Montreal (8/11-12/2015)

Our plan for Tuesday was a city bus tour of Montreal, but the weather didn't cooperate so we had to go with a new plan, which was a "down day" as Marilyn calls them.  It had rained most of the night and was still raining when we woke up.  Weather lady Mazie reported that it was not supposed to quit until 10:00 p.m., so we all agreed to postpone our bus tour until tomorrow.  So we had the morning to rest, catch up on chores, I even baked some cookies.  By afternoon, Joe was ready to go for a drive, so the Johnsons and Froeschkes headed up the road to find a grocery store after stopping by the campground office and extending a day here.  We passed a Costco, so we decided to make another stop there.  However, the GPS picked out a different Costco for us, so we had to go a little further.  But we got stocked up again, Mazie even found the Habitat soup she and Marilyn like so well, on sale for $1, so she bought several cans for her, and more for Marilyn.  It stopped raining in the afternoon, and just had a few brief showers off and on the rest of the day, but we all enjoyed a day "off."

Wednesday we were up bright and early to head for Montreal.  We opted for the double decker "hop on, hop off" tour, and we rode the entire route the first time, got off and had lunch, and rode it again, stopping this time at the sights we had selected.
 
Some of the places we didn't go back to were:  Chinatown;

 The Village (with the pink balloons) -- it also happened to be Gay Pride week, so that was being celebrated here in this section;

the Fine Arts Museum, where a very colorful tree sculpture of glass-blown limbs is on exhibit during the summer months.  This sculpture is taken down every winter and put back together every spring for display outside in front of the museum.

One of the last stops on the bus ride was at the Parc Mont-Royal Park, which provided a great view of the city, including a view of the OlympicStadium built for the 1976 summer Olympics which were held here.

When we returned to the terminal after our first go-round, we had to exit the bus, and we walked over to a pub for lunch.

Montreal has a "vast network of pedestrian walkways below the city" (which come in very handy during their harsh winters).  "There are 20 miles of connecting passageways beneath downtown, with the subway, commuter trains and buses also converging here.  Approximately 500,000 people circulate daily on this network, where some 2,000 shops and restaurants, 10 major hotels, museums, theaters and universities can be found."  Our bus narrator told us you could do absolutely everything in this underground city -- shop, eat, get a haircut, do your banking, pick up your drycleaning, go to work, etc.  So we walked down to check it out.

Basically, it was like any other mall, except you couldn't see daylight.  We didn't have time to really shop it, but it was interesting.

We got back on the bus, and the first stop we wanted to explore was the Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal, another beautiful basilica.  "Built between 1824 and 1829, the magnificent interior in wood and the boldly modern design of the Notre-Dame-du-Sacre-Coeur Chapel, capitvate hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.  Paintings, sculptures and stained-glass windows illustrate biblical passages as well as 350 years of parish history."  We took a guided tour here, and during our tour they were tuning the organ (all 7000 pipes), so we had the opportunity to learn some of the history of this very beautiful church.

ORGAN PIPES

ALTAR

 Next door to this beautiful room was the "chapel" where they hold weekday services.  While the basilica was very blue, the chapel was very gold, and the bronze statute behind the alter weighs 20 tons.  There are 3 arches in the sculpture, and a dove and something else at the top, all representing Biblical passages.

Back on the bus, we passed a bust sculpture of John F. Kennedy.  I don't know why they have a sculpture of him here, but they did.

Our last stop was another church, Saint-Joseph's Oratory,  another "minor basilica and national shrine . . . it is Canada's largest church." While not as opulent as the two other basilicas we have toured, this one was lovely too, and huge.  "The modern 3,000-seat church that resulted is still the largest church in Canada, and its copper dome is one of the world’s largest."

You could walk all the way around the altar, and the area where you light candles for loved ones (I'm sure that has a name) was stair-stepped.  That area was huge, and the candle holders were in different colors.  There were so many burning that it made it hot in there.

 The altar was pretty awesome too.

I think the church was 8 stories tall.  We took the elevator up to 6, that was as far as we were allowed.  There was a balcony on the church level with a great overlook of the church grounds as well as the city.

The gardens below were sculptured and manicured -- they looked like a carpet.

As we got off the bus, there was some flower bushes with beautiful blooming flowers -- I stopped to smell the roses, or whatever they were (they were not roses).

