buffalo toronto aurora

Wednesday found us back on the road again as we headed north to Toronto and a visit with Pat Maldonado. The radio warned us that the temperature was 32 but felt like 40 degrees with the humidex. I am very grateful for the air conditioning in the van and I am reminded yet again why I am happy that I have moved to the west. This time we had a one car wait at the border—go figure. Pat has just moved into her new Apartment on Davenport Road—a wonderful spot that she is in the process of decorating. WE just missed the unveiling by one day so will have to make a return visit to see the finished product. The furniture and curtains arrive tomorrow. However, we came to visit and that we did. Pat is still working part –time with no immediate plans for retirement. Next year it will be 40 years since we all graduated. Pat also fed us a delicious meal,so......... soon we will have to shop for new duds.

We had an uneventful trip north of the city and back to Aurora in time to meet the school bus—it was Isabel and Brigitte’s last day of school. Mark and Annick joined us and we had an entertaining dinner hour with the family before heading for the park. Sharon and Sohpie will return home tomorrow along with Andree so we will have a Pajunen family gathering.

Williamsville visit

We had a most enjoyable visit to Buffalo—actually it is really Williamsville where Ruth has her home. It was amazing to visit it this time after their huge snow storm last October where many of the trees in the city were damaged. There was a great deal of damage in Ruth’s back yard too—most of her trees survived but lost many of their branches. We were able to be outside much of the time as it did not get hot and humid until Tuesday and when we moved indoors it was movie time. We all enjoyed watching the Queen and in fact watched it a second time along with the director’s comments. It is hard to believe that it is 10 years since Diana died and 10 years since Tony Blair first came to office and now he too is gone. The acting was superb and I enjoyed the story line—I do wonder what the Queen thinks of our impressions.

Tuesday was Ruth’s 83rd birthday so we celebrated by going out to lunch at Harry’s Harbourview Restaurant in downtown Buffalo—right on the water. Cathleen joined us so we had another good visit. We did spend that afternoon indoors watching yet another movie but did find time for a nice long walk after dinner as it had cooled some and there was a nice breeze.

dinner in Williamsville (buffalo)

Ron did a fine job on the barbeque with Ruth's guidance. Cathleen and I stayed in the cool of the kitchen.

hamilton lunch

Ron and his Aunt Sylvia at lunch in Hamilton. Sylvia just turned 90 in April 2007.

breakfast in toronto

This photo is taken with Judy in Toronto at our breakfast stop. Ron is her sou chef and coffee maker.

Meals along with the wheels

Sunday, June 24 was a day of eating, visiting and travelling.

We started our day in Toronto and breakfast at Judy Coveney’s. Our friend Judy is a dietician so she made sure she covered all the food groups—we had fresh cooked beets, tomatoes marinated in olive oil, onions, roasted red peppers, potatoes, eggs, toast with special blue menu jam and even muffins that she stayed up until 2am to bake for us. We felt like we had been treated like royalty and hence very special. We did get out for a nice walk in her neighbourhood before heading off to Hamilton. It had been gay pride week in Toronto and Sunday was the parade so we were advised to go north before heading west to Hamilton.

Again, the traffic was heavy out of Toronto and along the lake to Hamilton. Hamilton is at the head of Lake Ontario between Toronto and Niagara Falls and is joined to Lake Ontario by the Burlington Canal. It is considered to be a landlocked harbour—one of the largest on the Great Lakes. Ron’s Aunt and family have lived in Hamilton for many years and it is always special to visit with his Aunt Sylvia. Sylvia turned 90 this past April and is still happily living in the family home. She made us a wonderful lunch of salmon, rice and fresh buns.

Leaving Hamilton we carried on along Lake Ontario to Lewiston and the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge . We discovered that it is a mistake to try and cross the border on a Sunday afternoon—we waited just under 2 hours to cross over to New York. It was a very long hot wait but a wait well worth it as Ruth had good cold beer in the frig and Cathleen , who was joining us for dinner had our favourite Columbia Crest white wine ready for drinking. We had a delightful barbequed dinner of pork chops, salad, sweet potatoes, fresh green beans and the first of the local strawberries.

Needless to say we did not go to bed hungry on Sunday.

Toronto visit with Mrs. Kay

Saturday, June 23 and we drove into Toronto this morning to visit with Mrs. Kay—an absolutely perfect day—good company, good weather and good food. We had no problems with traffic but it was amazing to see the number of people out on the road—at one point the 401 going east was at a standstill with 5 lanes of traffic—it looked like one massive parking lot. As well there were two lanes trying to merge onto it. We were pretty happy to be going in the opposite direction.

Mrs Kay treated us to lunch at the Weston golf course and it was warm/cool enough for us to sit outside and enjoy. We had a fun time catching up on all the news and views.

We came back to Aurora to enjoy pizza with the Williams family. We are certainly eating well on the adventure of ours.