Today we had lots of tears.... we had to say goodbye to Winnie, Tom, Marilyn and all the family..... I wish we just lived around the corner, not the other side of the world. It was time to head back to the big smoke... Chicago, we have an early flight out tomorrow morning. We had a couple of stops on the way, the first was at St Josephs... a pretty town on Lake Michigan. A little further on, in north west Indiana, we stopped at Valvaraiso, so Geoff could go to a WW11 air museum. he managed to get another personal [View Full Entry]

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Every morning there is a nature show going on outside the window as we have breakfast. Rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks and too many different birds to name. There's also ground moles... but we can't see them..... only the mounds they leave behind ! The hummingbirds haven't arrived yet, but they soon will be back. Marilyn has put their feeding dish out, hoping they will arrive. I've been trying to fit a little sewing time in, to get my stack n wack quilt started. Marilyn has been teaching me how to put it together, there's a lot of cutting out involved. I didn't [View Full Entry]

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Today was a big day for Winnie, it was "Circle", Circle is a group of about 15 ladies that meet monthly, all very close friends who get together for friendship and to help the community. They raise money through raffles and silent auctions etc, most have an interest in quilting and sewing. Marilyn also belongs to the group. Winnie is the president. I got to draw the raffle..... too bad I didn't pull out the right ticket for Winnie or Marilyn ! While we were busy having our luncheon at Circle, Geoff was taking a walk in Rockford township and along [View Full Entry]

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Today was the day..... a big adventure down the river to Rockford ! Tom had a day off work, and after a hearty breakfast, to make sure to keep the energy levels up..... Tom and Geoff put on gumboots, a warm top, and took along a rain jacket and headed down to the river, which runs along the back of Tom and Marilyns property. The skys were heavy but the course was set..... and it would take about 3 hours of paddling to get to Rockfords township. Marilyn and I waived them off and headed back to the house to get [View Full Entry]

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This morning an early call from Carole and it was off to the Attic Window to meet her and Maria. It was great that we were both in Michigan at the same time. We had a great catch up and also got a little shopping in too ! From there we went to Ada to have lunch with Carole, Maria and Marilyn ..... Geoff with all the quilting girls! His turn would come after lunch..... at University Motors, an MG specialist garage. He got the full tour from the owner and had his photo taken to be put in their next [View Full Entry]

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We woke to a beautiful sunny morning.... what a great day to go out and have ""a big American breakfast"...... and that's just what we did !. Winnie, Toni, Marilyn, Geoff and I all headed into downtown Rockford for breakfast at Arnies. Pancakes for me and a big American breakfast for Geoff..... Yum, We sure had a good time ! We certainly didn't need any lunch.... Winnie did herself proud too.... she tucked in and left an empty plate. Marilyn took me shopping.... to guess where...... ? I bought enough fabric to do a "stack n wack" quilt, and home we [View Full Entry]

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"Tip toe through the tulips with me" Today we had a wonderful time in Holland..... Holland Michigan that is ! Holland is a lovely town on Lake Michigan, they have a tulip festival each spring and Geoff and I were lucky enough to go along with Marilyn and Tom. We couldn't decide which was our favourite.... there were too many to choose from. [View Full Entry]

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Today..... is a day of rest ! Sooooo nice to be back in Rockford. A day to catch up with all the news of the Knight family. We had a long visit with Winnie and very happy to be staying with Marilyn and Tom. It feels like home ! [View Full Entry]

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Back in Amish country, today we visited many Amish towns in Elkhart County Indiana, we took a self guided tour by CD..... great idea... we could stop and start whenever we pleased. We drove through very heavy rain for part of the day. Had a great time at the Elkhart market, all homemade foods, we bought plenty.At Bonneyville we visited the old mill, which is still in use, we purchased some red wheat flour and some corn flour. In Middlebury we saw so many horse and buggies, they were everywhere.... lots of photo taking.... and we took advantage of shopping in [View Full Entry]

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We took the scenic route along the Ohio river into downtown Louisville. Crossed the river into Indiana to see the Old Ohio Falls and the exposed fossil beds.. 350m years old. Back again into Kentucky to see the paddlesteamers in the port of Louisville, where we had a great lunch of shrimp and crab at "Joes Crab Shack" the best we've had, ever... I think ! We had a great surprise waiting for us at Church Hill Downs, the racetrack where the Kentucky Derby is run (in 2 days time).... there was a race meeting on, so we joined the crowd, [View Full Entry]

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