Judy's day out...

All the events of the past few days kind of caught up to me today, as I slept in till past 8:30 this morning... but as I say now "who cares!"

I think I am also fighting off a bit of a cold today that crept up me, as that will happen to you when you pass through 6 airports in 5 days!

Judy was right at it this morning though, out the door by 10:30 to enjoy a Ladies lunch up in Lake Albert!

Above is the Restaurant they enjoyed lunch at, "Lavender and Lace". It was a fancy dancy spot, where you could shop for a bunch of things as well as enjoy your lunch. Judy is our on the spot reporter here tonight, and she tells me 30 ladies from our Park showed up for the mid day affair!

 

Now, don't worry Rick, there was no quilting B break out during this lunch, and I did not have to act as the main Chafeur in our Jeep. I was left at home to wallow the day away... and this is what I did. Our neighbours Wayne and Carol from Nova Scotia, are at the end of their rope! They are leaving tomorrow. Wayne also has a bit of a cold so we kept each other company today, as I got in the way while Wayne tried to do all this work to get ready to leave.

We all ended up enjoying dinner tonight at the Red Lobster in Winter Haven... it was a great dinner. We are sure going to miss having Wayne and Carol around our Park, as well as little Bailey. Little Bailey will be in for a major shock, as they head back to the cold and snow in Nova Scotia! Safe Trip you three!

Tomorrow Judy and I are back to work, as we head over to St. Pete's to visit Judy's Brother Howard, and Terri.

Till tomorrow...

 

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Yes, we made it back!

Now that was 5 days with a whole bunch of travel! Wow... Between Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, I don't know how many miles or klicks we did, but it was a lot!

Kristina and Gwenny gave Judy and I a ride out to the London Airport yesterday in the afternoon, to catch our flight to Chicago. Problem was... a whole bunch of rain, and fog! When we arrived at the airport I didn't think we were going anywhere! By flight time, things maybe improved a little bit... however, the pilots decided it was time to fly, and you don't really have much of a say in it! We flew with United Airlines and they did a great job!

 

Goodbye Gwenny!

 

This was our plane out of London, and you can see the fog behind it. Well, we took off, and the pilot did know what he was doing, as we made our way to Chicago without any problems...just couldn't see nothing! Problem was, Chicago would not let us land as they were having thunder storms... why not! After we flew around a bit, they said, "come on in"! We were late landing, and past our time for the flight to Orlando, so were starting to think about hotels again. Well, seems with all the weather, they also delayed our flight to Orlando, so we were able to make it at 8:15 p.m. and landed about 12:10 p.m. in Orlando, to a nice 72 deg. F. and clear skies! Right on! Didn't take long to fall asleep last night!

As you can guess we did not do a whole lot this morning first thing... just took it easy. After lunch, I found the energy to jump in the Jeep with Judy and we headed over to Snowbird Extravaganza in Lakeland!

This is a "Free" Convention, held annually in Lakeland, about a 1/2 hour drive for us. The Center is a World Class Facility. There is a bunch of displays all meant for Snowbirds, and lots of entertainment...

My buddy Mickey Mouse was there... oh, ya, it was nice today so I wore my shorts! 80 Deg. F.

Above is one of the halls for the entertainment, and as you can see, a few people showed up!

The Center has a full hockey arena, with lots of entertainment in it, and lots of Snowbirds!

Had to include this Sea World VW...(aka punch buggy) for the enjoyment of Tom and Cheryl...(private joke)

The Youkey Theatre is also located inside the Center, and holds many concerts a year.

One of the headline acts that we got to enjoy this afternoon, was John McDermott. John is living in Ontario and is a fantastic Scotish Singer. He is also famous for the fantastic job he does of singing the National Anthems at the Toronto Maple Leafs Games.

 

Judy took this picturer of John's performance this afternoon... he received a standing ovation from about 2,000 people in the theatre.

Another great Canadian performer today was Michelle Wright of Country and Western Fame from Canada! She put on an amazing show, and made sure the audience knew she was Canadian! Great to see such Canadian talent down here in Florida... a touch of home!

