ottawa

We travelled into Ottawa on Tuesday morning (July 3) with Rob and after breakfast in town we dropped him off downtown at his office. We were all very disappointed as our favourite breakfast stop, Nick’s, was no longer open. Ron had been going to that restaurant for breakfast and or lunch since 1966 and introduced both Rob and I to Nick and his wonderful food—just a small place with about 8 stools but terrific food.

We headed to Jean Bye’s and off loaded the van once again. We are here to stay until we start our trip back to the west. We will spend the time visiting our many friends and our favourite haunts as well as work in a trip to Connecticut to visit with our American travel friends.

We did solve the mystery of the memory card for the camera. They were able to retrieve those lost pictures from the card and did a reformat which I ought to have done before we started out. They did say that the memory cards likely only last for 3 or 4 years before they start giving problems—the one I was using was only a year old but did have corrupt sectors—they do have a machine that can find the pics and put the images back together so I was able to find and retrieve the pics from Longlac. Oh happy day.

We have found a ceragem in Ottawa—newly open for only 3 days but it allowed us to have a nice 40 minute massage.

It looks like I will not have easy access to a wireless connection while here in the Nation’s capital so this could be the last of the information until we are on the road again. It is wonderful to be here and as always Jean is treating us so well and making her home our home away from home. We will be travelling in Connecticut from June 16-20 and will then stay in Ottawa until the following weekend when we start our trek home.

kingston to bishop mills

Canada Day was a cool one but bright and sunny so we had a walk before breakfast up to the Alpaca farm. We got to feed and be right up close to them—what lovely soft wool they have. Nancy and Paul have at least 70 including some babies who were very young—one was less than a week old. Garry and Carolyn fed us a hearty breakfast and we were on the road again. This time we were headed to Bishops Mills and my brother Rob and his wife Carolyn’s home. We again ran into the challenge of county roads and their names. We found ourselves in Merrickville and fortunately asked the right person for directions as she was able to send us cross country to Bishops Mills. We were really excited to get there as it meant we could off load the van. However, now that all Rob and Carolyn’s stuff is out we find we have a lot of our own stuff. We might never get those seats set up to use.

We just missed the parade in Merrickville when we first arrived but found the town alive with tourists and locals. WE did go back in for the afternoon and visited with our good friends Mae and Janice Wilson. Mae always has delicious treats in her freezer and did not disappoint Ron.

We settled in for a quiet sleep in the country—Carolyn and Garry are also in the country so we are getting spoiled by these nice quiet sleeps.

We spent the holiday Monday with Rob and Carolyn at the homestead. Ron got to play with some more toys—this time it was the ride on lawn mower. I got to watch chef Carolyn in action as she made us her infamous orange pancakes and a delicious cherry dessert. We also got out to walk the dogs so got some exercise.

aurora to kingston

We woke Friday morning to hear the news that there was a National Day of Protest by the Aboriginals—this meant that the route to Kingston was blocked for us. Highway 2, the 401 and the railroad all had blockades set up. We decided that we would start out and take the more northern highway (number 7) and then go south to Kingston once we were past the road block.

We did travel in a round about manner as we missed the county road signs to Port Perry but we did have a lovely drive through very fertile farmland. The traffic was surprisingly light until we got past Peterborough. We then discovered that each little town has a traffic light and as the volume grew so did the slow downs. We did stop at Havelock and had a wonderful break at the station restaurant. The CPR had run passenger service until 1960 and it is still a busy rail yard with shunting of rail cars going on all the time. At one point there were 4 engines working. The station itself has a lot of memorabilia and photos on the walls and made for a nice refreshing stop. We did decide to try our luck at going south and connecting with some of the county roads to see if that would free us from the sense of being in a parking lot on the highway. We are finding that our maps indicate the county roads by number and the townships indicate these roads by name so........By this time CBC let us know that the 401 was open so we were able to go south to Belleville (on just one road) and then on into Kingston. We arrived at Carolyn and Garry Ferguson’s some five hours after leaving Aurora.

We had a wonderful reunion with my KGH friends who are still living in Kingston and area—Carolyn and Garry, Jack and Linda, Marj and John , Karen and Andy. Somehow it is like we were never away and we still sit and have the same laughing fits as we did those many years ago. Carolyn and Garry have a new fifth wheel that they are planning to take to the East Coast this summer—what an amazing way to travel.

On Saturday Ron and I went over to Amherstview to visit with Linda and Burt Moll. (Linda and I worked together in Ottawa) . It is exciting to see their home and all the progress they have made with their renovations. The kitchen is almost finished and it does look great and Linda says it is wonderful to work in too. Linda introduced us to a nice refreshing summer drink—orangina—a fizzy orange drink.

We were back to Carolyn and Garry’s in time to go for a boat ride on Loughborough Lake—it is a 22 mile long lake with many cottages and permanent homes. Dan Ackroyd has a cottage on this lake—his family has had a cottage on this lake for many years too. As well, there are a few huge cottages built and used by NHL players. We were surprised that there was not a lot of traffic on the lake since it was the long weekend. It could have been the weather—a little on the cool side and showers threatening. However, we had a delightful trip down the lake and we were home and inside having a cup of coffee before the rain started. We decided to stay home and have a game of cards rather than venture out to downtown Kingston in the rain. I got the cards but Carolyn got the numbers so she is the new Saskatchewan Rummy champ and now has the counting and the rules down pat.

aurora again

We spent Wednesday and Thursday June 27 and 28 in Aurora with Sharon, Mark and the four girls—Sophie, Isabel, Brigitte and Annick. As an added bonus, Andree joined us this visit. The heat wave had passed so it was enjoyable being outside and even sweater weather. Everyone was in fine form and the Ottawa visit for Sharon, Andree and Sophie was a huge success. However, everyone was very happy to have mommy home again.