Can You Still Order Home Fries...

..when you're on vacation?



One of the perks of being in Canada was watching comedy shows in our hotel. The above remark was made on the show Royal Canadian Air Farce.

**
When I read local newspapers in Canada, the theme seemed to be Pick On Air Canada. Let the record at Herding Cats state that (aside from the idiot who failed to book our children on the flight home - what, we were going to leave them in Canada?), the staff of Air Canada were more than helpful and professional. As we struggled with our travel-weary kids to disembark from the return flight, a flight attendant carried one of our laptops AND a member of the cockpit crew carried our rollaboard suitcase. Either that's their idea of customer service, or they were desperate to get us off the plane since the new crew were all lined up in the jetway waiting to board. I have a feeling it was the latter.

**

Let's see: I went to a country where stuff is real expensive, toting toddlers and visiting with in-laws, and nearly missed the return flight home. Yup, sounds like a great vacation. The Citizen and I did get to play a few short games of tennis and I did get to see my soccer honey Ahn Jung-Hwan play in the World Cup.

Ahn Jung-Hwan, left.









We visited Niagara Falls, stomping grounds of fellow blogger Zambo.



Here is the cast of Herding Cats at Niagara Falls. And I look none too pleased for the entire experience.


We walked in a park across the street from the falls. The Branch enjoyed investigating his namesake, the pine tree.


The Blossom was a bit less enthused about nature.




In the town of Niagara Falls, we ate outstanding fish and chips at Fine Kettle 'O' Fish. Pictured below are the Canadian Citizen (The Citizen's brother) and his wife at FKOF.


I won't lie - I was OVERJOYED to get home, least of all to a real cup of coffee out of a ceramic mug. The best cup of coffee I had on vacation was at the Korean laundromat, when the proprietor offered me a cup from his personal coffeemaker (The Citizen's and my big romantic getaway was watching Australia v. Japan in the World Cup at the Korean laundromat). Hotel coffee sucks. It's weak as water and I hate styrofoam cups. The Branch fell out of the high chair at the breakfast bar. The carpet was filthy - the shoes I wear to take out the trash at home are cleaner on the bottom than my sandals after walking down the hotel hall. And this was a Holiday Inn Express, not some fleabag motel.

I could rant on and on. My mother-in-law said the Blossom's shoes don't fit, when actually MIL was trying to put them on the Blossom without SOCKS, which were provided. The kids were frequently tired, out of their usual surroundings, and cranky. The Blossom did not like Chinese food and the Branch ate too much (my in-laws idea of calming a crying child is to stick food or a bottle in their mouth). Oh, and the Citizen lost our keys so we had to call the catsitter and coach him on how to Fed-Ex the car key to us so we could drive home. This actually happened previously, when the Citizen left our keys in the rental car in our honeymoon in Hawaii. That's it, the Citizen shall no longer be the keeper of the keys when away from home.

It'll be awhile before I attempt such a trip in the future!