Homeward bound

October 3^rd and we are officially on our way home.  We drove a couple of longer days to arrive in Regina on Oct 5^th where we visited with Keith’s friends, Sandi, Carol and Ken. Keith went to school with these friends and it was catch up time, especially with Sandi.

We had a great time with lots of laughs. So nice for me to meet these long time friends of Keith’s. John prepared an early Thanksgiving dinner….we really enjoyed it.

Of course a trip across Canada would not be complete if Keith did not take me to Moose Jaw, SK. 
Many years ago, Keith had picked out a house we could buy and I would have been able to retire quite a few years before I did!
Needless to say, I was not impressed, so he threw in a horse for the summer and a skidoo for the winter.  Still not impressed! 
So we will carry on with our plan to move back to my condo next year. I know, there is just no pleasing some people.

We did both the tunnels. They should be done in this order.
1) The Passage to Fortune tells the story of early Chinese immigrants to Canada.  We became an Immigrant and follow in their footsteps through Burrows and Sons Laundry, in darkened tunnels under the streets and in the kitchen of Mr. Wong's cafe. It was not pretty. Their life was made very, very hard and it did not make one proud of Canada and the harshness with which the immigrants were treated at that time.

2) The Chicago Connection is an Al Capone story.  We're bootleggers in 1929.  We came to Moose Jaw to buy booze from the Capone organization. We had to learn the ropes and stay out of the way of the local police chief.  We started out at Miss Fanny's club and ended up in a tunnel, somewhere underground. And the only one who knows the way out is Gus, one of Capone's goons.  The Al Capone tunnel was really fun. 

We arrived back in Calgary on Oct 9^th and spent a few days visiting Keith’s brother Arnie and some other friends we were not able to see when we were here during the floods. We joined Arnie & his friends for a game of floor curling and this time we also tried our hand at carpet bowling.  It is more difficult than curling. We had fun and knew a few people this time.

Arnie & I enjoyed winning in the  crib tournament against Keith and Arnie’s friend Ruth. We are the Champions!!

Arnie’s daughter Crystal & Les hosted Thanksgiving dinner. Arnie’s son Derek was present with his son Matt and family and Les’ parents
were also present. A houseful and wonderful time!   

We finally were able to have dinner with my friends Lori & Ron and their son Travis. It’s been about 8 years or so since I had seen them so lots of catching up to do. Had a great time. 

Garry & Val had us over for a wonderful dinner and we were doing so well chatting and enjoying our wine that we decided we would stay over. Really nice people and we had a super time.

Oct 14^th we left Calgary and firstly made our way to Banff where we enjoyed breakfast. It was so pretty driving towards Banff.

After breakfast, we continued on our way towards home.  We were unable to contact our family/friends in Revelstoke, Vernon & Kelowna, so we decided just to continue on home.

We were gone for 4 months. Reflecting on our trip, we were very glad to have driven across Canada. We truly live in a beautiful country with so much diversity. Each province is special and we enjoyed them all.
Highly recommend driving across this awesome country.
We will fly back to Newfoundland at some time in the future as we have much more to see and do there and will probably stop in the Maritimes also.

We are so very fortunate to have lots of friends and family across Canada. Visiting with everyone made this trip very special. Thanks to everyone who opened their homes to us. We really appreciate you. We are very blessed!!!

Now that we are back, we extend a huge WELCOME to anyone who would like to visit. Let us repay your hospitality!  There is much to see and do out here on the very beautiful west coast of Canada.

Here are the costs of travelling with our SMART car which we loaded with a tent, BBQ, dishes, pot & pans, mattress, sleeping bags, pillows, and our backpacks. We were packed to the gills.

In May Keith laid out our trip and estimated that we would travel 22,000 kms,(13671 miles)
and use 1375 litres of gas (302 gallons)

Well, here is how it played out:
Kilometres driven:    22,780  (14093 miles)
Litres of gas used:    1346      (296 gallons) 

Keith budgeted:      $12,000 for the two of us
We spent:               $12,650 (103.24 per day) all in- hotels, food, ferry's, gas, food and camping, gifts, 
                               souvenirs, etc.


