Surprise Wedding Shower and More Sightseeing

Becky models her hat made of the bows from her gifts

Becky arrives at the shower. Was it a surprise?

This morning I spent reading outside and getting ready to go to a wedding shower. I haven’t said anything about the shower in my blog other than alluding to it over the last few days as it was a surprise shower for my nephew, Nick’s fiancée, Becky. It was held at her sister’s place, who is her matron of honour. We had a beautiful day for it and it was held outside in her sister’s back yard. Becky and Nick got tons of presents. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much stuff at a shower. They are well set for their kitchen and bathroom.

I got home around 5:30 p.m. and Mel and Janice, Gordon and I went to Swiss Chalet in Kanata for dinner and then we took them on a tour of the Gatineau Parkway and points between the campground and Old Chelsea.

It’s been a long day!

Photos above were taken at the shower.

Hospital and Sequence

A little humour (considering you can't get anywhere in Ottawa these days without being tied up with construction)

Today was sunny but seemed quite cool in the shade.

This morning was spent reading and this afternoon Gordon had to go back to the Ottawa General Hospital so the doctor could check his lip. It has healed and all is okay there. Bib and I went with him and as there wasn’t any parking on Lynda Lane across from the hospital, we dropped Gordon at the hospital and then I went in search of a place to wait. I ended up spending part of the time at the high school on Dauphin Street near the hospital, some time parked on a nearby street and then at Rotel on the hospital grounds. It took about 50 minutes by the time we arrived to the time I picked him up.

We headed home arriving around 3:15 p.m.

After dinner, Mel and Janice came over with their game of ‘Sequence’. Janice and I won over Mel and Gordon three games to one!

Museum of Civilization

View of Parliament Buildings from Museum of Civilization

Totem Pole Exhibit at Museum of Civilization

This morning after walks, I vacuumed the RV and then sat outside and read. Around noon, Janice came over and helped me to wrap a gift for an event that’s upcoming. Then while Gordon and Mel went to get Gordon’s computer memory upgraded, Janice and I sat and talked for a while.

After lunch I read while sitting outside again, then got ready for our trip to the Museum of Civilization. It’s free after 4 p.m. on Thursday nights. Unfortunately they still get you big time for parking. It was interesting but I’m not really into history. The Imax show on Greece was good and Janice enjoyed the History of Nursing as she is a retired nurse.

After the museum we went to Feleena’s for dinner. Yum Yum!

Another Nice Day!

Today was bright and sunny but cooler, no humidity.

I went to Barrhaven to finish up some shopping that I had started and pick up some groceries. I’m trying not to buy so much at once so I have to go to the grocery store more often. My cupboard shelves are starting to bow from too much weight!

This afternoon I spent getting some gifts I had purchased together and wrapped for some events going on over the next week or so. Other than that I sat outside and read as it was a really beautiful afternoon.

At 4:00 p.m. our guests returned from their sightseeing trip downtown and we headed out to the barbecue that was held by our financial group, Canada Retirement Centre held at the Hellenic Centre. It was excellent, lots of food and even Chateau Neuf du Pape! Gordon was impressed with the wine. They had Gail Gavin as entertainer. We left there around 6:00 p.m. and drove to Dollarama in Kanata as I had a few things to pick up to complete my gift wrapping.

Then back to the RV where I sat outside and read again for a while. Early to bed tonight, we’re all tired!

Today's photo is of Michelle's family without Michelle who has obviously taken the photo. In order - Grace, Faith and Eric holding Luke.

Sightseeing

Janice and Mel taken at the Museum of Science and Technology in front of a train engine. Look at the size of the wheels!

Photo taken by Gordon - This is of me at the Museum of Science and Technology in a 1931 Austin American

We had a lot of rain during the night and a few showers this morning but we got ready to take Mel and Janice to the Museum of Science and Technology and arrived there around 9:30 a.m. We were there for a couple of hours and saw pretty much all there was to see. From there we headed to Summerhays at Woodroffe and Baseline for lunch and then went back to the RV to pick up the dog.

From there we took them downtown on the Ottawa River Parkway, through the Market area, down Sussex and the Rockliffe Parkway, into Rockliffe to show them Michael Cowpland’s house, then back to the King Edward Bridge and across to Quebec to show them where the Museum of Science and Technology is located, then back to Ottawa on the Alexandra Bridge and down Elgin to the Queen Elizabeth Driveway, showed them the Arboretum, the Ornamental Gardens and the Experimental Farm. Then off to Hogs Back and Rideau Heights Campground and from there back home.