We drove back to camp, but our day wasn't over.  In our brochures was a photo of the casino here, and it looked pretty grand, so Joe thought we should go check that out.  (Casino-de-Montreal)   It wasn't quite as grand as the photo, and we knew we had to see it at night to get the full benefit, but it was pretty nice, both inside and out.  There were a series of different colored flags outside that added to the beauty.  And he even won a little, enough to cover my $20 loss, and make $25 over.  A successful trip!

We only stayed about an hour and got back to camp about 10:30, plenty late enough for us.  Tomorrow is a travel day again, so it was past our bedtime.

Arriving Quebec (8-11-2015)

This morning we left the beautiful area where Collins and Marilyn grew up, and headed east.  This area is bountiful with lakes and rivers, waterfalls, lush forests and lots of green.  We had a really good time here, but it is time to move on.  Collins had packing-up stuff to finish, since they had such a full day yesterday, but we were ready to pull out by 9:25.  Collins took the lead of our little caravan today, since he knows this area, and we headed to Brockville to get on Hwy 2.  This was a pretty drive, with frequent views of the St. Lawrence Seaway.  We passed a bridge over to the U.S., the Johnstown Bridge, which Joe thought was the Johnson Bridge and was glad to know the Johnsons' hadn't spread their wings this far north.


We saw a few wild turkeys along the road, and some Canadian geese.  I am glad to see all the Canadian Geese haven't immigrated permanently to the U.S.!  As we drove through Cornwall, we spotted buoys being used as yard decoration.

We crossed into the province of Quebec about 12:30, and all the highway signs became only French (In Ontario, the road signs were bilingual). 

We had to pay a toll ($7.40) in Quebec, which was a surprise.  Joe used his credit card (we didn't know how much it was going to cost), and the machine didn't want to give back the credit card.  Finally, the booth clerk had to take the machine apart to get his credit card back out.  Our fellow travelers had pulled on through but we caught up with them pretty quickly.
The city of Montreal does not have any camping within its limits -- it's sort of an island.  So we are staying at a small campground in St. Philippe (a suburb, I think).  We had to cross the Fluve Saint-Laurent (St. Lawrence River) to get here, and it's not very far away.

The voltage is not very strong at this campground either.  We've had several occasions of this problem on this trip, and we have to juggle our use of electricity -- no A/C and microwave at the same time.  It was pretty warm when we got here, but we had a little rain storm move through about 6:30 that cooled things off.  "A little warm" was probably about 80, but the RV had heated up in the registering/setting up process.

We were off the road about 3:00, drove 156 miles today.  We are going to tour Montreal tomorrow, probably a grayline bus tour, so we are at this campground for 2 nights.  We were glad to be on the move again, but we certainly did enjoy the time we spent with Collins and Marilyn's family.

Last Day in Ontario (8-9-2015)

 Last Day in Ontario (8-9-2015)

Today was our final day camping here at Linda's place.  Collins and Marilyn had a full day of "last visits" with her mother, sisters and brother, and a cousin I think.  They circles the area, making all their stops.

While we did final maintenance -- Joe checked and aired the tired in our RV and in Collins'.  I defrosted the fridge and sorted a few things out (collecting papers for scrapbooking this trip is about to take over the RV). And Joe reconfigured some of the shelves in the fridge to get me more room for tall bottles.  But when we finished our chores, we took the rest of the day off.  We loaded our lawn chairs and books into the car, drove into Brockville, picked up KFC for lunch and headed down to the park to eat and watch the river flow by.  We saw one big ship just as we got there, but there was constant small boat traffic all day.

A little later we walked over to the snack bar and got ice cream cones.  There is a cute statute right beside the outside eating area, surrounded by flowers.  They have lots of statutes and lots of flowers here in Canada.

We scoped out our route for tomorrow as we headed home.  Our host, Linda, had returned from her road trip with her brother so we got to meet her this evening.  Then Sylvia stopped by with a friend.  We all said our goodbyes and prepared to leave the next morning, putting away our card-playing table and chairs.  We have had a wonderful time here and it was fun meeting "the relatives."  But we are ready to move on to new Excellent Adventures.

