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We chose to spend the winter in sunny California. We began with a couple of weeks in the Sacramento area, which allowed us to do some chores (appointments, visiting our storage unit, etc.) and to celebrate Andy’s December birthday. We rented a house in Orangevale, across Lake Natoma from the historic Gold Rush city of Folsom. We enjoyed walks along the lakefront and we even saw bald eagles nesting in a tree not far from our house. We also had a chance to see beautiful Christmas decorations on a stroll through the upscale “Fabulous Forties” neighborhood in Sacramento. The neighborhood association goes all-out to decorate the entire neighborhood for the holidays.

We spent Christmas with our family in Camarillo. We rented a small house in Silver Strand, a half block from the beach in Oxnard, and Andy joined us there for a few days. We took along Christmas stockings and some of our decorations to make the place look like home for the holidays.

We spent January in San Diego. Carrie’s cousin lives in Las Vegas and she and her husband have a condo in San Diego that they generously let us use for a month. We drove to Las Vegas to have a short family visit and to pick up the keys, and then we were off to San Diego. The condo is on the edge of downtown so we had an urban experience, which was very pleasant considering that San Diego bills itself as “America’s Finest City.” We enjoyed the shorts-and-t-shirt weather, making it seem more like spring than winter.

We took long walks almost every day. One of our first treks was to the Tijuana River Estuary, a wildlife sanctuary at the ocean, just north of the Mexican border. The river begins in Mexico and flows northward into the US, where it empties into the Pacific. The delta wetlands are a natural bird refuge, but we didn’t see many birds on our visit. The nearby hills of Tijuana form an urban backdrop to the idyllic wildlife preserve.

We walked in La Jolla several times. There is a long walkway along the ocean front at the top of the cliffs. We looked down on sea lions and birds at the beach.

We took a day trip out to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, about a two hour drive east of San Diego. We had never been to this park so we wanted to take advantage of it while we were in San Diego. The park preserves a beautiful piece of California desert land. It seemed like the Palm Springs area might have been before development took over. We enjoyed an orientation at the visitor center followed by a desert hike after lunch.

We had never been on campus at San Diego State University (SDSU) so we decided to take a walk there on a weekend when it wasn’t crowded with students. We were very impressed with the beautiful campus. SDSU is over a hundred years old and it features a number of old buildings built in the mission architectural style. Beautiful southwestern gardens are interspersed among the buildings.

Our friends Sue and Leo came to San Diego to visit Sue’s college friend, Mary, and we all spent the day at the San Diego Zoo, one of the finest zoos in the world. We had not been to the zoo in many years so it was fun to return. We also enjoyed several of our daily walks in Balboa Park, the home of the zoo. Balboa Park hosted the Panama-California Exposition in 1915 to celebrate the opening of the Panama Canal, and most of the exposition buildings remain. It was a treat to walk through the park and see these magnificent old buildings.

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We left Quebec in mid-October to begin our cross-country drive back to California, and just in time, too. A few days before we left the snow removal contractors began placing their metal stakes at the entrances to driveways that they had been paid to plow after each snowstorm. The stakes are about four feet tall! It seemed like a perfect time to head south.

Our first stop was Rhinebeck, New York, about a hundred miles up the Hudson River from New York City. Rhinebeck is the home of the New York Sheep and Wool Festival, the highlight of the North American knitting calendar and the main reason for our trip to the Northeast. We spent a full weekend at the festival, blessed by crisp fall weather and beautiful fall colors. We saw hundreds of vendors’ exhibits, a sheep dog demonstration, and lots of sheep, alpacas, and rabbits. Carrie was in heaven and was able to reconnect with some knitting friends and make some new ones. She hopes to see some of these folks again at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival in March. Charlie, not a knitter but always a naturally curious person, found the festival to be fascinating and would like to return sometime.

On our return trip to California we stopped for a few hours in Kettering, Ohio, just outside Dayton, to explore the neighborhood where Carrie lived as a child. Her old house is still there and is in good shape but the neighborhood looked very different. It was a new development 60 years ago with no tall trees, only new saplings. Now those saplings are mature shade trees.

We made good time driving across country so we could arrive in California in time to housesit (and catsit) for our friends Sue and Leo while they were on vacation. Their house is far outside of town near Paso Robles so we enjoyed the peace and quiet. Carrie especially enjoyed living with a cat again.

