A day off.

At the beginning of the month, I had the opportunity to take Sheldon and his friend into the City for 'Take Your Grade 9 to Work Day'.  Instead of sitting beside me at my desk all day, they had a chance to tour the Courthouse, including the jail, watch a drug trial, meet a Judge, Crown Attorney, and Court Clerk, visit the Legislature, and hear about some career opportunities in our Ministry.  

Would it surprise you that the first thing they told me was about how ridiculously big the boardroom table was that they ate lunch at?  

What struck me though, as our train arrived downtown and we walked up to the Courthouse, was how much these two boys were in awe at the size of the buildings and the sheer number of people, cars, and bikes on the streets.  I decided then that I needed to bring my small-town kids downtown more often.

Fast forward to last week when both the kids had PA days at their schools.  I thought it would be a great chance for an adventure to the City.

We drove downtown, parked the car, took some time to check out the Christmas windows at Holt Renfrew, and then hopped on the subway to ride for a couple of stops to the Mall.  There we saw gigantic reindeer covered in little white lights, and a huge lit Christmas tree.

After stops at Indigo and the Apple Store (where I wasn't sure I'd be able to get the kids off the iPads before the store closed) we hopped on the subway back to have some dinner (at McDonalds - kids choice for quick and fun!?!)

We met up with Peter and spent the evening at the museum where, first, we enjoyed the Ancient Egypt exhibit, especially the mummy.  Juliana has been studying Egypt in her social studies class at school so she was able to tell us about some of the things that we were seeing.  We also braved the Bat Cave, experienced historical bling in the form of gems, minerals and a meteorite specimen, and checked out the new exhibit of drawings on iPads and iPhones.  

All in all it was a great day.  But as we walked back to the car, Sheldon said to me: "I'm glad we're going home now.  There are just too many people here."  

You can take the boy from the small town, but you can't take the small town from the boy.