GO William!

Mommy and Daddy wanted to take Laoye clothes shopping at the grand outlets in Niagara-on-the-Lake on Saturday, September 6, so we decided to take William on his own adventure!  He loves watching the big trains roll by near his house, so we asked him if he'd like to take a ride on the big train with us.

"Yes!"

Toronto's commuter trains are called "GO" trains.  They run east and west along the shore of Lake Ontario from Toronto, and, fan-like, north, northeast and northwest from the city.  Given that Toronto is said to be among the worst five cities for traffic in North America, this commuter rail system is a life-saver.  When we visit William & Co. in Toronto, we always try to park at a GO station as far outside the city as possible, and complete our journey in by train.

Of course, for William, it's not about the traffic, or the commute, or convenience.  He just likes the big trains.  They have lumbering green and yellow passenger cars, and roaring diesel engines, and bells that CLING and CLANG as the train comes into the station.  Everything an almost-3 year old could want.

While Mommy and Daddy get breakfast ready and prepare for the day, we help William wake up. He does so slowly, watching children's TV.  Bubu always likes to help.  Here, Yeye - I mean David - is taking his turn at minding the William:

William was dumbfounded when the train rolled into the station.  It was much bigger and noisier than he expected.  There were lots of other people, and hustle and bustle, at Toronto's Union Station as we boarded the train.

We decided a short ride was the best ride, so we travelled two stops westward, to Mimico, hopped off, and waited for the next train to arrive.  There was plenty of entertaining stuff to do, including playing chase through the waiting booths along the platform:

Finally...HERE COMES THE TRAIN!

It was almost as fascinating to ride inside the train as it was to watch the trains roll by:

William wanted to take his own photos for the blog, and so we handed him the camera and told him how to do it.  His first attempt was pretty creative:

When we got off the train at the Exhibition stop, we decided to sit on the bench and wait for the train to leave the station:

The Exhibition section of Toronto is just what the name implies:  a huge area of land and buildings devoted to hosting any and all sorts of exhibitions.  Here, we found a wall on the back side of one of the buildings, and we couldn't resist making funny faces like the people in the pictures:

The exhibition facility is between gigs, so we saw lots of workers driving all sorts of trucks, tractors, forklifts and other rigs.  Here, Kathy and William inspect one of the tractors:

The Exhibition grounds are filled with sculptures and other artwork.  David decided to incorporate himself into this one:

From Exhibition, we took a long walk along the Lakefront, to William's favorite park, where he instructed Yeye to jump on the mini-teeter-totter with him:

Having adventures is hungry work for a little guy, and William made it clear he was ready for lunch. So we continued our walk back up toward our restaurant:

We had never eaten here before, but this place had great pub fare.  It was even still servig branch, and so William could have chocolate-banana pancakes.  He'd never had it before, but it was his immediate favorite.  And what else to wash it down with but chocolate milk?  Here he is showing us his pancake.  Despite the look on his face, he enjoyed it immensely.

We got home after lunch, just in time for the little guy to take his nap.  We felt like napping, too, but Daddy, Mommy and Laoye had lots of shopping stories to tell us.  We chatted until William was up and at 'em again, and through dinner, until sunset and the rising of the full moon:

Good night, moon.  Good night, William.  Good night Mommy and Daddy.  Good night, Laoye. Good night, Yeye Nainai.

Yes, and good night to you too, Bubu.