Made it to Pickering

We arrived at Lindsey and Justin's fairly early, just before 11:00am Sunday to pick up the grandkids. Lindsey is a chef, and she treated us to her famous Eggs Benedict. Such a delicious food item, especially with everything made from scratch.

Even the eggs were from their own chickens!

Delicious...

She makes theirs with kale from their garden.

I'm afraid we're not fans of kale. I do love spinach though! 

Eggs Benedict.

With full tummies, we loaded the kids in the van for a three and a half hour drive.

The fastest way is on highway 401 that runs between Toronto and Montreal. It's such a busy highway, and in our opinion such a boring drive. Similar to driving on most Interstate highways in the U.S.

The alternative is a nicer drive, but probably 45 minutes longer. If we were on our own, we would have done the longer drive. But with the kids, we figured we were better off doing the shorter drive, and stopping a couple of times to give them a break.

Sadie.

Cameron.

The kids each have their tablets, and with headphones it makes for a nice peaceful drive!

Our first stop was at the KOA Kingston where we parked up for two summers while Ruth workcamped there the year after her mother died. It's the same owners, so we stopped in to say hello.

Kingston KOA.

Some of the sites have their own dog pen.

They've added about 30 new sites since we worked there.

It's a nice full service campground.

Sadie and Cameron enjoyed playing with the rock mine.

Lynn (one of the owners) and Ruth.

We drove another 50 minutes west to the small city of Belleville. I was born in Belleville and lived there for my first two years of life. My dad was then transferred to Ottawa.

We found a really spectacular playground. Boy, they didn't have playgrounds like this when we were kids!

It's called Pirate Park.

And then another hour and a half to Pickering. Like I said, it's a boring drive, and not much worth taking a photo of.

Arrived at our Airbnb apartment in Pickering. Self serve check in with a coded lock box. It's a 1900 sq ft three bedroom apartment made out of the full basement of a huge new home.

The living room is actually a little sparse. 

Could be a little homier.

But otherwise it's fine and it's spotlessly clean.

Cameron's room.

Sadie's room.

Our room.

Ensuite bathroom.

And there's another bathroom for the kids. 

So, while it's nice enough... it's also $190 CAD ($149 USD) a night. Yes, Toronto is ridiculously expensive. Can't figure how anybody can afford to live here, but apparently 6.5 million people are making a go of it.

I had checked out possibilities that were $125 a night, but they were dumps. Figured we would spoil ourselves a bit, plus this place is really close to the zoo.

Today is zoo day!

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And in Canada...

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