Greetings from Victoria British Columbia Canada

Hi Everyone,

I am having a great time in Victoria. I am staying with my Aunt and Uncle's house in Victoria. This is my Mum's brother and sister in law. Yesterday I met my cousins Ann, Chris and Nadine and we all had a big family dinner together and then we had family photos. In the Canadian side of my family the women are short and I don't feel a midget. (Yes short people!!!) It was funny at 12:30pm when I arrived from the bus in Downtown Victoria as my Aunt and Uncle thought I would be taller. To their surprise I seemed to look taller in the photographs than in person (no computer enhancement or photoshop used).
When I met my cousin Ann we seemed to look a like and were almost the same height. We had the same sort of humor and got along famously well.
It was great meeting Chris and Nadine. Chris is the tallest in the family and was 6 ft. When I met Chris' wife Nadine we both laughed at the height issue. The four of us Lois (aunt) Ann, Nadine (cousins) and myself had a group photo to celebrate our height.

It has been wonderful meeting my Aunt, Uncle and Cousins. My Aunt and Uncle are so artistic and clever. My Uncle has an interest in Garden Gage Railway which is creating train sets in the garden and landscaping where the tracks should go. He belongs to two clubs in this field. During yesterday I got to see his train set go in full action.
My Aunt also helps my Uncle with his train projects and also makes some amazing quilts, needle works, cards, recycled paper etc. I think that's where I get my love for art and embroidery from.

Yesterday as soon as I arrived, my Uncle gave me a tour around where my Mother lived and where she would walk her dog Barney. We walked past the family home, the primary school where my Mum was educated, the park, and the neighbours homes that she went to when she was growing up. My mother grew up in a small neighbourhood, where people were friendly and it was a tight knit area.

Today my cousin Ann took me to a computer shop to buy an iPod Touch which is a pocket sized computer note book-very flash. Still learning how to use it. We had lunch together, and then we went to a shop which sold embroidery kits. I bought three Canadian themed Cross Stitch kits.
Later on today, I caught up with another one of my Mother's family friend's (Mrs Dachers) who lives in Victoria. Mrs Dacher's and Grandad came out to New Zealand when I was 8 years old and I got to meet her in person back in 1987. Today I got to meet her again 21 years later.
She of course noticed a change in me.

On Tuesday I will be heading with my relatives to Nanaimo where my Mum's cousin lives and will be meeting her for the first time. Nanaimo is on Vancouver Island north of Victoria. I have to say that I am saving the best till last with this trip. I am throughly enjoying meeting the other half of my family and my Mum's friends. I will be definitely coming back here again. The home cooked meals are wonderful and we have had a lot of laughs together. I can now see where I come from with personality traits and what makes me, "ME".

Greetings from Vancouver

Hi Everyone,

No my trip isn't coming to an end, but my tour has.
Today I will be meeting my Aunt and Uncle for the first time in Victoria in about another 5.5 hours from now. This day will be a very significant day in Joy Paton History: Friday September 19. It will be a trip of learning about my mother's birth place, where she grew up, where she went to school, her family home etc. I am looking forward to this. I had a two night stop over tour when I was in Victoria and went to the Museum and IMax Theatre. The hotel that I was staying with the tour: The Queen Victoria Hotel and Suites was where my Mum worked as a chamber maid (cleaner) before she came to New Zealand. I made contact with my Mum's best friend on the first night and managed to catch up with her. On my second night I heard from my Uncle (my Mum's Brother). We are very excited about meeting each other and catching up.

The tour was great. I did do the rafting along along the Athabasca River (sorry Dad couldn't resist). It wasn't like the typical White Water Rafting where you wore helmets and go into swirling rapids and you had to paddle. On this rafting trip the guide did the paddling along this calm river and we experienced about five rapids throughtout the one hour trip. I think it got to my side more than the others as we were the wettest. We mainly got wet on the back of our pants. The water was 4 degrees celcius.

I also did canoeing down the Frazer River in the Rockies. The Canoe held ten people and we had a guide. The water was very calm and I throughly enjoyed it. The trip was for an hour. Then we had a feast at the canoe place. I had bison stew. It was set in a log style cabin which fitted everyone.The lighting we had were candles. It was very nice. This was in Sun Peaks which was between Jasper and Victoria.
We were told on the tour of Sun Peaks to not go out on our own as there were bears around the area and it was safer to go out in a group. I didn't go out on my own and just stayed with the group.

