Toronto Family Time

As part of our Canada trip, we spent nearly a week in Toronto with my first cousins. My dad was born in Toronto and his sister’s children all live there. These are some very special people to us and we were thrilled to have the opportunity for an extended visit with them.

We started out with a weekend at Eli & Adina’s cottage on Lake Simcoe. We visited the cottage with Clyde in August/September 2016, and fell in love with the area, which is incredibly beautiful and peaceful:

So, of course, we wanted to go back, and Eli & Adina indulged us by holding off on their end-of-season renovation projects. It was a special weekend that included a long bike ride, a Shabbat nap, relaxation on the dock, games, good food, wine, and a Kawartha milkshake (Kawartha is a local dairy that makes fantastic (!) milkshakes). It was heaven on earth.

While there we also got up in the middle of the night to buy our tickets to the San Sebastian Film Festival, which went on sale at 9 a.m. in Spain. Not sure if it was the cottage air or the early morning hours that led us to purchase tickets to see 17 films in 7 days. (17 – not a typo!) Next post will let you know how that turned out.)

We returned to the “city” to relax, see the rest of the family, meet our newest cousin Gloria May, and celebrate cousin Molly’s 17^th birthday.  

We also observed Yom Kippur. There aren’t any opportunities to attend Jewish services in San Sebastian, so I was grateful to go to shul.

We miss our family and friends a lot, and our time in Canada with Jeff’s parent’s and my family was precious.

Hasta luego,

Shana & Jeff