Capt. Mondo's World o' Mondo-ness

John and Faye Getting Used to Being Here
Their typical day begins late, and ends late. They're usually up by the time we are beginning to contemplate lunch, and say up past our bed-time (though as parents of young kids, we'd be dog-tired if we tried to keep their hours). They have free run of the house, and they seem to spend much of their time in and around the Beach area. Yesterday they had a picnic lunch down by the lakeshore. Faye tried wading into the lake, but found it way too cold, as well as too gravelly. ;-) They are continually astounded by how much food they can buy with their money -- an average-sized bag of potato chips for them is equivalent to the size we give to kids at Halloween for example. The same principle seems to apply to beer -- on his second day with us I treated John to a pitcher of Stella Artois. Even for a premium beer it was still half the price at least of an equivalent amount of drink at home in Britain. So if they've come to have a cheap vacation, they couldn't have come to a better place.

They went to the local cinema last night, and typically dine out at one of the many local pubs in the evening, and in the process have caught some of the local live bands as well.

Their travel plans seem to be more fluid than I first thought. I am getting the impression that maybe John going to that wedding may not be such a high priority after all, and he has said something about wanting to stay in Ontario for the whole of his trip this time (I can't say I blame him: Toronto or Saskatoon -- I mean, which would you pick?) He and Faye want to check out Niagara Falls and go up the CN Tower, but other than that have no definite plans.

The local Beaches Jazz Festival begins here later this week, so I think I've convinced them to stick around at least until then. As it is a free festival, it's only as expensive as you want it to be, and it is literally down the street from where we live.

Over the weekend Erika and I made definite plans to go visit her Father, who is staying up at his island in Georgian Bay. If there is room available, we may end up taking John and Faye with us, giving them a chance to really get a taste of the North Country.