been awhile
so darn busy...no time for this stuff.
East Coast 2007:
Kim & Jessica had been ‘home’ for a week by the time us boys left on Thursday night (Aug16th). They had traveled by train, giving Jessica an adventure. Kim was a little disappointed in the trip as the diner car was always busy and the observation deck was for the sleeping car passengers only. Jessica was especially excited to tell me about the scary man with all the tattoos and peircings that carried a baby in a harness across his chest.
I worked hard all week to get ready for this trip, both at work and at home, and I still couldn’t leave any earlier than 4 on Thursday. As we had the van down the street with us, we decided that Buffalo was as close a crossing as any and the route was simple to follow. Somehwre between Buffalo and Albany I looked at Justin and said “We forgot something.”
“What?”
“Our suits.” Not that he had helped preparing for the trip but he could have at least noticed too. Anyway, I brewed on this the rest of the trip. There was no way Kim was going to accept us appearing in the family portraits in casual wear. After 3 small snooze breaks, I found ourselves outside of Bangor just before 9am so I decided to drop in at the Bangor Mall. $300 later Justin and I had pants, jackets, shirts and ties (I had ties in the suitcase but now they didn’t match).
The 50th wedding anniversary for Kim’s parents on Saturday went very well and very well attended. Weather cooperated although it was overcast. Even my own side of the family showed up. Glen, Kim’s brother, did an excellent job as Master of Ceremonies. Ron, their long term neighbour and square dance caller became very emotional when describing his love and respect for darrel and Doreen.
Originally I was going to pack my four member family, my mom and dad and niece Rebecca into our van and haul a small utility trailer with us to Prince Edward Island for a few days but my sister surprised me with being able to join us so we took cars and no trailer. We swamped kids and adults so that we could chit chat the whole way there, which, now that there is a 12km bridge, is a lot faster than when I was a kid (we crossed by large ferry and limited schedule). We left Tuesday morning Aug21 and would stay there for 3 nights.
Our 3 bedroom cottage was roomy enough for all of us, although sister and niece had to sleep together on sofa bed. The kids are too old for the silly amusement parks so we concentrated on more mature attractions like Woodleigh Replicas and Avonlea village. The Replicas have deteriorated over the years and not worth the money.
The Village however was a surprise. Initially you see a small village of about 10 building laid out in a tight square pattern. You think you’re going to be done the whole thing in an hour and it just cost you $20 per adult. However, it’s really an all day theatre experience with hourly shows and the characters wonder the park the whole day. In fact, our bracelet allowed us to come back the following day so in the afternoon, we left and went down to Cavendish beach. Only 3 brave soles went into the water: Jessica, Rebecca, and myself. Cold!! Jessica squeeled when she felt something move under her foot - turned out to be a crab the size of desert plate! Good thing it didn’t pinch her. Ahh, got to love that freezing cold salty Atlantic water.
The following morning, after packing up the cottage, we headed back to Avonlea village as we heard there was a photo studio where we could put on vintage clothing and with the help of staff, take our own pictures. This certainly beat the price of $150 that the “Oldtime Studio” wanted for a group photo. We had a blast!
Us Ontarians left my family behind there at Avonlea as we wanted to get as far into New Hampshire as we could before stopping for the night. It rained from PEI to the Maine border where the wait was so long, Kim was able to get out of the van, do banking and get back in before we passed the building.
After that the trip was smooth although darkness crept up on us quickly. We have to return to Sabego Lake area, I remember it from my childhood but we especially have to return to North Conway, the old area - want to walk along the crowded streets and act like a tourist. We also want to take a chair lift thing up one of the mountains, perhaps even drive up Mt. Washington.
Kim bought some bedding but we didn’t find much else (Justin bought another pair of K-Swiss). If fact, we spent more time shopping at a ? that was relocating in a small town we stopped for supper at than we did at North Conway. When asked at Canada Customs how long we were in the states and had we bought anything, I showed him Kim’s bedding purchase and he kind of snorted and waved on us anyway. I figured he probably thought he couldn’t have stopped his wife from buying bedding either despite being over for only a night.
Well that’s about it for the East Coast.
