Why Do We Keep Leaving?

Six weeks have come and gone quickly since our return from eastern Canada. Busy, busy, busy! Nonie and her sister Lynda successfully packed and moved a five bedroom house over 3,000 kilometres. We had some time to reconnect with family and friends. Some golf, some quilting, but most of all, some serious LazeeBoy time.

So as I kill time waiting for yet another airplane, I ponder the question, "Why do we leave?". I have to mention that I am killing time in the executive class lounge at the Vancouver Airport. Air Canada in all it's wisdom decided to reward me with a excutive class seat for my trip back to Ontario which gives me access to the lounge at the airport. I am currently sipping a nice Malbec and deciding what to have from the lunch buffet. Thanks Air Canada though I think it is payback for that scary trip into St. John's.

But I digress. Back to the question "Why do we leave?". Penticton is a joy to live in so why do we continue to leave it, so often. At this point I was going to start a top ten list of the reasons we live in Penticton but the following statement kind of says it all. "It has everything and anything one would want or need in a place to live. " Saves a lot or writing and really a picture is worth a thousand words.

But I digress. Back to the question "Why do we leave." Why?

"Because we can!"

There will come a time in our life when we won't be able to leave and as long as we can, we will continue to explore the world and have adventures. All the while, knowing that we have Penticton to come back to.

What Puts the Grand in Grandchildren?

We arrived in Ottawa to plus 30 degree Celsius temperatures. Whoa! That was to great a leap from the single digit temperatures we experienced on the East coast. Thankfully, Brennan and Steph's house is air conditioned. We did not wander to far from air conditioned space during our stay. Isla's favourite spot was sitting over the cooling duct. Very Marilyn Munroe.



While Isla kept her cool, Grandma and Grandpa were feeling safe and secure knowing that Batman was on the job and keeping them safe from the likes of the Joker and the Penguin.


And thus the question is answered.

Irish Pubs 10 - Starbucks 1

Halifax is indisputably the Irish pub capital of Canada and could easily rival Manhattan based on an Irish pub to population ratio. Downtown Old Halifax covers an area of approximately 6 blocks by six blocks. On one block alone there were three Irish pubs. My favorite had over 60 different types of beer on tap and a three hour O'happy hour. One of the pubs, Dirty Nelly's was actually shipped over in pieces from Ireland and lovingly reconstructed in Halifax. The menu however was pure East Coast. Cod tongues, fiddleheads and 1.5 pound lobster dinners for $18.00. They did have something called O'Tacos but I am pretty sure that it wasn't traditional Irish pub food. Sadly only one Starbucks in the Downtown.

The highlight of our stay in Halifax was a visit to the Citadel. A fort that has existed on a hill overlooking Halifax in one form or other since the 1700's. The fort is currently populated with soldiers and townspeople from the mid 1800's when the fort was at is peak. Spent the better part of a day, that is the part that we did not spend in an Irish pub wandering the site with Nonie making google eyes with the young, strapping military lads in what I would consider non-military issue kilts. Way to much thigh showing.

Over the next few days, we visited the Maritime Marine Museum, Peggy's Cove and Lunenburg. Except for the cold and windy weather, everything was picture postcard perfect. We took in a showing of the musical Peter Pan and were suitably impressed. Captain Hook was a blast.


Heading to Ottawa next, for some grandchildren time.

Seen One Irish Pub, Seen Them All

What St. John,s lacks in Starbuck locations, it more than makes up with Irish Pubs. Our first night, saw us eat traditional Irish pub grub in one place and drink traditional Irish beer and listen to traditional Irish music in another. I had the cod fish and chips while Nonie had the traditional O'Quesedia. I drank a couple of Guinesses and Nonie had a glass of O'Merlot. Feeling very Irish by the time we got home. They have a saying in St. John's' "Throw the Blarney Stone and you can hit an Irish pub."

Our home was a lovely 120 year old bed and breakfast. It had received a beautiful renovation and while retaining all the old features (flooring, molding,sconces,trim) had modern plumbing and wireless Internet. Our place backed on to another B&B that was home to Prince Charles and Camilla when he visited Canada last year. Our Russian hosts treated us with the standard Russian stoicism and customer service that we had grown used to in our travels last year. Not a smile to be had.

St. John's has been around since the 17th Century. It's convenient location off the Grand Banks made it a cod fishing mecca for Europeans. Most of the homes are made of wood. A fire in 1897 virtually destroyed the entire city with only rock walls left standing. From our experience, St. John's can sometimes be a cold and dreary place so the citizens have painted their homes in bright colours to offset the greyness of the weather. It has been cold and windy since we arrived. A little less wind and some sun would be nice.

As St. Johns is the closest city in North America to Europe, Marconi came here in 1917 and accomplished the first trans-Atlantic communication. Flying a kite for an antenna from the highest point of land in the city he successfully heard a Morse Code signal from Great Britain. The hill has been a landmark in St. John's since the City was first inhabited. We spent a day climbing up to and back down into to St. Johns.

Moving on to Nova Scotia next. Hopefully the weather improves.