Then Janice and I went to Carlingwood for a couple of hours and did some looking around and actually bought a couple of items.

The weather cleared up this afternoon and was very nice although a bit cool but thank goodness the humidity is gone!

Just Hangin' Around

Granddaughter, Faith holding grandson, Luke

Granddaughter, Grace holding grandson, Luke

Tonight's rainbow

Very cloudy this morning and humid. It eventually started to rain and cool off.

We hung around the RV today with Mel and Janice and Janice and I got some laundry done. Gordon and Mel did computer stuff. Mel was using our wifi. Late in the afternoon, Janice and I took off to do some grocery shopping. I took her to see our former house and we hit a few stores as well. We got back just as a thunderstorm started with lots of rain. The power went off a couple of times and we had a really nice rainbow, photo above.

Above also are more photos of the grandchildren sent by stepdaughter, Michelle.

Hot, Humid & Windy

Pretty purple groundcover that I found here in the park

Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers out there reading my blog!

Today we hung around the RV. When I walked this morning I saw someone else with a DirecWay Dish. Turns out this guy is from New Jersey and will be here for a couple of weeks. So now we know there are other spots here that we can park in and still reach the satellite.

It was quite hot and humid today, more like Ohio weather than Ottawa. If it wasn’t for the wind it would be pretty much unbearable.

Our friends, Mel and Janice from Ohio arrived around 6:15 p.m. They had booked the site beside us but decided they would rather be surrounded by trees so moved to a site about four sites down from us. They had a long drive from Niagara Falls today.

Happy Anniversary Margie & John!

Gordon took this photo in England when we were there iin 2000 and then made art out of it. (This is the art.) We had a large print of this hanging above our sofa when we had the house. It's one of my favourites.

Happy 28th Anniversary to my sister, Margie and her husband, John!

It poured rain during the night last night and woke up to cloudy skies and humidity. The humidity got worse during the day but we did have some sunny breaks late in the afternoon.

We’ve been at Ottawa Municipal for 12 days and we had to go and dump the tanks today. By the time we disconnected, hooked up, dumped, returned to the site and got everything set up again, it took 2 hours but the good news is, we’ll probably only have to do it once more while we’re here.

The rest of the day was taken up with sitting outside and reading. While I was doing this, Gordon was working on his new website or photographs. We went for a walk in the campground and he took some photos of the wild flowers so he would have a 'photo of the day' for his pbase site.

I did talk to my older sister for a while today. She will be coming to Ottawa this weekend for a few days.

Not much else happening today!

Another Really Beautiful Day!

It was really beautiful this morning when I went out for my walk. The sun was shining and there was a breeze, my kind of day!

Gordon went to his friend, Leroy’s this morning to use his wifi to upload his files from his old website to his new one. It would have taken forever with our satellite internet.

I only have 1½ books left to read from the run to the library earlier this week so thought I would go to the library today and return the ones I had read and pick up some more as 1½ probably won’t last me through the weekend. I went to the library in Kanata this time. I’d never been there before in recent memory anyway. Before the city consolidated it wasn’t affiliated with the Nepean Library that I belonged to. Now all the libraries in Ottawa are part of the Ottawa Public Library. The Kanata Library is smaller and doesn’t have as many books but I managed to come home with quite a few.

After that I stopped at WalMart and Loblaws with a final stop at Food Basics on my way back to the RV.

When I got back I sat outside and read. It was quite warm this morning. I wasn’t getting much breeze sitting under the awning but that changed this afternoon. There was a beautiful breeze so I sat there for about 1 ½ hrs.

Today, my stepdaughter, Michelle sent us some new photos. The photo above shows Grace with a very proud look on her face holding her little brother, Luke and sister, Faith also obviously excited about the whole thing.

As the evening unfolds, it's becoming cloudy. I've heard we are supposed to get some rain tonight.

An Afternoon of Shopping

Today was a fairly quiet day. We had some sunshine, some cloud and a little bit of rain.

This morning we went to our financial advisor’s office to sign some papers. This afternoon I went out to Carlingwood and Hazeldean Malls to do some shopping. When I got back to the RV I sat outside with Bib for a while and finished another book.

Gordon now has email set up through his new website so anyone who right now emails me on smerrf@newsguy.com should change my email address to sandra@gordonwolford.com. Both email addresses will work for as long as we keep up with newsguy but just in case we don’t, please make the changes. My Yahoo email address remains the same – smerrikin@yahoo.ca.

