Canada Trip Report
Aug. 2nd, 2007 03:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pyesetzSuccess! Got our immigrant visas, visited Niagara Falls and Canada's Wonderland, bought a house, even got a mortgage with no job or national credit history! What a nice country—I can hardly wait to move!
Below the fold is my trip report. It's rather heavy on the photos (over a megabyte of images).
(This is the "public" version of our trip report, which contains no photos of family members. Click on the photos to see larger versions.)
Cherry Hill NJ:
Our current house. Yes, the trees are a bit overgrown. Yes, the shrubs are a little uneven—I trim them free-hand and some years come out better than others. Here we see a minivan packed and ready for Canada. Kid #2 is in the garage.
(This paragraph is just filler because the page design I'm using here requires a certain minimum amount of text per image in order to look good. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.)
Allentown PA:
Allentown Farmer's Market, which is part of a rest stop on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Later that day we played a CD on the car stereo that included Billy Joel's You're My Home, which mentions this turnpike.
The market was probably designed as a tourist trap, but actually the produce quality is excellent. I considered buying raspberries, but decided against because of the risk (fresh fruits can be confiscated at the Canadian border). Wifey bought a tomato, which (she later said) was very tasty.
Syracuse NY:
Embassy Suites Hotel. The Embassy is a gorgeous accommodation (we had previously stayed in one near Disneyworld). The inside is decorated as a tropical paradise, lush with plantings and waterfalls, and lined with locked doors to the individual hotel rooms.
The Embassy advertises "Hi-speed Internet in rooms". What it does not advertise is "FREE hi-speed Internet in rooms". We declined to pay the extra fee and made do without connectivity for one night.
It took us six hours to get here from Cherry Hill, although MapQuest's estimate was four.
Niagara Falls ON:
Immigration office. We had to wait here while they figured out what to do with us, as "persons authorized to receive visas but not yet in possession of them". Eventually they let us into Canada. I'm not sure if there's anything else they could have done, since we are NAFTA citizens who cannot be denied entry without cause and no cause could be found.
Kitchener ON:
The Radisson inn is a 12-story hotel in Southeast Kitchener. It is one of the tallest buildings in its area, which turned out to be a useful feature for finding our way back to the hotel after driving around town.
This hotel offers "wired Internet in rooms and wireless in lobby". They aren't kidding. In the room we could receive the beacons from their wireless access point, but it refused to reply to our DHCP signals. The wired Internet had only one wire in the room. I tried to set up Internet Connection Sharing, but it ended up being more work than I felt like putting in, so effectively we became a one-computer family for our week's stay here.
The microwave was adequate. The cube fridge was too small for our needs. The garage has many concrete pillars that are poorly placed, so most of the parking spaces are difficult to get into and out of.
When we checked in, they told us that we had been quoted the wrong rate and should have received the "summer special" which is 25% lower. When we got the final bill, the rate was actually 40% lower, so the pricing was a little unpredictable but in a nice way.
New Hamburg ON:
In kid #1's opinion, a home's location is good if and only if there is a public library nearby. This is the public library of New Hamburg. It has only a few volumes of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series (which is kid #1's usual test for library quality) but it can obtain the others through the Region of Waterloo interlibrary loan system. At our Cherry Hill library, kid #1 is known as "the interlibrary loan girl".
When I took this picture, we were giving serious consideration to buying a house in New Hamburg, within walking distance of this library.
We attended the Harry Potter Festival and purchased our copy of the final book at the local village bookstore (along with 5000 other Potter fanatics), but forgot to bring along the camera so no photos; sorry.
Baden ON:
This is the house I ended up buying. It's not one of those fake brick-over-wood-frame houses you see nowadays; this is a brick house! You can huff and puff all you want, but you'll never blow it down! It was built in 1870. I haven't yet traced the first 50 years or so of its history, but since then it has been passed down father-to-son for three generations. It seems the family was a little concerned about selling out to one of those Damn Yankees, but they just couldn't argue with the super deal their agent got them—who was also my agent. Boy did I luck out! The agent snagged this house for me before it officially went on the market.
The Baden library is much smaller than New Hamburg's, but walkable from this house. Baden and New Hamburg are both villages in Wilmot Township. The locally-famous hamlet of Punkeydoodles Corners is not far away, but I haven't actually seen it yet.
