We took a Thousand Islands tour boat on our last day in Canada. It’s amazing how much house some builders could put on a teeny island. Almost every island had a house on it, some in the US and some in Canada . Then we went to the top of a huge observation tower and took some photos of the area. Our campground was just a stone’s throw from the bridge between Canada and the States which we crossed the next morning. ... read more

I really enjoy taking photos of things which are purported to be “the biggest . . . ,” “the oldest . . .,” “the heaviest . . .,” etc. and also really quirky stuff. Following are a few dandies. About the cheese -- In 1893, a 22,000 chunk of cheese was shipped from Perth, Ontario to Chicago for the World's Colombian Exposition on the Canadian Pacific Railroad's World's Fair Cheese Train. This cheese, which was 6' high and 28' in circumference, required what would amount to 1 day's milk from 10,000 cows. That's a lot of milk and a lot of cheese. ************************************************************************************ By the way, I’ve just added a few people whom I meant to include from the beginning of this blogging process. Sorry for the delay. You can easily catch up with the ... read more

The Canadians are amazing in their efforts to reduce garbage. At each provincial campground where we stayed, they had bins for glass, plastic, aluminum, compost (including most paper and cardboard, even dairy and meat), and whatever was left -- the garbage. Needless to say, there wasn't much garbage after all the other receptacles were used. Note photo. I'm also sending some photos of a couple of animals we've seen, some tableaus from the Algonquin Museum, and our other two travel companions, Becky and Jasmine. They're just wonderful travelers and fun to have around, except around 5:00 AM when they decide it's time to rise and play. Also, Becky, a plump kitty, sleeps in a cabinet about 3' over my head and, when she jumps down, she lands on me, which is both startling and sometimes knocks ... read more

around Saturday -- As you may have noticed, the Mckenzie King estate photos didn’t show up in the last blog. The internet connection we were using wasn’t very reliable and we’d already lost one attempt at blogging, so we decided not to send all the photos, which are slow to upload. We had been hiding out in the parking area of a restaurant nearby which had unsecured Wi-Fi, checking our emails and sending out the blogs in something of a rush every day or two. So here are the photos. These are King’s summer homes as he worked in Ottawa for 22 years. He never married. We were impressed by how modest his digs were. I’ve also included some photos from the steam train ride we took along the Gatineau River. A note about Canadians: One ... read more

These are some photos of downtown Ottawa. If you don’t already know (and I didn’t), Ottawa, Ontario, is the capital of Canada and just across the Ottawa River from the province of Quebec. All the people are bilingual, as you might imagine. Some have a French accent; some don’t. There’s also a mix of other cultures - people from the mid East and Asia and other parts of the world. Very cosmopolitan. Some years ago Bob and I drove along part of the Rideau Canal and used our kayaks on a portion, going through at least four locks - twice - as we went from one small town to another and back. Sometimes we had to get out of the kayaks to get the attention of the lock keeper as he wouldn’t see us in our ... read more