Elgin Family

Dad, Mom and I went to see my great-aunt Evelyn while in South Elgin. It was a wonderful visit. She's 97 years old and is such a lovely lady. Her 2 sons, Stan and Phil, were there as well.

Attached are some pictures of our Elgin Family. There's a picture of Mom, Aunt Marlene and me. Also pictures of the family at a buffet that Aunt Marlene arranged and treated all of us to.

Elgin Family....We love all of you and really thank all of you for the great visit. Lots and lots of great food and love in the Elgin area!!

Elgin, the Casino, Barbies and Cacti

We had a great time visiting our Elgin family, including Aunt Marlene, Aunt Audrey, Uncle Ole and all of my many cousins. Aunt Marlene took us on a tour of South Elgin to see the house that my family lived in before we moved from Illinois to California in 1960. We saw many places that were a big part of our family history, including the house that Dad's parents lived in for so many years. We also went to the cemetery to lay some flowers on the graves of our family members, including Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt Monica, Aunt Virgene and Uncle George. That was sad, but Dad and I were very glad that we had the opportunity to pay our respects.

I've included a couple of family photos and will put more on later. One is Dad with his 2 sisters, my Aunt Marlene and Aunt Audrey. There's also a picture of Aunt Audrey and Uncle Ole and a picture of Uncle Ole with his sons Brian and Keith.

All of our family has really fond memories of Grandma & Grandpa Reinert's house where we had so many family gatherings over the years. When we were in front of our Prarie St house in South Elgin, the current owner drove up and offered to let us take a look inside. I took a picture of the outside of the house and also a picture looking down the stairs...do you remember how it looked, Doug, Mike & Jo???? The house has changed quite a bit over the years. There was a large family room added onto the side of the house where the screened-in porch used to be. Above the family room is now a large master bedroom. The yard is still quite large, even with the additions, but the grape vine is no longer there and the outdoor fireplace is gone as well. The attached garage burned down several years ago and there is a free standing garage now. The current owners did not know about the fire. Dad told them that the house fire started when the then-owner tried to thaw out frozen pipes with a blow torch. Dad also told them that he had thawed out pipes the same way himself, but fortunately, there were no fires when we lived there. I peeked into the bedroom that Jo and I shared way back when and also looked at the upstairs bathtub where we used to have our baths when we were young. Hard to believe that was 50 years ago. (Note to my brothers and sister...Remember the Dairy Prince, where Aunt Marlene used to take us for ice cream treats (thank you Aunt Marlene), well, it is now a Wee Dee's, with some very gaudy paint on the building, I might add.)

My cousin, Brian and his wife Robin, invited all of us for a cookout at their house in Elgin. We saw their 2 dalmations, Blue and Chase. Blue has one brown eye and one blue eye....hence the name. Robin and Brian have a couple of interesting collections in their home. Robin has over 500 Barbie dolls. I would never have guessed that there were that many, but according to Robin, there are lots more than that. They also have a few cactus plants. None of us has ever seen such large cacti in any home. You'll see in the picture just how tall they are!! I think Robin said that she's had them for 20 years....and, they have just kept getting bigger and bigger. Pretty soon they will need to cut a hole in the living room ceiling to allow the plants to continue to get taller!!

Aunt Marlene, Dad, Mom and I took an overnight trip up to the Ho-Chunk Casino in Wisconsin. En route to the casino, we met up with my cousin, Kathe, who lives in Madison, WI. We had a nice lunch and visit. Kathe is so much fun to be with. I was glad that Mom W had the chance to meet her and Aunt Marlene hasn't seen Kathe since she was a very young girl. I'm glad that our lunch worked out. At the casino, we had very nice and comfortable rooms. The casino had an indoor waterfall, which was fun to look at. As for gaming, none of us won any money, but we had fun. Dad tried to hitchhike home, but had no success in getting a ride. I wonder why?? Outside the casino were some "rocks". I suggested that Mom try rock climbing, but she thought I'd have better luck! We had fun, but missed little Cubby.....Cubby spent the night with Aunt Audrey, Uncle Ole and Snickers....a beautiful cocker spaniel with the longest eye lashes I've ever seen. He's a sweet dog and the two "cousins" seemed to have a good tail-wagging time. Cubby slept right near Aunt Audrey....he knows a dog lover when he sees one. Uncle Ole said that he was a very good guest.... Thanks for dog sitting, Aunt Audrey & Uncle Ole.

