Author: trendfamily

6/10/2025

Hello again! Our third day was good. Once we got up, we went to the gym in the hotel for a workout. Dad did a normal workout; I did a run. After that, the drive was normal, but we took a trip on the last coal-fired passenger steam ferry operating in the US, called the SS Badger. We started from Wisconsin and took the ferry across Lake Michigan to Michigan. The boat trip was good. We read, played some video games, and explored the ship. Once we got off, it was about an hour from the SS Badger to the hotel. Once we got there, I unfortunately wasn’t feeling good, and I ended up puking twice. I feel better now! It was a different but mostly good day. Bye!                 -Colin

6/9/25

Hello, it’s Colin again! The second day of our trip was good. We drove from Springfield, Missouri, to Lombard, Illinois. First, we drove to the Uranus Fudge Factory.  It’s a big tourist attraction and also has the world’s largest belt buckle, and the number of puns in the area was staggering, and most of them were really bad. The attraction was very good though, as was the fudge. That took up most of the morning, and then we drove to St. Louis, Missouri. We saw the Gateway Arch, which is a very large arch. We stopped at Pickle’s Café for lunch, and then we drove the rest of the way to Lombard, Illinois. We arrived earlier than normal, and ordered a pizza for supper, and we watched more of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. It was a good day. Bye!

6/8/2025

Hello! It’s me writing blogs for the summer again! I’m really happy that I’ll be doing this again this year. We also have some droids coming with us this year! They’ll be visiting all the places we go alongside us. I hope that they get into some great adventures. Anyway, the first day of our trip was a good one. Once we left  home at around 9:30, we drove for a couple hours to Ennis and stopped at a Buc-ee’s for lunch. Then we drove a while longer, stopped again, and did that one more time before we ended at the hotel in Springfield, Missouri. Along the way, we saw a lot of stuff. There was a minion statue in a field, a lot of cows and horses, at one point two camels, and at least four different dinosaur statues spaced across a relatively small area. We crossed two borders and stopped at an arch shaped building over the highway for supper. There was a thunderstorm going on for most of the drive. It wasn’t super eventful, but we covered a lot of distance. Tomorrow we’re stopping in some cool tourist attractions. Thanks for reading! 😀

We woke up early to get the house ready for leaving – washing Al the bed linens and re-making the beds, finishing up the food, taking out the trash. It was a clear sunny day and tough to leave this view!

Colin and Laura got a bit more done on the puzzle, which will have to be finished on a subsequent visit.

We recorded our visit in the guestbook, then packed up the car and headed out.

We had a stop at Tim Horton’s by the airport to get our donut fix – our only Timmie’s stop of the trip!

It started to snow while we were at Halifax airport, so we got to enjoy seeing a few flurries as the plane de-iced. After a couple of otherwise uneventful flights and a couple of hours in Newark, we are now in the car headed home. A successful trip!

It was our last chance to relax, but we had to mix it in with getting the house ready for us to leave. We took an easy morning – I got our Christmas cards done, which I closed several attempts to get a selfie on the deck.

Laura was just working on homework so the rest of us went for a walk to try and identify the “weird ducks” I had seen earlier in the week – and success! They were buffleheads – 5 males and 3 females.

We managed to find time in between laundry, inventorying the pantry, and vacuuming, to play our new board game – Sagrata.

It was a cold blustery day and nice to see how cozy and warm the house is. It will be tough to leave.

Thursday was for getting stuff done around the house. Cliff got up early to meet an alarm technician to get a security system set up. While that was happening, I did an arm workout in the chilly garage.

Colin and I made peanut butter marshmallow squares to enjoy!

Cliff and I got out for a walk to look for winter ducks, but we only spotted some boring Pacific Black ducks.

Laura worked on homework and Colin made fantastic progress on a new jigsaw puzzle.

Daphne, Gord, and Jordan came over for supper and a visit and I completely forgot to take any photos! But we enjoyed turkey shepherd’s pie, along with the squares and a cherry pie that was in the freezer.

We decided to spend the day in Halifax, but Cliff and I had to wait for the kids to wake up first. Eventually we woke them up and went for a neighbourhood walk while they got ready.

Then we started with a delicious breakfast en route at the Labour Day Picnic cafe. Their food is fabulous and I thoroughly enjoyed my sausage roll and maple-pecan-sticky-bun scone.

Off we went to the city, where we drove down Quinpool Road looking for murals from the past few years’ mural festivals. We will definitely go back to walk it next summer – there were all sorts of gorgeous artworks!

We parked down by the waterfront and then spent a couple of hours at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic.

We walked back up the waterfront to enjoy some chowder and sushi at SeaSmoke restaurant.

Colin was wiggly so we went back out along the waterfront to get some energy out,

We walked around quite a bit more, including stops at Cows ice cream, Freak Lunchbox, and the Board Room game cafe.

Then we picked up cousin Jenny, who came back to Bayview for supper and a visit. She brought a selection of board games with her, and we enjoyed Sushi Go! and CodeNames.

Cliff had a few different folks come over to the house today to discuss future projects, including the dock re-build and cleaning out the cistern.

While he was doing that, I did a leg day workout and then went for a long walk – it was a beautiful morning!

The kids were finally awake by the time I got home. Laura did some school work and Colin did some reading and gaming. Cliff kept puttering and I drove up the shore to buy some needed items – a lamp so I could see to stitch, and a bedside lamp for Laura’s room, plus a few toiletries and groceries.

Cliff made delicious Swiss chard enchiladas for dinner and afterward we played the Trekking the National Parks game again. Laura won this time, and was a clear victor!

Colin and I had another sleep in, then did some house chores. We planned the menu for the next few nights and I went to the grocery store. Then I went to the airport to pick up Cliff and Laura, whose flight arrived more than a half hour early!

We made it back to Bayview in time to catch a lovely sunset. Cliff and I went out for a walk.

I made spaghetti for dinner while Cliff and the kids played a National Parks-themed board game. After dinner we played cribbage, and the parents just barely beat the kids. Every game so far this week has been very close!

Colin and I both had a great sleep and a wonderfully lazy morning. Since it was dark when we arrived yesterday it was a treat to wake up to this view:

Then we went over to visit Daphne, Gord, and Jordan. We had a great time catching up. The kids played basketball and some indoor games while the grown-ups worked on a jigsaw puzzle.

Gord and Jordan’s Taw Keon Do group meet for runs on Sunday evenings, so we tagged along to get some good exercise in the very refreshing 4C weather! Colin did 2.4 km and then some sprints. I did a couple of extra track laps while everybody else sprinted, as I didn’t think my cranky Achilles tendon would care for sprinting. So I did 3.2 km.

After our run we returned home to eat leftover soup. We played a couple of after-dinner games and then got ready for bed.

As Colin was getting ready for bed, Cliff and Laura took off from Houston, headed to Newark after an afternoon of dancing. We’ll pick them up tomorrow!