My flight to Toronto is tomorrow so I packed everything in the morning. In
the afternoon we dinghied over to Hog Island for the barbecue at Roger’s Bar.
The weather was perfect, the steel pan band was great and so was the food. There
were as many locals at the barbecue as there were yachties and it was a lot of
fun.
Click here to listen to the band.
My trip to Toronto was exhausting but wonderful. I saw a lot of my friends and family. I shopped until my feet hurt and my wallet cried. I visited all of my favourite local restaurants (Grazies, The Abbott, Gamberoni, and of course the Rosedale Diner) as well as a new one "Mangia". I had all my medical check-ups and I am definitely healthy but a little overweight from the restaurants. Kelly who is really into Latin and Ballroom dancing, took me to her dance studio and to The Old Mill Restaurant with her friends from the studio. I think I could really get into these dancing lessons if I was back in the City, it was a lot of fun.
I enjoyed being back in Toronto but I’m not ready for more than a few weeks of it. A few highlights of my trip were:
First time seeing my grandson Liam who is now 10 months old and looks very much like his Dad.
Seeing Jack (my surrogate grandson), who is 4 ¾ years old, score a goal in his final soccer game of the season.
A trip to Toronto Island in Arctic Wolf (the sister ship to Wind-Borne III) with Darline, Patrick and Jackie to see Jack in a mini Terry Fox Run-a-thon.
I also got to push (and sponsor), my Aunt Dot in her wheel chair, for a seniors Terry Fox Run.
A trip with my sister Beverley, and nieces Sarah, Mary and Diana to visit my other niece Heather and her boyfriend Grant who are in Waterloo for their first year of university. A tour of the university and grocery shopping with them was great fun. I don’t remember when I last stopped to count the number of slices in a package of bologna.
We stopped at the St. Jacobs Mennonite Market which I haven’t been to in years. The volume, colour and variety of fresh fruits and vegetables are something that you don’t see outside of North America. I bought some Canadian peaches, apples, corn and fresh maple syrup. I could have bought a lot more just because everything looked so amazing but one can only eat so much.
My neighbours and very good friends Harry and Sylvia invited Kelly and I and our other very good friends Angie and Mike to dinner. We reminisced all evening and Sylvia served a lovely dinner of roasted moose (how’s that for a good Canadian meal eh?).
Harry twisted my arm and talked me into spending a couple of days at his cottage in Haliburton. I am so glad he did. Haliburton in the fall is one of the most beautiful places in the world. Over the rolling hills you could see patches of colour just breaking out. The reds, golds, oranges and even purples would be visible everywhere in another week. We went for a boat ride and visited the hunt club where Harry and Rick were members for many years. We stopped to say hello to a few of Harry’s friends around Percy Lake and passed a Loon and her young one diving through the water. The call of the mother loon echoed across the lake and bounced back to us off the hills. When we returned to the cottage, the weather was so warm I sat in the sun (which I don’t do in the Caribbean), and read for a while. Harry and I went fishing for a few hours and he even loaned me his favourite rod and lure to better my chances of catching a fish. Harry however being a champion fisherman caught the one and only lake trout that was biting that day.
There were a lot of friends and family I didn’t have a chance to visit. I just literally, ran out of time.
Totally exhausted after three weeks I returned to Grenada in need of a vacation.
After a good night sleep it felt great to be back. What I noticed first
on arrival was the scent of the Frangipani blossoms as the trees were in full
bloom. Tropical storm Lili provided a lot of excitement over the last
couple of days and we could still feel the remnants now through the remaining
strong winds and rolling seas. Rick told me that everyone at anchor had
dragged during the storm but that it was not a problem because they all dragged
in unison.
We had been invited for home made cream puffs at our landlubber neighbours house down the road a bit. Gary and Carol from Elusive and Chris and Carl from Sea Jays were also invited. Audrey and Joyce (Elmer was there as well but I don't think he bakes), made wonderful cream puffs using real fresh cream. They were impossible to eat without getting cream and sugar all over your face but that didn't stop anyone from going back for seconds.
Everything is back to normal. We dropped the laundry off with Claire
and took Darries bus into town. We didn't have a lot of errands so we
played tourist. I finally took a few pictures in St. George's and we strolled up
and down some of the side streets. The Hunters cafe had been recommended
as a good place to get some real local food. It was. Our lunch
consisted of stewed chicken, calliloo (a big green leafed vegetable similar to
spinach), provisions (different types of fried green bananas and plantains), coo
coo (baked okra and cornmeal), rice with black eyed peas and a salad. We
shared one plate between the two of us. Hunter's doesn't serve deserts so
we stopped at the Nutmeg Restaurant for some ice cream before returning to the
boat.
We made it back in time for Dominos, which was followed by happy
hour.
I'm not sure if it was the gentle breeze, the slight roll of the boat or the new music Kelly gave me to bring back but I had the most relaxing day aboard. I had no inclination to go ashore for anything. I just made meals, cleaned a bit and read until happy hour. We both went ashore then and stayed for the Friday night Barbecue as well.
Rick and I pick Andreas and Danea up from their Boat Sitara and headed over
to Woburn in the dinghy. Jim stayed aboard and worked on
installing a new alarm system. It was a hot day and once we arrived at
Woburn we didn’t walk very far, just up the hill and back down again. We
had a nice lunch at the Island View Restaurant, which overlooks the Harbour.
On the way back to Mount Hartman Bay we stopped at Hog Island so Danea could
have a little swim and play in the sand.
“Across the Dock Scott” did some laundry today and assured us that this always results in rain. The sky was so clear that I just laughed when he said it but sure enough within less than a half-hour we had a great downpour. It was fine for me since I had just scrubbed the lifelines and this saved me having to rinse them. Rick on the other hand was trying to clean stainless steel and wasn’t quite ready for a rinse. Scott got his laundry in just in time. The rain only lasted about 10 minutes. Rick returned to cleaning stainless and Scott rehung the laundry. It didn’t take long and another downpour was upon us. Scott gave up with the laundry so the rest of the day was lovely. We joined the gang at Hog Island for the regular Sunday afternoon barbecue with the Steel Pan Band.
Rick wanted his hair cut so before doing anything we got this out of the way.
After a hair cut on the dock both the cutter and cuttee need a shower because
the wind blows the hairs everywhere. Afterward I was hoping we could fix
the bread maker but it was not to be. We haven’t given up yet, just lost
the new belt I brought all the way back from Toronto.
We spent the afternoon by ourselves at the pool. It was a perfect day to have a dip and fall asleep under an umbrella. Happy hour was interesting, Ray Jason who wrote “Tales of a Sea Gypsy” was in the harbour. He did some juggling at the barbecue after we left yesterday and today he brought a few of his books to sell during happy hour. Yes, of course we bought one.
