<![CDATA[

Toronto, Canada

Amish country, we’re in Amish country! It’s snowing and we’re chilling with the Amish, in Amish country!! Snow completed a picture perfect setting for our visit into this simplistic part of the world. We arrived at 3:00pm into the the town of Lancaster, PENNSYLVANIA and realised we needed to proactively find some Amish fast before the snow storm worsened. In typical tourist innocence, I asked the hotel reception for the ‘Amish whereabouts’, their hangout spots. Not realising they are normal people who go about their business in everyday ways, I could see the receptionist getting twitchy. I turned around and realised the local tourist attraction was in fact standing right behind us. The snow storm cancelled the tour through the village but we completed that ourself later. It was easy enough to spot an Amish house. Apart from the lack of lights shown through the windows, Amish houses will only ever be painted three colours: white (representing peace), green (land) and blue (sky). Windmills can be also seen, for driving their compressed air machinery whereas kerosene and propane is used for powering other devices. They need something to keep their innards warm, as today we have had 10cm+ of snow over everything. By 3:30 we had booked ourself onto the day’s last tour through a former Amish house, with a backyard and buggies. They are a fascinating bunch of people. 31,000 live here in Lancaster and that doubles every 20years. The Amish arose originally from a Swiss Mennonite, Jakob Amman before the religion spread through Europe. Unfortunately they gradually were forced to move to the USA to avoid religious persecution and compulsory military service and are now completely eradicated from Europe. There are 200,000 “old order” (full blown) Amish living in America, over 20 settlements in 20 states. I admire their core values: humility, family, community and separation from the world. From an outsider’s perspective, all we see is odd clothing and their rejection of anything worldly, specifically electricity. Electricity is a prime connection to the world which has temptations detrimental to the community and family life. When you see western kids with their iPads at the dining room table, they have a point. Amish munchkins attend a one room Amish community school and there are no Amish churches per se. Every second Sunday they rotate the location of the service to someone’s house. What we most admire about these folk, is families understand that adolescents will go through a misbehaving phase. The Amish call it Rumspringa, we’d call it a pain in the ass stage. During that time, rules are more relaxed before they have an opportunity to decide if they want to leave the Amish way (“gone English”), leave for a less exacting religion (“he’s got his hair cut”) or stay in. Depending on the strictness of the community, sadly those leaving in any way may run the risk of being shunned by their family and community. Apart from the buggies, the next glaringly obvious “Amish identity” is their distinctive self made clothing and beards, essentially that of a 17th-century European peasant. Men and boys wear their trademark broad-brimmed black hats, dark-coloured suits, straight-cut coats, broad fall pants, suspenders, solid-coloured shirts and black socks and shoes. Their shirts may fasten with conventional buttons, but their coats and vests fasten with hooks and eyes. They don’t like buttons as that is a reminder of the European persecution days. The baddies had shining gold buttons. Men must grow beards after they marry but are forbidden to have moustaches. Whereas the woman never cut their hair, which is worn in a bun, and they are not allowed to wear jewellery of any kind. Amish women and girls wear bonnets, long full dresses with capes over the shoulders, shawls, and black shoes and stockings. The most fascinating things about all their clothing is they are fastened with PINS – no sewing or buttons of any sort. This make for easy access I’d say, which is why most families have 8 kids – in my opinion anyway.
Following our informative visit to the Amish house, we headed to an Amish style restaurant. It’s family style dining so eating with others is encouraged while hearty Amish food is served. In an Amish home, woman are in the kitchen for 15 hours a day so food is a huge part of their lifestyle. If I was Amish, we’d starve. They aren’t so much an attraction as first thought but more a fascinating, conservative way of life that we were fortunate enough to learn about. No photos were taken directly. Apart from it being rude, that’s a big no-no in the Amish rule book. Regardless, those memories will be captured forever.

The further north we drove the thicker the snow. By the time we hit Buffalo, just before the Canadian border, the snow was a few feet deep on the ground and covered every available surface, resembling a 3D shading. Snow layers on tree branches gave the scene a further depth of field. Driving through a snow storm simulates being in a shaken snow globe. Dad is a brilliant driver so we have no qualms about driving on through. Plus, he has great confidence in this truck, so nothing is stopping us from exploring. All the roads are continuously being snow ploughed. It was especially chilly taking the five minute walk from the car park to the Niagara Falls look out on the American side. The lake effect brings a very cold wind chill. A bridge with customs each side segregates the American and Canadian sides. Driving into the Canadian side was like driving into a mini Las Vegas. Light city. Additionally, the city goes crazy on the Christmas lights along the road to the falls. Dad took us for a drive around the town after dinner. The falls themselves are lit up in all colours, it’s so bright the spray from the falls mixed with the falling snow make a incandescent rainbow over the falls. Stunning! The people on the Canadian side are different, softer, from those in the state of New York we had just left.

