6:23 am:The day has finally arrived! We leave this morning to Montréal. From Montréal, we hop a flight from there to Frankfurt, Germany. We'll be meeting up with my sister, Kristine, from Vancouver. The three of us will then board our flight from Frankfurt to Oslo, Norway. We will be landing in Oslo 12:15 pm local time....6:15 am our time, and 3:15 am Kristine's time! We'll see how we're doing then, eh? 9:38 am: All packed up. Tidied up the house for our house sitter and Maggie is wandering around wondering where her travel bag is 😔. We wish she could come with us. The car is loaded up and we’re just waiting for our house sitter (Ashley) to arrive and then we’ll be leaving for Montréal!!... read more

I woke up this morning to beautiful, bright sunshine! I’ve had awesome weather during my stay here in Sechelt/Vancouver. I slept in this morning waking up around 7:30 or so. I had a shower and went downstairs to enjoy the breakfast that the hotel puts on. It was pretty decent. Scrambled eggs with turkey sausage links, some ’home fries’; chunky potatoes with some chunks of sautéed peppers and onions. Coffee, of course. Finishing that, I went back up to the room and then got things tidied up. I then went out to start my day. I walked from here to the post office to post a parcel in the mail to Mom, and then walked to Gastown. I wanted to buy a couple of t-shirts for the family, and took some video and photos (see attached). ... read more

This morning I brought a pipe with me down to the water front to have a bit of quiet time. I brought my Peterson pipe loaded up with a tobacco that had a bit of coffee flavouring. Delicious. It was nice to just be by the water and hear it ‘lapping’ up against the shore. Visually beautiful along there. If I lived there, that would be a morning routine spot for sure. Gorgeous. Then, I went to pick up some breakfast for Jeanne and I. I went to Ricky’s All Day Grill Pancake House and bought a couple of breakfasts. I brought them home and she was in the living room sipping on the coffee that I had made before I left. She was very surprised with the breakfast. Scrambled eggs, rye toast, buttermilk pancakes, bacon, ... read more

Departed Ottawa. The airport check in process was easy. I always have to wait a little bit to actually see a person when checking my bag because they have to verify my Veteran status to receive the free bag check in. Once that was done, it was off to the dreaded security check in. The line was long, but it moved along quite well. They’ve made some improvements since I’ve last travelled. For example, the person at the start of the cue for security only verifies that you have a boarding pass now instead of scanning it or checking your identification. Then, you get in the line with others. Once you get to the ‘head’ of the line, another security screening agent will indicate which line of machine you’ll head to. Once there, you scan your ... read more

We’re camping on the Ile-d’Orleans….and this blog today actually begins in the year 1579, in Outlines, Marne, Champagne-Ardenne, France. Jean Roy dit Desjardins (Joigny) (Lauzier) was my 11th great-grandfather, on my mother’s maternal side of the family. All we know about Jean Roy is that he seduced Marie-Marguerite Boucquenier (Brouchu) in January 1604, and did not marry her, although she gave him a son, Olivier Roy, who was born and baptised on October 2 1604 in Saint-Andre's Roman Catholic church in Joigny, France. Here is a link to a photo of the inside of that church today: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3580894#/media/File:Joigny_-_Eglise_Saint-André_2.jpg Olivier grew up in that region of France, and became a ‘Maître Tonnelier”; that is, a Cooper, or barrel maker. He married Ma... read more