It’s the most wonderful time of the year…

I don’t know if anyone’s mentioned it..but Christmas is coming! yay!

It’s never too early to get in the Christmas mood.

Hope this picture helps!

Sault Ste Marie - October 10-12, 2005

Neil and I went on one of the most popular train excursions in North America. Yes, I’m talking about the Agawa Canyon Train Tour in Sault Ste Marie.

‘This one day wilderness excursion will take you 114 miles north of Sault Ste. Marie, over towering trestles, alongside pristine northern lakes and rivers, and through the awesome granite rock formations and mixed forests of the Canadian Shield. ‘ Which it pretty much did.

We rode through mountains of colorful trees and forests, lakes, blue sky and gorgeous sun. Absolutely breathtaking.

While we were in Sault Ste Marie, we also partook in the other great tourist attraction - Casino Sault Ste Marie! We had $25.00 dollars to gamble (yes, we’re big gamblers) and it took us thirty minutes on the slot machines to lose it all. Not bad… lost some, won some, lost some, etc, etc… It was fun!

Sault Ste Marie is not a big town as we walked through most of it in a day. Most shops closed at 4 or 5, only restaurants and the lonely dance club stayed opened late.

We also walked over to the Soo Locks and watched a couple of boats go through. It really isn’t as exciting as it sounds.

All in all, it was relaxing especially the 8 hour train ride to the Agawa Canyon and back!

BTW, this had to be the smallest airport we have ever been to. We walked to the plane, dropped our ‘carry-ons’ on the cart (which still went in the back of the airplane) and got on a 50 seater airplane with two propellers!…yikes…well, at least I got snacks!

Sault Ste Marie Photos

Heart & Stroke Mother Daughter Walk - September 25, 2005

On Sunday, September 25, 2005, Mom, Helena, Richard, Gabriel and myself participated in the annual Heart & Stroke Mother Daughter Walk. I think this is our fifth year walking and Gabriel’s second year (although technically he didn’t walk ).

The walk was at Woodbine Park on Woodbine and Coxwell and, while the skies were cloudy and threatening to open up, the weather was cool enough for a long walk. And long it was. An hour and a half and 7 kms later, we ended our participation in the walk. It was a good walk. We should do it every weekend!

After that, we were treated to a goodie bag full of…cereal? Yes, cereal. Because the walk is sponsored by Cheerios, we were given two boxes of Cheerios cereal and some other goodies. That was a surprise. Now I have to start eating cereal again.

We were able to raise $275.00 this year from friends and family for this very worthy cause. Thank you.

See you next year.

Summer Day at the Cottage - September 10, 2005

We had a ‘Summer Day at the Cottage’ on Saturday September 10 and it was great!

Our guests included friends, family, children and dogs! Melissa, Albert, Sierra and Cosmo arrived first with Cosmo itching to get out of the van after a long ride.

Helen, Richard and Gabriel arrived just a few minutes later with Gabriel anxious to get out of the car :).

Rosa and Mike arrived a bit late having forgotten the map behind. Kudos for them for finding the cottage without the map. It’s easy to get lost up there. (Don’t tell the Wards that!)

The kids were able to walk around at will and they did. Cosmo and Meka got along for the most part. And the adults were able to enjoy themselves without having to run after their kids (for the most part!)

We had good food, good fun and good conversation. We then walked down to the beach to stick our feet in the water. The water was so warm, the kids were able to enjoy themselves a lot.

Especially Gabriel who tried to paddle his way ashore many times and yet seemed to not go anywhere :). We had great fun, played in the sand and enjoyed the water.

Back to the cottage to visit with Yen, David, Matthew and Laura who were able to make it after their birthday party ended early.

I’d say the highlight was Cosmo licking Gabriel several times when he wasn’t paying attention. The look on his face was priceless. And it was nice to get everyone together for one last hurrah bbq before the summer ended.

Thanks all for coming out.

Thanks to Mr and Mrs Ward for letting us invade their privacy.

Summer Day At The Cottage Pictures

Clay Aiken - August 25, 2005

I finally went to my first Clay Aiken concert. I still say he’s a phenomenal performer with an outstanding voice but I didn’t completely enjoy myself. His tour was called ‘Jukebox Tour 2005′ and was a collection of songs from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and 2000+.

The first problem I had was he sang songs that were not his, enjoyable but not his.The second problem I had was he gave his backup singers too much time on centre stage singing solos! I paid to see Clay Aiken sing not his backup singers….argh..

But…we had seats in section 101 which was pretty darn close to the stage. I could see him very well and…he did a walk through the crowd at one point and ended up being 10 feet away from us!!! I almost fell off my chair trying to get a picture!…

He’s pretty funny so his interaction part with the crowd was entertaining and when he sang his OWN songs, they were outstanding especially the new song he sang. Nicely done.

All in all, it was good. Bu I hope his next tour is called ‘Clay Aiken’ and he sings only his songs. HIS songs are worth the price of admission.

Clay Aiken Concert Pictures

New York…New York - July 29->August 2, 2005

Just came back from a 4 day weekend in New York. Trip was good, weather was hot and traffic was heavy. That pretty much covers New york in a nutshell in the Summer!

It was 35+ when we landed and left but in between it was 29, hot and humid but tolerable which was good because we did a lot of walking…a lot! You can’t drive in New York because there is too much traffic and the lights are not timed well…it would be frustrating…

We took the Subway a few times which was fine…but there are so many different lines to take…you need to walk a couple of blocks to get the line you need…so we walked…which was fine but tiring!…I think we walked 7 miles on our last day….ouch…even walking was tough because there were so many people out walking as well…but we managed.

We saw all the tourist stuff…Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, Times Square, Rockefeller Centre, Madison Square Garden, United Nations, all the stores on Fifth Avenue:), Central Park, etc…..I’d recommend everything but go early to the attractions where you have to take a ferry or line up…it’s not worth it if you have to wait an hour to get into…

Shopped well..perhaps too well :)….ate well, slept well, etc….

Our only issue was having to wait to disembark at Pearson airport because there were thunderstorms at the airport and they wouldn’t allow airplanes to leave which meant we had to wait until the storms cleared to get a gate to disembark. Waited 3 hours and then another hour for a bus to get home. Oh well…it could have been worse.

New York Photos

Gabriel’s 1st BD - June 30, 2005

My nephew Gabriel turned 1 on June 30! I remember when he was born like it was yesterday…sigh.

Anyway we had a water slide, water toys and lot of food, folks and fun.

I think he really liked it!

Gabriel's 1st Birthday Photos