Garden

 

 

 

Allison, you wanted garden pictures. The top is Will and Allie's rododendrens. Bottom  is hostas. The hostas everywhere here are very lush and large. The garden isn't doing much yet.

After such a busy week we decided to give the boys and their parents a day to themselves and we drove over to the Hopewell Rocks at the Bay of Fundy. We have been there once before, when we were here for Will's wedding, but the site wasn't open for the season so we just kind of snuck in. This time we did the whole thing. It is a very well done site, with a big interpretative center (with gift shop!) and trails down to the bay. We arrived at high tide, so you can see in the first picture that the water is high. Low tide was at 7 pm, so we thought we would have to hang around till then, but 7 is when the tide starts to return, so we could go down at around 4. It was amazing to walk where the bay had been covered in 35 feet of water only hours before. Most people just walked around the rocks you see in the picture, but we walked quite a bit further along the water and saw some spectacular rock formations. On the way home we went to a Big Stop for supper.
Weather has been pretty nice, although we were under a heat dome for a couple of days, which is something we don't experience often at home. We certainly don't have the humidity.

Will is done parental leave and they don't have childcare for the summer so there will be a lot of juggling of schedules for them. At least we will be here for a couple of weeks to help out.

Owen calls me Baba and Geoff is Babi. Sim is most interested in the Titanic, he talks about it a lot. We are having a lot of fun with the boys.

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Second "annual" family lunch - August 10

 Nancy and I would be happy to host everyone who wants to come for a casual get-together/lunch on August 10 at around noon (Folk Fest weekend) at our house. Nancy's family (most of them anyway) will also be coming over. This will be similar to last year's, which was successful.

If interested, please confirm in the comment section here so we know what to plan for food. Please share with those not on the blog (or who forgot about it).

Truro

 I guess our travelling is not quite done. We went to Truro on Monday to look after the boys while Will and Allie attended a conference. They left Monday morning and we followed on the afternoon after picking Sim up from school. We had a good time with the boys on Tuesday. The weather was good so we spent most of the day outside. We went to one of the best playgrounds I have ever been to, called the Fundy Discover Site. Among other things it has a large sandy area with a working water pump and lots of shovels and pots for water play. The boys both had a great time there.

Since we were there for childcare, the diocese covered our room and meals - a pretty good deal for us,  and we didn't even have to put the kids to bed, their parents did that. We came back early this morning to get Sim to school.

It's so good to see the boys. Owen has changed so much since we saw him last. He's toddling everywhere and talking all the time.

It's hot here today and supposed to be hotter tomorrow. It feels almost tropical with the humidity. I'm not complaining - frost warnings in Rocky, Jude had to cover the plants.

This is a very busy household. Both Will and Allie are off to meetings again tomorrow, but we will stay here this time. On Friday there is a community supper that Will and Allie coordinate.

 

 

End of the road

 

We are safely in Nova Scotia. You can see the kms we traveled in the picture. Here's what I took away from our drive: there are a lot of trees in Canada.

Now it's time to enjoy our grandsons and their parents. This is Will's last week of parental leave. He and Allie will both be attending a conference this week so we will go along to be with the boys while they have their meetings. So just a tiny bit more travellings.

Quebec City

 I didn't post yesterday because all we did was drive. We left the courteous Ontario drivers and encountered the crazy Quebecois ones. Alberta drivers are aggressive but the ones here leave them in the dust.

We found our hotel without any problem and are glad we decided to stay two nights. It was  very nice not to have to go rushing off this morning. We went to old Quebec today. Spent a couple of hours in the Citadel, an old fort that is still used today as the headquarters of the Royal 22 Regiment, the first French-Canadian Regiment in the country. Since it is an active base, you can only see it via a guided tour which was very interesting. And there were lots of nice young soldiers all over the place. There was a museum about the regiment too. I remember hearing about the "Van Doos" somewhere. That's the 22nd Regiment. They started calling themselves the Van Doos because that's how the English pronounce "vingt-deux," twenty- two in French.

Wandered around the old town. It is high up over the St. Lawrence, and looking down we saw that a cruise ship was docked there. It turned out to be the Volendam, the ship we took our Alaska cruise on. The old town reminded me of Victoria's inner harbour, lots of tourists and businesses catering to them. The old town was nice to walk through, I guess lots of people find the old-world European feel to be charming, but (I don't want to sound superior here) we see lots of old buildings and neighbourhoods when we visit Anne.

This is really cool. It's a tobaggon run by the Chateau Frontenac that was built in 1864 and is still used today in the winter. 

We're going to try to get to Amherst tomorrow. An eight- hour drive, but we're ready to get somewhere and stay for a while.

 

 

 

Sault Ste. Marie 2

 We knew we had a long drive today, but we didn't leave till noon because we wanted to see the locks that made it possible for ships to pass between Lake Superior and Lake Huron. It's a national historic site and we just happened to bring our parks pass with us. It was very interesting - we do like to see industrial things. And now I know how locks work. The picture is of a movable dam that was made in case there was an accident in the locks. The bridge was made by Dominion Bridge, which was the first place I worked in Edmonton. The plant was about where Stephanie and Rem live now. The bridge was made in Montreal.

Eight-hour drive today. There was lots of slowing down for little towns along the highway, but again roads were good with lots of passing lanes. Still mostly trees and water with just a few fields. And lots of the ditches have lupine blooming in them, just beautiful!

