July 2013

July--Roaming through Central Park

Our July travels stretched from the provinces of Ontario and Quebec to the states of Vermont and New York including the heart of New York City. The weather improved considerably from the cool and wet days of June. We did a lot of hiking and biking and shared many special moments with friends we made in Ajijic. Yes, retirement is still better than it is cracked up to be. Keep us informed by clicking on the email link Larry and Glorine.
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	On July 1, we met up with Jim Garrow in Ottawa to join in on Canada Day, which is equivalent to Americans celebrating the 4th of July in Washington DC. We shared a suite at Carlton University and from their we rode our bikes to the big events. Our bike path followed the Rideau Canal, built in the 1830s, making it the oldest canal system still in operation in North America. Here we are with the canal and one of the Parliament buildings in the background.	The Rideau Canal is an UNESCO World Heritage Site which winds about 130 miles connecting the Ottawa River with Lake Ontario. There are 47 locks on the canal, with these eight locks picture here are in downtown Ottawa spanning 1/4 mile. Each lock is opened and closed by hand. Because of the larger cargo ships, the canal is no longer used for commercial traffic. However on this day big pleasure boats were using it to celebrate Canada Day.

	Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II is still the Queen of Canada and Head of State. The Governor General is her representative. His duties, much like the Queen, are largely ceremonial, although no law passed by the House of Commons can go into effect until he signs it. The Honorable David Johnston and his wife arrived at the celebration in this horse drawn carriage.	Prime Minister Steven Harper, Canada's counterpart to President Barack Obama, addressed a crowd estimated in the tens of thousands on the grounds of the Parliament Building. He is the head of the majority political party, which controls the House of Commons. He delivered his speech in both English and French--the two "official" languages of Canada.

	On to the province of Quebec and there largest city Montreal. Brian and Marilyn flew in from Regina, Saskatchewan to join us for a week in our motor home to explore the beauty of this province together. After picking them up at the airport, our first stop for lunch at Schwartz's Deli, a must stop in Montreal. French is the official language here but we managed.	Each year, Montreal hosts the largest International Jazz Festival in the world. We had the best seats in the house on the patio of a local pub about a block away from the main stage. The music was loud enough to enjoy, yet quiet enough to carry on a conversation and catch up since we saw each other in Mexico.

	Jim Garrow drove from his home near Toronto to spend some time with Brian, Marilyn and us. He also has a daughter who lives in Montreal. After a busy day of sight seeing, we stopped at a quiet outdoor cafe in Mount Royal overlooking the city of Montreal.	Jim was planning on tenting along side our RV, but it was pouring rain. So instead we had a slumber party. We played lots of cards and some dice games until the wee hours of the morning. Our RV accommodated every one just fine.

	In 1967, Montreal hosted the World Expo to showcase countries from around the world. Americans contribution was this huge 200 foot geodesic dome that became one of the main attractions at the fair. Rather than dismantling this building, as did most other countries, the USA donated it to the city of Montreal, which now uses it to highlight environmental concerns. We spent a couple of hours there learning how to become green.	Another major building that dominates the Montreal skyline is the Olympic Stadium, which was built to house the main venues for the Summer Olympics of 1976. The stadium is still used as a multi-purpose stadium. It has the largest seating capacity in Canada and has been the home of Montreal's sports teams. And has hosted the Grey Cup - the Canadian Football league's equivalent to the Super Bowl.

	After a week in Montreal, we moved the RV deeper into the predomately French speaking province of Quebec and to its capital Quebec City. It was like leaving Canada and traveling to a foreign country, which the residents here work so hard to replicate. As one of Canada's oldest cities, Old Quebec has maintained a special charm with its cobble stone streets, quaint storefronts and outdoor cafes.	The "changing of the guard," with all its pomp and circumstance is a must see. It consists of precise and crisp marching and maneuvers by red uniformed Canadian soldiers. It was held at the Citadel, one of the oldest fortresses in North America, which still serves as an active garrison for the Canadian military. The Citadel was designated an UNESCO World Heritage site in 1985.

	As we toured the Citadel, we caught this picture of Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt, taken during a highly secret military conference held in Quebec City during World War II between the British, Canadian and United States governments to decide the future of post-war Germany. Quite the history.	Brian is a member of the Royal Regina Golf Club, which is a part of a larger network of Royal Golf Clubs. He took Larry for a round of golf at the Royal Quebec, one of the oldest in Canada. Somehow, these courses have some tie to the St. Andrews golf course in Scotland, the very first golf course in the world.

	Larry is generally a par golfer--par with those he chooses to play with. However in the case of Brian, who is a great golfer, Larry went back to his old system of measuring the success of his golf game. In 18 hole, he only lost three balls--not a bad day on the course.	While we were enjoying another one of Glorine's great breakfasts, we had a fellow camper take this picture of us by the RV. Although, he couldn't speak English, he understood Larry's pointing at the camera.

	Quebec City is the capital of Quebec and they do their work in this exquisite building designed after the French architecture of the day. The painting depicts the time when Quebec was a colony of France and the decisions were made by representatives of the King and the Catholic Church.	Whale watching isn't what we thought we would be doing while visiting Quebec City, but up the Saint Lawrence Seaway, were plenty of whales showing off for the many tourists that took the two-hour trip from the city. They put on a great show.

	On the way back to Quebec City from whale watching, we saw St. Anne’s Catholic Church. It was so big we had to stop. We found that it was a double decker. This is the basement and the main church above it was much more massive and ornate. St. Anne is the grandmother of Jesus and the patron saint of Quebec.	We took a tram ride to the top of Montmorency Falls and took in the view as we strolled along the suspension bridge on top of a cliff where the water falls some 275 feet into the Saint Lawrence River. The tour guide boosts that these falls are 100 feet taller than Niagara Falls.