It is really nice to be home and we plan to stay for a while. 




 

Englehart - Timmins

Sept 27^th : Mom has adjusted well to apartment living. Unfortunately she has macular degeneration, but still has a very active social life. She cooks good meals for herself, does her own laundry and walks every day. She has lots of friends and is doing very well. It is comforting to see.

Here she is with her grand daughter Molly

My brother Daryl is doing well and was working a lot so did not see too much of him. Lynne, my sister-in-law is a gem and very generous with her time in terms of making sure Mom gets to her appts and takes her for her big grocery shop.

Lynne has officially

retired after retiring five years ago. She will have more time now for herself and to do her quilting, baking, etc. Always love going home.

This trip to Englehart was quite quiet in terms of meeting up with my many friends still in the area.  The weather was superb and most people were at their cottage for one last weekend.
Can’t say that I blame them.

We did have a nice visit with Sharon & Cal. Unfortunately, Sharon suffered a very bad leg break in July and still in Sept she was not able to put weight on it. Playing with young grandkids can be dangerous!!   She was in good spirits though. Cal was handling his new role of chief cook and bottle washer with pride and Sharon said he was doing a great job!

Brenda & Richard treated us to dinner. They are usually at our house in Coquitlam, BC when we are away, so it was especially nice to both be in same town at the same time.










My talented cousin Shirley was part of an Art Tour throughout the Englehart area.  
 
  Dennis, Shirley & John

When we arrived, John, Christine, and friends Betty and Duncan were playing music and singing. It was so nice that we ended up just staying at Shirley’s. She very generously insisted that I chose one of her paintings to take with us. Keith & I chose one of birch trees losing their bark.  Reminds me of home and my Dad. He had loved working in the woods.
It will hang in a very special place when we move back to my condo in Vancouver next year.

Shirley and her family have always been special to me as I used to babysit her kids way back when. They are all grown up with grown kids of their own now. Was nice to see John and also nice that Dennis dropped in for a few minutes.
I had a WONDERFUL time!!
Left thinking I should go back to guitar lessons. Singing makes one feel so good from the inside out!  Will see if guitar lessons materialize.

Marion & Roy cooked us breakfast and we had a really nice visit. It has been a long time since I have seen them so we had lots to catch up on.  Poor Roy was

busy putting on a new roof and with such a bad hip. He wasn’t complaining although I imagine it was pretty sore.
So nice to see them and I will do a better job of staying in touch.

It was nice to catch up with my cousins Joyce & Merv. We went for a nice walk with them. Their son owns the local pharmacy in town.

Oct 1st we travelled from Englehart to Timmins where we visited with my teacher friends.
Stayed with Les Humphrey one night. She took us all over Timmins. It had been 13 years since I was last there. Good memories.

This is  Les at Porcupine Lake Park. Les & I taught together at Mattagami School and became very close friends. She & her husband Len took me in and treated me as very close family....there were nights when they had to send me home as I was quite comfortable staying for longer....we have often laughed about those times. They were GREAT!!! I was so lucky and still am to have her in my life.
Her son, Daryl & his family now lives in Campbell River so I get a chance to see her now & then! And I get to see Jody her daughter once in a while also. Really special people.

Bears are everywhere and here is one just helping

itself to the garbage in someone's yard. A little close for comfort!

 

Margie & Brian Tees hosted us the next afternoon & we stayed over with them.  They graciously invited some of my teacher friends that I used to work with many, many years ago to join us for a few hours. 


Margie & I met at Bertha Shaw school in S. Porcupine. They took a trip out to  the west coast several years ago and I was lucky to have them stay for a few nights.
 

It was so nice to see George Stefanic who was so supportive of me when I needed it most at Mattagami School in Timmins.

 

Sandra Richter who I taught with at Bertha Shaw. We have remained in contact which is so wonderful.  











Sue Sorochan, my good friend who drove out to BC with me and then flew off to Phoenix to visit another friends and then back home.. It was so nice to have a super travel companion. I remember when she left Vancouver....I was so sad and lonely!! 
Sue & decided we needed to stay in closer touch and have a wine telephone date every once in a while!

