on Thanksgiving Sunday...

Hello, from Ormstown, Quebec... On Friday, a travel day, all worked out well... Flew via Porter Airlines, thro' Toronto, on to Montreal where Brent and Nicole were waiting for me... Yesterday, Nicole took me to Blair's for lunch which is an apple orchard with a great big restaurant featuring homemade everything, yum!!! Out back are picnic tables with live music, quite a popular spot with both Americans (very near the US border, New York state) and Canadians (all the way from Montreal, about an hour to hour and a half's drive)... I have never had corn/tomato soup so tried it, yum with homemade buns, double yum!!, finishing off with apple crisp, hard choice with all the choice of pies, again all homemade... Great place featuring all kinds of preserves, pickles, maple syrup, honey, pies, buns, wish I lived closer to take advantage... Mid afternoon, two of B & N's daughters arrived from Montreal, very nice to meet Meredith, met Andrea in Nfld in 2013 when meeting Nicole for the first time... Nicole made Boeuf Bourguignon last night, it was exceptional, yum! yum! We enjoyed a quiet evening... Today after a lazy morning, I joined Brent, Nicole and their girls for a Thanksgiving get together, with Brent's side of the family for a pot luck, in a local church hall with about 50 people attending... Good food, felt very welcome... I just returned from a walk around Ormstown, now enjoying my first beer of the day... After all that food for lunch, very light for dinner, huh?? Well, peeps, tomorrow at 6:00 am Brent is driving me into Montreal to catch a flgt to YVR departing at 8:40 so this time tomorrow I will be home... I plan on taking transit to B C Ferries at Tsawwassen, walking on, then on the other end public transit to home... This has been an excellent holiday :) but time to get back to reality, first shift at Canadian Tire is 9:00 am Wednesday... Hope all is well with all of you, thanx for ta king the time to keep up to date wit me aND my travels... Helen

Gosh, 1 more day then back to Canada...

Happy Thursday, everyone... Yesterday, kind of got off the track of investigating museums, etc... I am tuckered out so took the day off... Went to Union Station to see about the river cruise, deciding to go today, then hopefully attend a performance at Kennedy Centre, wish me luck!! Since the first hockey game between Capitols/Boston was yesterday went over to the Capitol One Centre to inquire about ticket prices... $296. USD was the cheapest price (ouch!), also since the centre has new ice, it was really cold in there, not dressed for it (83 outside),so would have meant either going back to the hotel to change for the 7:30 start or buying a hoodie, decided against it... Understand there was a great celebration plus the Cap's won, yahoo!! Since in the area, walked over to Ford Theatre which is right beside Madame Taussaud's, decided to do both... Madame Taussaud's has all the president's plus a few celebrities, really enjoyed it... I walked over to the White House, always lots of black SUV's plus helicopters about... I must mention, the pictures in the media showing people just outside the fence - wrongo!! In the front of the building the viewing is from the street, about a long block away, same thing at the back and many, many, many Homeland men/women about, plus serious fencing... Also, always entourages of police and black SUV's always going by, lights/sirens flashing... Quite interesting... I did my 1st shopping at Off Sak's and pretty much just had something to eat then back to the hotel, think I was in bed around 8:00... Today will pack before heading out, then hopefully spend time at the mall, one more look at the Washington Monument, making my way to where the river cruise starts then the Kennedy Centre, should be a relaxing day... Observations: Washington is a beautiful city, very clean, very helpful people, both tour guides, police and private citizens... The Metro is very clean, and very light, think it is only about 40 years old, seems 1976 rings a bell, maybe for the 200 year birthday/anniversary celebrations ?!? I am staying in Arlington at BWI, shuttles every half hour on the hour either to a Metro station or the airport which is very near, great hotel, clean with breakfast... I have always felt safe and gosh, am enjoying being here... Well, this will probably be my last post from these great U S of America so until Canada... Happy Thanksgiving to all of you heading out to be with family over the long weekend... Helen

Happy Wednesday :)

Hi guys and gals... On Monday got back on the Hop On/Hop Off bus, first getting off at The Lincoln Memorial, what a powerful monument, great view of the mall and of course, on a hot sunny day... The Lincoln Monument, so far, is a hi-lite, gosh!! Got back on the bus, now off to Arlington Cemetery to see the final resting place of the Kennedy family, again very powerful, off by themselves overlooking Arlington Cemetery, did not realize the property was so large... The next stop I got off at was very near the White House so with The Washington Hotel right there decided to cool off with a beer and a bite to eat... According to tour guides, the Washington Hotel was/is?? a place where powerful Washington people would meet friends??? for a little down time, if you get my drift, again, according to tour guides... While there, so many black SUV's, windows blacked out drove by, kind of exciting!! Back on the bus, went back to stop #1, Union Station, to do a little shopping, grab a coffee then wait for the night tour... At 7:30 we headed off and saw Washington at night, how beautiful!! The Capital, White House, Jefferson Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, the Mall, also all the buildings of the Smithsonian, gosh, I enjoyed it and to be cooler, what a blessing!! Yesterday, headed off on my own first stop - Canadian Embassy, boy - disappointing!!! I walked over to the building of The National Museum of American History and spent the entire morning and afternoon there... How well done, so many topics, items, videos and very, very interesting... I saw Edith and Archie's chair, too cool!! My feet were getting tired and I was museumed out so took advice of people I met on the night tour and took the subway to King Street/Old Town of Alexandria for dinner, such a quaint little town, very enjoyable to sit on a patio, sipping a beer while having dinner... Would highly recommend visiting the town... Then back to my hotel... Today will see about the river cruise (part of the Hop On/Hop Off), maybe see about the 1st game of the Stanley Cup winners - The Capitals and possibly John F Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts, but we will see what I get up to, so say tuned, all... Helen