We left our campground in Saint-Jean-Baptiste with Barb’s sister Jane following behind in her SUV. Our first stop was North Hatley, considered by the locals as one of the prettiest villages in Quebec. While nice, we have driven through and stayed at multiple nice spots throughout this trip. North Hatley does have a great Saturday outdoor market which we visited and purchased some unique cucumbers, black radish, and carrots. Into town we went, walking along Lake Massawippi where lots of folks were fishing, kayaking, and paddling. We visited some shops, including Hatley, and ate lunch at a newly renovated pub called Pilsen. The jerk chicken burger platter was delish!

Days later we ate the spiny cucumber and found it to be strong tasting and a little bitter. Best cut up small within a salad for extra flavour. The black radish is mild and delicious as a snack or in a salad.

From North Hatley we drove to Compton where we set up for 3 nights at Camping Compton, an incredibly picturesque park right in town where we could walk to the grocery store and restaurants. After settling in we once again jumped in Jane’s SUV and began touring.

Fromagerie La Station, just outside Compton, is a beautiful cheese farm and shop. We had a great tasting of 7 different cheeses and settled on aged Hatley, Alfred le Fermier, and Chemin du Brûlé. We also bought some rabbit, duck, and boar spreads along with honey which has cheese pairing recommendations. Very neat! We would highly recommend a visit to this cheese shop.

Off to Coaticook to a bee and honey farm called Miel pur Delice. Another excellent tasting of 5 honeys from different seasons: raspberry, milkweed, dandelion, clover, and buckwheat. Our favs; clover and buckwheat, so some more purchases.

Coaticook is known for its incredible ice cream which is also sold in grocery stores all over Quebec. We visited the dairy also known for its cheese and purchased several hard goat cheeses. Yum!

Coaticook is also known for its Gorge Park housing the longest suspension bridge in North America. In the evenings after dark they have an incredible light show called ‘Lumina Foresta’ as you walk the 2.6 km loop.

Several visits to great farm markets for more local produce: corn, more cheese, red squash (which neither of us have ever eaten), apple pie, and wine. A stop at a Maple farm for some creative poutine. We tried the ham as well as the bbq shredded pork which was the clear winner!

No tour is ever complete without a stop at the local covered bridge Drouin from 1886.

A full day of great sightseeing. We returned to our RV. Jane had to leave to get back home as she was working the following day. After Jane left, we sat outside enjoying the beautiful rolling hills and countryside until it was time for dinner where we enjoyed some of our great local purchases: Mexican pie and spiny cucumber.

We had a GREAT couple of days with Barb’s sister Jane. We had the pleasure and convenience of touring around, with Jane driving us around in her car – a great change from touring in the RV. What a treat!

Our first stop in Mont-Saint-Hilaire….a bakery of course for a bit of brunch, which turned into a carb fest of artisanal breads, which was worth it. This location of the Boulangerie Le Pain Dans Les Voiles was formerly owned by the family of NFL player and local hero, Laurent Duvernay-Tardif. While this may make the bakery famous, it continues to maintain rights to the name and recipes which easily make it the most popular stop in the area. Note – the family still runs the bakery in Montreal with the same name.

Next stop, downtown Beloeil for a walking tour of a small village set against the river. Beautiful large churches, local shops and pubs. Very quaint. Since we entered Quebec, Lori has been learning French words and phrases. After learning the meaning of ‘depanneur’ (or ‘dep’ for short), Caroline and Geoff challenged Lori to find a ‘super dep’. No challenge is too big so off we went and Lori discovered one that sells beer & wine and sends faxes! LOL! We entered several great shops and discovered one which gives Italian cooking lessons. After meeting and conversing with the owner Maria, Lori has decided this is a must return to spot for a weekend next year.