Niagra Falls - Canada

After leaving the Thousand Island area of Canada, we drove further into the Canadian province of Ontario and arrived at Niagra Falls. We were on QEW (Queen Elizabeth Way) for quite awhile during our drive, we also saw King George Parkway and Wayne Gretzsky Parkway...very Canadian!! One of the towns we passed was London and another sign pointed towards the town of Paris, so we felt quite European at the same time....That might be as close as Mom and I might ever get to a London or Paris for that matter!! (Dad has been to London, England....so we can't say the same for him).

We stayed at a Super 8 motel and its location was great, but its "amenities" left something to be desired. It had a bathroom door knob that was almost falling off, a burn hole in the back of the door (I'm guessing that someone put out a cigarette on it at one time), peeling wallpaper in a couple of areas, paint "trim" on the walls that was definitely done by someone who was not very talented or careful, a tear in the bedspread, a TV remote that only worked about 20% of the time and then only when you stood a foot away from it, etc. I don't know if it was similar to the "Bates Motel" where Mom W and Dad W stayed so many times when visiting Aunt Margaret....I didn't think about the Psycho movie when there, but I know that you couldn't wash your hands too many times with the soap because it was so thin. Bottom line, I would not recommend the place to anyone....but Mom seemed fine with the room and the bed was comfortable, so we stayed the one night. (Dad and Cubby did OK in their room for the night as well.)

The Falls were wonderful, as anyone who has seen them would attest. We only saw them from the Canadian side since we did not want to go across the border and enter the U.S. again at that point. After viewing them during the day, we went back to see them at night when they are lit up with colored lights. We did not take the "Maid of the Mist" boat ride that takes you up close and personal to the Falls. Dad R and MomW were not interested in wearing the blue "body condom" (as Janene says) that keeps you as dry as possible when so close to the spray. I'll wait to go with Jack someday. I know that he would enjoy doing that.

The park that borders the falls offered a nice wide paved area to walk with plenty of benches, beautiful trees and hanging flower baskets. And, of course, a few squirrels which Mr. Cubby spotted right away....that was the only thing that got his attention. He was quite bored by the Falls themselves. He was flattered, though, by all of the tourists who commented upon how cute he was when Dad was walking him or holding him. He is such a great traveler. He waits patiently when we go into a restaurant for a lunch break...one of the pictures shows little Cubby enjoying his burger when Dad returned to the car.

We crossed the border to enter the U.S. at Sarnia, ON. Before our border crossing we went into a Canadian Walmart in Sarnia. Mom bought some Celine Dion perfume for herself and about a ton of candy and snacks for everyone else. When we crossed the border the U.S. border patrol agent asked if we bought anything in Canada....I started to laugh and told him about our Walmart candy stop. Everyone who knows Mom knows that she can't go very far without candy and ice cream. Even if she's not eating it, she likes to know that chocolate is close by.....just in case.

One of the pictures shows Mom warming her hands on the car door after eating an oreo flurry. Like we all know, she doesn't stray far from ice cream!

The Thousand Island Area in Canada

Canada was wonderful! That's the only way we can describe it. The Canadian people were so kind and sweet and the scenery was sooo verry verry nice and beautiful.

Jo and Bob told us about the Thousand Island area that is on the St Lawrence River between New York and Ontario, Canada. (Ontario is one of the Canadian provinces... similar to one of our states). Both Jo & Bob said that we would absolutely love the Thousand Island cruise if we decided to take it. They were absolutely right.

