and fondly reminded me of the beautiful Orpheum Theatre in Vancouver.  There was a woman taking a photo of two very giddy little girls in front of the theatre.  Riki all of a sudden says to Alisha,,, "oh my gosh, this is THE Avon theatre, where Justin Beiber used to sing in front of!"  OMG,,,, you would not believe the reaction of this adorable little (almost 4 year old) wearing a beautiful princess crown!  She started squealing,,, I mean S Q U E A L I N G!!!  You would have thought she was 13 years old!  Wouldn't you know it, not only was this "the" theatre, but there was a "star" with Justin Beiber's name on it right in front of the stairs.  For a minute I thought I was really in Los Angeles in front of Gorman Theatre!   But of course this Nana had to get in on the excitement and told Alisha to stand by the star and we would get a picture of her.  Naturally, this was the time that I had not brought my camera, but we did manage to take a shot of her on Riki's phone.  You would have thought this little girl was actually standing in front of the Beiber himself, she was beside her self!

 

After we managed to peel Alisha away from the Beiber, we poked our way through the town.  We were entertained by some street musicians, some better than others.  The best was two little girls playing the violins.  Very cute!  We bought Alisha a pair of shoes for school before heading back to Guelph.  On the way out of the shoe store Alisha said to Papa,,,,, "This is the best day ever!"

 

 

 

 

We made a stop at a roadside vegetable stand  in Shakespeare and decided to "buy local".  We bought some sweet corn from the stand.  Just down the road we stopped in at "Porky Pigs" and bought some beautiful pork chops for the bar-b-que.  What we did not realize until we actually cooked them for dinner was that it was a "smoked" pork chop which was actually thick slices of "ham".  It was good but when you are expecting a chop, I was a wee bit dissapointed!

 

Good night, until the next "best day ever",,,,

 

Ray and Lori