June 28, 2006 - we had a pretty easy trip to Ontario, found Mary's house with Ken's help, then spent the rest of the day organizing the stuff we needed to take out of the RV to Monica & Dad's place.

Since we're in Canada, both lunch and dinner were at Swiss Chalet!

After a suitable rest (1 day) we went back to the motorhome to finish emptying it. We took lots of help, and Mary (with Ken's help) fed the whole gang by the pool .

Steve and Leanne, Laurie and her kids, her parents and brother and came for a swim party and BBQ on July 6, 2006. Pandemonium best describes the event.

July 11, 2006 I had a chance to see D'Arcy & Ken play at the Black Swan where The Cain Gang and Trill were giving a showcase performance. In addition to finally hearing them play, I also had a chance to catch up with Juanita who dropped in to hear the music.

D'Arcy plays lead guitar with The CainGang and Ken plays saxephone and keyboard. D'Arcy plays bass guitar with Trill.

It seems strange now to think that we once preferred to live in the "big city." On July 13, 2006 we escaped Toronto's traffic and headed off to Owen Sound to visit with Anne and Paul and the whole gang.

After clearing Brampton we traveled happily along phlox lined byways through picturesque towns and hamlets, many of which are not yet suburbs of Toronto.

Dinner, with Anne & Paul, Lise & Vesa & Emma and Christine, was beer can BBQ chicken with an assortment of salads and wines.

Later, after a round of chocolate martinis, we enjoyed spirited discussions of history, cosmology and quantum mechanics before retiring for the night.

The next day, after a leisurely breakfast, we headed up to the Bruce Peninsula.

The drive took us through the southern part of the Canadian Shield, an area where the land was scraped down to the bedrock by the retreating glaciers at the end of the last ice age.

Lunch was in Wiarton where an albino groundhog named Wiarton Willie (rival of Punxsutawney Phil) has presided over Ontario's Groundhog Day for over 40 years. Unfortunately Willie had died a couple of days before we arrived, and the town was in mourning.

After lunch we headed up to Tobermory, Canada's scuba diving capital. The draw for divers is the multitude of shipwrecks off the point.

Ron, Dad and I visited the Metro Toronto Zoo to see what was happening and to try out Dad's new 300mm lens. The zoo was somewhat disappointing compared to others.

The exhibits are spaced too far apart for comfortable walking and there is no useful internal transportation. In addition of the large distances between exhibits, all the animals who weren't inside escaping the heat were only viewable behind mesh or plexiglass, unlike other zoos that have a more natural setting.

Next weekend Monica and I took off to Lewiston for a weekend of relaxation and shopping. We hit pretty well every store within driving distance. In addition we enjoyed a couple of dinners at Apple Grannys. You can see the pictures of our adventures on Monica's web site.

On Friday, July 28, we moved the motorhome from Mary's to a campsite in Scarborough to make it easier to get ready to hit the road on Sunday. Monica and Dad came along for the ride which was only about 20 miles. Monica took the navigator's seat and Dad traveled on the sofa; I followed in the Jeep.

We rarely run into problems when driving on the highway, but for Monica's first trip, they encountered a sofa, alone in the middle lane of the 401 expressway! Fortunately Ron was able to move over enough that he only nudged it with the motorhome, and it was out of the way of the traffic by the time I got to it. No damage to the motorhome, and the sofa didn't end up flying into the neighboring traffic lane. We have no information on the condition of the sofa!

Our last big get together with the family was July 29 when we assembled to send Holly off to college, if not in style, at least well equipped. In addition to computer equipment, she needed various tools to be used in set building, as well as furnishings for her residence.

We provided the laptop, as we do for our neices and nephews when they finish high school and start university or college. Some pictures of the rest of the gifts can be found on Monica's web site HERE.

We stayed in Ontario for a month because that Dad was having a procedure to correct the deafness in his left ear. After almost 70 years without his hearing, we wanted to see how things went. All indications are that he now has at least some hearing in that ear.

While we were in Ontario we managed to catch up with a few old friends; Mario & Janet, Susan & Mark Lakin, Howard Ruttan and Ray Trask. A month seemed almost too short for everything we had to do.

Sunday July 30th, we're back on the road and heading for Michigan.