As you can see from the photo above, we have little animals in the park that like to knock over the garbage cans. On my walks in the morning I usually see at least two that are on their side.

New Website

Last night after dinner we drove over to Andrew Hayden Park to take some photos. Our resident groundhog was out with one of his offspring. A man and his son came by and gave the groundhog some carrots and bread. They were so cute sitting there eating their carrots. Photo above.

There was also some sort of sports car event at the park although not very large. There was a Morgan, an MG, an XKE and an Austin Healey, also pictured above.

As of this morning, Gordon’s new website is being created at http://gordonwolford.com/. His other website will remain where it is on Newguy but won’t be updated from now on so change your bookmarks! I didn’t realize that it would be done that quickly!

This morning I was still tired so after walks and breakfast, I had a nap while watching TV. A big waste of a sunny day! Then I noticed that we had tracked in a lot of stuff so I vacuumed and wiped up the floors. I finally convinced Gordon to put the mat outside the door so we wouldn’t be tracking so much gravel and dirt in. We haven’t used it all winter and it needed to be dried out.

This afternoon I sat outside and read for a couple of hours. The sun came and went and it was a bit cool if the sun wasn’t out. The dog was driving me crazy today, when he was out he wanted to go in and when he was in he wanted to go out. I know he’s bored and what he really wants to do is hit the road!

Tonight was TV as usual!

A Visit to My Former Office

Today I got ready and headed out to visit the folks where I used to work at BreconRidge. It was great to see the people again. I didn’t see everyone I would have liked to see so that will have to happen another time. As it was, I was there for 3 ½ hours. Definitely some nostalgia. I’m not completely over the not working thing. I stopped at WalMart and Food Basics on my way home to pick up a few items.

When I came back, I signed us up for a week at Ottawa Municipal Campground in September as Gordon has some tests and a doctor’s appointment. This is a very convenient campground to the west end of the city even if it is more expensive than Rideau Heights and so more convenient to most of our medical practitioners. There is not as much traffic here as at Rideau Heights. I also like it as there are more places to walk and its prettier.

I sat outside and read a bit when I got home but that’s about it for my day. I took today’s photo when sitting outside as I had a comment at the office today about our site looking like it was remote. Here you can see we have a neighbour that arrived today.

Gordon used the time to process some photos taken during the winter and to research setting up his own domain again and setting up payment options so that he can sell his photos. He’s had a lot of requests but has only sold ones in Canada where people could direct deposit. He has also run out of space on newsguy for his webpage so it will be moving sometime in the next few weeks to his own domain. Will let you know the URL when it’s happening.

Another Trip to the Dentist

Cloudy again when I got up this morning. I had a dentist appointment to fix a tooth that had lost a filling so got that overwith. She didn’t give me any freezing and said it wouldn’t hurt and it didn’t. This dentist has really come through for me several times!

After that I wanted to go to Dollarama so thought the one in Kanata would be my best bet. NOT! The parking lot was nearly full and any spots available would not fit a 1 ton truck! So, I came home. I guess Carlingwood will have to be it for Dollarama until they get the one opened on Merivale Road.

Bib and I sat outside as it was starting to turn quite nice this afternoon. I read and Bib just looked around and sniffed. Then had a nap and did some surfing.

Photo today is the view from my lawnchair.

Slow Sunday

Another cloudy day but no rain since last night. It was really cold when we walked this morning though. Felt like winter with the wind. I actually slept till 8:00 a.m. today. The girls must have tired me out yesterday! Today was the only day until Wednesday that I could get the laundry done so got that together and was done by around noon. It’s more expensive here to do laundry than anywhere we’ve been - $2.00 to wash and $2.00 to dry.

After lunch I was really tired so lay down to read and fell asleep for a couple of hours. The sun came out late in the day. Sure is nice to see it.

Photo today is of Bib relaxing on the couch.

Visits - Emergency & Old Friends

More rain again last night until early this morning but again it wasn’t raining when I got up so we were able to get our walks without getting soaked.

By the way, here’s the link to photos of Nick’s graduation on Gordon’s pbase site:
http://www.pbase.com/merriwolf/nicks_graduation.

Here’s the link to Danica’s band concert photos also on Gordon’s pbase site:
http://www.pbase.com/merriwolf/danicas_band_concert

When I got up Gordon said that his lip was red and swollen and he had been told if that happened to go to Emergency so we got ready and went back to the General and got there for 8:30 a.m. Lucky for us we got there when we did as no one was there and it started to fill up after we checked in. He was given a prescription for antibiotics and we were out of there by 9:10 a.m. We stopped at Bayshore to fill the prescription and had a coffee while waiting for it to be filled.

