CSI: Canada, Seen It

Posted By elissa on Aug 31, 2011 | 2 comments

I stole the title for this post from a t-shirt on display in the gift shop at the Ontario Science Centre. Figured it would be appropriate for my return-from-The-Great-White-North post.

What can I say? Canada rocks in nearly all respects but two:

1. Canadian drivers (at least in the vicinity of large cities like Vancouver and Toronto) are hell-on-wheels. Face-to-face, the Canadians we encountered were a delightful, friendly, laid back group of folks… but some of them evidently undergo a Jekyll-to-Hyde metamorphosis when the key turns in the ignition.

2. Wi-fi. Our free hotel wi-fi was worth exactly as much as we were charged for it… and we were staying in hotels that ostensibly catered to bizness-types, too. Since I have no patience for slow and clunky internet service, I quickly abandoned my plans to keep up with the news/blogging/forum posting.

But seriously: we had a great time. We spent 4 days in Vancouver and 5 in Toronto, and barely scratched the surface of what both cities had to offer. We’ll definitely go back someday!

Nonetheless, it was also great to return home. Since our vacation corresponded with a (planned) training break, I didn’t try to get any workouts in. We weren’t inactive (a lot of walking was done!), but I missed having a set routine. Thus, it felt good to get back into the harness today with a shiny new workout. Likewise, I missed eating on my own, personal schedule. I rarely eat large meals and prefer to graze during the day. My kids, however, are just the opposite: Ryan and Nick aren’t all that into food (it’s a distraction from more important things, doncha know). Consequently, they tend to eat large meals, sporadically… breakfast and dinner is usually enough for them, with maybe a quick snack in between. Thus, our first day in Vancouver found me irritable and headachy from transient hypoglycemia by 4:00 in the afternoon – my a.m. veggie omelette, fruit and coffee wasn’t nearly enough to sustain me over a long day of sightseeing. I ended up having to either pack snacks in my purse, or rely on a range of “grab-and-go” items (like fruit smoothies) available from various (acceptable) food stands to tide me over between breakfast and dinner. In 10 days, I ate lunch only 3 times – and it was no coincidence that two of those lunches occurred at times when John and I were off on our own (the third was at the Seattle airport, during a layover on the flight home).

Grrrr…

I love my kids dearly and get along with them awesomely well. But next trip, they’ll adhere to my schedule or stay home!