Saint-Mathias-sur-Richelieu and Chambly

The tour continued past Barb’s former home in Montreal beside the river in Saint Mathias. Then off to Chambly where Barb also previously lived and where her sister Jane and our good friend Francois both live. What a beautiful city. Historic town with incredible views of the Chambly Basin as well as the old Fort Chambly built in 1711 and involved in the 1812 battle with the U.S., that is credited with having saved Montreal. Then the federal locks system which are all still manually run, and some great shops and cafes. FG Chocolatiers (chocolate shop) is beautiful with all made on site. Final stop, La Ferme Guyon in Chambly which sells an incredible selection of local Quebec products. We bought some freshly picked apples, some cheeses and meat pies. It also has a Butterfly sanctuary with a friendly turtle free to roam.

Tomorrow we are off to the Eastern Townships!

Landed early afternoon and were met by a dear BMO colleague, Francois Martel. Nice visit, and while short, we really appreciated him stopping by after work for a visit. We had a lot of laughs while we worked together, and a lot of laughs during our visit. Francois, we will never pass through the Montreal area without stopping by to see you!!!

Barb’s sister also stopped by for a quick hello and tomorrow we are spending the day with Jane as she tours us around the area. Can’t wait!!

We had a great visit with Caroline and Geoff. They picked us up and we went into the historical town of Hudson for a tour and dinner at The Willow, a really nice restaurant on the water. We started with a cocktail, shared a few appies and we also shared 4 mains. A great way to taste a bigger portion of the menu.

Below you will see our starting cocktails, and the food that followed.

Wandering around town.

We had a great visit with Caroline and Geoff and tomorrow we are off to the South Shore of Quebec in Saint-Jean-Baptiste for a couple of days seeing more friends and family.

What a day!!!

Jim and Lesley picked us up from the KOA and toured us around the town. It is really quaint with lots of churches and old period homes that really set the historical feel of the town itself. We then parked the car at their place and walked into town with Jim giving us the background on the commerce and industrial history of Gananoque. It was a great tour!

Then off to the family restaurant, the Pistachio Cafe. The history of the building we will describe shortly, but the interior of the cafe, designed by the family, was really great. The colour scheme of the exterior and interior are all colours of the pistachio nut. Exterior the colour of the shell. Interior the colour of fuchsia (that little hint of fuchsia on the nut itself) and of course the green. They are a vegetarian cafe serving soups/sandwiches for lunch. They also have a great selection of gelato and sorbets. We sat outside on the best patio in town! Food and company were both excellent!

We strongly suggest a visit there if you are in town. Their website is www.pistachiocafe.ca.

The history of the building is really interesting. When they purchased the building, it had a store in front and an apartment in the back on the first floor. The second floor had 2 apartments, which they have fully renovated. They decided to gut the main apartment to make a kitchen for the cafe which would be in the front, and when they did they discovered that the building exterior was in fact a separate exterior from the original building. In other words someone had built a whole new building and roof around the original, and not right up against it! It was around 4-5 feet away from the original building! Picture below showing you the space.

As you can see we had a really nice time visiting and enjoying what Gananoque has to offer. GREAT DAY!

We had a great drive to Gananoque yesterday, light traffic being a Sunday, and made it to the KOA 1000 Campground just in time to set up and have a visit from our dear friend and colleague from BMO, Danielle Hall. We had a really nice time catching up on life and business. Danielle spoiled us by bringing us some local goodies which we already started to enjoy last night, and we will continue to enjoy in the days ahead.

We then got a visit from Jim Lund and Lesley Poole, other dear friends and former colleagues from BMO. Danielle was still here at the time and it was cool to look around the 5 of us and see greater than 20 years of the creation and evolution of the Financial Planning program as we all had a hand in it.

Dinner with Jim and Lesley was BBQ hamburgers and salads topped off with a wonderful homemade apple and cranberry crumble and some Madagascar vanilla gelato from their family cafe in downtown Gananoque.

Tomorrow we are going to the cafe for lunch and we can’t wait to try all their gelato flavours! Stay tuned for pictures of tomorrow’s adventure as we are out of practice and forgot to take pictures today.

We are off to Quebec on Sunday for a couple of weeks. It’s going to be a great opportunity to see old BMO friends/colleagues and family members.

We are going to head to Montreal, then south east after that venturing into some small townships with GREAT cheese! Who doesn’t like a trip that has Quebec cheese……..can you say squeaky…..

