Montreal - The Basilica, The Plaza and The Clown

Yesterday we drove into Canada. We crossed the border just a few miles from Jo and Bob's house. Crossing the border into Canada was easy....just a couple of minutes to stop and talk to the Canadian border guard and we were off. We used our passports & Mom used her passport card for the 1st time. Coming back into the U.S. took much, much longer.....but only about 20 minutes or so since this is such a small border crossing area.

Montreal is located in the Canadian province of Quebec. In the province of Quebec, the primary language is French....but many of the Canadians are English speaking as well. (The other Canadian provinces have English as their primary language.....that causes some controversy within Canada....but having French as the primary language in Montreal made the city all the more charming for us as U.S. tourists). The city of Montreal is also an island....so, it is very, very important to know your bridges and your directions so that you end up where you really wanted to go....this is especially so because the signs are in French, so you want to know that Pont means bridge (for example).

Jo wanted Mom & Dad to see and experience the Basilica in Montreal. It is absolutely beautiful. It is very, very large. It will hold 3200 people seated (and about 11000 people when it's standing room only). Our guide indicated that everyone will stand when there is a need to hold more than 3200 in the church, such as the funeral of a head of state in Canada. The Basilica is where Celine Dion was married. Besides the large church there is also a smaller chapel which can be used for weddings (much smaller weddings) and baptisms. I can't imagine how much it would cost to reserve this site for a wedding. When there are no weddings, visitors can come into the basilica to admire all of its beauty (at $5/person)...so, I imagine it would be quite pricey to have a wedding ceremony there....

The Basilica has lots of handcarved wood, painted surfaces and real gold trimmings. There are beautiful stained glass windows and a few stained glass skylights at the ceiling. The organ is huge as well and there is a 10000 ton bell that gets rung at times of greatest ceremony (such as a state funeral) and that bell can be heard from miles away.

After lighting some candles and enjoying the Basilica, we walked a little in the Old Montreal area and had lunch at an outdoor cafe. Some of the buildings in Old Montreal are from the 1750s. It was interesting to see a Ben & Jerry's sign written with a French description on an old stone building along the old plaza. The cafe where we ate is located in a plaza that used to be an open air market. We saw some colorful characters (Mom thought the tattoos and the brightly colored yellow, pink and orange hair on some of the younger folks was, shall we say, interesting?), but I thought the 2 guys in the Superman and Batman costumes were more unique. And, there was a clown making balloon flowers. Now, most of us would think that was cute and fun. But, my sister, Jo, hates clowns. She really, really hates clowns. I don't quite understand the real reason other than they are costumed and scary (to her) but it is quite comical to listen to her talk about clowns. She would not go near the clown in the square, but Mom W, Dad R & I were brave and we got close to the clown. He told Mom he had to go to the clown university to learn how to make his balloon flowers.....I think that's probably a stretch of the truth. (Maybe, Jo's right and clowns aren't very trustworthy!).

We had a great day in Montreal. My only regret is that I took a picture of a cigar store Indian figure....but forgot to buy the Cuban cigar that I had planned on!.....sorry, Jack.....

The Mower, The Hats, The Flowers and The Ducks

Jo and Bob have a riding lawn mower which we couldn't resist trying out. Bob uses the mower to mow his lawn (naturally), while Jo likes to drive the mower (just for fun, of course!) and, when we had the chance, we decided to hop on, too. But, before we started on this adventure, Jo gave each of us a hat to wear. The one she picked for me is a Corrections Officer hat.....probably because Mom calls me The Warden since I'm always watching her and trying to get her to take her pills. Dad got a safari hat to wear which looked pretty darn good on him and Mom got a NY Yankee baseball cap....After all, we are in New York! The mower is quite large, especially when the grass catcher is on the back. Mom even thought she might need a step stool to get up on it, but she was able to do just fine without one. It was fun to sit on it and take a few pictures.

Jo brought Mom a really pretty iris from her yard to replace the pilfered lilac that was on its last leg. The iris was beautiful and we had fun taking a couple of pictures with it, as well.

For the last week, Jo and Bob have been keeping their eyes peeled for baby ducks. During the last couple of years, they have had a pair of ducks that make their home in the tall grasses near the lake and raise their babies just a few yards away from Jo and Bob's back yard. Jo and Bob knew that it was about hatching time. The day before yesterday, they spotted Mama Duck and probably 6-8 little ducklings. The babies are so small that they keep in a tight ball really close to their mom as they walk behind her or go for a swim with her. One of the pictures shows Mama and the babies. The babies are on top of a tree stump, but are kind of difficult to distinguish because they are all huddled together.

