Day 26 – July 7/11 – Leaving for Hastings Lake & 5 nights with George & Michell Simson (friends from Palm Springs).  

The Simon’s have a beautiful cottage on the Trent River which is about 30 km from Peterborough.  We arrived Thursday afternoon, had a wonderful dinner & rested up for our first game of golf in a month.  George belongs to a beautiful course Oakland Greens & the 3 of us hade a great game.  Saturday George & John played in a tournament for kids with cancer and ended up in the middle of the pack.  There was a draw for prizes & John was second last, so no one wanted him to go fishing with them!

Michelle & I spent the day touring a lovely little town called New Brighton, very much like Bragg Creek.  We had a lovely lunch on the shore of Lake Ontario watching the sailboats.

Sunday George treated us to a 2 hour boat cruise on the Trent River.  We  went to Healey Falls to see the locks then to the other end of the river to the locks at Hastings.  We also spent lots of time sitting on the dock taking in the sun & relaxing.  There was far too much good food & wine so needless to say we are NOT dieting.

Monday morning the 3 of us headed back to the golf course for our final game.  We played early as the temperature & humidity were unbelievable!!  We also took a drive into Peterborough the see the Lift Lock which is a national historic site.  It is the highest hydraulic lift lock in the world and was built in the very early 1900’s. 

Our last evening with the Simsons was again a wonderful meal, more wine & a great game of Eucre.  George & I have to shape up our game before we all get back to Palm Springs where we plan to have some weekly games.  John & Michelle whipped us good!!!

JULY 12/11 – Off to Ottawa

The drive from Hastings to Ottawa is truly beautiful.  We stay off the 401 highway as much as possible.  There were numerous blueberry & strawberry stands & of course, we kept saying we’ll catch the next one & then there was none.

The Simsons very graciously offered us the use of their apartment in Ottawa for our visit.  Michelle was a Member of Parliament (until May 2011) & the lease didn’t expire until July 15^th.   The location could not have been better.  We were right next to the Byward Market & a 10 minute walk from the Parliament Buildings.  They say there are enough restaurants in the Byward Market to have breakfast, lunch & dinner in a different place each time for 3 months!  We did our best & found some wonderful spots.  The weather was perfect & we did our share of people watching at sidewalk bistros.

While in Ottawa we did a Bus Tour that took us by the Prime Minister & Governor General’s residences & all the major galleries & tourist attractions.  We spent an afternoon at the National War Museum (highly recommend this), toured the Parliament Buildings & the Rideau Canal  (I think I have now seen enough locks & canals to last me quite sometime!).  We also saw the changing of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, a spot that sends goose bumps up your spine.  A cocktail at the beautiful Chateau Laurier, a little laundry and we are ready to head from Ottawa up to Val d’or Quebec on Friday morning.

JULY 15/11 – Into Labelle Province

Traffic in Ottawa is a little crazy so the GPS was great – except when we punched in Val d’or.   We spent nearly an hour driving in circles as the Mercedes GPS wanted us to go to Montreal first then north to Val d’or.  We wanted to cross in to Quebec and head north from Ottawa.  Finally, the cheap little Tom Tom gave us the correct directions & we were on our way.  Again very different terrain, lots of lakes & dense forests.  As we approached Val d’or you could see the change from the dense forests (mind you they were still pretty thick) to the more rocky terrain.

We finally arrived in late afternoon to the home of our friends Nathalie & Ken Dunlop, who moved to Val d’or July 4^th.   Ken is working in Ottawa so will commute each weekend.  What a wonderful location they have.  Their home sits right on a lake (the name I can’t pronounce) 5 minutes from the centre of town.  They have a beautiful pool & hot tub & we had a great time watching the jet skiers & float planes take off right in front of us. 

Friday night we enjoyed dinner & wine in a little bistro & spent Saturday & Sunday simply relaxing in the sun.  The weather again, was very hot & humid & Sunday night we witnessed a terrific thunder & lightening show with rain that came down harder & faster than the eaves troughs could handle.  It lasted about an hour then the sky started to clear & Monday morning we awoke to clear blue skies again.  We sat having our coffee on the patio each morning – it was so soothing & calm, I would have a hard time ever getting anything done!

Monday, John & I headed off for another chapter of our great adventure; we went on a tour of a gold mine.  We had to wear coveralls & hard hats (complete with a lantern) & off we went in a mine car down to the 350 foot level of the gold mine.  The tour guide was very sweet, but her English was very broken.  It’s a good thing John has been in a mine before, because every time she struggled with a word she looked to him for advice.  When you are in a mine & turn off the lantern you cannot imagine how BLACK it is.  Our tour was 3 ½ hours long & we saw the lab where they graded the ore & they even did a demonstration where they melted the ore & poured the liquid gold off. The mine we were in operated from 1935 to 1985 so the conditions were not what they are today.  It was very interesting, but I don’t think it’s a career path I would choose.  Early to bed as we are off to Montreal in the morning.