My House:
You're 137, you're beautiful, and you're mine! (Apologies to Ringo Starr.)
Here we see the home inspector returning his tools to his truck. Overall he gave the house a "6" on a 1‒9 scale, which isn't bad considering that the electrical system is scheduled for complete replacement (ever hear of knob-and-tube?), the driveway needs replacement as soon as I move in, the central A/C unit is likely to need replacement soon, and the attic has only a third as much insulation as is recommended for the area. But the roof is in excellent shape! And the original brickwork is still holding up.
Vaughan ON:
Residence Inn. Just opened four months ago! Small amounts of African-themed decorations. Extended-stay suites with full kitchens. We got a free upgrade (for unclear reasons) to a 2-bedroom suite. It's located about 1 mile north of York (part of Greater Toronto). Free wireless Internet!
Canada's Wonderland:
An amusement park in Vaughan, owned by Paramount Studios. We spent two days there, which is just about enough time to ride everything other than the roller-coasters and the waterpark. We got season passes so we can come back in September (during final closing on the new house) and again in October (for their Halloween-themed festival).
North York ON:
The Ontario Science Centre is a science museum located within Greater Toronto. We got free admission due to our membership in ASTC.
In my opinion, the OSC has too many "talking head" exhibits and not enough buttons to press or levers to pull. The food was slightly worse than average for a science-museum cafeteria. We decided not to choose OSC as our new ASTC "home museum" after we move to Canada.
Niagara Falls ON:
Days Inn (but the licence in the elevator still says "Princess Hotel"). A dumpy hotel in a bad area of a tourist town. Security cameras in all hallways. Room design suggests 1970's, although clearly there have been some updates. We won't be staying here again.
There's supposed to be a charge for wireless Internet, available only within 300 ft of the lobby. But we got free wireless in the room! The access point was named "default", so I have no idea whether it was provided by the hotel or by a clueless neighbour.
Cheektowaga NY:
Homewood Suites. Near Buffalo airport (frequent and noisy airplane lift-offs). Part of the Hilton chain. Single-wire Internet in rooms. Breakfast and (minimal) dinner are included.
The border-crossing was uneventful. The border guard got me to agree that I bought a house in Ontario because I'm "sick of the United States", then let us go. Not even five minutes!
Buffalo NY:
The HSBC banking centre, near the sports arena. The coffee shop requires photo ID (which they retain) while you use their washroom! Only the top half of the building is in the picture; the purple spot is the Sun. The Canadian consulate is on the 30th floor. There is a guard at the elevator—you can't go up unless/until a security officer (named Connie; grows organic pumpkins; has nine children!) checks your papers and certifies that you have a legitimate need to visit the consulate. No guns, no knives, no cell phones, no extraneous family members (except infant children) can go up.
The visa-issuing process is in two parts: you hand in your documents in the morning and return in the afternoon to receive your visa. Unbeknownst to me, the "right of permanent residence fee" (a.k.a "landing tax") was increased while I was in Canada. The cashier's cheque I bought before the trip wasn't large enough. I had to get another $150 from HSBC's ATM (conveniently located in the building lobby—only $1.75 convenience fee!), then get re-certified by Connie to return to the 30th floor and complete my morning's paperwork.
Buffalo Museum of Science. We get lots of use out of our ASTC
card! I looked at the exhibit on ancient Egypt (the museum has one
mummy of a minor stolist
priest, so the exhibit was organized around his daily life), then I left the
family at the museum and returned to the consulate. Visa pick-up was
uneventful, although Connie had to check several of her pockets after
forgetting where she had stored my pocket knife in the morning.
In kid #2's opinion, Buffalo's Museum of Science is one of the worst he's ever visited, in terms of having almost no buttons or levers to play with. We probably won't be back.
Syracuse NY:
The Milton J. Rubenstein Museum of Science and Technology. The MoST was not part of our original itinerary, but we arrived in Syracuse too early for hotel check-in. Another use for our ASTC card! The building looks huge on the outside (only the right half of it is shown here), but the inside had only two halls of exhibits, many of them broken. Apparently the MoST is mostly shut down for the summer during a "$9 million renovation".
As we left the MoST, we saw this triangular building, which looks flat due
to the angle of perspective. It is apparently a hotel with some shops
on the first floor.