Jo told a cute story about the duck family that happened last year. One of the babies took off into the water by itself when Mama and Daddy duck weren't looking. When Mama noticed he was gone, she sounded the alarm by quacking and quacking very loudly. Other ducks in the area came from where they were nested, bringing their babies with them. One of the mama ducks "ducksat" the babies while the other mamas looked for the lost duckling. Only the missing duck's Mama made any quacking noises. When she located the missing duckling, he got scolded loudly and had quite a few pecks on his ducky behind as his Mama herded him back to the rest of his duck family. Then, all of the other ducks took their young and dispersed again back to their own nesting areas. Pretty interesting, huh?

A couple of days ago we had some thunder and some great lightning over the lake. It was beautiful. That storm broke the couple of days of near-record heat that we had here. (Close to 92 degrees...yowzers! ....even Mom & Dad thought it was warmish!....Jo & I thought it was really, really, really warm). Anyway, the following night we had a harvest moon. I've never seen a harvest moon before that I recall. The sky was dark and the big moon was full and cast a full beautiful reflection onto the lake. My picture doesn't do it justice, but hopefully, you can get an idea of what it was like.

We are having fun and relaxing while enjoying Creamies and the other ice cream stands in town. We're just experiencing the upstate New York countryside and all of the beauty that it has to offer. It's modified country living, I guess you'd say.

Lake Placid, Whiteface Mtn and Vermont Covered Bridges

We've been on a couple of lengthy outings over the last couple of days. Lake Placid (the site of the 1932 and 1980 winter Olympic Games) was our first destination. We went up to the top of Whiteface Mountain before we went to Lake Placid. We had the opportunity to get out of the car and hike up to the very, very top.....but we declined...partly because it was warm and we didn't want to exert ourselves and partly because of all the black flies that were swarming around us whenever anyone even attempted to open the window or car door. These nasty little black flies kept us in the car and on the move. I did venture out long enough to get a couple of pictures....one of the pictures shows Lake Placid (the actual lake, not the town) and another of the pictures that is posted shows my sister, Jolene, batting away the biting little black flies :)

Once in Lake Placid (the town) we walked for a little while up and down the main street. Lots of cute little shops and eating places. It wasn't too crowded since it was pre-tourist season and also a Monday. Another of the pictures posted is of Mom at an overlook along the main drag in the town of Lake Placid where there's a great view of Mirror Lake. There are so many lakes, rivers, creeks, brooks (you get the picture) in this part of the country. And, so many country roads with beautiful scenery. It's just refreshing to be away from concrete, and in Washington we have less concrete than some other areas of the country. Mom has commented upon how clean everything is and how there are so many beautiful trees, green fields and no grafitti. We've seen lots of fields that are being plowed for crops, too. And, of course, lots of cows and horses.

Today, we drove with Bob into Vermont to find some old covered bridges. We probably saw 9 or 10 of these bridges. Most of the bridges we saw were built around the 1880s. The last bridge we saw was the oldest (dating from 1844) and is supposedly the only haunted bridge in Vermont. I'm attaching several different bridge pictures because these bridges are so wonderful. It was a great outing. (I'll also include an enlarged photo of Emily's Bridge - the haunted bridge- taken when I was inside the bridge and looking up). All I can say is that I saw some light reflected onto the wood....but I don't recall seeing anything that looked kind of filmy. And, that filmy-looking stuff doesn't show up on any of my other bridge pictures or any other of my pictures taken today. Probably just more reflections, but woooo woooo ...Who knows?

Our lunch today was all Vermont. We stopped at a little country store and bought a package of Vermont "Seriously Cheddar", a white cheddar cheese that is seriously wonderful, along with some crispy rye crackers (also made in Vermont) along with some Vermont-made summer sausage. We used Bob's swiss army knife and cut slices for everyone to enjoy while we made our way to our next bridge. During our bridge search, we saw a couple of places that might warrant a return visit. Might warrant are the operative words....One of the places was Grampa Grunt's Lodge and then others included some much higher-end places like the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, VT. The Trapp Family Lodge is owned by members of the vonTrapp family (remember The Sound of Music?) I'm sure that all of you can figure out which lodging location might be worth a return trip....Anyway, back to the bridges....

