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29th June
2011
Well it’s the last couple of days before school finishes for
the year. Still can’t get my head around saying it’s the end of the year when
it’s only June. Chelle has finally got all her reports finished and is still
ending up on a busy note having Grade 8 graduation, school break-up parties
etc. This Friday is Canada Day and Saturday we begin the first leg of our Canada,
USA adventure.
Before I discuss that, I’ll fill you in on the last two
weeks. The weekend before last was the Burlington Sound of Music Festival. This
is one of the top festivals on the Canadian calendar. Basically the centre of
Burlington gets closed off for three days and six large stages along with
numerous smaller stages are erected around the city. Each stage has a different variety of music
with the larger stages commanding the big well known Canadian acts and the
smaller ones catering for everything from Calypso to Jazz and Blues, so there’s
something for everyone. Burlington is also home to the Burlington Teen Tour
Band which has played all over the world and they kick off the festival, watching
them makes you appreciate how much time and effort these kids put in, they are
pretty sharp. The best thing about the weekend is all the entertainment is free,
so you get to wander all over downtown listening to good music enjoying local delicacies
and soaking up the atmosphere.
Mick and Laureen
Barnard and the kids came up on the Saturday to stay the night and we met up
with a couple of other Aussies and had a very pleasant day topped off with an
Aussie bbq and drinks back at our place.
Sunday 19th
June Father’s Day
A late start to the day and then I was given time off to go and
see the Hamilton Warbirds Airshow. So Ryan and I headed off to Hamilton airport
to watch a variety of Second World War aircraft flying including one of only
two airworthy Lancaster’s in the world. For an aviation buff like me it was
mesmerising.
Saturday & Sunday
25th/26th June 2011
Saturday,Tash had a birthday party to go to so I did the
shuttle run and took her and two friends to a trampoline party. From all the
squeals of delight on the way home they seemed to have enjoyed their selves.
Ryan and mum stayed at home so Chelle could finish completing her reports.
Sunday we headed downtown to Toronto to go and visit the off
shore islands in the Lake. We had seen these at Xmas all covered in snow and
ice and had vowed to visit them in summer. Well we probably picked one of the
worse days to go as there was a Dragon boat festival on the islands and so what
should have been a quick hop across the water became an hour and a half wait in
queues. For all that though the islands themselves are very pleasant and easy
to walk around, we had planned to bike ride but with all the human traffic it
would have been a nightmare.
So that has been our last couple of weeks and now we head
into the grand adventure. We start by spending the first couple of weeks
driving through New England in the States ( Massachusetts, New Hampshire,
Vermont and Maine) and the Maritimes in Canada (New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island
and Nova Scotia) and then back down the St Lawrence Seaway. Onc e that is over
we then fly off almost immediately to Colorado to spend time with Chelle’s
cousin before driving down through New Mexico, and Arizona to catch up with a
mate of mine in Tucson, from there it’s up through the Grand Canyon to Las
Vegas where we meet up with my sister and then on to L.A. and San Francisco and
then fly up to Vancouver to begin our cruise up to Anchorage Alaska.
So as you can see instead of sitting back and relaxing over
the summer holidays the pace of life is just going to ramp up, I am going to
try and keep the blog going but change the format by posting a short burst
everyday with photo’s hopefully that way I won’t fall behind otherwise at the
rate I’m taking shots I won’t get any of them posted before Xmas.
So for those still tuned in the next blog will be from
Boston probably on the 4th of July, where else could we possibly be
to spend Independence Day.