We spent the entire afternoon at the show enjoying it all, and then headed for the hills!

Back a while ago, I posted a youtube video of little Gwenny coming down the slide at home... she needed a bit of help at the time... not any more! Check it out!

 

Gwenny is just doing fantastic and it was a blast to be able to visit her, along with Mom and Dad!

Busy day, but we enjoyed it!

Big welcome to Denis and Sandy, our latest Blog Followers at RVlifeonwheels!

Till tomorrow...

 

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Planes, Trains, and Automobiles...

Wow... the trip continues... This mornings wake up call was at 5:30 as we had to be at the Via Train Station in time for the 7:30 departure to Toronto from Ottawa.

 

This is an awesome Terminial, new and big and fancy inside. Shawn dropped us off around 7:00 this morning, in order for him to hit his 7:30 start at CHEO. (Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario)

 

Our Via Train System here, runs from Quebec City right down to Windsor, Ontario! I was surprised this morning, as our Train Car was full. We had reserved seats...good thing!

Lots of room, comfortable seats, food and drink service at your seat, no noise, and a very smooth ride. What is not to like about riding the train! We left on time at 7:30, and pulled into Woodstock at 2:00 p.m. right on time. It was not a nice day here, with freezing rain, fog, and snow falling! It would have taken a lot longer to drive in a car, as the road conditions were not good.

Of course I had the iPad with me, and you can see the screen shot off one of my GPS Apps above. Check out the train speed in MPH! Yes, 75 miles per hour, and we actually hit up to 80 MPH for certain sections of the trip! They don't horse around at Via!

We blew by the Town of Paris on the way... I love to motorcycle here in the summer time... but not today!

Above we are only meters from the cold looking shore line of Lake Ontario! No one swimming today!

 

Of course we had an excellent welcoming committe again once we departed the train!

 

Kristina and Gwenny were right there to pick us up! Good to see them again... it seems Gwenny was taken aback from the fact that Granny and Pop Pop just walked of this big train that pulled into the station! She was quick to warm up though!

Bye bye train, automobiles and Planes are next!

We had to make a quick stop at the local Walmart, so Judy took the opportunity to pick up a few new toys for Gwenny! She is right into playing with any type of car right now.

Of course we had to get all her books out and read through them with her... I am on the phone trying to get ahold of RBC Visa Center, as my card was declined at Walmart! OH NO!!!!! Turns out all of Canada was having trouble with Visa today... hope it gets fixed soon. All the major Banks were also included in the problems! Glad I am retired now... I used to hate days like this when I worked at the Bank!

Kristina knows how to butter up Dad... all she has to do is cook up a big ole pot of Mac and Cheese! It was fantastic... Gwenny loves it as well.

Just a follow up from yesterday... Shawn, Emmie and I picked up tickets to go and see Ottawa Sens play against Pittsburgh. It was a great game, that Pittsburgh won in a shoot out!

Scotiabank Place is a great place to watch a game...no bad seats!

One of the highlights for Emmie was that she was able to get her picture taken with Sparty, the Ottawa Mascot! She made sure she had her Ottawa Senator's Hockey Shirt on before the game! Garry and Shelly got her the shirt a while back, and it was the first game for it, so it is now "Game Worn"!

After our quick visit in Woodstock, we will be boarding our flight tomorrow afternoon to head back to the land of sun and fun! Winter Haven, here we come!

Till tomorrow...

 

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Walk for Memories!

What a beautiful day it is here in the Ottawa area. Lots of sun, but kind of cold! But, that is life in Canada during the winter. We all made it through the excitement of Emmie's Birthday, although there are still some presents she is opening today!

Jenn works for a Retirement Company, called Chartwell. Today they were one of the Corporate Sponsors for the Walk For Memories. This was held indoors at Carlton University in Ottawa.

Here is Emmie with one of her babies, at the entrance to the University, getting ready to walk.

There were hundreds of people walking the indoor track at the University, with 4 laps making 1 Klm. They ended up raising over $200,000.00 all of it going to Alzheimer's Research. What a great cause.

They had activities for the kids as well...

