Family

That's what this trip has been all about. Meeting family. And what a wonderful meeting it has been! My only regret is that this meeting didn't take place many years ago. There's a certain sense of completion now...now that I've met all my siblings, I don't feel like there's anything missing anymore. I spent too many years wondering, and now I know. Thank you, all of you, but especially Ken and Sharon for helping to put it all together.

Okay, you guys -- all of you!...your turn! Next time, the party's out West!

TO and Niagara

Walking along Yonge Street is a wonderful exercise in people watching. Signs bigger than big on Eaton Centre, funky little shops next door to higher end boutiques -- Yonge Street is a mecca for those who relish exploring life in the big city. Walking past Maple Leaf Gardens, one of the icons of the NHL...at least it was when I was growing up, and if you were truly Canadian, you rooted for either the Maple Leafs or the Canadiens...I wish I could have seen it in its glory days. However, its nice that someone thinks the history of the building is worth preserving, even if it's in the form of retail shops.

The best part of the trip downtown though, was surprising one of my brothers. The last time we saw him was when he came to our wedding with our grandmother almost 29 years ago. He knew we were planning a trip out here, but didn't know we were coming in that day. The look on his face when he looked into the back seat of the truck was just priceless! We all had a wonderful visit over lunch at Jack Astor's before walking back to his apartment. The visit was far too short, but at least we managed to share email addresses and cell numbers. The next time he comes West, he has no excuse for not calling! (Love ya, Dave!)

We spent the rest of the afternoon/evening having dinner with another brother and his family. Meeting all these members of my family for the, first time is just making my whole trip! After a great dinner (and this to-die-for cake from Costco called "Tuxedo Cake"), we came back, prepared to get a good night's sleep for the long day to come. And boy, was it long!

Actually, we didn't start out horribly early, but given how much we putzed around, maybe we should have! On paper, going from Lindsay to Niagara Falls shouldn't take a great deal of time. But then there's Highway 401 going through Toronto. Express lanes, collector lanes, construction...for a prairie kid like me who thinks Deerfoot Trail in Calgary at rush hour is a challenge, the 401 is a whole different animal.

Neither Gerry or I have been to Niagara Falls before, so this was a real treat. The whole Niagara Peninsula is beautiful. The town of Niagara-on-the-Lake has such a quaint, charming main street with all kinds of neat little shops -- shops that my husband and my brother worked very hard to keep my sister-in-law and me OUT of! (yes, I ended that sentence with a preposition! :-p)

What we didn't do on this trip was check out any of the many wineries we passed. There was a little bit of self preservation involved in that decision. While I do like trying out new wines, going from place to place, and sampling some in each of those places would have led to a bad headache. Can't enjoy the Falls, and the anticipated dinner with a monster migraine. So sampling may have to wait for another day -- or I can just use my Canadian Wine Access guide to help me figure out which of the many wines from this region I should try.

Finally, we arrived at The Falls. The power of that much water falling over the Niagara Escarpment is incredible to behold. The American and Horseshoe Falls are quite different from each other, but each stunning in its own right. Of course, being on the Canadian side of the Niagara River, we couldn't get up close and personal with the American Falls, but I'm sure the close up view was every bit as stunning as our view of the Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side.

After walking back to the truck, we went for a late dinner at Mamma Mia's, a wonderful Italian restaurant that has been in operation for decades. The portions are huge, and oh so good! My leftovers made a wonderful lunch the next day! Although dessert would have been awesome, we were all so stuffed there was just no room!

After we left the restaurant, we stopped in a little shop that all kinds of cotton skirts, blouses, dresses, table cloths, and....coin hip scarves! I think this may just show up in one of my Zumba classes in the fall! *wink, wink* I did pick up a normal skirt, and a cotton dress. There's way more heat and humidity happening here on the eastern half of the continent, and skirts are definitely a way of effectively dealing with that! Besides...they were pretty!

Then we began our little sojourn back to Little Britain. It was well after 10 p.m. when we headed east, and the GPS predicted an arrival time of 1:20 a.m. We were doing really well with that until some unexpected construction on the highway just west of Toronto. Remember, I did say earlier that Canada has two seasons -- winter and construction. Well, now a lot of that construction happens at night. Suddenly, what was 3 lanes was being whittled down to 1 lane. Sally, or whatever her name is on the GPS had to start adjusting arrival times (She's rather an insistent one if you don't follow her directions!), but it only got worse as somehow we ended up on whatever road took us right into downtown Toronto. The CN Tower was getting closer and closer, so I had to take pictures, right? Right.

