Spring Journeys 1

It is amazing what you can all do in a few days if you put your mind to it.

Friday afternoon - teach class in Smithers.

Friday evening - go to sleep in a motel in Prince George.

Saturday noon - have lunch in 100 Mile House

Saturday evening - have dinner with

Tim & Amy in Hope.

Sunday morning - be in church in Langley

Sunday evening - have family get-together in Chilliwack

Monday morning - buy Tim Horton’s in Calgary

Monday evening - have dinner at Kristen’s place in Ottawa

Tuesday noon - walk along the Rideau Canal

Tuesday evening - have an evening visit with Paul & Nicole Huggins in Kanata

Wednesday noon - a climb up the steps into the impressive L’Oratoire Saint-Joseph du Mont-Royal

Wednesday afternoon - an amazing visit to the Basilique Notre-Dame de Montreal followed by a lengthy walk through Old Montreal and a fine dinner at Porto Mar.

And it is only Wednesday.

We are having a great time. The journey from Smithers to Chilliwack did go very well. We hit had some snow on the road between Prince George and Quesnel but that was all. From there on the temperatures went up. By time we got to Boston Bar we hit rain. I had not realized that we hadn’t seen rain since the fall and not missed it.

It was so nice to meet up with Tim and Amy in Hope. They were just on their way back from a stay with Jonathan and Judith in Kelowna and we had timed our simultaneous paasage through Hope. That was fun.

We arrived at Dad & Mom’s that evening and found them doing very well after their trip to California.

It was good to see friends and acquaintances in Langley on Sunday morning. We visited with Hank & TJ for coffee and made it back to Chilliwack in the nick of time. That evening all the siblings and kids were together, just like old times. We do take every opportunity to get together now. Distances play a role and take their toll. Ian was delighted to get the opportunity to stay with his cousins for a couple of days and have some times with the boys.

On Monday morning Dad dropped Wilma and me off really early at Abbotsford airport. Our flights and connections went extremely well and we arrived in Ottawa earlier than expected.

It is great to have opportunity to stay with Kristen and visit. She showed us around town on Tuesday. We did quite a bit of walking and sight seeing. We’ll do more of that tomorrow again.

We rented a car and today we made the 180-some KM trip to Montreal. The temperatures were very mild. It was comfortable to walk, though melting snow did make it a bit messy at places. The variety in architectural structures was really interesting. Yes, Tim, we did see Habitat 67, be it from across the water.

Seeing and hearing all the French does make me regret my inability to use the language. I need to fix that some time.

Visiting two grand cathedrals was truly impressive. The sculptures, paintings, and stained glass windows had a lot of stories to tell, so much so that we didn’t have time to do it all justice.

On our walk through the city we managed one stop at an art gallery. Between that and the cathedrals I picked up some new inspiration.

Tomorrow we hope to get a parliament tour + from Kristen and then visit the National Art Gallery. We are really looking forward to that. Stay tuned.

Here are some photos. Come back here later because I will update this gallery.