Confessions from the concession

Well. I have to admit that the title is a complete lie! I am in Livonia for an all-day synchronized swimming state meet and in all the chaos of volunteering and signing up online and figuring out how to even get here some other Mom signed me up for the concession stand for hours. Much to my annoyance. But once I got there someone else had apparently changed the entire thing leaving my name no-where to be found on the list. Yay. But since I had thought out this amazing title, I chose to stick with it ;-)

So at least I can sit where I can actually see the pool and try my best not to become too bored. Especially when it comes the the dreaded "figures" where all the girls dress down in black bathing suits and white caps to swim by the judges one by one doing one figure each. Zzzzzzzz.

What I actually wanted to blog about is yesterday where I for once was really good at remembering to take pictures. For instance: here's a bug on the window in the gym:

And when I took Bailey for a walk in the morning I found these weird growths on a plant:

So exciting, right?

On the walk I also ran into some serious garden envy. Check this out - I would just love to have a garden with a forest floor patch like this:

I even did a little video of what Michigan looks like in April when it is sunny and flowery and beautiful:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9XQDRlZYrAc

We went driving because we wanted to get the unicorn frappuccinos, but they have been so successful that they were sold out everywhere. Too bad. Next time Starbucks comes up with something fancy we'll have to get it earlier than the 3 days in.

And whether you get your drink or not I still really likes the lamps at our local Starbucks:

So overall a super exciting Saturday.......

Thunder and unicorns

Before I lived in Michigan, spring was my favorite season. I expected it to be even more so here because of the harsh winters. But....... spring is SO crazy! When you wake up you don't know if it will be a snowstorm, clear sunny skies, thunder or perhaps even a tornado warning. I know I am not the only one feeling that way. Check out these memes: https://www.google.com/search?q=michigan spring weather&client=safari&hl=en-us&prmd=niv&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiioIbhhLPTAhUk74MKHW39DbMQ_AUICCgC&biw=320&bih=460#hl=en-us&tbm=isch&q=meme michigan spring weather

And today it was thunder........

And trying to take the dog out when there is lightening is pretty much like trying to squeeze pee from a rock in desert. A big moody one that you happen to try to pull with a leash despite it has been buried in the ground for centuries. Well, we eventually got there by some good old fashion hotdog bribing.

And as soon as he got inside he did not allow many inches of space between me and him:

Despite the crazy weather spring is still beyond beautiful on a sunny day:

And with spring also come frappuccinos. Not that you can't them year round - actually certain members of the frikke household could live off strawberries and cream frappuccinos 24/7 if their mom allowed them. But yesterday they launched this beauty:

A unicorn frappuccino, that Teresa was so desperate to try that she willingly took the public bus home from synchro practice just for the purpose of swinging by the downtown starbucks. And then she gave the boys all the details of the mango and sour patch flavors, and the sprinkles, and how the colors mix as you drink. And now we at least know what to do for an outing on Saturday LOL

More Toronto love

On our second day in Toronto we had learned from our mistake Saturday, and planned for a trip to the movies in the afternoon to rest our sore feet and maybe by doing so avoiding never getting back out in the city at night. Also we had a bit better idea of what to do.

First stop: breakfast at Cora’s:

Next stop was the botanical garden quite close to our house. At first glance the conservatory looked a bit average, but it was really nice inside. As always I enjoyed the succulent/cactus part of the green houses. I just love these plants and it would be a dream come true for me to get a garden full of succulents in California. We even spotted a plant we had never seen before:

There was also a somewhat crowded turtle pond. They were like a super slow version of the sea-lions at San Francisco, climbing on top of each other and trying to knock the other turtles off the shelf. I made a time-lapse movie as it was literally super slow, but the time-lapse brings out the fight quite well. Watch it here 

And then we walked and walked and walked to get down the Sunday antique market. It was rather crowded and one of those places where I could not help but feel that I would get cheated no matter what I found. I ended up buying a few old adds to hang framed in our kitchen for 5 bucks each.

