Hi everyone...

How are you all doing?! I hope you are enjoying life just as much as I am right at the moment...The weather is still almost unbearably hot..and therefore we went spent the yesterday one of the Toronto-Islands on Lake Ontario yesterday..I can only say that a 15min ferry-ride can take you from a bustling city where you never seem to find tranquility to an island on which people live without cars...and there are hardly and tourists! After spending some time to straighten out our reservation for our car and finding sun-screen we took the subway to the ferry dock....From there the ferry took us to Wade Island. On the way there you have the most beautiful view of the Toronto skyline! Once you arrive you see a few really cute and typically Canadian houses and a huge soccer field framed by trees...next to a marina with fancy sail-boats...

After walking less than a kilometer you are on the other side of the Island at the beach with much clearer and cleaner water and a great view of water, water, and more water (along with a few sailing-boats)!! As most of you know me..I was the first one of our group to almost right away hit the water (without letting the sun-tan lotion sink in long enough..which caused a nice burnt shoulder:()!! It was perfectly clear and quite shallow...and the lifeguards didn't let me swim out half as far as I would have liked to...It was so relaxing to just lay around in the sun while reading a nice book and occasionally going for a quick swim to cool off!! After feeling like we were starting to roast we decided to head back to Toronto's mainland! We attempted to buy the last of the camping gear we needed for our road trip---but learned that all shops close at 7:00pm on Saturdays...

This morning I felt the need to finally exercise again..and put on my running shoes to have another view of the city and the lakeshore..It was quite nice to see new places as I was jogging along...and since all streets are rectangular..it is really easy to find ones way around town!! Around lunchtime parents of a friend of ours from IBS (Scott) picked us up here at our residence since we cannot take all our luggage along with us on our trip..and they offered to store it at their place:):) They are amazing people and took us on a little tour of Toronto (in the car) and took their time to plan our trip with us and share all kinds of information with us---besides offering us drinks next to their pool! They have an "old" house from the 1930's which is absolutely perfectly situated off a busy road..It is in a complex of like 6 houses or so that are at the top of a little hill that is only reachable via a gravel road! It is sooo nice and quiet there! Their pool is 13m long and even has a diving board!!!!:) I loved it..and was the last one to leave the pool before dinner! Shortly before dinner Dan's brother arrived with his son Jeremy who live in Ottawa..and they shared info's about their nations capital with us! We now also have a place to stay when we visit Ottawa!! We left Dan and Trixie feeling like we had at least gotten to know a bit of Canadian culture...and have definetly met very nice Canadians..who we will be seeing more often in the future ( as they have offered to take us to Niagara falls with them)!!

But enough about my last two days...because i need to rest for the day that lies ahead 2morrow! We are leaving for our road-trip 2morrow and I therefore also do not know when I will be able to send the next e-mail to you guys. We have rent a car for the next 21 days and will be driving to the East-coast of Canada and back..hopefully seeing as many beautiful sights on the way as we can! I will keep you posted..Our first stops will be Kingston, Montréal and Québec City..I am excited to be leaving to go exploring..without a real idea where we are going when..and where we will be staying!..But we have our tent..and sleeping-bags as well as a car..so we should be alright!!