We got home around 10:30 a.m. and I proceeded to get ready for my afternoon with the girls.

This afternoon I met my friends, Nancy and Sandy at Nancy’s place in Stittsville. We had a good chat and a few laughs and I got home about 6:30 p.m. Both Sandy and Nancy are still part of the workforce so we can only get together on the weekend. It’s interesting to hear them talk about their trials and tribulations at work and it’s always great to hear Sandy’s stories. She has a way of telling stories that’s a real hoot.

After dinner, I think both of us fell asleep watching TV so enough of that, time for bed!

Rain, Lots and Lots of Rain!

Danica, taken last night at her High School Band Concert

Yuk! I woke up to rain on the roof this morning but luckily when I got up to walk Bib it had stopped so I got Bib’s walk and my walk without getting wet however the ground is very muddy! It’s impossible to keep the RV clean!

This morning Gordon had his appointment at the Ottawa General Hospital to get the growth on the inside of his lip removed. I went along for moral support. It required one stitch and he has to go back on June 23^rd to have it looked at and stitches removed if they haven’t dissolved by then. He actually broke down this evening and took a Tylenol #3 so it must hurt!

After lunch, I went over to Bayshore to do some errands and then to Food Basics in Kanata to pick up some groceries. I came back, unloaded and put groceries away, read a bit, and did some internet surfing.

It’s been pouring rain since shortly after I got home this afternoon. I took Bib out for a walk around 8:00 p.m. and he got soaked!

Graduation, Dinner and Concert Band

Nick and Becky after Nick's graduation ceremonies

This morning was mostly cloudy but we did see a few hints of sun. We had to pick up our nephew, Nick and his fiancée, Becky at 12:30 p.m. so other than checking out some things on the internet and getting showered and prettied up, we didn’t do much. I did sit outside with Bib for a while and read while waiting for my hair to dry. It started to get almost cold when I was sitting out as there was a good strong breeze.

We picked Nick and Becky up at 12:30 for Nick's graduation from Algonquin College as a paramedic and headed for Scotiabank Place (formerly the Corel Centre) as Nick had to be there for 1:00 p.m. to get into his gown and get lined up. There sure were a lot of graduates today! The graduation ceremonies ended around 4:00 p.m. and we waited for Nick to come out so I got a photo of Nick and Becky. Unfortunately my camera is not good enough to get photos of Nick receiving his diploma. Maybe I can steal one from Gordon when he gets his processed.

We then headed home to feed and walk Bib and were to meet Nick, Becky, Nick’s parents and Becky’s parents at Swiss Chalet for 5:30 p.m. We didn’t arrive till about 5:45 p.m. due to traffic but Becky’s parents came in right behind us. It was nice to finally meet them. Nick and Becky have been together now for nearly two years. They actually started dating after high school graduation.

After dinner we headed with Nick’s parents, my sister, Margie and her husband, John to Merivale High School where their daughter, Danica was performing with the high school band. All the bands were very good but of course, the Senior Concert Band was the best. Danica even had some solo parts. She also played in the Jazz Band and the Intermediate Concert Band. I had the same problem with taking photos of Danica on stage with my camera!

It’s been a very long day!

By the way, blogspot is giving me difficulty with uploading a photo of Danica so I'll save that for another day.

Ah! Sitting Under a Tree

Another photo of our site at Ottawa Municipal Campground

Today was another bright, sunny day but all that is supposed to change. The forecast is for cloudy conditions this afternoon and rain for the next three days but the weather forecasters are rarely right so hope they’re not right this time too.

This campground is much more conducive to walking that Rideau Heights was so I had a nice long walk around this morning. Gordon had a doctor’s appointment this morning so we went out for that and while we were out had a coffee at Bayshore Shopping Centre.

This afternoon we were torn as to what to do. Gordon talked about going to Morris Island Conservation Area at Fitzroy Harbour but it was quite hot, too hot to take the dog and leave him in the truck and also I didn’t want to put on long pants and a long sleeved shirt to keep the mosquitoes away, so I decided to stay here and sit outside and read. So out I went with Bib, but he wouldn’t stop rooting in the grass so had to put him inside. Gordon also decided he wasn’t going to go either so that was the end of that.