Paige and Emmie got into the face painting thing!

Then Paige and I had to do our warm ups, to get ready to walk...

Turned into a good Family event today, that we all enjoyed.

They had lots of entertainment to keep the day moving, with one of the groups being the Sons of Scotland above.

There was some Highland Dancing Going on as well.

Above is the Chartwell Group, and on the far right, you see little Paige in the pink outfit, being held by Jenn's Mom, Gi Gi, and Jenn's Brother Ryan who made it up from Toronto for the weekend as well.

Posting early today, as Shawn, Emmie and I have now totally forgiven the NHL for the lock out, and we are going to attend the Ottawa/Pittsburg Game being played at Scotiabank Place here in Ottawa at 5:00 p.m. this afternoon. It is only a mile or so from the house here, so nice and close!

Till tomorrow...

 

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Emmie turns 5 - WOW!

We were in the air at 7:30 this morning, and completing our trip at 11:00 in Ottawa, however it was - 24 deg. C. The best part of our trip by far was the welcoming Committee at the Airport! Emmie and Paige were there with Dad, and was it ever good to see the kids come running at us in the terminal!

 

It was a rude awakening back to winter for Judy and I, as there is a bunch of snow as well as cold!

Check out the snow at the house.

This afternoon Emmie had her big 5th Birthday Party, and it was a good one!

H

Princess Rapunzel showed up to entertain the 14 Party Princess'... It was a blast! All the kids were captivated by her!

That is Emmie above, being sworn in as a Princess for the day!

The Princess kept the busy for an hour with stories, make up, and games... I posted a YouTube below...

 

A Rapunzel Cake finished off the Party! We all enjoyed!

Tonight Emmie has it right with her Maple Leaf's PJs, but I am not sure about Paige...too much Daddy influence!

Till tomorrow...

 

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Well... didn't quite make Ottawa...

Our plane out of Orlando took off 10 minutes early! Perfect! Great start to the day. It was about a two hour flight up to Washington, D.C. this afternoon, with lots of white fluffy clouds around us... couldn't see much as we flew.

As we closed in on Washington, I could see snow on the ground...yuck! Our approach was right along the Platomic River, and what a view of Washington you get as you approach your landing.

 

 

 

 

 

Then, all of a sudden, we found the Pentagon of all places! Now I did take the liberty of the cropping tool to get the show below of the Pentagon... but it is there!

Once we landed, that is when all the fun of the day began!

We had a 1 hour lay over for our flight to Ottawa. They loaded us on the bus, to take us out to our plane, and then the pilot jumped on board the bus and says, "Oh, by the way, the black water line from the toilet on the plane is frozen, so we have to call maintenance to fix it...so, we are back to the terminal to wait! OK. An hour goes by, and then an announcement, "Oh, by the way, we are going to close the runways at 4:00 to treat them due to the snow!" Allright I thought... we will wait for that. Finally they call our boarding and we head back out on the bus to the plane. We find our seats, and then the Captain get on the speaker system and says "Oh, by the way, our dispatcher says we have been too long doing all this, so he cancelled the entire flight to Ottawa!" WHAT!

We were flying U. S. Airways, and that is simply what they did to us. They said there was not enought time for the plane to get up to Ottawa, then come back, and carry on it's next flight, so they cancelled the Ottawa trip. We had to book another flight for 7:30 on Saturday Morning! So we did. Not wanting to stay at the airport all night, we asked U.S. Air for an accomodation... well, they don't do that apparently... (remember this when we book our next flights anywhere!) So we were left on our own tonight and met up with a couple from Quebec, and a Lady from Newfoundland, and we managed to get rooms at the Hilton in Washington.

It was a long day, so we figured we at least deserved dinner!

On the left is Louise and Denis from Quebec, and on the right is Pat from Newfoundland. You know the two at the back! We enjoyed a great dinner together, and now have to endure a 4:00 a.m. wake up call to catch the 5:00 a.m. shuttle to Regan International Airport in the morning!

Hope to be in Ottawa by 11:00 a.m. Emmie! Tell Daddy to come and pick us up!

Till tomorrow...

 

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