This is a favourite picture of ours, from last year's trip to African Lion Safari with Help a Child Smile. We had a great day there last year, and riding on this train was Caleb's favourite part. Yesterday, we were able to go again, thanks to Help a Child Smile. We took a train photo again. Notice the changes? (or maybe the similarities--Tim's wearing the same sweater!) Caleb's head is full of hair, his face has thinned out, and his sisters are boisterously bouncing around behind. What a difference a year makes.
2011
We had a great day. African Lion Safari is best viewed through a child's eyes, so I'll leave that one to Caleb. He had a busy week last week, with three days of school and our trip to the Lion Safari. All three kids were cashed out in the van as we drove home--a beautiful sunset drive down Highway 6, into Hamilton...
...until this black smoke clouded our view! Hamilton's beautiful (okay, beauty is in the eye of the beholder) industrial skyline was clouded with BLACK smoke. We usually only have WHITE (or maybe slightly grey) smoke! There was an industrial fire somewhere in the east end--with a nice East wind blowing the smoke cloud right over our neighbourhood. The picture below contrasts our white smoke with the fire's smoke. It's a blurry picture because I didn't want to open the van's window.
We decided to avoid our home for a little while until we either figured out what the fire was (making sure it wasn't too toxic) or the fire was put out and the smoke cleared. But, we snapped a few pictures first. It turns out the fire was in a scrap metal yard. Several fire crews were called out, and they extinguished the fire within the hour, and the smoke drifted slowly over the mountain, landing on unsuspecting mountain-dwellers. We returned home with little incident, after a nice quiet drive with sleeping kids.