Two nights in Toronto with two missions: one was achieved and one was not. The first was to see our friend from the African trip, Laurie. Laurie and Dave were two peas in a pod on that trip. If anyone was to be caught climbing a tree or rolling down a gigantic sand dune on theirs tums, it’d be the two of them. Due to the weather, lack of trees and sand dunes we opted for dinner in a warm Canadian beer garden, a walk to the ice skating rink and through the kilometres of enclosed pathways linking up the city. An indoor path linking the city is a brilliant invention considering temperatures this evening were between -12 to -20 degrees depending on whether in the wind or not. The temperature is routinely discussed without the minus as that is a given. For example it’s 12degrees when it’s really -12. The other ‘to do’ but didn’t do, was to go to an ice hockey game. Tickets to the games were upwards of $70 each. We can’t do it all unfortunately. Mum has caught my cold but hers turned into a terrible flu. She came across particularly ill, fainting in a shopping centre so Dad took her back to the hotel and looked after her while Dave and I went to the movies for the afternoon. Temperatures of that ilk are far too chilly for too much outdoor exploring – except for a mammoth snow ball fight of course. Whether it be flurries of snow flakes falling or snow balls to the head, neither loses it’s appeal. White snow marks everything, except the road, which continues to be ploughed. The footpath with its continuous foot traffic is a different story. Slushy, muddy grey snow makes for yucky walking. Salt is placed on most surface areas to melt and wash away the snow.

This morning we found another hidden treasure. In an unassuming commercial area between Toronto and Niagara Falls hides a restaurant recommended on Trip Advisor as the best place for a Canadian brekkie. Blue Line is a cafe/shop owned by the former world number 3 ice hokey player. Before knowing that, we got an epic sized Canadian feast served by a phenomenal waitress. Her boss, the owner and daughter of the hockey player, came over for a chat. She asked where we were from and
we said Australia. She was flabbergasted and got the kitchen staff out to show us off. Further more, when asked where we’d been and we said we’re on a one year world trip, she was utterly speechless until she said “holy ****” in the most unbelieving yet enthusiastic tone. We both often get blasé with what we are doing this year. This lady’s enthusiasm brought it back into perspective. It was also followed by a statement we get as often as ordering a coffee, which is why we don’t mention what we are doing unless prompted – “you must be rich”. What 99% of these people don’t comprehend is our determination to do something, started from a dream and years of hard work.

After a Canadian – American border debacle, we drove for two days, 1046km, all the way through the state of NEW YORK, NEW HAMPSHIRE, MASSACHUSETTS and into MAINE. When we were planning this road trip we all chose points we all wanted to stop off at. Dad has had a 40 year fascination with Maine particularly the coastline from Maine to Cape Cod. Just before the border of New Hampshire, still in Maine, we had a throughly enjoyable lunch on the waterfront. Once again it’s the people and their exceptional service that will bring back the memories. Snow right to the ocean front on the left with beautiful big English style 3 storey weatherboard homes painted in pastel colours to the right interwoven with lakes and floating frost. It was well worth the drive, Mum and Dad say it’s right up there with the most beautiful places they’ve been and we’d have to agree.

The gay capital of American is found on the peninsular of Cape Cod, in a quaint little village called Provincetown. We loved it. Cape Cod lived up to expectations, it’s just the way it should be. We’ve taken many photos of houses over the last week. That’s because they set the tone for the state. Bare trees, New English style neighbourhoods, without fences look peaceful, timeless and serene. The final leg of this journey was through RHODE ISLAND and CONNECTICUT. We had plans to drive down to the car drop off point at JFK via Long Island. Unfortunately we miscalculated the length of the island so we’ve written that idea off and spent the last few hours attempting to find the last two onesies. From Florida up to Toronto across to Maine and back down to New York, our mission was to find four onesies! We hunted for the perfect four outfits to wear on Christmas Day in what felt like every Walmart, JC Penny, Macy’s, Super Target and Sears over the 5,282KM distance covered in the last two weeks – as you do. The other key elements of this trip were the $2 Subway lunches and the 25hour audio of the Steve Job bio to speed along the driving time. We have also been noting some funny restaurant, shop and suburb names we have seen along the way:
– Piggly Wiggly, Gay dolphin, Crabby Mikes and Dick’s Pawn (not porn) shops
– Dirty Dick’s Crab House (probably more appropriate than the opposite sex equivalent…)
– A shop slogan “home of the shag dance”
– Yankee-doodle bridge
– Drive through pharmacies that sell milk and beer
– The town of Intercourse (where the population is steadily growing) and Virginville (where the population is rapidly depleting).
As children at heart, we can’t help but laugh.

With Dad’s driving, Dave’s navigating, my organising and Mum’s entertaining we were able to see a huge amount over the last two weeks. The quality time together has been a priceless experience. With the cruise finished and now the East Coast road trip also finishing we are about to embark on the last leg with Mum and Dad – New York for Christmas. A three year dream becomes a reality.

]]>