We are staying in the nicest motel outside of Pettawaw. It looks like the usual roadside motel on the outside, but the room is so nice and updated. We have passed many motels and I always assume that they are grungy. Found this one on Expedia.

Tomorrow another long drive to Quebec City. We will stay there two night.s

Sault Ste. Marie

 

Our hotel in Thunder Bay was so nice. It was just a Best Western, but looked like an older hotel that had been renovated and was so bright and cool-looking.

It was a long day of traveling again, but again I enjoyed the trip. At the beginning of the day we stopped at the Terry Fox Memorial  which was quite touching. I figured that he would be 66 if he was still alive.

We stopped for gas down the road a bit and as I pulled out, I noticed the check engine light was on. We weren't sure what to do - we had the vehicle thoroughly checked out before we left Rocky. Anyway, we had to keep driving for a bit to get through some construction. Drove a bit more and, lo and behold, there was a Ford dealership at the side of the road. We had them check things out, and the mechanic determined that the problem was a sensor in the gas tank and was not an issue. So we went on our way, later than planned but relieved. 

Finally got to SSM and pulled into a Swiss Chalet before checking into the hotel. There was a line to get a table and when I looked into the dining room all I could see was a sea of white hair. It turned out that they have a Tuesday special - two can dine for $20.99 and apparently every senior in town was taking advantage of it. So we joined the sea of white hair and enjoyed our special. I know I am a senior, so there is something wrong that I find them so annoying.

Gas prices are no longer in the reasonable range, some places up to $1.76.

Thunder Bay

 This was a pretty long day of driving, but I found it pleasant. Again, I have heard that it's a boring drive, with lots of big trucks pushing behind you. But it's about the same as driving west of Rocky, only with no rewarding view of the mountains over the next hill. Yes, there were rocks and trees and water, but again just like home. Also the highway is in good repair and there are lots of passing lanes. And not a real lot of big trucks. There were more going the other way.

We are staying at a nice hotel across from the shore of Lake Superior. We went for a nice walk along the lakeside before supper. Geoff is resigned to not getting his steps on these long driving days. 

Weather is still nice and sunny, but cool.

We won't stick around Thunder Bay, we drive to Sault Ste. Marie tomorrow.

Winnipeg 2

 Went to church at a Holy Trinity downtown. A lovely old church, but it has some old-church problems. The foundation is in bad shape, they think it has to do with all the construction around. It is a historic building so they can't just sell it and build something new. There was a proposal from a daycare to rent their yard for an outdoor play space but the bishop, after approving the proposal, withdrew his approval. All that makes our little church's problems seem not so bad.

After church we went to the Museum of Human Rights. It was good but it is disheartening to see how terribly we treat each other. It seems that every right had to be fought for. Geoff says that the museum was awe-inspiring.

Our hotel is on the east side of town by the TransCanada which will make leaving tomorrow easy but made for a lot of driving around the city, especially when we made wrong turns. Oh well  we got to see some neighborhoods.

Winnipeg

 Another drive on the prairies, although there were more trees today. There was a fair amount of road construction  so it took longer than we thought it would. Manitoba drivers are quite courteous compared to Albertans.

Gas here is cheaper than in Alberta. Most places it was $1.37. We wound our way over to Costco here in Winnipeg, and it was $1.19! Geoff took a picture of the gas pump to send to Tim.

We went to the Forks, which we really enjoyed. Missed the turn into the parking (which we often do) so went across the river and found a spot on the street by a big church. We parked beside a big plaque - it was Louis Riel's grave. Louis Riel is a big deal here. The Forks was full of all kinds of people just having a good time. There was an outdoor market with lots of vendors. We went on a boat tour which took us on the two rivers, the Red and the Assinboine. The tour guide made a few disparaging remarks about Wnnipeg, but to me it seems like a nice place.

So far the weather has been good, a little cool, but no rain. 

One more day in Winnipeg, then on to Thunder Bay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Regina

 Regina is a pleasant place. It's very green. The trip here from MH was fine. We took a detour to Cabri, the little town Pat Lyster was from. He spoke about it a lot when we visited him and said a few times that he wished he could go back. We found his parents' graves in the cemetery.

I just love driving through the prairies. Geoff kept saying "There's a whole lotta nothing here," but I disagree. The wide openness of it makes me feel good. Must be from growing up in a prairie. We saw deer and antelope! Playing! 

Today we went to the RCMP Heritage Museum, which we both enjoyed a lot. 

We have been walking a fair bit, there is a really nice green space with paths around a lake. 

Winnipeg tomorrow for a couple of nights, then some long driving days. We realized we really want to see those little boys.

This the first leg of our trip - to Medicine Hat. The drive was uneventful and we arrived late aftenoon to the delicious smell of ribs baking. Fred said he was happy to cook for other people because then he would have leftovers for a couple of days. After supper we went to an arena to watch Evie play lacrosse.Tonight we watched Anna play softball. Those are very busy girls.

Supper tonight again at Fred's with everybody there, early because of softball. We have spent most of our time just visiting with Fred, catching up with Ramo a and Rhonda at the games. Fred1 and Geoff went for a walk in the morning.

Fred says that when Ramona and the girls go on their year- long trip he will live at Ramona's to watch the dogs, sell his condo, and move into a seniors' lodge. He has the place all picked out.  He says he's had it with cooking for one.

Tomorrow we head for Regina and whatever we might find on the way.

Forgot to send this yesterday