Some of the covered bridges are easily seen from the nearest country road, while others are on side roads and there are no signs to mark where they are. We were following a map, but still missed some of them even though we were looking for them. It was a fun day, and spending today in an air-conditioned car made lots of sense since the temperature was 90 degrees today. Tomorrow should also be warm, so we will plan to lay low. The end of the week is supposed to be cooler....I really hope that is the case, because I'm very wimpy when it comes to the heat....just ask anyone who knows me.

Chazy NY - Jo and Bob's

My sister, Jo, and her husband, Bob, live right on Lake Champlain. They have a wonderful water view and a house that is perfect for them and their dog, Oliver. Oliver has been very gracious and has allowed Cubby to paw through his toy box and share his toys, except Bungee.....No one shares Bungee. That is Oliver's favorite and Cubby definitely stays clear.

We've made a couple of small journeys out and about. We drove across the bridge to Vermont and went to St. Anne's shrine. The shrine encompasses a good-sized park-like area and has a small chapel, as well as a few smaller shrines, stations of the cross that are outside and quite large, a restaurant, etc. The land is right on Lake Champlain...almost directly across the lake from where Jo and Bob live. (You can see Vermont on the other side of the lake from Jo and Bob's house.) The countryside is really beautiful here. We took a drive into Plattsburg (the nearest large city to where Jo and Bob live) and saw many locations that are part of Bob's history, including his high school, the house where his grandparents lived, where his grandfather had his truck farm, etc.

On Friday night we went to the Plattsburg Elks Lodge where Bob is a member. We had dinner at the lodge. The house is old, beautiful and located right on the water. Jo and Bob showed us the riding lawn mower that is being raffled off as a fundraiser for a local soldier wounded in the war. Proceeds of the fundraiser will be placed in trust toward college expenses for the soldier's 21 month old daughter. Jo, Bob and other Elk members are very actively involved in this fundraiser. When we were at the Elks Lodge, we kept our eyes peeled for Henry, the resident ghost, but didn't have a single sighting.....maybe next time!

One thing we did see when we were at the Lodge was a beautiful lilac bush. Mom LOVES lilacs and this is their season. We have seen hundreds of bushes over the last couple of weeks. Besides white and lavender, there are some deep purple flowers on some of the bushes. Jo and I talked about trying to get a lilac for Mom....like who would do the pilfering....Jo says I always manage to get her to do anything that might be even ever so slightly illegal rather than do it myself. Even though I am the big chicken in the family, I would have gotten one of the flowers for Mom myself.....BUT Jo beat me to it (or so I say). Mom got a wonderful pilfered lilac and we are all enjoying its fragrance.

Besides Oliver, a kerry blue terrier, and Cubby, there is a neighbor dog, Sophie, who comes around to see Oliver often. When Jo was out gardening (Jo is a master gardener!!) and Mom was visiting with her, Sophie came over to say hello. This would not be too exciting an event, except for the fact that Sophie is a german shepherd and Mom has been afraid of german shepherds and most dogs, for that matter, since a german shepherd jumped on her and held her down when she was just a young girl. I went out to get a picture of Mom and Sophie because I knew that others in the family would like to see a picture of Mom and the german shepherd as friends.

We played lawn washers in the back yard which is kind of like horseshoes, but easier to set up, pick up, and they are much lighter weight. Jo got Bob a set after they played with Paul and Lisa (my cousin and her husband in Illinois). The game is generally played to 21...but we were SO BAD that we tried playing to 11, then 7 and finally decided that the winner had to score just 3 points. I guess we will never be players on the game show "A Minute to Win It". Oh, Well....

As for food.....Bob made us one of his famous breakfasts. He is the breakfast king. He's always enjoyed making nice big breakfasts and we really enjoyed eating what he made! We've also enjoyed some of the red hots that are found in this part of the country. Very red hot dogs....not spicy, just a very red casing. And, of course, we've already been to Creamies. Creamies is an ice cream stand that is located in Chazy. It's open from mid-May to Labor Day. The prices are reasonable, the servings large and everything is very good. They had a line waiting for the chance to buy from them. Jo doesn't know how long it's been selling ice cream, but she remembers it well from almost 40 years ago when she first came here with Bob.

