Sept 28: Today we left for our 11 year late honeymoon. We flew Edmonton – Calgary and then on to Frankfurt. We were able to upgrade using Claude’s Air Canada Elite points so we had business class from there to Germany. That was very nice. They were the new “pods” so your chair had little partial walls around it like a mini cubicle and it laid back completely flat like a bed for sleeping. They served us a lovely dinner then we went to sleep (or at least I tried to), and then we woke up to a nice hot breakfast just before we landed. It was a 9+ hr flight. Landed in Florence at around 2 in the afternoon. Caught a cab to the hotel. Hotel Albani Firenze. The hotel is right down town, close ... read more

It was a full day’s drive from Ottawa to Sudbury on Saturday. We arrived at supper time. We spent the first night in a hotel in Sudbury. Using Claude’s points we stayed in the very nice and very new Homewood Suites for just $5. It was great having a room with a separate bedroom from the boys so we could get some work done in the evening after they went to bed and they could watch cartoons in the morning while we relaxed. Sunday (Claude’s Birthday), we spent the morning at Dynamic Earth, which is the interpretive center at the Big Nickel lookout. The boys remembered it from past visits and wanted to go back. We did the underground mine tour again this time. Marc decided that he was scared to go underground but we told ... read more

We had a free day in Montreal before we needed to start the voyage west, so we decided to take both boys to Parc Safari since Marc had had such a good time there with Frederique. It turned out to be a great choice for a hot day. Parc Safari is actually about 45 minutes south of Montreal in the Richeleau valley area. We started off by visiting the walk through animals before it got too hot (although it was already pretty roasting). In the lion and tiger area you actually get to walk through glass tunnels that go right through the animal enclosures. One of the female lions was right up on the tunnel as we went through so it was pretty neat to be looking up at her. They have 3 white lions from ... read more

Claude and Paul went with Claude’s brother Robert and his neice Caroline fishing for a week to a fishing resort in Northern Quebec. It was a 5 hour drive north of Montreal. At Mont Laurier they leave ashpalt and travel to the town of Parent where they stay overnight. Then it is another hour on a dirt road and then an hour and a half boat ride across Reservoir Gouin to the very nice fishing lodge of Aventurier du Gouin. Claude said it was like a 5 star resort in the middle of the wilderness. For Paul’s birthday Robert had got him a new fishing rod and tackle so he was excited to try it out. It was Paul’s first fishing trip and I was worried that he might find the week too long but he ... read more

Friday, July 1st Canada Day and home to St. Raymond After 2900 km in two weeks of travel, We returned back to Saint Raymond right after lunch on Canada Day. We had to be back in Montreal by the next afternoon, so we had a very busy afternoon and evening of packing up all the stuff that is to go back to Robert’s place. We had borrowed several large pieces of furniture that had been his dad’s stuff and was being stored in their airplane hangar. We had rented a large cube van to bring it to S. Raymond, so when we assembled it all on the driveway it didn’t look like our little trailer would handle it all. Amazingly, Claude managed to fit it all in. The first step of going home has started. To ... read more