Thursday, July 11, 2013

The Pettersetter's Arrive!

Kristin, Crag, Anders and Bjorn, our neighbors and friends from the infamous gated community back in Golden Valley, made the trek to Michigan and then followed us back to Toronto.

We arrived amidst typical Toronto Traffic and the 401 at a stand still but we preserved and after 11 hours, which should have been 8 we made it home, ironically Tracy actually beat us home from work! Friday we had a great time catching up talking gossip and the kids of course had a ball, like it was just yesterday we were at Lyon's Park.

Saturday morning was filled with the usual Loudamericans schedule, school for Tom, football for Jimmy dog walk for Nikki and pedicures for Tracy and Kristin. Then the fun began after lunch we headed out to show them our town, nah, nah ,nah, nah, nah, this my town...

The subway brought us to Union Station and we headed out to explore the water front and the Asian Festival. We were planning on going out to Centre Island however the other 5 million residents had the same plan so we took a pass and ended up watching a live infomercial. Purina Dog Food was having a Pro Plan dog show and the kids we enthralled watching the different breeds of dog go through a series of cones, gates, hoops and slides, we had to drag the kids away. Then it was off to listen to some awesome live music and explore the water front. No tour of Toronto is complete with out a stop in Kensington Market, which is also Jimmy's favorite part of Toronto, it is like Haite Asbury, Bohemian headquarters all rolled into one. We wondered through China town as well where Bjorn and Kay had to have a fresh coconut chopped and with a straw, it was not a hit.

The subway delivered us to one of our favorite Toronto restaurants, GUU, a mix of Sushi and Western food such as a classic version of Chicken Nuggets, seriously the best in the GTA! We had a fabulous dinner and a couple of tall cold beverages and it was back on the subway homeward bound. Back at the ranch we watched of course cooking shows!, and the kids played themselves out and it was off to dreamland.

Sunday was brunch extraordinaire, Cinnamon French toast, apple infused potato hash browns, cinnamon whipped cream and Vidalia onion Merlot jam, nap anyone? The day was sort of a start and stop kind of day, rain in the forecast, Jimmy had a double header that kept us in and out of commission so the Pettersetter's ventured out on their own to visit the Hockey Hall of Fame and made it back to tell all about it. Of course both Jimmy's games were cancelled and the day was a waste from that perspective. None to fear when you have oil, fresh cod and a couple of boxes of Panko's you can create the best fried fish on the planet!

All good things have to come to a break so on Monday morning Tracy left for work and Kristin, Craig, Anders and Bjorn headed back to the gated community. We are super thankful they came to visit and now the kids are home sick and can't wait to return to Golden Valley and their Minnesota friends.