Brian & Susie - Quebec - A Great Trip!!

I'M HOME AGAIN!!
What a trip we had!! Wendell & Judy, Mom Lillian and I left Hillsboro early Monday morning, June 22, on a foggy day. The fog stayed with us most of the day, so we didn't see as much of Duluth, Mn., as we would have liked. We traveled across minnesota and Wisconsin into upper Michigan, staying overnight in a small town called Seney. The next morning we crossed into Canada at Sault Ste. Marie. Wendell had our passports in hand, answered a couple of questions and we made the crossing without incident. After changing some of our currency into Canadian and buying some groceries, we were on our way farther east. (Ontario seemed like a wide province to cross--especially when all we saw there, as well as much of upper Michigan, was trees, trees, trees on both sides of the road.) Eventually the trees gave way to more farmland, so we could see the lay of the land. The closer we got to Montreal and Sherbrooke, there were hills and round-topped mountains.

Despite a more-than-an-hour delay in Montreal (due to an accident & construction) we arrived at Brian & Susie's apartment by early afternoon on Wednesday. We were all overwhelmed with gratefulness to God as we saw His goodness manifested in a beautiful, completely furnished place for the new family of three to live! Wow!!

We found Susie's parents to be engaging, delightful, so eager to get to know us and understand us, despite the fact that their first language is French. We enjoyed the groom's dinner, the rehearsal, a tour of the Eglise Sur Le Roc's beautiful & functional new church building, the joyous wedding, the big celebration reception! and
the uniqueness of being in a French-speaking nation. It was an amazing experience!

We left Sherbrooke after worshiping with the church family (in French, except for the message), and enjoyed a leisurely, picture-perfect trip through Vermont with its winding roads, mountains & trees, old churches with tall spires, old-world architecture, & even saw the dome of the capitol at Monpelier! Mom and I loved it!
We continued into New York and spent a night at Utika. The following day we made a side trip to Niagara Falls and viewed the Canadian Horseshoe Falls (a lifetime dream of Mom's). The day was perfect, with sunshine and not too hot. It was a multi-sensory experience to get almost drenched by the mist coming from the water that falls (say good-bye to any sort of hairdo!), and hear the roar of the cascading torrent of water. We left satisfied and continued on through New York, along a border of Pennsylvania and into Ohio. We saw lots of BIG water on this trip, including several of the Great Lakes and others.

The second night we bedded down in Elkhard, Indiana, and made it all the way home on Tuesday. Actually, the other three left me off at Minneapolis, where Justin was attending the annual Family Reunion of our family of churches. There I joined him at at the Tuesday evening service and we enjoyed lovely accommodations at the airport Holiday Inn Express. Justin loved being close enough to the airport to watch the planes land and take off. Since we were in view of the Mall of America, we took part of an afternoon to stroll around the Mall.
Now we can say we've "been there--done that". We're not big mall shoppers. We did, however, visit the American Girl doll store, knowing Carrie would have wanted to do that if she had been there. And I found a
little gift for her doll.

We were home by early afternoon on Friday. Time to unpack, unpack & unpack, deprogram, and refocus.
After clothes washing on Saturday and taking in the 125th. anniversary pageant at Toronto in the afternoon,
my Saturday was complete.

Many thanks to Wendell & Judy for inviting me to join them on this once-in-lifetime trip! Mom reveled in it all and did fine the whole time. What a great adventure for an almost 90-year-old!!