The Road Trip

On Saturday, August 18th, Ken and I embarked on a cross-Ontario McCartney family tour. Our first stop was in Gananoque where went to celebrate the wedding of our friends Sonia and Ben. It was a lovely garden party in the backyard of a bed and breakfast. Sonia and Ben both looked radiant.


From Gananoque we made our way to Ottawa to visit Ken's sister Jenn, her husband Eric and their two boys Konrad and Anders. We went to their ward on Sunday and afterwards we went on a drive to Val de Bois to see their "cottage" property. They plan to build a cottage in the next few years. It's a beautiful piece of land and we enjoyed a lovely picnic. On Monday we went to the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Gatineau, Quebec. I wish the museum was closer to Toronto as it would be an excellent place to go on a field trip.


After the trip to the museum we set out for the longest leg of our trip, Ottawa to Sudbury. On the way we stopped at a "chip truck" for dinner. For Ken the "chip truck" is a quintessential small town summer experience - one that he misses. For me it was a new experience. Our chip truck wasn't an actual truck but was a small house like structure that served hot dogs, hamburgers, french fries and of course poutine.



The next day, Tuesday was our science day. We went to Science North and Dynamic Earth. I was very excited about going to Science North. I had never been before and was really excited about going. I wasn't disappointed and we both really enjoyed our time there.

After a quick bite of lunch we ventured over to Dynamic Earth. This is a new museum that Ken had heard about and wanted to go see. I knew it was about mining and I had read the blurb in the travel guide that said that you go down into the mine, but I didn't really believe it. I really had no idea what to expect and I wasn't prepared for the adventure.

When I read the blurb I thought "no, they won't take average, ordinary people down into a mine, that doesn't make sense". However, they do actually take average, ordinary people down into the mine. I was worried, scared, I would even venture to say that I was terrified. I didn't want to go into the mine and by the time I actually realized that we were going to go down into the mine it was pretty much too late to back out.

As it turned out we only went 65 feet below the surface and it was interesting. I felt very uneasy on our 45 minute tour and it took me a while to calm down afterward, but I did it. It was an interesting experience. The tour was through the history of mining. We walked through a series of mines: The century mine, the mid-century mine, and the centuries mine showing what mining was like in 1900, 1950, and 2000 respectively.



After leaving Dynamic Earth, we headed west toward Manitoulin Island. Ken's parents moved from Brighton to Manitoulin in June and this was our first trip to the new homestead. It was amazing to both of us that the only bridge on and off the island is a one lane, wooden swing bridge that looked like it might collapse and any moment!

Manitoulin wasn't exactly what I expected. The landscape was much more varied then I thought it would be. Ken's parents bought an old farm house in Gore Bay. They have already put in hundreds of hours of work fixing up their home and it really shows. We weren't much in the way of help but Ken and his Dad did manage to tear down the deck while we were there.



It was lovely to spend time with Ken's parents. The took us out for dinner in Gore Bay and to the falls in Kagawong. On Thursday Ken and I drove around to explore more of the island. We went to the Ojibwe Cultural Foundation heritage museum and art gallery. From there we drove through Manitowaning and on to Wikwemikong. In Wikwemikong we visited the ruins of an old church. From there we drove back to Manitowaning and enjoyed lunch at a place called Musky Widows and in Manitowaning I found a "Manitoulin Pig".



On Friday we left Manitoulin and headed east, back through Sudbury and on to North Bay to make our last stop on the McCartney Family tour. We stopped in North Bay to see Ken's sister Laura, her husband Keenan and their son William. We enjoyed a fun evening of conversation and even burned a few bears (check out Laura's blog).

The next morning it was back to reality. We left North Bay to head back to Toronto, to moving and school. We had a wonderful vacation exploring new places and spending time with family.

For all of the road trip pictures follow the link to Wendy and Ken's photo album".

Family is the Best

We had a special family dinner on Sunday, August 26 at my parents house. In attendance were Ken and I, my parents and some very special members of my Dad's family. His cousin Nancy Fine, his Aunt Adrianna, and his Uncle Stanley and Stanley's wife Mia. We had a lovely dinner. It was a treat for Nancy and Stanley to see each other as they hadn't seen each other in a very long time. There is something very comforting and reassuring about spending time with extended family.

My little treat was a photograph that Adrianna brought. It still needs to be fixed up and I'll change this post when it is. But for now, here it is.



















This is my Dad and his mother I'm guessing around 1943 or 1944 as my Dad looks about 3 or 4 years old.

So much to do, so little time!

I can't believe that the summer is basically over, I have five days left... I am currently surrounded by boxes, lots and lots of boxes. It's more than a little out of control. In any case I have so much to blog about - our fabulous road trip (Ottawa - Sudbury - Manitoulin - North Bay), and then of course the move. However, it's late and then there's the work I have to do and it just isn't time yet... soon I hope.

Dumbo - Brooklyn

Dumbo (an acronym for "Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass" or "Down Under Manhattan Brooklyn Overpass") is a really fun little area. This is where we went on Monday, August 6. We started out by trying to go to the Brooklyn Children's Museum only to discover that it's closed on a Monday. To salvage the trip Suzanne decided that we would go to Dumbo. After finally finding free street parking (for the minivan in Brooklyn!) we walked to Grimaldi's Pizzeria. The pizza was really good. It was worth waiting in line with five children and being squished once we were inside.













After the pizza we walked around the corner to Jacques Torres chocolate store and bought ice cream sandwiches. They were delicious. Our last stop was a little park between the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges. The boys had so much fun running around and playing.



