Our U.S. leg will start Nov 12th (a little later than what we wanted, however Lori spent so much time in the U.S. in 2023 that we need to leave later this Fall to avoid too many days south), when we’ll begin our journey through the Windsor/Detroit area and getting down south as fast as we can to avoid bad weather. Barb has found a Harvest Host in Amherstburg, Ontario about 25 km from the border. Windsor is the most southerly city in Canada and this gives us the best chance at decent weather our first night back on the road and sleeping in Canada in November. Brr!

It’s been 5 months since we last ventured out together so we are really looking forward to the trip!

We returned home April, 15th and parked the RV in Milton Heights Campground where Lori was making a home base for the summer. Having her own car again made this easier to get around and visit friends and family.

I of course returned to Burlington to be with the family.

Some of our spring/summer highlights were:

Spending a great deal of time with the family. Getting back into viewing sporting events and some live games. Pics below of fun at the Sceptres game and the Blue Jays. Of course celebrating Easter, all our birthdays (Michelle, me, Jim, Sarah, Austin) and a very special induction for Jim to the Halton Hills Hall of Fame for his football contribution over the years.

Having Vanessa on maternity leave was great and be able to visit Lilah often was a whole ton of fun. In June Michelle, Vanessa, Lilah, and I went away for a girls’ week at the Johnston’s home in Sherkston. Amazing amenities and loads of fun! What a treat.

In September Lori and I slipped away for a few weeks to Quebec to visit lots of friends and family.

Once back, my goal to get more family time in before leaving for the U.S. for the winter. So, in October, Michelle, Vanessa, Lilah, and I went away again, this time to Bayfield Ontario and stayed in a great AirB&B that Michelle found. Bayfield is a fun little town to shop in. Weather was cool but we were still able to get out and walk and get some great pics.

Being home for Lilah’s first Hallowe’en was fun even though she was too young to grasp it all. We were all still very amused particularly with the great costume Vanessa came up with and Lilah’s enjoyment of going door to door and receiving stuff even though she didn’t know what the candies were other than super colourful!

A great 6 months home that flew by. And then, Lori and I were off again on our RV adventures.

Barb & I had the opportunity to get together with longtime friends Anar, Caroline, Karim, and Jim. We had a wonderful day in Anar & Karim’s new backyard which included a fire-pit seating area, a pool, and an incredible cooking station that lacked for nothing. We were spoiled with great company, food, and wine. Thank you !!!

On April 19th Barb drove the RV and Bill Wereha followed in Lori’s car, and they crossed the U.S. border on the way to RV One where BIll had originally purchased the RV. It was still under warranty so Lori and Barb made a long list of items to be looked at/fixed. Lori didn’t make the trip as she was already pushing the number of days spent in the U.S. and we wanted to save as many as we could so we wouldn’t have to leave too late in the Fall of ‘23. Given that the RV was registered in Lori’s name, and of course her car is registered in her name, there had to be some kind of story as to why two individuals, neither of whom were Lori were crossing the border with two vehicles of hers……….. When Bill, Barb, and Lori stopped at a outlet mall just before the U.S. border, Barb & Bill got their stories straight as to why Lori was nowhere to be seen (apparently Lori is working and unable to make the trip). The border guard apparently was impressed that Lori had such good friends that would do this for her, and they both sailed through into the U.S.

Once at RV One, Barb and Bill thought the new manager seemed reasonable and were happy that many of the small issues would get repaired and of course the crazy stairs would as well.

All summer long Barb called RV One to no avail. The manager had left the dealership and no one would return her calls. Persistence finally paid off and in June we were promised the RV would be ready soon. Finally in July we got the call that we could come back and pick up the RV. Once again Barb and Bill made the trip to Buffalo.

Once at the dealer Barb did a walk around and was shown all the changes. All was good until they handed Barb the keys and we were about to leave and discovered the stairs would not go in. Bill took charge and within minutes the RV was back in the shop. Fortunately there was a nice sales area with great lounge chairs to relax in. Bill went out for a drive and got some lunch. Eventually the RV was repaired and we returned to Canada.

What a saga!