Liverpool NY:
Best Western Inn, adjacent to the Lockheed–Martin plant just outside Syracuse. This was a last-minute itinerary change before we left, because of a scheduling snafu. (Original plan had been to stay at the Embassy Suites again, but they had written us down for June instead of July!) Best Western has free wireless Internet in the rooms, so it's better than the Embassy in that way.
Cherry Hill NJ:
Our current house, unchanged since we left it two weeks before.
Below the fold is my trip report. It's rather heavy on the photos (over a megabyte of images).
(This is the "public" version of our trip report, which contains no photos of family members. Click on the photos to see larger versions.)
Going to Canada
Cherry Hill NJ:Our current house. Yes, the trees are a bit overgrown. Yes, the shrubs are a little uneven—I trim them free-hand and some years come out better than others. Here we see a minivan packed and ready for Canada. Kid #2 is in the garage.
(This paragraph is just filler because the page design I'm using here requires a certain minimum amount of text per image in order to look good. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.)
Allentown PA:Allentown Farmer's Market, which is part of a rest stop on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Later that day we played a CD on the car stereo that included Billy Joel's You're My Home, which mentions this turnpike.
The market was probably designed as a tourist trap, but actually the produce quality is excellent. I considered buying raspberries, but decided against because of the risk (fresh fruits can be confiscated at the Canadian border). Wifey bought a tomato, which (she later said) was very tasty.
Syracuse NY:Embassy Suites Hotel. The Embassy is a gorgeous accommodation (we had previously stayed in one near Disneyworld). The inside is decorated as a tropical paradise, lush with plantings and waterfalls, and lined with locked doors to the individual hotel rooms.
The Embassy advertises "Hi-speed Internet in rooms". What it does not advertise is "FREE hi-speed Internet in rooms". We declined to pay the extra fee and made do without connectivity for one night.
It took us six hours to get here from Cherry Hill, although MapQuest's estimate was four.
Niagara Falls ON:Immigration office. We had to wait here while they figured out what to do with us, as "persons authorized to receive visas but not yet in possession of them". Eventually they let us into Canada. I'm not sure if there's anything else they could have done, since we are NAFTA citizens who cannot be denied entry without cause and no cause could be found.
House-Hunting
Kitchener ON:The Radisson inn is a 12-story hotel in Southeast Kitchener. It is one of the tallest buildings in its area, which turned out to be a useful feature for finding our way back to the hotel after driving around town.
This hotel offers "wired Internet in rooms and wireless in lobby". They aren't kidding. In the room we could receive the beacons from their wireless access point, but it refused to reply to our DHCP signals. The wired Internet had only one wire in the room. I tried to set up Internet Connection Sharing, but it ended up being more work than I felt like putting in, so effectively we became a one-computer family for our week's stay here.
The microwave was adequate. The cube fridge was too small for our needs. The garage has many concrete pillars that are poorly placed, so most of the parking spaces are difficult to get into and out of.
When we checked in, they told us that we had been quoted the wrong rate and should have received the "summer special" which is 25% lower. When we got the final bill, the rate was actually 40% lower, so the pricing was a little unpredictable but in a nice way.
New Hamburg ON:In kid #1's opinion, a home's location is good if and only if there is a public library nearby. This is the public library of New Hamburg. It has only a few volumes of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series (which is kid #1's usual test for library quality) but it can obtain the others through the Region of Waterloo interlibrary loan system. At our Cherry Hill library, kid #1 is known as "the interlibrary loan girl".
When I took this picture, we were giving serious consideration to buying a house in New Hamburg, within walking distance of this library.
We attended the Harry Potter Festival and purchased our copy of the final book at the local village bookstore (along with 5000 other Potter fanatics), but forgot to bring along the camera so no photos; sorry.
Baden ON:This is the house I ended up buying. It's not one of those fake brick-over-wood-frame houses you see nowadays; this is a brick house! You can huff and puff all you want, but you'll never blow it down! It was built in 1870. I haven't yet traced the first 50 years or so of its history, but since then it has been passed down father-to-son for three generations. It seems the family was a little concerned about selling out to one of those Damn Yankees, but they just couldn't argue with the super deal their agent got them—who was also my agent. Boy did I luck out! The agent snagged this house for me before it officially went on the market.
The Baden library is much smaller than New Hamburg's, but walkable from this house. Baden and New Hamburg are both villages in Wilmot Township. The locally-famous hamlet of Punkeydoodles Corners is not far away, but I haven't actually seen it yet.