Remembering Family and Visiting Reid and Bev

After leaving Connecticut, we headed toward the Troy/Selkirk area. We wanted to see and/or visit several places, including former homes, the cemeteries where loved ones were buried, Mom's high school, RPI fraternity houses (where Dad delivered hundreds of the sandwiches which Mom made on their kitchen table at their house on Courtland St), and, of course, the road on which Mom had her first and only driving experience. We wanted to see where Mom got "pulled over" for suspected drunk driving :)

Some of the following might be a little confusing, but I want to get it recorded for anyone who might want to know more about this at some later date....

We visited 3 different cemeteries, bringing flowers to remember those who were buried there. The first cemetery was located in Valatie (pronounced Valay-sha). This is the cemetery where Mom's birth mother is buried. She is in the Boice family plot along with the parents of her husband (George Boice)....in other words, Mom Woolsey's paternal grandparents. Along with her birth mother, Mary, are 2 babies.....both of these babies were named Mary Elizabeth. The first baby was 8 months old when she died of pneumonia....she was the firstborn child of Mom's parents, George & Mary. The second baby was only 4 hours old when she died...she was the lastborn child of George & Mary. Mary died giving birth to the 2nd baby girl. (I didn't remember that there were actually 6 children born to that family----2 other girls besides Margaret, Dorothy, George & Jack)

The Boice family plot was difficult to locate. In fact, we never would have found it without the help of a groundsworker who went and found someone who had a plot map and then helped us to locate the plot. The family plot is a rectangular area and is only marked with small stones that have the letter "B" on them. Within the plot there is one weathered headstone that has Lillian Boice's name on it. Lillian was Mom's aunt (her Dad's sister). The individual graves of Mary Boice, her 2 small children and others buried in the plot are not marked....they are just buried somewhere within the 4 "B" markers.

We next went to the cemetery where Aunt Margaret and Uncle Reid are buried. That cemetery is located in Selkirk, a short distance from where Aunt Margaret and Uncle Reid lived. We were met at the cemetery by Reid Jr. and his wife, Beverly. It was wonderful for Dad and I to meet both of them and Mom was very happy that she had the opportunity to see them again. Mom has always wanted to bring some flowers in remembrance of Aunt Margaret and we found some beautiful roses that she was able to leave at the headstone. After our cemetery visit, Bev joined us at a local diner and visited for awhile. Mom remembers very fondly how devoted Reid and Bev were toward Aunt Margaret when she was so ill, and it made her very happy to see both of them again.

Our third cemetery of the day was in Cohoes. We spent quite a while trying to locate the grave sites of Mom's Dad, George, and her stepmom, Marcelle. We finally had to give up for the night, but before we gave up, we were able to find where Mom's Uncle John and Aunt Anna Mae were buried and she was able to leave some flowers for them. (Note that in reality, they were not actually Mom's Aunt & Uncle...... Anna Mae was actually George Boice's 1st cousin....but, both John & Anna Mae were always called Aunt and Uncle by the Boice children and the two of them were wonderful to all of the children. She remembers Uncle John and Aunt Anna Mae making trips from Cohoes to Catskill, NY and other locations to bring Easter baskets for each of the 4 Boice children....which was a huge treat. Every summer they would also take the 4 children home with them for several weeks and bought all of them school clothes before returning the children to George & Marcelle.)

Bright and early the next morning, we called the cemetery and got some guidance on finding the grave sites of Mom's father and stepmom. We brought some more beautiful roses and Mom was able to place them on the headstones.

Besides cemeteries, we drove past the Courtland St house (famous for sandwich-making), saw the Catholic grade school that the kids walked to from the Courtland house, drove past fraternity row at RPI (the engineering college) where Dad sold so many sandwiches to the students at night to raise money for his family, saw the "house on the hill", and drove on the road where Mom had her first (and last) driving lesson. THE ROAD has a yellow divider now, but there was only a solid white line when Mom had her driving lesson. We saw a state trooper close to that road and we talked about asking him whether his grandfather might have been a trooper way back when...who knows, maybe he was related to the officer who pulled Mom over for suspected drunk driving. (We all know that Mom wasn't drinking, she just couldn't steer straight her first time out on the road....but it makes for a good story and that event really did keep her from ever getting behind the wheel again!)

We spent the rest of Wednesday driving up through the Vermont countryside, crossing Lake Champlain and entering New York. We are now at Jo & Bob's house which is located on Lake Champlain. It is a beautiful setting. Pictures to follow in the next blog....