	Each year, the city hosts the largest music festival in Canada--800 bands over 14 days. We bought a wrist band for $80 each and could attend all the performances we wanted. Among the big bands were 80's rock stars Rush, Foreigner and Def Leppard. Our last night in Quebec, Stevie Wonder moved us with his music and philosophy of love for humanity.	Back in the USA, our first stop was in Burlington Vermont to see Alexis Ressler, Glorine's grand niece. She grew up in St. Louis, but attended college here and has made it her home. After dinner and a few beers, she treated us to ice cream along the beautiful waterfront of Lake Champlain. The drive through the Vermont countryside was stunning.

	Our first night in Lake George, we had an Ajijic reunion with some of our New York friends. Mark and Bernice, next to Glorine and Randy and Andy (across from Larry). The third couple are friends of Mark and Bernice who still live and work in Lake George and wondering what life would be like in Mexico.	The next morning our friends stopped by to tour our RV and sample Glorine's Kiwi Gin Tonics. From there we took a tour of the Sagamore Resort, which is located on an island in Lake George with views to die for. It has been serving the rich and famous for over 100 years.

	During our stay near Lake George, we took a day trip to tour the area. One stop was Fort Ticonderoga, initially built by the French and later taken over by the British. The Fort is also famous for the tales of Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain boys and their role during the American Revolutionary War. Today, the fort puts on a great reenactments of the period.	From the Fort, we drove along Lake Champlain into the heart of the Adirondack Mountains, the largest State Park in America. Thanks to a long winding road, an elevator and a bit of a hike, we made it to the top of White Face Mountain, one of the largest mountains in the Adirondacks.

	While overcast and really really windy, the view at the top of White Face was specular. The Adirondack State Park covers some six million acres of wilderness. However, we could see Lake Placid on the horizon, home to two Winter Olympics held in 1932 and 1980 and a winter playground for New Yorkers.	South of Lake George, we attending the 150th anniversary of the running of the Saratoga Race Track, the oldest race track in America. It's hard to imagine a race track being formed four months after the battle at Gettysburg. Glorine won on two exactas, by picking the 1st and 2nd place winners on two races.

	We met Mark and Bernice for an afternoon of fun on Lake George, starting with a cruise around the lake on the Minne-ha-ha. The lake water was pristine and the shore was lined with million dollars homes.	Next stop, Manhattan. We rented a hotel room in mid-town, which was one block from Broadway and five blocks south of Central Park. Walking through Time Square with all its hustle and bustle in the largest city in America was awesome.

	New York City is becoming bike friendly, thanks to Mayor Bloomberg setting aside bike lanes along some of the city's busiest streets. Here we biked along the the United Nations, which is an international territory that officially does not belong to the United States.	We rode our bikes through Central Park, two times larger than the farm Larry grew up on. We saw many points of interest, but this one struck a cord--the massive rock, which played a predominate role in the movie, Extremely Load and Incredibly Close.

	We attended the taping of the David Letterman show. Cameras were not allowed so this is the closest we got to David. His guest was Regis Fillman--a great segment, but what amazed us the most was all the great music played by the Paul Schaffer band.	As we were driving near the Catskill Mountains we stumbled by the Mohonk Mountain House, billed as a Victorian Castle Resort. Built in the 1880s it was designed to serve the rich and famous. At $400 per night it doesn’t need bill boards to attract overnight guests. We were allowed to walk the trails of the 600+ acre estate, where we took this picture.

	Randy and Andy took us to Woodstock, known for the Three Days of Peace and Music concert back in 1969 that changed the history of Rock and Roll. If you ever wondered where all the hippies and flower children went--well many are still in Woodstock, now in there 60s and 70s. Here is Larry with his buddies, The Blues Brothers.	They say that tall fences make great neighbors--but this got out of hand. 30+ years ago, a guy built a rock fence to block the view from his neighbor. Ever since, he and his wife have built dozens of cool art structures made of rock, concrete and brick. The property was open to the public for the first time and Randy and Andy took us to see it. And the beer was free!!

	After finishing up a full day of touring the Hudson River with Randy and Andy, we enjoyed a warm July evening overlooking a waterfall and enjoying a great meal together. Thanks to them, we saw lots of memorial things that the typical tourist would have never seen.	The next day Randy and Andy extended our tour around their home town of Kingston along the Hudson River. Our first stop was this full scale replica of "Half Moon" a Dutch ship commanded by Henry Hudson in 1609, which now bears his name.

	We attended a theatrical play put on inside an uninhabited mine that once produced Rosendale Cement that dominated the cement industry until Portland cement was invented in the early 1900s. We met Lydia, who with her husband, Marvin own the Snyder Mansion, the family who owned the Rosendale Cement Company. Both own small businesses they run out of their home. Lydia gave Glorine some of her products made from natural essential oils including soaps and lotion. Cool stop and another fun day.	Before leaving New York, we met up with our son-in-law, Mike's mom, Bonnie and Ed at Louie's Oyster Bar and Grill in Port Washington overlooking Manhasset Bay on the North Shore of Long Island. While Mike grew up on Long Island, he is the only one of Bonnie's four children who no longer live on the Island. It was great seeing them again and learning more about their lives and a bit more about Mike. The weather could not have been better and the sunset was spectacular. A great finish to our July adventures.

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July's web page includes July 1 through July 31.