Back to the Rock for the first time

Our 8 hour flight turned into a 12 hour flight thanks to typhoon like conditions we experienced trying to land in St. John's. We were not able to land the first time so the plane was redirected to the airport at Deer Lake, Newfoundland. We topped up with gas and tried again facing a return to Ottawa if we were not successful. It was a hell of a ride but we managed to land in a torrential downpour and pretty foggy conditions. Instead of 10:30 PM, it was now 2:00 AM.

Our plan was to drive a few hours to the next major centre and check into a hotel. We hit the highway in the rain only to find fog as thick as pea soup. Reassessing our options, we backtracked into St. Johns and found a hotel to spend the night. Waking the next day, we faced a longer drive than we planned. We are to spend the next few days in Moreton Harbour, the birth place of my grandmother on my Dad's side.


An 8 hour drive found us in Moreton Harbour. Not sure what I expected to find there as my grandmother left there sometime after the First World War. I had checked the on line phone listings for Brett's living in Moreton Harbor but found none. While scouting out one of the local cemeteries we were lucky to meet Iann Small, born, raised and still living in the Harbour.

Iann invited us to his home for tea. When he found out what we were up to, he dug out the local phone book and found two local listings for Brett. He called the first one and before we knew it we had set up a meeting with Reginald Brett for the next day. To shorten this story, it turns out that Reg's father was my grandmother's brother. We were cousins. Too cool! We spent three hours finding out more about Moreton Harbour but not much about my grandmother as she did not stay in contact with her family.

On to St. John's and our flight to Halifax.

LazeeBoy Lust

Back in Penticton for less than a week and the LazeeBoy has it hooks into me. What is it about a simple chair that can cause a grown man to become an inert lump of clay in just one week. To be fair to the chair, I was ready for some serious downtime and I have not disappointed myself. The chair simply makes it easier, putting the "down" into downtime. Sadly, I must struggle with a 27" TV that has seen better days. For those of you who are puzzling over LazeeBoy. It is a chair but not just any chair. It RECLINES! The act of reclining is what sets this bad boy apart from mere mortal chairs. It makes "spontaneous napping" so easy and enjoyable.

Sadly, our time in Penticton and our LazeeBoy reclining will be short. We leave for the "Rock" (Province of Newfoundland) next week. Nfld is an island located at the extreme east end of Canada. It contains the furthest most Eastern point of land in the North American continent. As I pen this blog, we are currently in Victoria BC which is an island on the Western edge of Canada. In the space of an 8 hour flight we will have touched the Pacific ocean and the Atlantic ocean.

The Olympic Adventure Is Over

It has been a long haul. Much different than I had envisioned it would be. Not sure how to describe it. There were days I wondered what the hell I had done. Then there were days that were glorious and unforgettable. Sadly the 'wonder what the hell" days out numbered the glorious and unforgettable but I would not have missed it.

The lead up to the games was lots of hours, missed days off and those dreaded 2:00 AM call outs. Games Time was great with the to-ing and fro-ing of the athletes. Like a vampire, I fed off their energy and it was fun. Sadly interaction was limited but enough. Got to spend some time with the Chinese woman's curling team. They were thrilled to meet someone who lived in Harbin which is where they hang their tams when they are not traveling all over North America attending bonspiels every weekend. This is how they came from no where to win the World Championships in 2009.

Nonie and I enjoyed some great curling, fitting it in when ever my schedule would allow it. The area around our apartment was party central. Every night and I mean every night for 18 days we were treated to a fireworks display outside our balcony. The first few days were great, but they became a bit wearisome around day 15. We took every chance we got to wander around sucking up the atmosphere of the games. Canada did itself fine. I have never in my life seen such a grand and noisy display of Canadian patriotism. Everyone seem to own a Canada jersey and wore it with pride. Flag tattoos were the makeup of choice for both men, women and all children. Spontaneous outbursts of the Canadian anthem were pandemic. Patriotism became an acceptable display for Canadians. Much deserved

When Canada beat the USA in men's hockey. Whoa. We were watching the game on our little 20" TV and the roar that broke out when Canada scored the winning goal in overtime, shook the windows in our apartment. I was living in Vancouver in the early 70's when Canada beat the Russians. The whole City stopped for five minutes that day and we reveled in the win. It was neat to be here when once again Vancouver stopped for five minutes.

We enjoyed free tickets to the opening ceremony dress rehearsal, compliments of VANOC. We got to see the whole show accept for the lighting of the torch which was kept as a big secret. You all saw what happened. I think the dress rehearsal was the exact moment my Olympic spirit kicked in to full gear.

The Paralympics were a bit of an anticlimax. The Village shrank to one fifth of its original size. It is the athletes who made our days. While most of the Olympians were focused and introverted, the paralympians were outgoing and so wanted to share their experience with whomever they could.

As in all our adventures, it was the people who we will most remember. Their youth and commitment to the Olympic goals was awe inspiring. AHH, to be young again. For a few weeks I was.

Nonie and I are looking forward to some new adventures. Stay tuned.