Beautiful Ontario

In an effort to dissuade me from my pursuit of an academic career, Amy and Greg came to visit me this past weekend! I just love to show Toronto off, and it was a great excuse to be a tourist in my own town, as well as to eat ridiculously huge amounts of food and flake around like I don't have a real job ... oh wait ... I don't.

They have the seal of UW Madison in the Great Hall at UofT!
(And they don't have Georgetown ... what's up with that?)

Chinatown is always a fun excuse to do "American Gothic" with giant kitchen implements

Or .... to brandish an enormous whisk.
(fear me!)

And here's an example of the delectable eats to be found in Chinatown:
This is the classiest Dim Sum I've ever had (to be found at Dynasty) mostly because I actually knew what was in this stuff.

We also got out of Toronto and saw a bit of Ontario's Wine Country. The area around Niagara is gorgeous and also full of fun little wineries. We had a great day full of sampling the various varieties, and I finally got to try Icewine! We also went to the falls, which were completely awe inspiring!

Amy and Greg about to try the wares at the Konzelmann Winery

The Canadian side of Niagara Falls:

Greg and I next to the really impressive rushing waters ...

We even got to go under in the falls, through creepy tunnels.
(The extremely fashionable slickers do nothing to reduce the creep-out factor)

At the end of the tunnels we got a view out into underside of the rushing waters! It was unbelievably scary, although this concept does not transfer well to the film medium.

Horray for Friends! Horray for Tourism!! Horray for weird kitsch you can buy at Niagara Falls (yes, Intern ... you should be afraid, very afraid)!!