As we left I promised the kids that we would get bubble tea as soon as we walked past a store selling it. And of course those stores vanished the minute I said that. We didn’t find a single one, but got a nice walk out to the distillery district which was full of galleries and small stores. Teresa found herself a pair of burgundy suede boots, that she could not live without. Her feet did not agree on this, and less than a mile later we had to make a stop so she could switch back to her comfy sneaks.

On the way back to take break before the movies we finally found a bubble tea store:

And got to rest our tired feet at the movies. Luca really really really wanted to see Boss Baby, so Kristian, Teresa and him went for that, whereas Ulrik and I chose Ghost In The Shell. I never thought I would get to watch a Scarlett Johanson movie with my oldest son, but life surprises you sometimes.

For the evening we had planned a Toronto must-do: a trip to the CN tower.

You can see the CN tower from almost any point in Toronto, and here we are getting closer

And closer

And closer

And closer

And finally we were there:

It turned out that Sunday night was perfect timing. We literally did no have to wait in line at any point in time and got on the elevator right away – just in time for sunset (and another time-lapse movie).

Teresa loved the glassfloor, whereas Luca was somewhat more skeptical of that construction:

Once we had enough we got back down to the surface of the earth

and walked and walked walked back to our house, with a dinner-stop at the nearest supermarket. Both teenagers chose a very healthy dinner:

But hey – how often do you meet a Nutella-on-everything place?

Overall we really enjoyed our short trip to Toronto. It is a BIG city with a somewhat more sophisticated vibe than in the US (or maybe we have just been living in Michigan for too long…….). It was super clean, the cars stopped when you tried to cross the street!!!!!!!! And there were just SO many well-dressed Asians. Not to mention all the cheap restaurants. Every two blocks we found places we would love to eat if only our stomachs and wallets had been slightly bigger. In my opinion Toronto measures up to NYC very well, and I would love to be back for more.

We heart Toronto

It's spring break, which is the first break the kids have had since Christmas, so it was highly needed. We did not choose to go to Florida (like everyone else in Michigan does apperently), but instead went east towards Toronto. A somewhat longer drive but quite doable:

It was pouring down by the time we got there, but the weather forecast promised spring feeling for the rest of the weekend, and there was an awesome little townhouse waiting for us, right in the middle of downtown Toronto:

We did not sleep in Saturday morning even though certain teenagers might have preferred that! Instead we went to St Lawrence Market, which was BIG and crowded and almost too busy for a very hungry family desperate for breakfast and coffee. But then we found a bakery with endless versions of pastries that were both sweet and savory. Yum. Teresa and I both had super delicious parmesan/leek pastries and washed it down with an - ehm - VERY healthy tasting kale smoothie......

Next stop was to get down to the water front, just because! When you grow up in Denmark with ocean all around, waterfronts make you feel right at home. We did not bring Bailey with us, but we wished we had, when we found a pet community center, with a puppy indoor playground, dogtreat vending machines and so many other dogs. We did have fun with the giant cat outside though:

And speaking of giant - here's a picnic table that brought us right back to feeling like a toddler:

Unfortunately our stomachs were not giant enough to eat "beaver tails" (also known as elephant ears everywhere else, unless in Canada - eh!):

And then we walked, and walked, and walked some more. Entering little fun shops along the way. And finally we found a place that had what we longed for the most: kinder eggs. Oh, how we missed those little chocolaty surprises:

Why oh why, are they illegal in the US?

We had originally intended to go the Royal Ontario Museum, but then we passed the art museum, and gave that a try instead. It had the coolest stairwell inside:

and a rather creepy hollowed out imprint of a person:

The museum was right next to Chinatown. But we were not adventurous enough to try the very authentic Chinese cuisine, and settled for Korean instead:

By the time we had walked and walked and walked back to our little awesome townhouse we were too tired and our feet were too sore to go explore more of Toronto, but we had no trouble falling asleep ;-)