tourist in your home town

With mum's visit here we decided to explore some of the downtown neighbourhoods. There is such old architecture here, and we wanted to see urban Columbus life....THe suburbs are always the same........
This neighbourhood is called the German Village, and was built by German settlers in the late 1800's. Now it is truly for the yuppies. The houses are all brick, and on cobblestone streets. So beautiful...Wonder how much they cost to buy???? hmmmm.

October in Dublin

So, this weekend saw many outdoor fall/family events in our adopted city. We have this fantastic park down the road from us, called Homestead park, and that's exactly what it looks like. It has rolling hills, a farmhouse or two, a lake with bullrushes,, acres of white picket fence and of course an old parked caboose for the children to play in....(not to mention of course the cool wooden fort complete with water pitols and huge toddler play area).
This weekend they had a fall homecoming, with pumpkin patch and decorations for them, mini train rides (the biggest hit with Olive) , hotwheels to ride, tatoos to get and lots of fun with a hay ride.
So nice to be out in the middle of October in a t-shirt and sandals as it is still 82degrees (about 26 celcius).............just incase anyone in Victoria thinks it jsut snows back east...........

How is the rain and frost by the way???!

playing tourist

This past week we decided to go and see some old friends in Toronto, and also take Olivier to see Niagara Falls. Of course it rained in Toronto the whole time we were there, but we saw parts of Ontario we had never been to, and managed to squeeze in a trip to Ikea! By the time we went on the Maid of the Mist the weather was much better. We got wet from the spray, and had a great time playing tourist.... If you have never been back east to see the fall colours, it really is stunningly beautiful. We then went on to Buffalo NY, where we spent the night ..... I think I have now ventured to at least 23-24 states, which is actually more than I have seen of my own country. Mrs.Hall would be impressed!