Wow, I can’t believe it’s been six months since I’ve written anything about my travels. I guess that’s because, after our weekend in Midland at the Ukulele Festival, we didn’t do any more travelling until October.

Our summer was spent mostly playing pickleball and ukulele, with a few short trips to catch up with family and friends within relatively short distances from our home town.

The highlight of the summer for me was a visit from my daughter, Sarah, her husband and my two grandchildren in August. We did take them to the local Dinosaur Park and Reptile Zoo,

One of many animated dinosaurs at the park

Crocodile at Reptile Zoo, Peterborough, Ontario

Tortoise at the Reptile Zoo

One of several snakes at the Reptile Zoo, Peterborough, Ontario

…and to a gravel pit to fish. My grandson loves to fish and the pit was a perfect spot.

Good catch of large mouthed bass

I also spent a few days with them at Sarah’s grandfather’s old log cabin, that included some baseball games, and fiddle music, that warmed my heart.

Barns at the Farm

Granddaughter Entertaining her Great-Grandfather.

Then, before we knew it, it was September and time to start planning our trip south. When my niece told me that they were having a belated 80^th birthday party for my sister in Vancouver on Thanksgiving Weekend (Canadian) October 12^th, we considered doing the cross Canada trip on our way to Arizona, as we did four years ago. We started making plans to leave on October 1^st. Then we got the news of early snow storms in our Midwestern provinces, and snow in the mountains of British Columbia where we would have to travel to get to Vancouver. Some further research told us that after October first we would need to either have snow tires on the RV (we don’t) or at least have tire chains onboard in case they were needed (we didn’t). The final straw was when Jim calculated the cost for gas to travel that extra 2200 kilometers across Canada before turning south to Arizona. I researched flights and found we could both fly, return, to Vancouver and back for half of what it would cost us just for gas to drive. I booked our seats and the tension in my shoulders eased considerably. Doing the trip in September was quite different than it would have been trying to do it in October.

We carried on with life as usual for another two weeks, gradually taking belongings to the motorhome and getting it ready for our trip south.

On October 12^th we flew out of Toronto and arrived in Vancouver by lunch time, where my daughter, Ann, picked us up and took  us to her place to stay (another cost saving). I especially enjoyed that weekend, having the chance to catch up with both my daughters and spend quality time with my sister and all her family and friends. Sunday was a family-only Thanksgiving dinner at Ann’s. I got to meet two of my great grandchildren for the first time. What a joy!

The Birthday Lady Blowing Out her Candles

Three Generations of Ladies

Monday we did a tour of Granville Island with Ann, enjoyed a dinner of Thanksgiving leftovers, and then got our things together for our morning flight home.

Granville Island Harbour, BC

Interesting Old Boat in Harbour

At 1:00 pm on Thursday we were all packed up ready to go again. After a stop for lunch at one of our favourite Hastings restaurants – Banjo’s Grill – we were on our way.