The Sister's Great Ontario Road Trip

OK, OK, so its a little late . . . just a couple months - that's about norm for us van Bruggen's.  Here are the pics from Nutty and my Road Trip to visit the Ontario-residing family.

Us at the start of the trip.  We woke up early (think 5:30ish) on Friday May 17th, to get ready to take the 7am bus to Ottawa.  Though running a bit late (naming no names, but it wasn't MY fault), we caught the bus without any problems.  Two and a half hours later we arrived in lovely Ottawa, only to take a quick taxi ride to the airport to pick up the car (a brand new, just driven off the lot Ford Focus), and drive directly out again. First stop - some friends of Nutty's who live in a small suburb just outside Ottawa proper.  We visited for a couple hours before heading back on the road towards our destination for the night.

On the Road

 Considering Lynnette's unique driving style, it was remarkable that we got anywhere . . . just jokes Nutty!  She did an AWESOME job, EVEN having a side-seat driver like me sitting next to her.

 Some of the sights on the way

Stopping for a quick glug of nutritious milk!

We had booked a night at a B&B just West of Algonquin Park, and engineered our route to pass right through the park. Where we ran into (OK, just saw), four moose in the space of 10 minutes (right after commenting on how neither of us had ever seen a moose).

We arrived at the B&B nearing on 8pm.  We were both bushed from all that driving.  So after a quick walk where we trespassed on someone's private property (it was dark, and we didn't see the sign ontil the way out). We went to bed, and what a bed . . . probably the best sleep we both had all week.

 The next morning dawned bright and warm.  This was the view from our window.

And this was our breakfast - one word: AMAZING!!  We had yogurt parfaits, freshly made home-baked banana chocolate chip, craisin, muffins, and cheese-stuffed frenchtoast with homemade maple syrup. DELICIOUS!!

 This was the house - a beautiful stone house.  We slept in the second story and our window was the one on the left.  The window on the right was a bathroom - if we had been there a little longer, I would have taken a long hot soak in their claw-foot bathtub.  The silver car is our rental car, and that figure attempting to hide behind the car, is Lynnette.

 Afterwards we were back on the road meandering our way to lake Huron.

 We arrived in Goderich around 5pm, and went down to the pier with Aunt Joanne and Uncle Clare. To take pics and visit.

It was getting late, but Uncle Clare wanted to show us where he proposed to Aunt Joanne - near the lighthouse on the top of the hill.  Aunt Joanne demonstrated how she reacted when Uncle Clare proposed.

On the Sunday, Lynnette and I drove to Port Elgin to visit Ian and Zee.  We had a lovely day with them walking along the beach and seeing their home.  This is a photo of them in front of their place.

 That night, back at Aunt Joanne's, we were surprised to find cousin Mike there.  We ate supper together before calling it a night.

The next day we drove to Port Colburne where we stayed the night so Lynnette could debrief the following day. While she was debriefing, I wandered around the town and enjoyed the Welland Canal.

Once Lynnette was finished debriefing we headed out.  As we had some time before we needed to be at Aunt Nancy's we decided to drive to Niagara Falls.  Lynnette was just a mite grumpy.

The Falls - in all their splendor! 

We arrived at Aunt Nancy's just before supper (we van Bruggen's have excellent timing).  Unfortunately I was getting sick and tired of being the photo-taker so there are very few photos from here on out however, we did go visit Uncle Ysiko (sorry, I have no idea how to spell his name), and his significant other.

After Aunt Nancy's we drove to Uncle Howard and Aunt Caron's visiting St. Jacob's farmer's market on the way. We stayed the night and then drove to Kingston, our last stop of the trip.  Lynne has a friend going to school at Queens.  We froze that night - we slept in the dorm at Queens, and both of us ended up wearing sweaters over our PJs.

 Saturday May 25th, Lynnette took me out to breakfast in Kingston and then we drove to Ottawa where  we parted ways.  The end of a good trip.