One more long weekend before school starts.
East Coast 2007:
Kim & Jessica had been ‘home’ for a week by the time us boys left on Thursday night (Aug16th). They had traveled by train, giving Jessica an adventure. Kim was a little disappointed in the trip as the diner car was always busy and the observation deck was for the sleeping car passengers only. Jessica was especially excited to tell me about the scary man with all the tattoos and peircings that carried a baby in a harness across his chest.
I worked hard all week to get ready for this trip, both at work and at home, and I still couldn’t leave any earlier than 4 on Thursday. As we had the van down the street with us, we decided that Buffalo was as close a crossing as any and the route was simple to follow. Somehwre between Buffalo and Albany I looked at Justin and said “We forgot something.”
“What?”
“Our suits.” Not that he had helped preparing for the trip but he could have at least noticed too. Anyway, I brewed on this the rest of the trip. There was no way Kim was going to accept us appearing in the family portraits in casual wear. After 3 small snooze breaks, I found ourselves outside of Bangor just before 9am so I decided to drop in at the Bangor Mall. $300 later Justin and I had pants, jackets, shirts and ties (I had ties in the suitcase but now they didn’t match).
The 50th wedding anniversary for Kim’s parents on Saturday went very well and very well attended. Weather cooperated although it was overcast. Even my own side of the family showed up. Glen, Kim’s brother, did an excellent job as Master of Ceremonies. Ron, their long term neighbour and square dance caller became very emotional when describing his love and respect for darrel and Doreen.
Originally I was going to pack my four member family, my mom and dad and niece Rebecca into our van and haul a small utility trailer with us to Prince Edward Island for a few days but my sister surprised me with being able to join us so we took cars and no trailer. We swamped kids and adults so that we could chit chat the whole way there, which, now that there is a 12km bridge, is a lot faster than when I was a kid (we crossed by large ferry and limited schedule). We left Tuesday morning Aug21 and would stay there for 3 nights.
Our 3 bedroom cottage was roomy enough for all of us, although sister and niece had to sleep together on sofa bed. The kids are too old for the silly amusement parks so we concentrated on more mature attractions like Woodleigh Replicas and Avonlea village. The Replicas have deteriorated over the years and not worth the money.
The Village however was a surprise. Initially you see a small village of about 10 building laid out in a tight square pattern. You think you’re going to be done the whole thing in an hour and it just cost you $20 per adult. However, it’s really an all day theatre experience with hourly shows and the characters wonder the park the whole day. In fact, our bracelet allowed us to come back the following day so in the afternoon, we left and went down to Cavendish beach. Only 3 brave soles went into the water: Jessica, Rebecca, and myself. Cold!! Jessica squeeled when she felt something move under her foot - turned out to be a crab the size of desert plate! Good thing it didn’t pinch her. Ahh, got to love that freezing cold salty Atlantic water.
The following morning, after packing up the cottage, we headed back to Avonlea village as we heard there was a photo studio where we could put on vintage clothing and with the help of staff, take our own pictures. This certainly beat the price of $150 that the “Oldtime Studio” wanted for a group photo. We had a blast!
Us Ontarians left my family behind there at Avonlea as we wanted to get as far into New Hampshire as we could before stopping for the night. It rained from PEI to the Maine border where the wait was so long, Kim was able to get out of the van, do banking and get back in before we passed the building.
After that the trip was smooth although darkness crept up on us quickly. We have to return to Sabego Lake area, I remember it from my childhood but we especially have to return to North Conway, the old area - want to walk along the crowded streets and act like a tourist. We also want to take a chair lift thing up one of the mountains, perhaps even drive up Mt. Washington.
Kim bought some bedding but we didn’t find much else (Justin bought another pair of K-Swiss). If fact, we spent more time shopping at a ? that was relocating in a small town we stopped for supper at than we did at North Conway. When asked at Canada Customs how long we were in the states and had we bought anything, I showed him Kim’s bedding purchase and he kind of snorted and waved on us anyway. I figured he probably thought he couldn’t have stopped his wife from buying bedding either despite being over for only a night.
Well that’s about it for the East Coast.
One more long weekend before school starts.