My House:You're 137, you're beautiful, and you're mine! (Apologies to Ringo Starr.)
Here we see the home inspector returning his tools to his truck. Overall he gave the house a "6" on a 1‒9 scale, which isn't bad considering that the electrical system is scheduled for complete replacement (ever hear of knob-and-tube?), the driveway needs replacement as soon as I move in, the central A/C unit is likely to need replacement soon, and the attic has only a third as much insulation as is recommended for the area. But the roof is in excellent shape! And the original brickwork is still holding up.
Vacationing
Vaughan ON:Residence Inn. Just opened four months ago! Small amounts of African-themed decorations. Extended-stay suites with full kitchens. We got a free upgrade (for unclear reasons) to a 2-bedroom suite. It's located about 1 mile north of York (part of Greater Toronto). Free wireless Internet!
Canada's Wonderland:An amusement park in Vaughan, owned by Paramount Studios. We spent two days there, which is just about enough time to ride everything other than the roller-coasters and the waterpark. We got season passes so we can come back in September (during final closing on the new house) and again in October (for their Halloween-themed festival).
Paramount also owns what remains of the Hanna-Barbera
animation company. This is the "Hanna-Barberry-Go-Round"
carousel. We didn't go on it.
|
It was very hot (about 28°C). One of my kids asked, "how much does
he get paid to wear that suit?" I talked a little about fursuit fans,
icepack vests, and other tricks of a trade that I've never actually
participated in.
|
Paramount included a little self-congratulatory area of the park where they
memorialize their best movies, including Addams Family Values.
I like that movie because the adolescent "Wednesday" character reminds me of
kid #1.
|
Several statues in the park use a "rusted iron" motif, such as this wild
boar that decorates the waiting area for a roller-coaster.
|
The "Klockwerks" ride, as seen from one of the seats that goes around
a circle while being pushed out to the side by a pneumatic solenoid.
|
 The obligatory waterfall that all
modern (post-Disney) theme parks must have. Of course, it is a mere
nothing compared to Niagara Falls (see below).
|
North York ON:The Ontario Science Centre is a science museum located within Greater Toronto. We got free admission due to our membership in ASTC.
In my opinion, the OSC has too many "talking head" exhibits and not enough buttons to press or levers to pull. The food was slightly worse than average for a science-museum cafeteria. We decided not to choose OSC as our new ASTC "home museum" after we move to Canada.
Niagara Falls ON:Days Inn (but the licence in the elevator still says "Princess Hotel"). A dumpy hotel in a bad area of a tourist town. Security cameras in all hallways. Room design suggests 1970's, although clearly there have been some updates. We won't be staying here again.
There's supposed to be a charge for wireless Internet, available only within 300 ft of the lobby. But we got free wireless in the room! The access point was named "default", so I have no idea whether it was provided by the hotel or by a clueless neighbour.
The Niagara river runs through a rather deep gorge of fairly recent
vintage. The government of Ontario provides a elevator to get down
from the main street to the river level. Upon return to street level, the
elevator exits into a gift shop.
The old hydroelectric plant from the early 1900's. At the top is the
Skylon Tower, which we didn't visit.
|
The "American Falls". The rocks at the bottom fell during the 20th
century. On average, the falls move up-river about 6 feet per year.
The "Canadian Falls", which are much larger. I have no idea how the
Canucks convinced the Yanks to let them have the larger piece.
Canadian negotiating skills are legendary!
The Canadian Falls also have a few rocks at the bottom.
The Canadian Falls kick up quite a spray! When we parked our car,
a ½ mile away, we thought it was raining. "No, that's just mist"
said the parking attendant, but the ground was wet. On the tour boat,
everyone was given a blue plastic raincoat, to keep as a souvenir.
|
Getting our Immigration Visas
Cheektowaga NY:Homewood Suites. Near Buffalo airport (frequent and noisy airplane lift-offs). Part of the Hilton chain. Single-wire Internet in rooms. Breakfast and (minimal) dinner are included.
The border-crossing was uneventful. The border guard got me to agree that I bought a house in Ontario because I'm "sick of the United States", then let us go. Not even five minutes!