Joey and Isaac, Mason - Isaac's friend




















The Lott boys and the Bates Boys





















I took a few pictures of the Brooklyn Bridge and was only moderately satisfied. There are limitations to our fun new digital camera.

The Adventure Begins

Train travel is supposed to be romantic yes? I'm not sure that's what I would call my 14 hour journey. I've known for a while that I could take the train to New York but it never seemed that appealing. Ken however, was convinced that this would be a great way to travel to my sister's and I thought that I would give it a try. My favourite thing about the train is that the tickets are fully refundable!

We left Union Station in Toronto at 8:30 am. I had a window seat and a pleasant seat mate - I don't think we exchanged names. We chatted a little and the morning passed fairly quickly. We arrived at the U.S. border at 11:10 am. The border crossing took TWO HOURS! I should mention that the American Board Guard that interviewed the people in my car was very pleasant, friendly even. The most interesting part of the border crossing was watching the agriculture inspection. After being asked for identification a second border guard asked about the food I was bringing over the border. I knew what not to bring so there was no issue. The interesting part was watching the inspection of the woman in front of me and across the aisle.

When it was her turn she was asked if she had any fruit, vegetables or meat. She promptly said no. Then she was asked if she had any food. Again she replied no. The border guard asked again, and she said no, again. He then informed her that he would need to search her bag. At first she seemed not to know how to open her bag, so the border guard lowered the table tray and placed her bag on top. He then proceeded to open the bag and remove the contents. Every single item in her bag was FOOD! It was ridiculous. I couldn't believe that she would just completely lie. But the pathetic part - she had meat, and fruit... was that the border guard didn't take anything away, his retort, it would be too heavy to carry. He simply told the woman that she shouldn't be bringing this stuff into the country. He really told her!

Below is my self-portrait, taken about half-way through the journey. I don't think I ever want to take the train to New York again. Perhaps the only way I would do it again is with Ken as a traveling companion. After the border my seat mate was reassigned to another car - she was only going as far as Albany. My new seat mate was a man (maybe late 20's early 30's) that basically did not talk. He slept from the border until about half an hour from New York. I enjoyed reading my book but I would have really enjoyed talking to someone.














I was expecting the romance of the train trip to be in the scenery. I think the view is prettier from the interstate. The picture below was taken somewhere in upstate New York. There were some pretty forest patches that we went through but there were lots of industrial areas too and by the time it would have been really pretty - along the Hudson River south of Albany, it was too dark to see anything!

A Week for Saying Goodbye

I started the week saying goodbye to Sumin. We have been George Bacon for the last two years. Let me explain. Sumin and I have shared a homeroom class at Blue Willow P.S. for the last two years. Her last name is George, my last name is Bacon, put it together and what do you get? You get George Bacon! We called the kids George Bacon and we generally had fun confusing other people in the school. The first year we put up little signs that said "Who is George Bacon?" Sumin is off to Mexico to teach - I'm going to miss her!















For the last three and a half years at church I've been one of the leaders of the youth program. In this picture are four of the girls and one of the other adult leaders. Since we're moving to Whitby we'll be going to a different church building and I was therefore released from my duties. I'm going to miss the girls, but hopefully they'll all keep in touch - email is such a great thing!















This is a picture of my friend Roslynn. She is another teacher from Blue Willow P.S. She and I met three years ago when we were both new to Blue Willow. I taught her grade 4/5 class music. Roslynn is a beautiful person inside and out and she is embarking on a teaching adventure just like Sumin. Roslynn is going to be teaching in Dubai for the next two years.















The last goodbye of the week was the Treagars. Becky and Seth moved into the ward a year after we did. They are our LOST buddies. They are from Arizona and are heading back - Seth is going back to school to get his M.B.A. Below is Colton - their one year old. We've had lots of fun hanging out with them.
















I think I'm finished saying goodbye for a little while, unless of course you count saying goodbye to Ken tomorrow morning at the train station... well, that's another story.

The road leads to Whitby.

Can you see the building for the trees? This is going to be our happy home for the next year. Hopefully we'll actually be spending more time there than on the 401!

The building is almost 40 years old but very well maintained. There are a number of older tenants in the building and consequently it is very, very quiet.

We'll be squishing back into a one bedroom apartment but it will be great. Our apartment is on the main floor and we actually have a side door to a little patch of green space! Perhaps we can even plant a flower or two in the spring.

The road to somewhere?

So where are we? It's July 21st - Harry Potter Day. (We've already read ten chapters) Yesterday was an interesting day. Ken had the day off and I completed the last day of the second week of summer school. Ken picked me up after school and we drove to Uxbridge to check out some apartments.

Plan A - well forget plan a, Plan B was get transferred and live somewhere like Port Perry. I decided not to transfer so we thought that Uxbridge (Plan C) sounded like the next best option. That was until yesterday. You wouldn't think that after paying $900 a month for a palatial apartment in Toronto you'd be expected to pay $800 a month for a tiny hole in the ground in Uxbridge? At least I wasn't prepared for the two apartments we looked at. The second (or rather second and third) were two apartments above a store. I figured it might not be our first choice but it might not be so bad, but I just can't see myself in either of the apartments.

That's when Plan D (!) started to form. We headed from Uxbridge to Lindsay to see how long it would take to drive to Oshawa. It took about 45 minutes using the 35 and the 401. Not too bad really. What about Oshawa to Woodbridge? Well if there's no traffic it will take about 45 minutes. (No laughing allowed, I'm too fragile)

Hopefully in another week or two we won't be homeless and we'll be able to embark on the next great adventure - moving!