Katherine (yes, that's me, talking about myself in the third person) needed to spend about five hours today working, and meanwhile Roberta did the laundry and picked up a few groceries (thanks, Roberta!). We then met Roberta's old friend Carla for an afternoon and evening of walking around the city, catching up on news, and eating wonderful food from Carla's kitchen. Carla lives in Outremont, a part of Montreal I've (yes, I know, voice shift. BAD writer!) never visited before. It was fascinating walking along the residential streets, full of three-unit three-story apartment buildings. Lots of ethnic diversity makes this a really interesting neighborhood. Carla lives on the second floor of one of these apartments, and her place was just beautiful, honey-colored hardwood floors, lots of big windows, warm and spacious rooms. This part of the ... read more

After four days on the train, we were glad to arrive in Montreal around 5 pm today. We checked into the hostel, reorganized our bags for a few days of settled living, showered, and too tired to go out, we ate supper at the hostel. The food was pretty good, living up to our belief that there is no such thing as a bad meal in Montreal. We are pretty tired, and we find ourselves occasionally lurching to the rhythm of the train even though we are no longer on it! We'll probably go to bed earlier than Malcolm tonight! Tomorrow morning there will be time enough for exploration. Our room is in the sous-sol of this hostel, but we have a full window looking out on the back yard, so it's not as subterranean as ... read more

We woke up this morning to a beautiful prairie sunrise! Yes, it was a bit of an early awakening for two girls who didn't get to bed until after 2 am, but it was too exciting to miss it. Due to being off schedule, they served brunch instead of breakfast and lunch this morning. We shared a delicious omelet and crab eggs benedict around 10:30. Then we went back to bed and slept for another three hours! Feeling almost normal at this point. We are stopped at the moment in a small town, Melville, SK. We're supposed to be in Winnipeg around 9 pm tonight. Yes, I am writing this from the train! We’ve had a cell signal pretty consistently every time we’ve checked since leaving last night, but this is the first time I’ve tried ... read more

Well, we're finally off! After an anxious two days of packing, cleaning house, clearing out our vegetable plots and storing the produce, and blocking four mohair scarves Katherine knit for the Grandmothers to Grandmothers sale (which will take place while we are away), we got away on the Red Arrow at 12:30 pm. We decided, since we plan to move back to BC in May, that we needed to see the West Edmonton Mall before we leave Alberta, so we booked a room in the hotel in the mall. Nice hotel room, and the mall is certainly . . . some kind of cultural phenomenon (ahem). After settling into our room, we walked most of this monument to consumerism. There are some interesting artifacts here, including a replica of Columbus's Santa Maria, which you can tour ... read more

We left Osoyoos at 5:45 am, stopped for breakfast in Hedley. Katherine drove until Manning Park, then we switched drivers and Kath tried to catch a few winks while Roberta completed the perilous Hope-Princeton highway. She awoke in Chilliwak, when Roberta left the highway and got on a bumpy side road to get some gas. The bumpy road got incorporated into her dream somehow, in which Roberta had just driven over a cliff, and they were headed for an impact in the trees below. Nice dream to wake up from. We stopped in Abbottsford to pick up some corn for dinner, and were home before 1 pm. Vanita made the final climb up Mountain Highway to home, where Jellicoe was waiting for us in the carport, ready for some spoiling to make up for being left ... read more