Buffalo NY:The HSBC banking centre, near the sports arena. The coffee shop requires photo ID (which they retain) while you use their washroom! Only the top half of the building is in the picture; the purple spot is the Sun. The Canadian consulate is on the 30th floor. There is a guard at the elevator—you can't go up unless/until a security officer (named Connie; grows organic pumpkins; has nine children!) checks your papers and certifies that you have a legitimate need to visit the consulate. No guns, no knives, no cell phones, no extraneous family members (except infant children) can go up.
The visa-issuing process is in two parts: you hand in your documents in the morning and return in the afternoon to receive your visa. Unbeknownst to me, the "right of permanent residence fee" (a.k.a "landing tax") was increased while I was in Canada. The cashier's cheque I bought before the trip wasn't large enough. I had to get another $150 from HSBC's ATM (conveniently located in the building lobby—only $1.75 convenience fee!), then get re-certified by Connie to return to the 30th floor and complete my morning's paperwork.
Buffalo Museum of Science. We get lots of use out of our ASTC
card! I looked at the exhibit on ancient Egypt (the museum has one
mummy of a minor stolist
priest, so the exhibit was organized around his daily life), then I left the
family at the museum and returned to the consulate. Visa pick-up was
uneventful, although Connie had to check several of her pockets after
forgetting where she had stored my pocket knife in the morning.In kid #2's opinion, Buffalo's Museum of Science is one of the worst he's ever visited, in terms of having almost no buttons or levers to play with. We probably won't be back.
Returning to New Jersey
Syracuse NY:The Milton J. Rubenstein Museum of Science and Technology. The MoST was not part of our original itinerary, but we arrived in Syracuse too early for hotel check-in. Another use for our ASTC card! The building looks huge on the outside (only the right half of it is shown here), but the inside had only two halls of exhibits, many of them broken. Apparently the MoST is mostly shut down for the summer during a "$9 million renovation".
As we left the MoST, we saw this triangular building, which looks flat due
to the angle of perspective. It is apparently a hotel with some shops
on the first floor.
Liverpool NY:Best Western Inn, adjacent to the Lockheed–Martin plant just outside Syracuse. This was a last-minute itinerary change before we left, because of a scheduling snafu. (Original plan had been to stay at the Embassy Suites again, but they had written us down for June instead of July!) Best Western has free wireless Internet in the rooms, so it's better than the Embassy in that way.
Cherry Hill NJ:Our current house, unchanged since we left it two weeks before.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-08-02 07:26 pm (UTC)Also, if you go back to Niagara, I heartily recommend "Cave of the Winds" on the American side. You get to walk up to the base of Bridal Veil Falls on a catwalk. Words fail me. You start to realize the scale and power of the Falls when you're standing at the bottom of thre littlest one.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-04 01:14 am (UTC)It's amazing that the house hasn't burned down already, considering that the drop cable is rated for 60 amps but the central A/C is rated for 30 amps. Does anyone actually believe that all the rest of the house uses no more than 30? The home inspector circled the "overfused" item on his checklist.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-04 12:53 am (UTC)Though that wiring is a generation or two older than the stuff I was complaining about at my place. I've only once seen 'knob and tube' that was still in service over a decade ago.
If remodeling might as well take the opportunity to add cat5 or fibre in the walls.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-04 01:26 am (UTC)I mentioned "cat5" to the broker, but he didn't pick up on it. The electrical has to be replaced by the seller because I can't take possession of the house until that's done (K&T is "uninsurable" and thus "unmortgageable").
Does 802.11b work well through brick walls? These guys say brick is 8db loss, while drywall is 4db. My new house is so old, it has "double-brick" walls which are twice as thick, so maybe 11db? I'll have to see whether I can use a wireless repeater to get past the central brick wall and avoid having to string cat5 through it. The house has both a front porch and an overgrown mudroom in the back; I might have to use cat5 for those since they're beyond the outside brick walls of the house.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-04 02:16 am (UTC)I'd try to find a way to get as many machines on cat5 as possible if you have mostly desktops.
The front porch looks a little open to have a cat5 cable lying out there. A WiFi router should be able to penetrate at least one wall. So some playing around should make something work.
winer
Date: 2008-03-30 07:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-30 07:33 pm (UTC)Hello
Date: 2008-08-26 12:00 am (UTC)Re: Hello
Date: 2008-08-26 03:08 am (UTC)Re: Hello
Date: 2016-02-05 03:01 am (UTC)