I did sit outside for a lot of the afternoon and it was beautiful under the tree. Bib and I went for a walk and he got to sniff around, his favourite pastime. I also realized about that time that I had either lost a filling or part of a tooth so on the phone to the dentist and set up an appointment for Monday.

After dinner, I vacuumed out the truck and cleaned the windows and seats as we’re picking up my nephew, Nick and his fiancée, Becky for Nick’s graduation tomorrow afternoon. The truck badly needed it!

Moving Day

Our site at Ottawa Municipal Campground

Gordon setting up the internet satellite

Today again dawned bright and sunny and quite warm but we were just glad that the rain originally forecast for today is bothering someone else. We took our time packing up, we had to be out of Rideau Heights by 11:00 a.m. and I think we were pretty close to that by the time we left. After saying goodbye to Roger and Anne, our neighbours for this past month we headed west to the Ottawa Municipal Campground arriving at about 11:30 a.m.

The guy who had occupied our site had just left so we were able to drive in and set up right away. Check out time here is 1:00 p.m. I vacuumed which was badly needed and then we relaxed for a while.

I got my second wind and decided to go and exchange my books at the library and pick up some groceries. That done, I returned home and had a nice shower at the shower house. We have no sewer connection here so we’ll be using their shower house instead of our own. Then sat outside for a while and enjoyed the scenery and read my book.

Photos above are of our campsite.

A Trip to Morrisburg

House mover takes up both lanes of Hwy 31

Morrisburg dock on the St. Lawrence River

Path runs along St. Lawrence River at Morrisburg

Gordon White Sands Gallery slid to #3 today! He had an 8 day run as #1 so he's gotten more than his 15 minutes of fame!

Yeah! Sun! I woke up this morning to bright sun shining through the blinds in the bedroom. Seems like a long time but I guess it’s only been a couple of days.

I had planned to go out and do errands today but since most of my errands are in the west end and we’re moving to the Ottawa Municipal Campground on Corkstown Road tomorrow, I decided not to bother.

I’ve finished the 7 books that I got at the library just over two weeks ago, actually I finished 6, one I had already read so the library will definitely be one of my first stops after we’re set up tomorrow. From Wednesday on, we have a fairly busy week. Gordon has a doctor’s appointment on Wednesday and then the hospital on Friday to have his lip surgery. Thursday is my nephew’s graduation from Algonquin, then out for dinner with he and his fiancée and his parents and then my niece is playing in a concert at her school on Thursday evening. On the weekend, I’m meeting up with friends, Nancy and Sandy for our get together. Next week is fairly low key. The only thing planned is a visit to my former employer on Tuesday to see all the folks. Past that, we’ll have to see!

Late this morning I asked Gordon if he wanted me to book a campsite at the Upper Canada Campground at Morrisburg. He has a pass for Upper Canada Village and he wants to do some photography there. He said we should go look at it so we jumped in the truck and headed to Morrisburg.

For those of you that don’t know, Morrisburg is my home area, not my home town as I lived all of my young years just west of Williamsburg but all my high school years were spent at Morrisburg High School. I also lived for a while after graduating high school in Morrisburg but that was another lifetime. So, the area is quite familiar to me even though I’ve been gone for some 35 or so years. My mother also lived there up until she passed away in 2002 so we were often in that area.

We first drove west of Morrisburg to Caravan Camp. It had been built years ago but I didn’t know if they accepted short term stays or not. We got there and it looks like a trailer park. The road in was so rutted and unkept that we just left and from there drove down to the Morrisburg dock as it’s quite pretty overlooking the St. Lawrence River. Then east where we stopped at a provincial campground at Riverside Heights. No one was in the booth but we drove around and it was very wet so on to Upper Canada Campground. I had emailed them last week and was told that they had a site for us with a clear view of the southern sky so we checked it out and it should work so we booked it for arrival on the 4th of July to stay for a week.

We returned to Morrisburg and drove down to the dock again and we able to pick up the Verizon signal so we could update our cell phones. When we’re in Canada most of the time we get only Extended Network so all of our calls go onto our 500 minutes during the week or 1000 evenings and weekends. When we’re in a Verizon area you can call another Verizon customer for free. So Gordon called his daughter to see how they all were and how the new baby is doing. Everything there was fine so we headed home arriving in Ottawa around 4:30 p.m.

On our way back all of a sudden vehicles were pulling off onto the shoulder of the road. No wonder! They were moving a house and it was taking up both lanes of Highway 31 – photo above. That’s the first time I’ve seen that in some years. You often see half of a modular home on a truck but that only takes up one travel lane. This was quite something!