Oh Canada

Oh Canada – August  1- 22, 2010

After six solid weeks working eight and ten hour days in the hot and humid boatyard we were very ready for a whirlwind three week trip home.  However, the logistics of planning the trip were more complicated than crossing the Gulf Stream!

The nearest rental car location is the Enterprise office in Gloucester, Virginia which is a 30 minute drive from Deltaville.  They provide a pick-up and delivery service but only Monday to Friday between 9 AM and 5 PM. The nearest airport is in Richmond, Virginia which is about a 90 minute drive from Gloucester. It costs considerably less to fly to Buffalo, NY than to Toronto, ON and friends had graciously offered to drive to us to and from Buffalo. The challenge was to book flights that would fit into this jigsaw puzzle.  I also wanted to spend some time with family in Calgary using frequent flyer points to get there. 

It all came together in the end and we had a wonderful visit with many more people than we expected to be able to see thanks to our many generous friends and family members. It was good to see so many familiar faces at Lake Shore Yacht Club and our former workplaces and hear that many of you are following our travels.  We apologize for any concern we may have caused when the blog posts were suspended while we worked on the boat.

We have many people to thank for making our trip so successful.  We truly appreciate the time they took out of their busy lives to make it such an enjoyable visit.

 Amy

Amy’s family picked us up in Buffalo then offered us the use of their cell phone, car and home for the duration of our stay and organized a homecoming BBQ with several of our best friends in attendance. 

  Juno

Juno’s family took us out for a very nice Thai dinner with our son and helped us celebrate our wedding anniversary.

Zeus

Zeus’s family organized a  canoe trip/shopping day and dinner as well as the second annual “Name That Tune” competition. They also delivered us back to Buffalo to catch our flight to Virginia.

We played tourist with our son in Toronto and attended the annual Taste of the Danforth festival for the first time and sampled Greek foods from the many kiosks. 

One of our visits to LSYC coincided with the annual Caribbean celebration complete with a steel band.  Thanks to Karen and Warren for securing tickets for us.

As expected, my week in Calgary went by way too fast.  It was great to be able to see as many family members as I did. I miss you all. The 10 degree weather was quite a change from the 40 degrees that we had seen in the boatyard .  It was the first time I had worn long pants in many months.

 There was hail mixed in with that rain. Brrrr!

Rider Pride is alive and well in Alberta.

It  was over too quickly but hey, we have an adventure to continue……