Must Leave now,
My time is running out and it is flashing at me.

Take Care and Best Wishes,

Love From,

Miss Paton

Greetings from Jasper

Hi Everyone,

I am in Jasper Canada in the Rocky Mountains.
This is a very short message to say that tonight as I was walking to Dinner I saw a Elk/Deer with big antlers like tree branches cross the road in front of me. The Elk walked into someone's back yard and started eating the grass on their front lawn. We have been told to be careful of the wild animals here in Canada as they can charge at you and injure you badly. How would you like a deer to eat the grass outside your house and hop over the fence?

Thought I would share the moment with you,

Love From,

Miss Paton

Greetings from Banff Canada

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to all those new people who have clicked onto the site, hope you are enjoying the adventure as much as I am experiencing it.
Greetings from Banff Canada. I am on my Rockies tour around Canada. On Wednesday I flew to Calgary, and checked out the city.
On Thursday I went to the Calgary Tower, the tallest tower in Canada higher than the sky tower. In Calgary there is a free train that you can take and it takes you along a straight route through the city. I caught the train to the tower. Then I caught another train and paid $2.50 one way to go to the zoo. I wanted to go to the zoo to see the Canadian animals before my rockies tour started. I saw Elk, deer, moose, grizzly bears and mountain goats at the zoo. The zoo was a little different to the zoo in San Diego.
Yesterday my Rockies tour started and I met up with the tour group. I am sharing a room with a lady from the United Kingdom and her name is Jean. She is lovely. There are also some people from Christchurch on my tour who live not so far from my parents-small world. We travelled from Calgary to Banff. Banff is in the Rockies and it is picture perfect. The mountains are different shades of green and there is some snow on the mountains. It is a beautiful place to visit and I can see why it is a must see place to visit in books.
Today I went on a gondola ride up Sulphur Mountain one of the Rocky Mountains. We went up very high. I held onto my seat for dear life when we were going up and down. We were advised that the altitude was very high and that we needed water on us as we could get dizzy/head achy.
I have also visited the Native American Indian Museum in the town centre and have walked around the National Park Gardens. There are flowers growing this time of year which is autumn
Tomorrow I am going to the Columbia Ice Fields and I am going to take the plunge and go rafting. I have also put my name down to do Canoeing on one of the lakes in the Sun Peaks area and I am going to do a boat cruise along one of the lakes in the Rockies. All very exciting.
Tonight I am going to a Canadian Restaurant which serves bison, so I might try that for the first time.

That's all of the news from me,

Take Care and Best Wishes,

Love Miss Paton

Did you know Facts:
There are only 1 million people in Calgary
It is the fourth largest city in Canada
There is a famous Stampede where people ride buffalo (cattle) in front of large audiences
The average age for people living in Calgary is 35 - 45 years
Alberta gets it's name from Caroline Louise Alberta-Queen Victoria's daughter
Banff gets it's name from Bampshire in the United Kingdom
Banff is a cooler city than the other cities I have visited as it is close to the mountain ranges
The Elk can be vicious animals if you get up close to them
Visitors have to RESPECT the animal life in the Rockies, or else we could lose a limb or break a leg
In Calgary there weren't any street beggars like I saw in San Francisco.
It is classed as one of the safer cities to visit in Canada
The weather in the Rockies can be four seasons in one day-we were advised to wear plenty of layers as it can get very cold or it can be very hot

Greetings from San Francisco

Greetings Everyone,

I am having a great time in San Francisco. I love the place and I wish I could stay here longer. I still haven't seen everything yet, but theres always a next time.
This time tomorrow I will be heading to a new country, with different currency, different weather and different softer accents. This country is Canada-my Mother's homeland. I will be starting a Rocky Mountains tour-very exciting.

San Francisco has been a wonderful place to visit.
Here are some of the places and things I have done in San Francisco:
City Tour:-took a city tour around the Golden Gate Bridge, Twin Peaks-a viewing area looking over the city and to Golden Gate Park. At Golden Gate Park I visited the Japanese Tea Garden. The Golden Gate Park was a very beautiful park and I could have stayed their longer, but I was on a tight schedule.

Fisherman's Wharf is an amazing place to visit. A little bit like the Viaduct in Auckland, but on a much larger scale. I saw Sea Lions on the Wharf and bought some fruit at the Farmer's Market. I could spend the whole day at Fisherman's Wharf. I even had a little monkey sit on my knee there.

