Theresa: We are currently in Toronto and about ready or getting ready to board the Victory One. Robert: We’re on Ward’s Island on a dock that’s actually facing the Victory One, the ship that we’re going to be on. It’s docked next to the Viking Octantis. Theresa: And I don’t know if you can hear in the background, there are a lot of birds. And I don’t know if this is on any flyway. I do know that, well, I guess south of here is Rochester, New York, but when you go west in Ontario, there is a flyway that I believe goes across Pelee Island and then to the south shore of Lake Erie, where there is a very large birding and migratory area. They have a big birding event every year near, well, it’s not Fort Clinton, but it’s very close to one of Ohio’s nice state parks with lodges called the Maumee Bay State Park. Robert: I remember coming here during the 1960s when we would come up for the summers to visit relatives in Toronto. And we’re standing on the dock that we often visited and we’ll be going back, back into the center part of Ward’s Island to the cafe, the Island Cafe. Theresa: Which supposedly now sells beer, which wasn’t allowed before. There’s Ward’s Center and those two connect. And Hanlan’s Point. And then Hanlan’s Point. We took a ferry right from near the Weston Harbourfront Castle, where we stayed last night. And on Victory, your cruise starts the night before. And that makes a lot of sense, especially if you’re flying in, because we know how flights work. And we talked to a few fellow guests at registration. It seems some have come from Central California and they’re surprised at how cold it is here. I think it’s 50 today and we’re thinking that is warm. Robert: It’s a nice blue sky. Yeah, nice blue sky, 50 degrees, a very light breeze. Theresa: We’ve seen one of my favorite birds, but didn’t hear it. That is the common loon. And maybe mallard duck, but I don’t own my birds so well, especially my ducks. Looks to be that this part of the island is a wetland. So I think if you were a birder, this might be, or a ducker, I don’t know. But I think this could be good for birding. Are there a lot of cottages here? Robert: And they’ve been here for a very long time. I remember when I was 8, 9, 10 years old, we’d come here. This was always a high point of our summer vacation when we visited relatives to come to the islands and the cottages were always there. Robert: We’re on Ward’s Island on a dock that’s actually facing the Victory 1, the ship that we’re going to be on. It’s docked next to the Viking Octantis. Theresa: And I don’t know if you can hear in the background, there are a lot of birds. And I don’t know if this is on any flyway. I do know that, well, I guess south of here is Rochester, New York, but when you go west in Ontario, there is a flyway that I believe goes across Pelee Island and then to the south shore of Lake Erie, where there is a very large birding and migratory area. They have a big birding event every year near, well, it’s not Port Clinton, but it’s very close to one of Ohio’s nice state parks with lodges called the Maumee Bay State Park. Robert: I remember coming here during the 1960s when we would come up for the summers to visit relatives in Toronto. And we’re standing on the dock that we often visited. And we’ll be going back, back into the center part of Ward’s Island to the cafe, the Island Cafe. Theresa: Which supposedly now sells beer, which wasn’t allowed before. There’s Ward’s Center and those two connect. And Hanlan’s Point. And then Hanlan’s Point. We took a ferry right from near the Westin Harbourfront Castle, where we stayed last night. And on Victory, your cruise starts the night before. And that makes a lot of sense, especially if you’re flying in because we know how flights work. And we talked to a few fellow guests at registration. It seems some have come from Central California, and they’re surprised at how cold it is here. I think it’s 50 today, and we are thinking that is warm. Robert: It’s a nice blue sky. Yeah, nice blue sky, 50 degrees, a very light breeze. Theresa: We’ve seen one of my favorite birds, but didn’t hear it. That is the common loon. And maybe mallard duck, but I don’t own my birds so well, especially my ducks. Looks to be that this part of the island is a wetland. So I think if you were a birder, this might be a, or a ducker, I don’t know. But I think this could be good for birding. Are there a lot of cottages here? Robert: And they’ve been here for a very long time. I remember when I was 8, 9, 10 years old, we’d come here. This was always a high point of our summer vacation, when we visited relatives to come to the islands. And the cottages were always there. It’s a tight-knit cottage community. Theresa: Victory does offer tours today of different spots in Toronto. So if you haven’t been to Toronto, you could do that. We kind of like being outdoors and we have been