Merrickville Fair (8/8/2015)

 We finally had a morning with no agenda again.  Collins and Marilyn went to Sylvia's, Marilyn to do laundry and visit; Collins to mow her grass.  So the rest of us were on our own.  We all went into Smith Falls (separately) and did some shopping and chores.  I spent about 3 1/2 hours getting the blog caught up and published, half the time at Tim Hortons, and the other half at the Smith Falls Public Library.  In between those two stops, I stopped off at the laundramat to wash our fishy clothes from yesterday, since I have no idea when I will do laundry again and they were a little smelly.  We finally concluded our town business and headed back to camp to meet up with everyone else.  Tonight's agenda was the draft horse pull at the Merrickville Fair, so we headed out again about 4:00.  We thought the horse pull started at 6:00, but it didn't start until 7:00, so we had some time to kill, and this was a very small fair.  We walked through the 4-H craft barn, saw a few farm implements, and a few cattle, and they had a very small carnival and a short row of game booths, but that was about it.  This was technically called the "177th Merrickville Agricultural Fair," "established in 1938, on the banks of the Rideau river, 5 years after Col. John By opened the Rideau Canal."


  At 6:00, they offered "big time pro wrestling," but we were not really interested in that, so after a stop at the snack bar, where Joe bought Mazie her very first corndog (they call them "pogo" up here), we sat down and ate a bite.


They weren't as good as the fresh ones usually offered at our fairs, but they were good enough, with a little mustard.

We went into the grandstands early and watched them get horses ready.

Another group photo.  Marilyn suggested I set up the camera and dash up the steps to join in the picture, but I decided not to risk my life for that.

I picked my favorite pair right away -- they were beautiful.  Sadie and Sparky.

And they won their "light" division!

It's been a long time since we've been to a horse pull, and I've forgotten most of the specifics, but I took notes last night.

I tried to get the horses names, but the announcer usually announced them by the owner's name, rather than the horses name, so I kept changing my notes.  Joe told everyone I kept changing the horses' names.  There were 6 teams in the "light" category and another 6 in the "heavy" category. The weight of the "lights" was 3600 lbs or less; I didn't catch the weight of the "heavies."   The names I got were:  Sadie & Sparky, Tom & Charlie, Tom & Pugh, Ben & Kelly, Tom & Jake, and Jim & Pete.  Again, some of those might be the names of the owners rather than the horses.  The 6 heavy teams were Flalsh & Pat, Rex & Jack, Marty & Roy, Ben & Barney, and Dan & Hank.  One of the Dan & Hank team lost a shoe after the first or second pull and were disqualified. 

They started out with 5000 lbs, including the sled, I assume.  They added 1000 lbs for each round up through Route 6, then went to 750 lbs, making Round 7 10, 750, Round 8 at 11, 250, and Round 9 at 11,750.  That was as far as they had to go.  Buy my favorite pair, Sadie & Sparky, pulled every round!  They were awesome, pranced with their heads held high and their hoofs almost marching.  The first elimination by weight was not until Round 5, and one of the horses was just a four-year old and the owner decided not to have it make a second try to pass this round, so he took them out on his own. 

All the horses were beautiful, and the guys working the harness and driving them had their work cut out for them.  I bet they went home tired.

It was fun, not something we get to watch very often, and the weather was great -- we needed jackets before the horse pull was over (some of us were smart enough to bring them, or carry them with us, but not all.)  We got back to camp about 10:15, another Excellent Adventure to remember. 

Fishing on Charleston Lake with Mike and Sharon (8/7/2015)

Today was a fun day.  Our "adventure" today was a fishing trip on Mike and Sharon's pontoon boat, on beautiful Charleston Lake.  Sharon said this is the "destination" lake in Ontario, it's supposed to be the cleanest, have the best fishing, and be the most beautiful.  We would all agree after today!

We stopped by their house, then went on into town to get our one-day fishing license ($25 each), and met them down at the dock.  They had already made a few trips with loads of stuff, but we quickly finished loading and got underway.

It wasn't too long before Collins made his first, and only, catch of the day, a clump of clams.

He used a red lure all day and never caught another fish.  We tried to talk him into using our $1 minnows, (4 dozen, $48), but he remained stubborn and fishless.  Mike took us past the front of George Tackaberry's cottage that we had stopped by last week.

Then we got serious about fishing.  Mazie got the first bite, but didn't land it.  But then she got another bite, and this time she got it in the boat, so she also got the first fish, a catfish (those things apparently are in every lake in every state!).

But then things improved.  I caught the next one, a smallmouth bass.

