It’s early Sunday morning and the household is still sleeping. I hope the clacking of the keys doesn’t disturb my sleeping granddaughters; they had a busy day yesterday. We went downtown to tour the CN Tower.

Friday night we took a harbor cruise and enjoyed the sight of Toronto, sparkling in the night. The girls will have a better understanding of Canada after this trip.

We watched the lock system at work. This system built in the early years of American independence opened up the interior of the country to commerce, making westward expansion profitable.

We toured the world’s largest/longest cave in the world. Mammoth Cave in Kentucky stretches over 300 miles! We took a short three-hour tour. It was enough to give the girls a good look at this giant cave. Although the girls wanted to take the boat tour of an underwater cavern, we had to keep moving.

Danielle, Sarah and Kaitlynn were able to go shopping in their Uncle Wayne’s store. They are bringing home the cutest beaded coin purses and handbags. We made a trip to the big mall here in Scarborough to see what the current clothing trends are in Canada.

I bought some jackets for the girls since the first few days of our visit here were rainy and cold. I think the highest it has been here all week is around 85 degrees. I say around 85 because I have to do that Celsius conversion, and I may be off a degree or two.

My sister Dee and her husband, Dave are in the process of moving to their lake house. Dave retired at the beginning of the year and he has been fixing two houses. Their Scarborough house sold the second day on the market.

Toronto, like San Antonio, is not feeling the housing market drop. They have some transitions to make, but they will be living in the Thousand Islands area. This area is incredible! It’s like living in a fairytale story. The girls have gone fishing almost every day.

Kaitlynn and Sarah have become adept at putting their own worms and minnows on the hook. Danielle doesn’t like fishing; she likes catching. They went from the “ooooh” stage to the “pass me another worm Uncle Dave” stage in no time flat.

They have also discovered the joy and pain of tubing. I’m bringing back happy but bruised young ladies. Kate doesn’t like to go fast so she gets bounced pretty hard. Sarah wants to sit down in the tube so her legs are rubbed raw, and Danielle learned her raw lesson the first day. The scrapes don’t seem to lessen the desire to go out on the boat at all.

I almost caused an international incident here and my sisters, Bev and Dee were doing their best to assist.

We were in a long line to see the CN Tower. In fact, the wait was one hour long. We were on the home stretch to the elevators when a group of people snuck past at least four rows and line jumped. They would let one person move up then move in about 12 people! Remarks about rudeness went right over their heads. I went up to the front of the line and reported them to the staff person on duty.

I thought back to my column on our uncivil society. Why would those people think they had the right to go in front of people?

Rudeness may get you ahead in the line, but it does not endear you to the people who are waiting courteously. They pretended not to understand what we were saying, but they all spoke English, so we weren’t fooled by their ignorance.

The tower itself was awesome. I believe it is the second tallest building in the world, standing at over 1400 feet! You get to go up the outside of the building in glass elevators. My sister Bev, Kaitlynn and Danielle rode facing the back wall. Obviously, you can see for miles in all directions. Toronto is on Lake Ontario and it is easy to see why they are called the Great Lakes; you can’t see the end of the water, it is so huge.

We are off to the cottage today, then over to Bev’s house in Vankleek Hill. The girls want to spend time with Bev’s Australian Shepherds. Bev is going to let the girls put her dogs through an agility course. I believe she has two dogs qualified for Nationals, but is only taking one. I could be wrong on that. She may have several qualified.

It’s neat seeing your sister interviewed on TV and labeled as an expert in her area. She runs her own website and two others for the various dog associations. Her site is K9101 near Ottawa, Ontario. Her dogs are just beautiful and very smart. They excel in many areas.

We will tour Canada’s parliament buildings on Monday; then head over to the cosmopolitan city of Montreal. Our home trip will take us through Washington and the capital buildings there.

So far it has been an awesome trip. Kaitlynn and her brothers are headed for Germany in January for four years. This is one of those moments in time that you either take or never recapture. I know I am storing up many happy moments to treasure and the girls are building lifetime heart links.

I hope everyone is doing well. I’m sure it is not 80 degrees outside. My garden is probably not very happy.

I was reminded by the news that we must continue to pray for our precious troops. They brought home two young soldiers from Afghanistan. Canada is one of our allies that stand with us in this fight against terrorism.

Pray for our leaders, our government and our wonderful troops that keep us safe at home. Pray for our sick in the community.

Billie Behrens is recovering from hip surgery. She’ll be up and about before I get back. Have a blessed week. I’ll see you soon.