On the Road Again

And off we go again!  Two years ago we went on a road trip to western Canada, retracing a route we followed 40 years ago.  In 1973 we went on another trip, only this time we had company -- two year old Wendy.  We headed up the St. Lawrence River to Quebec and beyond, to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and back through Maine and the U.S. We decided we wanted to go back to some of those places.  Wendy's not with us this time, unfortunately.

Here we are, ready to go in 1973.  Like all good hippies, we strapped our kid in the front seat of our VW bus, in a rickety car seat with a great view.

Leaving this time, we're not nearly as cool!

We left home Saturday and drove as far as Napanee, Ontario.  It took us 35 minutes to get across the bridge at Sarnia into Canada, and we got stuck in traffic around Toronto which delayed us for about an hour, but other than that it was a smooth trip.  Our first official destination was St. Hippolyte, in the Laurentians, 45 minutes northwest of Montreal.  We headed there with a side trip to Ottawa on the way.  What a beautiful city.  Our plan was to go to the Hard Rock Cafe there so I could get a guitar pin to add to my collection.  Wouldn't you know, the Hard Rock was closing its' doors on September 1st!  We got there just hours before it was closing forever, and of course there was not a trace of any kind of merchandise.  So much for the pin.  Oh well, we had a fun lunch there anyway, so my Hard Rock souvenir is our bill!   It's in a very cool area of town called The Market, which is full of cool shops, restaurants, open air vendors, a farmer's market, and street performers.  We also walked up to the area near the parliament buildings.  Lots of fascinating things to see. Wish we had more time there, but we had to move on so we could get to the resort where we'll be for a week.  We're here, it's a beautiful place, and we're ready to start exploring.