I am so lucky to still be connected after all these years. A few others were not able to attend, but we have emailed or spoken and will connect again soon.







 

Brian’s sister, Brenda arrived with her friend Ina. It was really cool to meet Brenda and she had followed us on our world trip blog!



We had a great time and appreciated everyone making time for us.

Cornwall - North Bay

Sep 20^th we really enjoyed the vibrant colours of fall as we drove from Montreal to Cornwall where we hooked up with my friend Stacie and Kelly.

It has been four years since Stacie moved from Vancouver so it was great to reconnect and nice to meet Kelly.  We enjoyed a really nice lunch together before heading to Ottawa.

The weather was quite rainy when we were in Ottawa, but as we had been there in 2010, our main goal this time was to visit and not do so much sight-seeing. It was wonderful to catch up with everyone.  

My cousins Mary & Wayne were such great hosts. We really had a wonderful time with them. Left with a jar of Mary’s Strawberry Rhubarb jam…YUM!! 

It was also really nice to see their son David again and meet his wife Kerry over breakfast.


                                                                                                                                                               

Aunt Betty and her daughter Jennifer, Richard and their kids live about 5 minutes from Wayne & Mary.  I haven’t seen Aunt Betty for 5 years so it was really nice to

have a good visit with her and to meet Jennifer and her family. Jennifer was very young when I  moved to Vancouver in 1975. She has a wonderful family and they are all very busy people. Aunt Betty looks good and is in good spirits. Really glad they made time for us. It was special.







                                                                                                                                                                            




My niece Karen, Erroll and their very busy and entertaining 2+ yr old Moira were out in their garden when we arrived. Moira had to show us her vegetables and she knew them by name! We enjoyed our short visit with them.

Moira is wanting to take her nap now!!













Keith & I had gone into Costco on our way to 
Aunt Marie’s. As we were leaving, I felt someone touch my shoulder. When I looked around, it took a few seconds before it registered in my brain that this was my cousin Lore & Steve.  It was quite funny.  Lore, Steve and their son Ryan, now 17 yrs old were also at Aunt Marie’s for dinner. It was a really nice visit.

I must say that I was impressed that Aunt Marie, age 86,  has learned how to use an IPAD and she was playing games with her nieces and emailing! She was looking really good and gave us lots of laughs.



We also met up with Haley, my great niece, for breakfast/lunch before she headed off to her university class. She is a really nice young lady and we enjoyed our time with her. 



Sept 23^rd, we made our way from Ottawa to Eganville
to see my niece Shannon & three of her children, Holden, Layla & Rowan. The girls were delightful and full of life. It was nice to see everyone even though it was a short visit.













We stayed in Pembroke at the Comfort Inn. My friend’s daughter Jody was the GM and she treated us really, really well. We stayed in the nicest room overlooking the Ottawa River. A beautiful view!


Sep 24^th we headed for Mattawa. Before arriving at my cousin’s Helen & Dave’s place we took a detour to a Christian Valley cemetery looking for family roots. Not only did we find some, it was a beautiful drive.

Helen & Dave always show us a great time.
They are so easy to be with and there is always was lots of laughter. Felt good!!













My brother Bob & Sue live about 2 minutes from Helen & Dave’s. They have a beautiful place on the Mattawa River.  Bob had just finished washing our car....Great Service!!

Mattawa means “ meeting of the waters” and is situated  where the Mattawa & Ottawa rivers meet. It was a very important town as many, many explorers passed through here. In 1610, Etianne Brule and in 1615, Samuel de Champlain were the first Europeans to travel through the Mattawa area. For some 200 years thereafter, it was a link in the important water route leading from Montreal west to Lake Superior.  
Mattawa is quite a pretty town and is the site of many large wooden statues depicting local historical figures, such as Champlain, Pierre-Esprit Radisson, Medard des Groseilliers and others.  


The Mattawa District Museum prominently features a 17 ft (5.2 m) statue of Big Joe Mufferaw a regional folk hero.