So, Mom, Dad & I drove through the New York countryside, crossed into Canada and stayed in Canada for 2 nights. Gananoque, ON is a small Canadian town right on the St Lawrence River. (It's basically across the river from Alexandria Bay, NY). Dad stayed with Cubby while Mom & I took the 2 1/2 hour cruise on the river. Mom said the cruise reminded her of the Dayliner that they'd take from Albany to New York City on occasion up the Hudson River. And, she said that as kids they used to go into the Hudson River to enjoy the waves when the dayliner went by. It used to suck up all of the water and then would come back in a rush toward them as it passed....but, it brought with it orange peels, toilet paper, etc.....sounds to me like something no one should have been in!! But, Mom survived through all of that. Our Canadian cruise was a real cruise. There were only about 20 people on the 3 level boat. It could hold about 400 people, so you can see that we had all of the room in the world to roam and look out the front, back or any window that we chose. It was like a private tour in many ways.

The area is called the Thousand Island area because of the number of islands that are located in the St. Lawrence at that point. There are actually more than 1500 islands. Some of the islands are just large enough to hold one tree. A few have no trees, just rocks. Some are very large and have multiple homes, including permanent residents. Most are covered with beautiful trees. It was gorgeous. The sky was a beautiful blue color with large fluffy white clouds. And, while some of the homes are more modest, others are on what they call "Millionaires Row". Based on their size and location, I'm sure that you'd have to be very wealthy to be able to afford one of these homes as a summer home location. One of the pictures shows a home with a Victrola dog on the lawn...that used to be Irving Berlin's home and it's said that he wrote a couple of his more famous songs there...my memory fails me, I just can't remember which songs at the moment! Oh, well...another senior moment....one of many that at least one of us has experienced on this trip!

Thousand Island dressing was invented by one of the chefs who prepared food for one of the wealthy residents in the Thousand Island area. One of the ingredients was chopped pickles (to represent the treed islands in the area) and he would swirl in a chili sauce at the end to represent a gorgeous sunset in the island area. Thousand Island dressing is my Dad's favorite, interesting to know its origin.

My camera battery died half way through the trip, but I was able to get quite a few shots, including shots of Boldt castle which is huge and really looks like a castle...the man who built it started it for his wife, who died before its completion in the early 1900s. He left the home unfinished, but then it was finished later in the 1970s. It's open for tourism, but we did not do that.

Another of the pictures shows Mom enjoying the cruise. She's holding a $20 Canadian bill (with a picture of the queen, of course!). Mom was kind of confused by the different money here. She kept asking if she should use her Mexican money when paying for something....It all worked out OK. We now have all U.S. cash again, so no more confusion!! The final picture shows Mom trying to look through the peep hole while standing on here toes in the motel room. Cute!

Cubby, Fish and Ducks

We left Chazy, NY and headed into Canada on Tuesday, June 1st. It was sad leaving Jo & Bob. But, I have to say that we almost didn't leave...at least we didn't leave as early as we had planned. We left Chazy around 8:15 a.m. and drove through the country. At 9:00 a.m. we were back in Chazy because we missed our turn off. So, we drove through the town of Mooers, NY two times that morning....once in each direction. I kind of like the name Mooers....we think their high school mascot name should be The Roaring Herd. Doesn't "The Roaring Herd" from Mooers, NY sound fierce??

Cubby latched onto one of Oliver's dog toys when we were visiting. Jo sent Cubby home with Ollie's fish. (Kind of like Doug & Gina sending Cubby home with Sushi's stuffed dog bone....which, by the way, has been sewn up already because Cubby shook the stuffing out of it.) So far, the fish is in one piece.

One of the pictures shows Mom & Dad in front of Creamies.....it looks like they aren't having any ice cream....but they'd just finished an oreo flurry (Mom) and a strawberry shake (Dad). Yummy. That's a good place for ice cream.

Thanks for everything Jo & Bob. We had a great time and loved every minute of it.