A Whirlwind Couple of Weeks

Been a bit quiet here recently so I thought I'd do a little catch-up.

Following a day of sight-seeing on Antigua, we switched into boat-prep mode to get ready for our trip back to Canada.  Before we went to the dock however, we had a couple of nights in Jolly Harbour where we caught up with Nahani River, Izzy R and new friends on Horizons and Imagine.  We enjoyed some great sundowners and a dinner out with this international group of Canadians, Americans, Brits and an Italian; I know - not that international since we all pretty much speak some form of English but fun nonetheless.

Thursday arrived and time to put Mowzer on the dock.  The place is a bit like a ghost town now that the winter season has wrapped up, so it was super easy to navigate into our spot but the marina staff were so helpful with lines as we reversed in to the dock that it was one of the easiest dockings yet.  To be honest, we avoid going to the dock as much as possible because it's those hard crunchy bits that cause the most grief around the boat.  What ensued was a couple days of cleaning and sorting, and then digging into all the storage lockers, nooks and crannies to go through everything on the boat and decide if we had used it or would need it in the ensuing months.  Given that our original plan had been to travel north through the Bahamas and then up the eastern seaboard but has now changed to hot steamy Grenada this summer, we managed to unload a certain amount of cooler weather clothing that we see no need of in the near future.  Into the bag it went to return to Canada with the hopes of filling the empty suitcase space with boat goodies on the return trip.

Our time in Canada has been a whirlwind of visiting with family and friends and I am certain that we are going to have to do some serious hiking down-island to work off that multitude of lunches and dinners, but how wonderful to see and hug everyone again.

We started off with Caitlin and Jamie in Toronto where Canada greeted us with a chilly, wet Sunday at 10 degrees C.

My new favourite picture of these two!

We moved on to Ottawa for a week's stay with Peter and Beth and visits with Jim and many old friends.

I even managed to do some sight-seeing around my old home-town with Jim on the annual Doors Open event.

Jim took me on a little tour around the O-Train yards.

Aberdeen Pavilion in the new Lansdowne Park development

This space used to be a parking lot - so much better in this new pedestrian-friendly design

Women's FIFA is being hosted in Ottawa this year and the stadium is all ready

We moved on to Ottawa U. where Jim checked out the decay charts and the Acceleration Mass Spectrometer 

East Block of Parliament from Wellington & Elgin - always loved this part of downtown

The Old Mill (now a brew-pub) on the Ottawa River at Victoria Island.  We were visiting the oldest hydro generating station in Canada, still in operation for the city of Ottawa

We wrapped up with lunch in Little Italy.  Pizza, fresh-squeezed lemonade, an outdoor cafe table with a Ferrari parked on the road to enhance the atmosphere. 

We even managed to play a bit of golf as the weather continued to co-operate beautifully for the first week after the chilly greeting.

The course was looking absolutely beautiful

Ladies' fun with Laurie & Diane - thanks for being such a good sport Bob!

Bob contemplates the local wildlife - a snapping turtle laying eggs in a sand trap.

Evening winding down as we finished up the game.

Meanwhile, Henry got out with the guys at the annual Richmond Curling Club tournament (thanks to Ron for sharing the picture).

Jeff, Henry, Greg & Ron tore up the links to take second place!

Our second week is now underway and we've been having a grand time with family and more friends in Ottawa.  Today we drive down to Waterloo this evening with Jim all ready for his university convocation tomorrow.  Can't believe the years have gone so fast!  Wasn't it just last year that we drove you down to residence Jim?

A couple more days are planned with Caitlin and Jamie in Toronto and then we're back on the flight to Antigua and Mowzer on Sunday.  Hard to believe that two weeks is almost done; we've packed in so much and had such a great time but like any vacation, it is also nice to get home again.