Then Joe caught one, maybe a rock bass.

Then Mazie again.

Then me.

Then Mazie, a perch this time.

We had really got on a little hot spot here, and were catching them right and left, as long as Mike kept us in the right depth of water. I got too busy to keep taking pictures.  And Joe had hit a slow spell, but he got back in the game when we returned to this spot later.  However, then Joe had to pee, which he was willing to go over the side, but Mike also had the urge, so we left our hotspot and headed in to a cottage of their friends, with an outside toilet.  We all got out and walked around a little, then it was back in the boat, to another fishing spot.  Mike knew a spot where they had done some icefishing, so he stopped there.  And I caught the fish of the day.  A 30 inch Northern Pike -- how exciting that was!!!

For some reason, we moved on down the lake to another spot that Sharon knew about, and Joe caught the next fish.

Somehow, it didn't quite measure up to my big Pike!  We didn't have any more luck there, so I suggested we go back to our earlier "hot spot" and we got on fish again.  Joe and I both caught one at the same time, perch.  Mine was bigger but apparently I didn't have the right angle because the photo makes his look bigger.

 
Twice, Mazie, Joe and I were catching fish at the same time.  Now that's fishing!

Joe thought his last fish of the day was giving birth when he caught it because he found this little baby minnow in front of him, but he later decided the fish he caught must have eaten it and spit it with the hook.

We finally called it a day, although Mazie and I could have stayed hours longer.  Mike had driven us from point to point all day long, and Sharon had fixed and served us lunch on board -- as Mazie said, we were treated like royalty. In total, we probably caught between 25 and 30 fish, several different species.  But we headed back to the dock, unloaded the boat, then went to Sharon and Mike's for dinner.  Sharon had put a stuffed turkey in the oven that morning (have to look for these in the states when we get home), so we walked in to wonderful smells of a turkey dinner.  She added all the fixings -- mashed potatoes, corn, cranberries, cole slaw, and raisin and key lime pie.  We polished that off in short order -- we were all starved.  Marilyn had gotten back from taking her mother to the doctor, and Sylvia stopped by our "campground" and picked up David (who did laundry instead of going fishing with us), so Sharon had 9 to feed.  Her dinner was wonderful, and she had 9 very clean plates to wash.

We had a nice visit, another friend of theirs stopped by and added to the jocularity, so it was a fun evening, but everyone was tired, so we went our separate ways about 8:45. The weather was beautiful today, it dropped into the 50s last night, and warmed up to the 70s -- a perfect day on the lake.  I will remember this day for a while though, because that Northern Pike was some CATCH!

Catch-up on Chores Day (8/6/2015)

As promised, we had no agenda today, or at least no scheduled trip.  So I headed to town with my laundry and to get a hair cut, the guys drove the RVs into town to the dump station and to fill up with water, do a little shopping.  Collins and Marilyn had lunch plans with family so it was another busy day.

I had a technical problem at the laundromat.  After my 4 washers finished, I put them in the dryer, put my money in, and selected the temperature.  But I didn't know I had to push the "start" button, since the red light had come on indicating it was running.  So I drove over to a nearby thrift store while my laundry was supposedly drying.  When they shut off 45 minutes later, my clothes were still wet.  I had not pushed the "start" button, but my time had expired.  That was $2/dryer.  I was aggravated but it was my fault, so I put more money in, and went shopping over at the Giant Tiger this time.  Forty-five minutes later, I had dry clothes. 

Joe had left me a message a couple hours earlier that he was going to Walmart and Tractor Supply but that he guessed he would see me at home.  So although I figured he had left town, I nevertheless drove over to those two places to see if he was there.  I didn't see him, so I headed through the McDonalds backwards, I missed the first turn in, and just when I pulled into a parking space, I saw Joe drive by on the side street.  So back out of McDonalds I went, and chased him down a couple miles down the road.  He parked the RV and I took him back into town to get his hair cut.  All's well that ends well, I guess.

Collins spent part of the afternoon mowing the grass here at Linda's, but after dinner we played cards again.  I tried to get in a little nap, but Collins was making too much noise with the lawnmower, and Joe was doing maintenance outside, making noise too, so I didn't get much of a nap.  Mazie had baked a blueberry pie so she furnished dessert for all of us.  I didn't take a single picture today, but her pie was picture perfect so I should have run in and got the camera.

And tomorrow we are going fishing!