Local Tourists and Back to the Sewing Machine

I did not have a lot of sewing time in the last 10 days...you see, my cousin and her husband came to visit us for a week.  They live in Scotland and we had not seen each other since 2019.  Since it was their first visit to Canada, they wanted to see all the famous tourist sites including the CN tower in Toronto and Niagara Falls.  So, my husband and I planned an itinerary full of fun and interesting things to see and do...our days were full of chatting and laughing and doing activities together.  Before I share some pictures of the places we went, here is a picture of the very small amount of stitching that I got done while they were here. I hope to make more progress this coming week. 

My daughter is almost finished her Ottawa cityscape.  Just a few more spots to fill in. 

Our company left on Thursday evening so today, I reacquainted myself with my sewing machine by making some blocks for the Toronto Modern Quilt Guild Charity quilt for Quilt Con 2024--four identical 6.5" blocks in assigned colours.  I will put these in the mail tomorrow so they can be added to the quilt. 

I am two months behind on my Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks so I made a red pineapple block for July.  I will make the June block this coming week. 

In Toronto, we went up the CN Tower where the views were fabulous!  I had only to the CN tower twice before--once on a field trip in public school and once with my daughter about 20 years ago.  The Toronto skyline has changed a lot in those intervening years. 

In the evening, we took a one hour boat tour of the harbour and had great views of the city. 

There was a photo op at the TORONTO sign in front of city hall.  They were amazed at how busy it was and the size of the buildings. 

We spent several hours at "Little Canada" a scale model of various cities and sites in Canada. There were trains running on the tracks and cars driving on the roads and lots of tiny people in all sorts of interesting situations. 

It was interesting to see the buildings in the model and then see them in real life as well. These curvy buildings are in Mississauga, just west of Toronto. 

If you are ever in Toronto, I highly recommend a visit to Little Canada. 

We spent the next day at Black Creek Pioneer Village, a living history museum with costumed interpreters in most of the buildings.  I spotted an old cross stitch sampler and a sewing machine in one of the buildings.  

We spent the next day at Point Pelee National Park near Leamington where we rode bikes and went on a boardwalk hike in the marsh where we saw several turtles, lots of birds and dragonflies and two beavers. 

Next, we went to Niagara Falls where we climbed the Brock Monument... 

Had butterflies land on us at the Butterfly Conservatory...

Went on the Voyage to the Falls Boat tour...  (this used to be called the Maid of the Mist--I had never been on this boat tour before!). This picture was taken from the Journey Behind the Falls. 

We also strolled along the Main Street in Niagara on the Lake and admired the beautiful flowers.

On the way home, we stopped at the Welland Canal viewing area in St. Catharines and watched a large ship go thought the locks. 

Our final full day together was a tour of our home town and included visits to the Elevated Park, local murals, Port Stanley and, of course, Shaws Ice Cream Parlour.   

We all thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the sites together and look forward to when we can see each other in person again. They didn't get to see Finn and our daughter in person, but we did talk on FaceTime several times while they were here. 

I will link up with the Slow Sunday Stitchers in the morning as well as the Rainbow Scrap Challenge folks.