All our travels are great, but it's soooo.. good to be home again ! Hopefully we'll catch up with all of you at this end of the world soon !
Today (when I started writing), Melbourne Cup Day, was lovely, sunny and 31 degrees !! :) ; and the day started with a pod of 6 or 7 dolphins swimming past our jetty ! How good is that !!
Having duly admired the dolphins we put on our glad rags and fascinaters, and joined the rest of the country eating too much, drinking too much and betting money on horses we knew absolutely nothing about, running a race so brief we hadn't time to work out where our horses were before it was all over! But it's a tradition, and we're very traditional people, so we did our best ! But I'm getting ahead of myself !! I left off the last update in Canada, so I'll go back and pick up there. Canada (Ontario where we're based, at least) had a wonderfully warm idyllic summer, weather-wise. Some pundit reported it as the best in 41 years and I go along with that. It was sunny and warm, perfect for boating, pretty much the whole season ! As has become customary over the years, the family gathered at our place at the lake most Sundays, and for various occasions such as birthdays, international scrabble tournament, etc.! We also enjoyed all our 'baby-fixes' with wee James, as well as spending time with Anne's cousins Les and Gerry.
In August, we got away for a couple of weeks (16 days, but who's counting?) in our old RV. We had no plan, other than to cross into the States and point south. We were amazed at an area in northern New York State called the Finger Lakes; it's only hours form where I grew up and I was totally unaware of them. Absolutely 'gorge-ous' country (with apologies to Ithaca for stealing their pun). We tend to stop where we can, rather than in campsites, for 4-6 nights at a time, before we need a camp for emptying and filling. We stayed at some lovely spots, and walked through some amazing gorges! The highlight was Watkins Glen, where we took the bus up and walked down 2 km, 800 steps, past 19 waterfalls!!!!!
We enjoyed the Amish country of Pennsylvania, getting a kick out of how integrated they seemed into the hustle of modern towns. The Walmarts had covered parking areas for the horse and buggies, and we saw young lads tearing away from lights with their horses just like young lads in cars anywhere else.
The handicrafts were of course remarkable, but we didn't linger over them; there is a limit to what even we can fit into luggage.
We explored Gettysburg, where one side won in the American civil war; then Harpers Ferry, where the other side won. Fair's fair! We learned about John Brown and the impact of his beliefs and efforts, and his last stand by the Shenendoah River in the Blue Ridge Mountains. We didn't see any miners ladies though.
We made it as far south as Washington, D.C. before turning for home. We had heard of a camp on the outskirts, with a shuttle bus into the city, so we checked in for a couple of nights. We took a double-decker bus on-and-off tour of the city, with a narrated boat tour of the harbour as well. The weather which was 'iffy' as we started the day, got progressively worse. It's a bit daunting when you arrive back in from a boat tour to find heavy machinery pulling flood gates up into
place!! Or when you move downstairs in the bus to escape the rain, only to see water falls cascading down the steps !! Despite the weather we did get to see Washington once-over-lightly
We had planned a sedate trip back to Ontario, making a further couple of stops, but it turned out that we had to run from the tail-end of a cyclone, torrential rains and floods ! We spent one day driving pretty much non-stop, unable to get off the main highway as all the towns were flooded and being evacuated around us. Very exciting ! And the poor old van, which we knew had a few 'minor leaks' when we started out, leaked like a sieve; every towel we had with us was soaked trying to stop/mop up as we travelled.
Then home to Aus.!! Today (Nov. 7 -Happy Birthday Nick!) as I'm finishing up this update, it's been blustery and miserable; the last gasp of winter hopefully. The extra rain never hurts here and we've had heaps today. The fields are lush and green and there's water in the creeks.
We arrived home in time for school holidays, so we had lots of time with various grands! It's a time of great flux here. One family is moving to Queensland and another has moved house within Perth. So we've had Alex and Olivia here quite a bit, and we kept the three littlies for the weekend of their move !! They're all great, but they're young,- and we're not!! We got pretty tired to say the least.Kris has been over here in the West and visited here and the beachhouse several times which has been great. She's very pleased with her new web-site (plug,plug) www.jarrah.cc . I've been and looked through, and what I can understand is most impressive, so do have a look.
Mandurah, and although we may have long since lost the inclination, we haven't lost the knack.
And of course Hallowe'en is always fun,- for big kids as well as little kids. It's not a big thing here, but we had about 10 local kids call by, and we all trick-or-treated the immediate neighbours.
Since then we've caught up with Kye and Corey, and been to Geoff and Anita's housewarming/Kellan's birthday party. (our singing scared him and made him cry). But I've run out of photos and of energy at about the same time, so they will have to await the next 'edition'.
So bye for now and take care all!!
From The Happy Wanderers and 'Happy to be Homers'.
Anne and Kathie
