The Gathering Begins...

Today started with a trip to the St. Jacob's Market. PJ caught the line for apple fritters when it was only 10 deep and I don't think anyone else bothered as they were too busy taking in the sights (although he did share with his family and Tammy so we can vouch for the fact that they were delicious!). I think everyone made some sort of purchase but even after 1.5 hours I know we didn't see it all. The girls and I will probably make another trip on Saturday.

We took the scenic route (on purpose) to London, stopping in Stratford for lunch. In case you're not up on things, this is the hometown of Justin Bieber which excited certain members of our group - who are not obsessed they say, just curious! There was no neon arrow pointing to his former residence so all we have is pictures of some places he might have frequented in his younger days. Maeve's sister was also born in Stratford.

In hindsight we probably should have headed for the 401, but we took the back way all the way to London, which took longer than we would have liked. The scenery was beautiful - lots of farms (mostly corn and soybeans) and old stone houses and lots of trees (an observation made yesterday by Mason). We arrived at the hotel later than we had hoped but it wasn't really a crisis. I only saw the lobby but the hotel looked very nice.

At 4 p.m. the kids had the opening activities for the gathering. Helena, Ava, and I headed back to Cambridge with a stop at some friends about 1/2 hour off the highway.

As much as we have had fun these past couple of days, I think the girls (well Ava at least) will benefit from some quieter times as there has been a lot going on. They plan on sleeping in and having a swim in the morning and then who knows! Your children, however,will be even busier if that's possible.

I'm hoping PJ will post some pics from the kids while in London and I know they have all written a little something for the blog, just not sure when it will be up. Their schedule is VERY full so you'll have to be patient. I will not bore you with details of our adventures without them but it probably will not be as much fun as the last two days. I have not laughed so hard in a long while (WITH the kids of course:) I might even miss them a little.

We have switched passengers every day so the kids (and drivers) can mix it up a bit. I'm sure that my van is the most fun though! OK, I'm the only one with the DVD player and I finally figured out how to use it last night.

A random piece of info I forgot yesterday - we saw people along the road in Niagara from The Amazing Race TV show! Not sure if they were actual contestants or people doing a dry run b/c the were wearing yellow vests with the show name on them and I don't recall that ever being on tv and the two couples looked like they were on a Sunday stroll so who knows? The bus guy said the show has come through before and no one runs excepts when the camera guys are right there.

I have also not reported on the weather. Yesterday was mostly cloudy but still quite warm. Even though I grew up here, I am still surprised at how sticky you always feel. Today was sunny and quite warm again but not unbearable. We've been quite lucky so far.

Blessings,
Beth