The statues are placed widely throughout Mattawa, and in two locations outside the town.
Bob took us  around to see these and to meet the local artist who carved the faces of all of the statues and oversaw the overall project. Really cool.


We had a really nice time with Bob & Sue. It was nice to have some long chats.

 Sep 26^th  we arrived in North Bay and visited with Aunt Dorothy and her son Daryl.  Aunt Dorothy is 89, looks and sounds so good!! She handed me an envelope containing some pictures of my birth Mom and us kids. These are a real treasure to have and I really appreciate this! 
I will share these with my siblings and some of my cousins who are in them as well. 

Daryl looks really good too and has such a good outlook in life. Several years ago, he was in a very bad car accident. It was doubtful that he would walk again….Daryl KNEW he would walk again. His recovery has been amazing!
He does not even use a cane, but Aunt Dorothy and I thought perhaps it might add a bit of protection!! He had fallen and it shook him up a bit but he does not want to depend on a cane.
I admire his determination.  So good to see them.
A great picture of their family - Seth & Daryl in back, front- Morgan, Connie & Dayna

In the evening we attended my great nephew Jaden’s football game with his sister, Breanna, and parents Jodey & Rob. Jaden’s team won. YEH ! When Jaden came off the field he asked us if we had taken any pictures. Keith & I felt so bad. We had purposely taken our cameras with us. We were so busy cheering we forgot to take pictures!! DUH!! Not sure Jaden believed us, but he was pretty good about it.

After the kids had gone off to school on the Friday
& Rob & Jodey had come home from kick-boxing classes, we enjoyed a very leisurely breakfast before heading up to Mom’s in Englehart.
 



We always have a wonderful time with Jodey & Rob & family

Moncton, NB - Montreal, QC

Sept 10th we drove from Springhill, NS  to Sackvillle, NB for another quick visit with Keith’s cousin, Ina, who is almost 90 yrs old. She had forgotten we were coming but was happy that we called so we picked up some muffins and joined her for tea. Sackville is about 30 minutes or so from the 13 km long Confederation Bridge across to PEI.  Nice we didn’t have to wait for ferries! There is a cost of $44 to leave PEI via the cool bridge. We couldn’t get a good picture of the bridge so we borrowed one from the internet


 

Thanks goodness we had a GPS. It took us directly to our friend’s home in Hamilton, on the west side of Green Gables Shore. Hamilton is a township with the city of Kensington being 15 minute away.  Shirley and Norm graciously offered us their heritage home built in 1876 to use as our base in PEI.  It was wonderful! This was the last house on the road - we could walk to the ocean!! Felt like we had our own home to return to daily.
It was very nice to meet their new neighbours Claudette and Bob and share a meal with them.  We really enjoyed out time here.  

On the road to our current home, there is a very  cool church. It is quite old and we found it very interesting.

We decided to explore Anne of Green Gables country. Our first stop was a visit of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s birthplace which is now an interesting museum. 
She was born here in Nov. 1874. Her mother was very ill and died when Lucy was only 21 mths old
so she was  raised by her maternal grandparents at the MacNeill Homestead in Cavendish. 

 
We then went to the Anne of Green Gables Museum which was owned by Lucy’s “merry Campbell cousins” since 1776 and was the site she chose to wed Rev. Montgomery in July, 1911 in a very simple ceremony. 

  Another interesting museum was at the Avonlea Anne of Green Gables’ Village. The brochures said it was open until October; however, it was pretty much closed and deserted, so we just wandered around and had a look at the School, the Church, the General store and some of the other buildings. This was the village set in the book Ann of Green Gables. 


Looks like it would be quite a fun place for kids.


We drove past this pretty, colourful village.

We then drove to Cavendish National Park.
What beauty!!
We had planned to rent bicycles, however one more time we were too late in the season. So we just took our sandals off and walked barefoot on top of the sand dunes. Great fun!

There is a long beach area which is so lovely.

The red rocks  are gorgeous.  It is really very beautiful!         As we were walking along, we noticed the 
                                                                                                          very black clouds not too far in the distance. We chose to ignore them thinking we could outrun the rain when it started. WRONG!!!!