I have also tried out the cable car twice along the street. It is very popular with tourists and people have to stand in it. They even stand outside it holding onto the posts.

Yesterday I did my 2.5 hour bike ride from the bay to Saucelito. I cycled up and down hills. The hardest part was cycling up the hills.

Today I am going to jail-just kidding!!! not that sort of jail.
I am going to a historic jail that is open to the public and it is on an island. It is called Alcatraz and you have to get a boat to it. It is in the middle of the harbour. The gangster Al Capone went there and was behind bars there.

Did you know facts:

The Golden Gate bridge was built in 1937. It is 71 years old
The Golden Gate Bridge is always painted. Painters are employed to paint the bridge. Once they finish painting the bridge. They paint it again and again.

San Francisco has 1 million people living in it.

San Francisco has the highest percentage of homeless people living there. The reason is because the homeless people get paid a $100.00 benefit a week and San Francisco is the only city that does this

The Homeless people consist of people who have mental, drug and alcohol problems.
They have no homes to go to and they sleep under the stars each night.

In San Francisco it is foggy in the mornings and you can't see the bridge. It lifts in the afternoon.

The weather is cooler here than in LA and San Diego
It is 63 degrees Farenheight. Look that up on Google to work out degrees celcius

That's all of the news from me.
Thanks so much for your comments to the blog site. I love reading them. Keep them coming in. Will blog you in a new country next time.

Take Care and Best Wishes,

Love,

Miss Paton

Last Day in San Diego

Greetings from San Diego.
Today I am in downtown San Diego doing a trolley tour and have found an internet cafe that is cheaper than the hotel.

I have had an amazing 7 days in San Diego.
The places I have visted since my last post was The Wild Animal Park and San Diego Zoo. The Wild Animal Park was about 35 miles (1 hour drive) out of San Diego. It was in a rural area, where they have had a lot of Californian Fires. The animals were very exotic and came from Africa and Asia, some of the animals I have never heard of before such as the Okapi, Takins, Yellow backed Dulker, Ground Hornbill, Bontebok, Nyalla and different types of Gazelle and Springboks. I thought of Mr Louw when I went past the Springbok and the other African animals. Have a look under Google to read about some of these interesting animals. There might be something under Wikipaedia.

Yesterday I went to San Diego Zoo. It was an amazing place to visit and I can see why it is written in books as a must see place to visit in the USA. The layout was beautiful. I saw different types of big cats and bears. I saw Polar Bears, Pandas, Grizzly Bears and the Sun Bear. I saw other exotic animals such as Tapirs and Langurs.

Did you know:
San Diego Zoo was founded by Dr Harry Wegeforth in 1936 which makes the zoo 72 years old
In San Diego the nights are very hot. Last night it was 25 degrees celcius.
Theordore Seuss from the Dr Seuss books was born in San Diego.
Chester Santa Le Fei came from San Diego and he was the creator of the Monopoly Game
Chemicals are added in the water in the USA. More so in Los Angeles. Had the side effects
Fruit glorious fruit is at my hotel and is served for breakfast.
Off to San Francisco tomorrow. Meeting my parents over there. Three hour flight

Take Care and Best Wishes,

Love From Miss Paton

Greetings from San Diego

Hi Everyone,

Greetings from San Diego. I am typeing like crazy as I'm being charged by the minute here. So far I have been on City tour of San Diego and a harbour cruise. San Diego is a smaller city to Los Angeles. It has 3.5 million people and it was once a sandy desert. Very hot. San Diego is a quieter city than LA,and is more laid back. The Hotel I am staying in is a resort and has a big swimming pool and spa pool-very nice plus it has a bar area so I could sit by the pool and sip a lemonade.
The Hotel is near a shopping mall called Fashion Valley. Yesterday I bought two pairs of petite jeans made for the short person YAH!!! Could shop there every day. Macy's is such a great shop.

Today I went to San Diego Sea World. Great place. Got to see: Polar Bears, Walrus' Matinees, Dolphins, Killer Whales, Otters, Toucans and Flamingoes. Fantastic place, excellent shows. They did have Rollercoasters, but I'm a little Rollercoasted out, if you get what I mean.

Off to the Wild Animal Park tomorrow and then I'm off to San Diego Zoo on Wednesday.
That's all from me, right now.

Take Care and Best Wishes,

Miss paton