Friday, August 3, 2007

I am BACK!!!!

Its been a busy busy two weeks.......

Ottawa.... hot but beautiful. The hot part was not so bad, actually, because homes and stores mostly have "Air". Which is a contradicting term, since they have no "fresh air" just AIR. But the outside air, was less than fresh.... The car trips were my only stresser, and I didn't even have to drive anywhere. I was surrounded by city knowledgeable people, was was lucky I didn't have to maneuver the streets myself.

Ottawa was ...family, fun meals (raclette especially), home improvement projects, Ikea, C.A. Paradis (fantastic kitchen store) and huge malls and grocery stores. 6 days, not long enough, but yet, just long enough. I also watched and am now in love with Eddie Izzard, the comedian. You need to check out his clips on You Tube. He is hilarious. Really good take on things, and he has a melting pot of European accents to further make his stand up enjoyable!!!

The drive home was smooth and faster than going up. Weird. I didn't do much driving, just the last 2 hours. But the trip is so smooth, it didn't really feel like we were in the car much. The drive through Montreal is so exciting (both in a good way and a bad way) that its over before you know it (but in actuality it takes almost an hour to get through the city at 9:30AM). Then, we are just 2.5 hours from Quebec City, our first stop. We chatted, and stopped for a pee and snack. Then a wonderful visit to my Aunt Angelines for lunch. We spent 2 hours there just catching up and seeing all the changes to the front of the house because of the city "improvements" they are doing to beautify the waterfront. Ma Tante gained about 12 feet in her front yard because they narrowed the big street she was on. She lives at the bottom of the cliff on the waterfront, just under the Plains of Abraham. The nice stone she has in her new flower beds (along the newly paved driveway, thanks to the city) are from a 50 year old retaining wall in back of her house that her hubby put in, when he built this little house. Those trees you see behind her house is actually a cliff going straight up. its so fun. In the second picture you can see the line on her lawn where the new grass is. Its about 3 feet from the bottom step, and she has all new lawn. She laughed because its rare to have a city "give" you something. Now she had to go and buy a little electric lawnmower.



Then after we left Quebec we were an hour from New Brunswick. That province has to be THE most beautiful province. The rolling hills, farm lands, the rivers, and yes, even the bridges are beautiful. Sickly to be on them, but beautiful, just the same. I am glad I got home before I saw the news about the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis.

We arrived at 10pm to my sisters and after a yummy snack and a visit, we slept soundly. Tuesday morning we had a 7:45 coffee shop meeting with Stephanie and Sean (at Reids) and then onto the highway and we were home by 3pm. Nice to be home..... but it was just as hot here. ugh

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