Ohhhh, Canadaaaaa

[Katie]

Our intrepid little fam bam are heading off on an adventure tomorrow - to Canada. Our first family trip there, and first time in Canada for Mr Katie and Miss 13 (I've had two brief conference trips to YVR and YUL). Our inspiration was it's somewhere new, and a friend of mine has been inviting me/us to visit the log cabin that he and his wife built on a lake west of Sudbury.

I did not know how far away from Toronto their cabin was when we made our plans ... only after booking flights and arranging a long weekend with them, I found out it's a six hour drive away! Oh well, all part of the adventure.

Tomorrow's plans:
Wake up at 4am, BNE-SYD in Y. Then we're on QF11 in Y+, still hoping we might get a points upgrade to J for that flight. From LAX, we've got AA flights in Y to ORD, then YYZ. This is our first family holiday longer than one week - and there was only one of those - since April, 2018, so we're all in need of a holiday, particularly Mr Katie. Two weeks sightseeing and freezing in Eastern Canada should do the trick!

Overall plans:
A few nights in Toronto, weekend at the friends' cabin, one night after in Toronto, then ViaRail to Quebec via Ottawa, a few nights in Quebec, then train down to Montreal and three nights there.
Food objectives: Eat poutine and beaver tails. Mr Katie was not organised to book Joe Beef in Montreal the moment we booked our tickets, so that homage to Anthony Bourdain is off our plans.

 

[Bundy Bear]

Is this where we lock in a seat allocation for the trip, I hope you are fighting fit and ready to go.
have a good trip

 

[Katie]

Is this where we lock in a seat allocation for the trip, I hope you are fighting fit and ready to go.
have a good trip

Thanks, @Bundy Bear. I'm getting better, but Mr Katie is sick. Went to the Dr today, so he is armed with some amoxycillin and nasal spray or something like that. He will not be popular to sit near on the flights, as he has a very loud cough.

 

[VPS]

Sounds exciting. Will you be back before Christmas or are you in Canada for Christmas

 

[mrs.dr.ron]

Get Mr Katie some lemon Strepsils for the flight - it might help with the cough. I never go OS without them

 

[defurax]

For poutine the best place is La Banquise.
As a good substitute for Joe Beef you should try Montréal Plaza. If you want foie gras in your poutine then it's Au Pied De Cochon (artery clogging stuff).

 

[RooFlyer]

a lake west of Sudbury.

Will you be visiting The Big Nickel in Sudbury?

Food objectives: Eat poutine and beaver tails

Beaver tails I can understand ( although I find the hair always gets between your teeth), but poutine?

Ask for extra gravy.

 

[craven morehead]

Jumping on the TR train

 

[ellen10]

Sounds like a great trip looking forward to following along.

 

[Katie]

Will you be visiting The Big Nickel in Sudbury?

Beaver tails I can understand ( although I find the hair always gets between your teeth), but poutine?

Ask for extra gravy.

Maybe if I want to try to claim some of the trip as a work trip. I was umming and ahhing about dropping in on our Tronno office, but it’s only a block away from our hotel.

This is Mr Katie’s first trip to Canada, and poutine is on his “must try in Canada list”. He’s happy to try any food, once.

 

[Katie]

Get Mr Katie some lemon Strepsils for the flight - it might help with the cough. I never go OS without them

I’ve got some for me! I guess I’ll share them ...

 

[Katie]

Sounds exciting. Will you be back before Christmas or are you in Canada for Christmas

It’s a quicky, home on the 18th Dec.

 

[Katie]

It’s the night before the trIp. All weekend, I’ve been telling Mr Katie and Miss 13 “It’ll be colder than all of our trips to Europe.” Mr Katie blows his nose in response, and Miss 13 can’t hear me through her headphones.

Our suitcases are packed - 1, 2, 3! - except for Mr Katie’s, as he still needs to faff about with his toiletries and shaving in the morning. He says he can shave tonight; I don’t really care. Glancing at him, tomorrow morning is his choIce. Good-o.

Far too often today, i’ve been refreshing EF to see QF11’s stats for tomorrow. We’re in Y+ hoping the points fairy relieves my daughter (SG) of points to upgrade us all. I thought my points would be depleted by now for a wedding anniversary trip to NYC next year, but alas, I have a full compliment of QF points. Mr Katie and I are both WPs, but it seems there are more worthy WPs and P1s and CLs ahead of us in the upgrade queue. Or it was a sore mistake to use the SG account to request the upgrade. I thought having two WP pax in the PNR would help ... it seems not. Oh well, Mr Katie almost seemed to be quoting @serfty this afternoon when he said “If we wanted business, we should have paid for business”.
Yes, Dear.

