Posts from — August 2022

Hello April 2022

Our big excitement in April was a 5 night getaway to Victoria. What a great time of the year to visit Victoria, the blossoms are definitely out and at various stages depend on the species of the tree, shrub or plant. We stayed at The Parkside Hotel which is a condo hotel right next to Beacon Hill Park and very close to downtown Victoria. Each suite has a full kitchen, 1 bedroom, balcony, etc. So, we were able to cook a couple of our own dinners, have a glass of wine and enjoy the view.

We also took the opportunity while in Victoria to visit my cousin Trudi who in in Royal Jubilee Hospital. Poor Trudi had MS and Parkinson’s so she is not mobile and requires 24 hr care. However her spirits are bright and she certainly enjoyed our hour visit. Her husband Norma manages Trudi’s visitor schedule so she does not get over tired.

From Victoria we drove up the Malahat towards Ladysmith to have lunch with Donna and Bob. It was great to meet up with them and visit a little bit of their part of the Province.

After lunch we caught the ferry from Duke Point to Tsawwassen where we stayed for the night and then the next morning we drove to Whiterock to meet up with Maureen and Art, Duane, Mike and Rose for a visit and tea before heading home via the Fraser Canyon.

Brenda’s brother Dean turned 71 in April…… “Happy Birthday Dean”

May has arrived and to start it off our sister in-law Judy celebrated her 71st birthday “Happy Birthday Judy”.

Also celebrating a birthday in May is my foster sister Jennifer, “Happy Birthday Jennifer”

First week of May we made an overnight trip to Kelowna to drop off all their ski equipment from the March Family Ski Vacation. Then 3 days later we were off to Princeton to see Kevin, Tamara, Sage and Conrad. Kevin has been working real hard to get a community Disc Golf Course built and he finally got approval to use a piece of Princeton City property. So he was pretty happy to be able to show us the property, the layout and his design. It is going to be a great boost for tourism and all ages activity in the town of Princeton. Since he is the driving force behind this initiative he is going to call it “Whistling Kettle Disc Golf”, since the signature hole will be across a ravine which is like a large kettle.

In the middle of the month Kevin celebrated his 46th Birthday………. where the heck did those years go? “Happy Birthday Kevin”

Sometime in May I finished a painting of a picture of an iceberg we saw in Saint Anthony NFLD.

At the end of May we had Jeff, Lindsay, Zach and Oliver here for an extended weekend as they were in a National Disc Golf Tournament. Both boys and Jeff did really well even though they didn’t win their division. Unfortunately Lindsay couldn’t play as she was recuperating from Gall Bladder surgery.

June arrived and we are madly preparing for a trip in the middle/end of the month to New Brunswick and P.E.I.. We have toured the top half of N.B., so we are going to explore the southern coast and also go over to P.E.I. So our plans are to fly to Fredricton spend a couple days there and then rent a car and then drive to Moncton for night. After that we will drive to Charlottetown and stay there for 5 nights and do day trips to see the Island.

Well our trip out east started great and came to a grinding halt in Montreal airport. All flights were cancelled and we ended up spending a night sleeping in the departure area of the airport. What a gong show by Air Canada. Anyway, we finally made it to Fredricton, but missed a day of exploring, so we’ll get it at the end of the vacation. Moncton was a nice little town and we got to see some of the tides off the Bay of Fundy. Charlottetown was so much fun. We stayed at The Great George Hotel, what a great older style hotel. It was very centrally located, they had a happy hour every night and they gave us all sorts of free gift certificates for restaurants in the area.

Beyond wanting to see N.B. and P.E.I. we also came to Charlottetown to see two plays at the Confederation Theatre. The first one was called “Tell Tale Harbour” and it starred Alan Doyle who was formerly lead singer with Great Big Sea from NFLD. In fact one evening we were going out to dinner and coming up the sidewalk towards us was Alan Doyle himself. We had a 5 minute conversation and it was like we were talking to an old friend. The second play of course was Anne of Green Gables. It was great to see live theatre again.

Attached are some pictures from P.E.I.

Over our 5 days in Charlottetown we were able to explore all four corners of P.E.I. From Tignish and Skinners Pond (home of Stompin’ Tom Connors) in the northwest. The East Point Lighthouse in the East. North to Cavendish and Anne of Green Gables and along the south shore to the Summerside area.

After P.E.I. we headed back to spend a night in SaintJohn and then two final nights in Fredericton before flying home.

As far as birthday news in June….. Oliver turned 10 years old…. Happy Birthday Oliver.

We were only home for about a week and we were off again, this time to Wells Gray Park to meet up with Brenda’s cousin and his wife from Gabriola Island and Brenda’s brother and his wife from Prince George. This is our first time meeting up with them since Covid hit in 2020. More on this adventure in the next post.