to Toronto before. Robert: And the birds are flying in and out of this wetland. We’re watching them. I wish I knew my birds. Theresa: Oh, there’s the app. There’s eBird and there’s another one that you can listen to their song and identify the bird like that. Merlin, maybe? Something like Merlin. I don’t know. So today we’re doing this instead of being in the studio, we’re out in the world’s best studio, the great outdoors. Robert: On the great lakes. Theresa: On the great lakes in the great city of Toronto, which has grown immensely in the past decades. On Ward’s Island still looks like it gets the fewest visitors, which is perfect for us because we don’t like crowds. But there is a small amusement park on Center Island and an airport on Hanlan’s Point. Robert: You can see turboprop planes taking off and landing there. Theresa: So we’re at the farthest point we could get to on this pier across from us, like Robert said. We have the Viking Octantis, which I have had the privilege of sailing the Victory One. This will be our first time on this ship. Tomorrow, our port will be Port Colborne. We’ll go to the Niagara Falls area and our excursion then will be the power plant, which looks, I mean, you see power plants all over there, all the electrical wires. So that will be really interesting. Robert: We’ve seen the building on opposite Niagara Falls when we’ve always visited the falls, but have never actually been inside or really close to it. So that’s just going to be exciting to see. Theresa: Right. And I think we’ll go through the Welland Canal. I always forget how to pronounce that. And that will be interesting as well. I mean, we have to get to Lake Erie, so we don’t have a lot of options. And we will be boarding later and we’ll be back then. We’re here on our first shore excursion. We are on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. And if you ever visit Niagara Falls, that is the best place to go to. I’m not saying anything bad about the American side, but you get a better view on the Canadian side. And we’re at the top we are where the Niagara River drops into the falls. We just came back from a tour of the power tunnel, which I highly recommend. I’ve been to the falls many times and never realized there is a tour you go from the power station down an elevator and you walk through a tunnel that’s about half a mile long and you come out right at the lower level of the river. It was a little hazy today, so we didn’t get a lot of good photos, but I hope they turn out. Robert: The walkway to the overlook was very gently inclined and paved. It was smooth. It was very easy to walk. And the view was spectacular once we got outside. Theresa: And if you do have to use a wheelchair or anything else, it was smooth concrete. And like Robert said, there were some small inclines, but they even had the automatic door openers and you take an elevator down. So it’s quite the nice place. We highly recommend it. Robert: We’re here on a beautiful day. It’s a blue sky. The mist is coming up over the falls. We can look back at the river. It’s just a magnificent place to be. I remember coming here many, many years ago. We celebrated our 25th anniversary here in the winter, and it was amazing to see the falls, parts of it frozen. I would certainly recommend seeing it any time of year. Theresa: And actually most of the ice just left the river. Lake Erie pretty much entirely froze over. I think they said 95 percent, which lately has been unusual. That used to happen all the time. So there was plenty of ice coming down the river. And they do put up a metal gate so that all of the ice isn’t dropping over the falls, but some still gets away. Robert: And it supposedly just cleared of ice just a couple of days ago. And we did see one of the boats that sail underneath the falls, sail into the falls, and all the passengers are wearing ponchos. And I don’t know if that was the maid of the mist, or I believe there’s another one. Hornblower. Hornblower, right. Theresa: I hope you can hear the river. Okay, so we are not following the usual plan. We are off on the road and out of the studio. So just actually kind of winging it with our dead cats. We will stop here, but we will try to add something in a few days. We just are leaving. We’ve planned our trip today for Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which is one of the included, or the only included, shore excursion, which is absolutely fabulous. We’re going back to Lake Erie. Our stop tomorrow is Detroit. And the included excursion there is the Henry Ford Museum, which is also a very good choice. However, even though it’s been probably at least 20 years since we’ve been there, we have never been to the Detroit Institute of Art, and we are Mexicophiles and really want to see the Diego Rivera murals there. So we will do that. Thanks for joining Living the Could Life. Coming Soon!