When the rain started, we started running through the loose sand on the beach. Trying to get back to where we started  was heavy going and it was raining cats and dogs!

When we arrived at the Park's building ,needless to say, we were drenched! 

One little girl looked at me and said loudly " You are SOAKED!  When I explained to her that I had to wring out my clothes, she just exclaimed “look at your hair!” Guess it was pretty scary to a kid :-)

Eventually, we were able to get to our car where we sat in our heated seats for a while as we tried to dry out a bit.  I guess we were fogging up the windows because people kept coming over to see if we were OK.  Nice folks!   

When we had dried out somewhat, we  returned to Kensington where we decided to celebrate our little wet adventure with a beer at a funky little pub that was once the local train station.

                  Another day we were on our way to drive the East Coast when Keith noticed the darkness and obvious rainfall off in the distance. 
This time we paid attention and decided to turn around and explore the North Coastal area of PEI instead.Turns out it was a great idea!  Rain free for several hours!
This drive began in Summerside, a really pretty coastal city. There is a 6 km boardwalk that provides a lovely walk/run area. Some very nice shops along the boardwalk and in the city itself.  


















 
From Summerside, we drove up to North Cape,the most northwestern tip of the Island. North Cape is famous for its natural rock reef where the waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Northumberland Strait meet with magnificent results.

At low tide you can stroll along the reef and enjoy the many seabirds and marine life.

It is also home to the Atlantic Wind Test Site which was established in 1980 as Canada’s National Wind Energy Laboratory. Located on the northwest tip of PEI this area is exposed for 300-degrees to the wind-swept Gulf of St Lawrence. The 38 acre facility houses wind turbines of all shapes and sizes. They are HUGE!!!

 
After a lovely seafood lunch, we walked along the red sand cliffs.   Really cool!!  





 

As we were coming back to spend more time in Summerside the rain began and was really heavy at times. We were content to return home and get into our comfy clothes for the evening.

Charlottetown is a great city! We loved it. We walked everywhere.
  Peakes Wharf Historic Waterfront is where the fathers of confederation met in 1864. There are lots of shops along the walkway & a marina.  

Close by there is a nice park area  dedicated to the Fathers of Confederation.

 Canada’s smallest province, on the country’s East Coast, wants everyone to know that’s where the idea of forming a country began.
2014 marks 150 years since the Charlottetown conference when the Fathers of Confederation met to begin planning what we would later know as Canada.
Apparently a yearlong celebration is in the works!








 





There are some beautiful old building throughout Charlottetown.

Beaconfield's historic house built in 1877.

St. Dunstan's Bascilica 1897-1907

 St. Paul's Anglican Church 1896

St. James Presbyterian Church  1878




 

 In the evening we met up with Shirley & Norm Ramsey’s daughter, Gina, and her boyfriend Shane. What a good time we had! 
There were a couple of musicians playing songs we all knew and it was real fun!  We really enjoyed our time with them.

 

 We finally did get to the East Coast.  We hung out for a bit in Montague, a very pretty town on the water.

Georgetown had a very pretty park with lots of flowers, a ship wheel

and a rock with an interesting carving. 















We drove around St. Peter's Bay and ended up at
Greenwich Park. What a stunning area! Here we hiked to the Greenwich Dunes. How cool!
 
We walked over a long boardwalk to reach the dunes and beach and then we walked for ages!

Keith thought we might be able to walk around and then cut through the park to get back to the parking lot, rather than returning the way we entered.
We tried, but in the end decided that it was pretty late to continue, so we enjoyed our walk back along the beach….barefoot is the way to go!

Wonderful day!!  
We arrived home feeling tired in a really good way!













We loved PEI. It is very beautiful and really every area was within a day’s drive. 

Notice our footprints inside the heart!!







 

 As we were  on our way to the Confederation Bridge, we came across a Scarecrow competition – what was left of it after the weekend.
We thought some of the displays were pretty cool . Sorta like harvest season and Halloween rolled into one.

Had a wonderful time and highly recommend PEI!