Of course, we won't mention riding on the streetcar rails aka 4x4ing urban style, will we? Or coming face-to-face with the Air Canada Centre and having to make a u-turn to get back out. Will we?

We did eventually get out of Toronto, and after a pit stop for gas, we finally made it back to Little Britain in the wee early hours of Tuesday morning. It was a wonderful day of fantastic sights and great company. We do need to do it again!

Mountains...

I like mountains. It doesn't matter how many times I've seen them, I'm in awe. I'm in even more awe of volcanic mountains. And when those mountains are relatively close to home, I am humbled by the raw power that lays beneath us.

Driving through much of the northwestern US is a gift to people like me who enjoy the mountains so much. Add the Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byways to the mix, and I'm in heaven. Yesterday's drive from Redding, CA to La Pine, OR fed my obsessions.

Before I go on, I have to say how much I enjoyed spending time with Ger's aunt and her family in Redding. Spending Friday afternoon at Whiskeytown Lake was a real treat and a wonderful way to beat the incredible heat. We talked about either meeting up in Tahoe to go skiing, or them coming our way to go skiing. I hope, one way or another, it comes to pass! Great people! Next time we come down, we really do need to spend more than a couple days.

Anyways...we pulled out of the Premier RV Resort shortly right around 10:30 a.m. Not bad for what we figured would be about a 4-hour drive. We travelled on I-5 north to Weed, CA, and then branched off on US Hwy 97. This route gives a wonderful view of Mt. Shasta coming from the south, around the west side and then looking at it from the north.

We stopped at Grass Lake Rest Area on Hwy 97, not too far south of the CA/OR border, to grab some lunch and check out the view. Apparently there used to be a real lake there, and a thriving small resort. However, someone used some dynamite in an unfortunate location, which resulted in a hole being blasted that allowed the lake water to drain away into the porous volcanic rock below. The resort failed not long after, but since then (almost 100 years), a thriving wetland has grown, supporting many different plants and animals.

The rest of our trip to La Pine was uneventful, except for when we were near Crescent, OR. First a big truck flashed its headlights at us, and then another driver in a pickup waved at us. We thought something was flapping off the motorhome, so we stopped in a rest stop and checked things out. Ger even climbed up on the roof. Couldn't find anything, so we kept going.

We got into La Pine around 4'ish, got set up and had a nice visit with an old school friend of Ger's dad before supper. It was still warm outside, but from past experience we knew it would cool off a great deal overnight. It's that altitude thing. It sure made it nice to sleep last night, and quite refreshing this morning. Housecoat and slippers were required as I uploaded my pictures, and had my coffee.

Today is a relax day -- I have some reading to do for the fall (thanks, guys! :-p), and today looks like a good day to do that!

Oh, yeah...I finally got my Flickr stuff all organized. All the pics from the trip are now organized into sets within the Holidays 2009 collection. Yesterday's set is here.

Trust me, it's really NOT hot at home!

The best thing about Facebook, and wi-fi in many RV parks, is the ability to keep up with what's going on at home, especially when there are grandbabies involved. Of course, when you're on the road, some folks like to know what the weather's doing at home too, so they can either gloat about what they have on their holiday, or know what they're missing.

I'm in the latter group at the moment. The weather is hot at home. Well, it's hot for what we're used to at home. 30C is warm, especially when there's no AC in most homes. After this couple days in Redding, CA though, I'll have to try to remember to not snark about 30C. It's 8:30 in the morning, and it's already 28C (82F). The forecast high for today is 39C; tomorrow is 41C. Ugh. The picture above is of the heat haze as we pulled into Redding at about 2:30 in the afternoon yesterday.

Last night we had a wonderful visit with Ger's aunt, and a couple of his cousins and their families. This is a part of the family we don't get to see very often, but they're a wonderful group of people and it's always fun to get together with them. Today, a couple of them are going to take us to Whiskeytown Lake to cool off. That will be fun! I have to remember to take my camera to have some pics to share later!

So the goal of the day is to stay cool, get some laundry done, and get ready to head north again. Tomorrow, it's off to La Pine, OR to visit an old buddy of Gerry's dad. A couple days in the high desert will be nice -- warm days, and cool evenings. I can get back to not being envious of the weather at home!