So EF was declaring F5 A3 J6 C4 D3 at 8:58 EST this morning.
At 9:39 tonight, it’s F5 A3 J1 ... c’mon QF, upgrade some J pax to F and put us in J! No? Rightio, we’ll suck it up on VH-OQF and see what row 32 is like with the three of us, the shortest of whom is already 175cm. At 13.

We‘ve elected to not pre-order meals, as there’s no special online meal anymore. Little Miss think the Chicken Schnitty on offer sounds good, but there might be tears when she thinks the mashed sweet potato is pumpkin. There’s also a salmon dish with ink noodles and some lamb shanks. Happy to take our best best for filling up whatever room is left over after the FLounge.

Thanks to no daylight saving in the US and daylight saving in our southern neighbour, we have a 5:20am flight to SYD from BNE. Luckily, we aren’t too too far from the airport. We’ll be able to leave home at 4am, and arrive at 4:20. The Premium Entry will be open by then, and we won’t have to wait for security to open up like I did five weeks ago on a trip to the US where I was on QF501 at 5am. We’ll just have to make sure the taxi driver / Uber driver doesn’t try to take the tunnel, as there’s night works on each night at the moment.

Not much else to report so far. We have our touques and scarves strategically packed in one suitcase. Costs will be dragged with us on board (Ugh, so hot carrying them In Oz! I’ll just think of the upside ... ). We’ve got about 30 hours of travel ahead of us tomorrow, and it’ll be a long tomorrow travelling that way over the date line.
Mr Katie has his amoxycillin (sp?) and panadol, I’ve got strepsils and sugar-free hard lollies, and Miss 13 has some Honeycomb maltesers and Trolli sour worms for snacks, just in case.

I have established a game plan with Miss 13 - I said I’m unlikely to eat in the BNE J Lounge in the morning, maybe I’ll have a Ginger Refresher to drink to quell my travel nerves. And I’m unlikely to eat on the flight. I’m waiting for the SYD Lounge. Miss 13 said “the pancakes are fluffier in the SYD lounge”. Yes, honey, I said. Not sure they are, but if she’ll eat them tomorrow, then great!

 

[Katie]

Now that I’m relaxing in front of TV instead of sleeping, I’ve just downloaded a knitting pattern, just in case I finishe my current project before we get to Toronto tomorrow, on the Very Long Day. I’ve found a pattern for a hand dyed ball of yarn I bought in Old Town Alexandria at the start on November, and the pattern is named for a moth. Because why not.
When I went through BNE dom security at the end of November (the aforementioned 5am flight, where I had to wait for security to open after checking in), the security scanner commented that I had “a lot of pens“ in my carryon. I told them they were actually all interchangable knitting needle ends.

Miss 13 is taking a different carryon wheelie bag to usual, in the hope it won’t be overweight. I picked up her bag tonight, found it quite heavy, and inspected the contents ... colouring pencils, blank drawing book, pencils ... and a hardcover “Women of Dr Who” (or similar) book that she’s owned since last Christmas. I suggested that she ditch the book, and only take new-ish books. She’s renegotiated her carryon. Let’s see how she goes in the morning.

 

[RooFlyer]

our Tronno office

Memo: The are no ‘o’ s in Toronto. It’s more like Traana ( I lived there for a year. To really fit in just say ‘What about them Leafs, eh?’ at random times during a conversation. )

 

[serfty]

Mr Katie almost seemed to be quoting @serfty this afternoon when he said “If we wanted business, we should have paid for business”.

Moi?! I would never say such a thing - it's so "glass half empty"!

I'm more inclined to say "expect to travel in the class booked - anything extra is a bonus". - Yes, the glass is half full!

 

[Deleted member]

Enjoy the trip. I look forward to the log cabin photos

 

[Major]

Sounds like MrK needs a couple of stiff drinks before the long haul. To help him sleep

 

[Pushka]

Get Mr Katie some lemon Strepsils for the flight - it might help with the cough. I never go OS without them

I‘ve had a scratchy throat the last couple of days and just now found some Manuka Honey cough amd throat lozenges. Wow, they are so good.

On your way now, safe travels.

 

[mrs.dr.ron]

I‘ve had a scratchy throat the last cpuple of days and just now found some Manuka Honey cough amd throat lozenges. Wow, they are so good.

Brand ?? Can you take a photo of the packet please ?