Jamie and Alex go half-way around the world.

London, Ontario
London is in the province of Ontario, Canada. It is half-way around the world from Adelaide, so it is a very long way from home. Here is a picture of London (not London, England!!!) I think London looks a lot like Adelaide, what do you think, Mrs Cosh and year 2s? The summer is warm and humid, and in the winter it snows!

An aerial view of London, Ontario

Our house
We lived on the grounds of Western University where my Dad worked. The place is called Platt's Lane Estate. We lived in a townhouse which was quite small. It has 2 bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs and a living room and kitchen downstairs. The best part of our house was that we had a basement which had a lot of room for storing stuff. Platt's Lane is very big and has beautiful gardens and two playgrounds.

Dad, James and Alex out the front of our townhouse - 416 Platt's Lane!!

A view of the living room from the kitchen.

The stairs down to the basement or "Bat Cave"

Dancing in the "Bat Cave"

BBQ on our back patio.

The view from our back patio.

The combined "backyard" of our block of 10 townhouses

The playground at Platt's Lane Estate

Our Friends
We made friends with the Ebel family. Susan and Murray are the Mum and Dad and their kids are Ben (5) and Matheson (7). We did lots of fun things with the Ebels. We had BBQs and played together a lot. Susan works at University with my Dad.

Ben and Alex hanging out.

Susan and Murray

Dad and Murray cooking Australian BBQ on Canada Day!

Ben, Alex, Matheson and James enjoying BBQ.

Susan and Mum

Alex and Matheson swimming in Ben and Matheson's indoor pool!

Base Ball (T-ball)

I played on a T-ball team with Matheson. Matheson's dad Murray is the coach. Murray is a very encouraging coach! T-ball is a kid's version of baseball. Instead of someone pitching the ball to you, you hit the ball from a tee. Then, you run around the bases and field exactly the same as baseball. We played every Monday and Wednesday night. At the end of the season we all received trophies.

My T-ball team (Matheson and I are in the back row)

A silly shot!

James on deck!

Fielding

Here I am playing "back-catcher" and being coached by Murray

As "back-catcher" setting up the ball on the tee.

James, Matheson and Alex

The Food

The national dish of Canada is called Poutine. Poutine originally comes from Quebec, where everyone speaks French. I think this is why the dish has a French-sounding name. Poutine is a plate of fries covered in gravy and cheese. Even though it sounds yucky, it tastes delicious.

S'mores is a fun treat from Canada and the United States. You usually cook it when you have a BBQ or a campfire. You start with Graham crackers (pronounced Gram crackers) and add chocolate, then you roast marshmallows and add these on top. Next you put another Graham cracker on top and squish everything together. The marshmallows melt the chocolate!! Finally, you eat it like a sandwich, it tastes very yummy!

Eating Poutine!

Cooking S'mores on the BBQ after dinner

Alex eating S'mores

Daddy at Work
Daddy enjoyed his work at the University of Western Ontario. He worked very hard. He did a lot of research and gave presentations. He did a lecture to the whole University. I think that would be a very scary thing to do!

Daddy giving his public lecture!

Forthcoming trips
I will write again about our trip to Niagara Falls and Toronto!

Our week on Gulf Boulevard, St Pete's Beach, Florida

We had just settled into our home in London, Ontario at the end of May, when we flew to Florida for a week. We went to Florida because my Dad had a conference there.

Flying to Florida
Flying to Florida took a long time. We flew from London to Chicago and on to Tampa, Florida. Chicago (O'Hare) airport is very big, in fact it is one of the busiest airports in the world! We had to catch a train between terminals. Our terminal had a huge skeleton of a dinosaur! Hugo would have loved it!

James at O'Hare (Chicago) Airport

James, Alex and Daddy waiting to get on the plane.

O'Hare Airport is so big, that we had to catch a train between terminals!!!

Flying from Chicago to Tampa, Florida

The Sirata Beach Resort, Gulf Boulevard, St Pete's Beach, Florida

When we arrived at Tampa, we had to drive 30 minutes to reach our resort on Gulf Boulevard, St Pete's beach. This is where my Dad's conference was. Our resort was epically fantastic because we were right on the beach and had two swimming pools, a spa, the beach and a playground. It was fun to swim and even have lunch by the pool!

Sirata Beach Resort

Here is a view of the resort from our suite!!

James, Alex and Daddy on the balcony of our suite.

Fun in the pool of our resort.

Alex pretending to be George of the Jungle

More poolside fun!

Lego Land!!!

On the Tuesday of our Florida trip, we went to Lego Land. Lego Land is a theme park that is based on Lego! It was a very fun theme park and very big - 50 acres!!

At the entrance to LEGOLAND

The first ride we went on was called "Island In the Sky". This was a huge platform that went high into the sky and we could see the whole of Lego Land.

Playing in Duplo-land!!

Riding on Merlin's Challenge at Lego Kingdoms

Lego Pharaoh Quest - A Pharaoh made entirely of Lego!!!

A Lego Merry-go-round!

My favourite part of Lego Land was the miniature cities. They were exact copies of famous places made out of Lego bricks.

The Kennedy Space Centre

Las Vegas

New York

There was also an area all about Star Wars with different scenes from the movies. We loved R2D2 and Darth Maul the best!

Alex with R2D2

With Darth Maul from Star Wars

While we were at Lego Land, Alex and I went to driving school and learnt how to drive Lego cars. It was easy and fun to do. At the end we earned our drivers licences to drive around Lego Land.

James and Alex learning to drive at LEGOLAND

A car made entirely of Lego!!

The Busch Gardens
Two days later Mummy, Alex and I went to a place called Busch Gardens, near Tampa. Busch Gardens was a wild life reserve and an African theme park. Each section of the park was a different African country.

The Sky Ride at Busch Gardens

A view from the Sky Ride - what animals can you see?

My favourite part of the Busch Gardens was the Egypt section where you got to visit a replica of King Tutankhamen's tomb discovered by Lord Howard Carter in the 1920s. I loved it because there was a replica mummy!

James' favourite part of Busch Gardens - the "Egypt" section!

James pretending to be Lord Howard Carter......

........the guy who discovered King Tutankhamen's tomb (Alex is just climbing!!!)

Inside the replica tomb with all of King Tut's treasures.

King Tut's sarcophagus (the golden coffin) and replica mummy inside.

My brother Alex loved "Operation Vacation". It was play with music, dancing and singing with Alex the Lion, the penguins of Madagascar, Gloria the hippo and King Julian! It was a lot of fun!

"Operation Vacation" featuring the crew from "Madagascar".

The Penguins and Gloria

Alex the lion

King Julian

Fun rides at Busch Gardens

While we were at Busch Gardens we went on a train safari through a Serengeti Plain, just like in Africa! We saw rhinos, giraffes and zebras!

Train safari

Look at the amazing views from our train carriage!!

James and Alex on safari in the wild!!!

Mummy wouldn't touch this snake, but we didn't mind!

Saying hello to the meerkats!!!

Jacob H, we know how much you love meerkats, so this photo is for you!!!

The Kennedy Space Centre
On our last day in Florida we went to the Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral. Cape Canaveral is the place where NASA launched its space shuttles, now they just launch satellites. NASA stands for "National Aeronautics and Space Administration". It was interesting to learn all about the history of space exploration and the future of space exploration. I also loved the Angry Birds Experience!!! You got to shoot angry birds at bad pigs! It was a big day because it took a long time to drive back to our resort!

At the entrance to the Kennedy Space Centre in front of the NASA sign