Blogs from Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, North America

I awoke to birds twittering in the early sunshine. Our breakfast was at 8:00 – muffins, homemade strawberry jam, fruit, juice, and hot lemon water. The annex off the kitchen retained some style from the original house. We walked to Greg’s condo, where most of the others from yesterday were gathered again. Greg led us on a walk of historic Kitchener, a tour he does for a few organizations. We were in the historic “Berlin District”, where the original inhabitants worked in the German language until the first World War. Our Green Gables B&B was typical of the original large multi-storey houses with wide verandas and large front and back gardens, dating from more than a hundred years ago. Many modern houses replaced the old, usually with designs sensitive to history. Outside one narrow wooden house, ... read more

We've finished our last day of work for 2 weeks and are taking it easy tonight. Tomorrow we'll be cleaning out our new truck and packing it for the drive that starts early sunday morning.... read more

Around Kitchener Friday, September 7 we drove north-east through the countryside looking at prosperous farms, neat looking villages/towns to the Grand River Casino and Raceway that sits in the middle of nowhere. They advertised a huge buffet dinner at trackside. Unfortunately, we should have made reservations, as they took only a limited number of customers even if it was a buffet. So, looked around and got some food from a canteen type place and then watched the trotters race. We then sat outside and bet on a few races. I lost all. Valerie won a few. Ontario is trotter horse country with the Mennonites using so many carriage horses they are bred, raised, and trained in this province. Although we had planned to attend a huge Farmer's Market with many Mennonite vendors this Saturday morning, we ... read more

I got up at 5:40 so I could have a shower before the flight. We rushed down for a quick bite, then back up for our bags, checked out and headed to the airport a short walk away. Check in went smoothly, we waited for about ½ hour in the lounge and we boarded. The trip back was better than the trip here. There seemed to be a little more room and we were a little more rested and could pass the time reading rather than unsuccessfully trying to get sleep like on the night flight. The pilot actually pointed out Greenland as we passed over because he said usually it’s not clear enough to see it. It was a magnificent sight and I tried to take a couple of pics. We left at about 08:40 ... read more

The plans are now in place. We retired on Nov 16 and placed an order for a used C class motor home a week later. The unit was purchased in Bolton at Cruise Canada. A week to go before we pick it up.... read more