Next we drove north for a quick visit with Andy and then we headed south again to spend a couple of days in Palm Springs. We hadn’t been there in many years and we wanted to see it again. We enjoyed seeing all of the well-preserved mid-century architecture, a feature of Palm Springs.

Then we were off to Ojai for another round of housesitting and catsitting for our friends Betsy and Bob. Their house is quiet and serene, with birdfeeders off the patio to attract a variety of birds. Unfortunately, we thought we were being helpful visitors when we threw the old Thanksgiving turkey carcass into the trash can outside after several days in the kitchen trash. But, a local bear must have smelled it and raided the can, strewing trash all over the driveway. You’re welcome, bear!

After our visit to Ojai, we made a quick stop in Santa Barbara and then traveled back north to Paso Robles for a Christmas party with our dear friends from Food Group. Purrkins was happy for all the extra attention.

One of the highlights of our stay was watching the L.A. Kings hockey team play in Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto. Hockey is huge in eastern Canada so it was a treat to experience it.

We began with a Thursday evening game at the Bell Centre in Montreal, the epicenter of hockey (although folks in Toronto would dispute that claim). The Montreal Canadiens have won 24 Stanley cups, more than any other team, and their banners hang all across the ceiling of the arena. In their pregame show they project team photos of all 24 winners on the ice. Our game was the season home opener for the Canadiens so they had special ceremonies for that, and they also honored the 1993 team on the 25th anniversary of their Stanley Cup. Kind of hard to believe it’s been 25 years since the Cup was in Canada.

A game in Montreal is unique because most of the announcements are in French, with English translations thrown in here and there. The national anthem singer sang the first stanza of “O Canada” in French and the second in English. You hear French all around you in the stands.

On Saturday we drove over to Ottawa for the Kings’ afternoon game with the Ottawa Senators. The arena in Ottawa is out in the suburbs, adjacent to the freeway right next to an auto mall. Quite a contrast to Montreal, where the arena is right downtown (we took the Montreal subway to that game). Announcements in Ottawa are also in French and English, since many fans come over from Quebec, but the vibe was more that of English-speaking Canada.

In the parking lot before the game Charlie started chatting with a man wearing a Kings cap. As it turned out, he and his wife are the parents of Tyler Toffoli, one of the Kings’ players. They had driven up to Ottawa from their home in Toronto for the game, and they will attend Monday’s game in Toronto, as well. The Kings have more Canadian players than any other NHL team, most of them from Ontario. Many family members attend the games when the Kings play in eastern Canada. It was a special treat to get a glimpse into the Kings family.

Our third and final game was in Toronto. It’s a five hour drive from Montreal so we made it an overnight trip. We stayed in a downtown hotel so we could walk to the arena, about a mile. Toronto’s downtown is modern, clean, and safe, but no surprise there – it’s Canada!

Like in Montreal, the arena in Toronto is in the center of the city, adjacent to their very busy train station. There is extra excitement in the air when the arena is right downtown. The arena is rather new and very large, and it has an adjoining outdoor plaza where fans gather for big games to watch on a huge big screen TV. The staff that runs the jumbotron in the arena seem to have a good sense of humor. Whenever the Maple Leafs score a goal (which, unfortunately, was four times during our game) they show a few hilarious short clips of movie and TV stars (and cartoon characters) jumping up and down, dancing, hugging, etc.

 

Louise Penny is an author who has written several mystery novels set in the fictional village of Three Pines, inspired by villages in Quebec’s Eastern Townships, about 70 miles southeast of Montreal near the border with Vermont. Carrie is a big Louise Penny fan, as are our visitors, Chris and Reed. We took a day trip to explore the region. We began at a tourist information office in the village of Sutton, about 8 miles north of the Vermont border. They had lots of information on Louise Penny, as her novels have become a focus of tourism in the region. The attendant in the office said we might actually see Louise in our wanderings and that we should say hello, as she is very friendly. Alas, we didn’t see her.

We stopped by a nearby picturesque village church that had been mentioned in the novels, and then we moved on to the village of Knowlton (called Lac-Brome in French) for lunch. After lunch we visited the local book store, Brome Lake Books, which has an entire section devoted to Louise Penny. The bookstore also appears as a fictional setting in the books.

Later in the afternoon we visited the Abbey of Saint-Benoit-Du-Lac, overlooking beautiful Lake Memphremagog. The priests at the abbey specialize in making cheese and we purchased some to have for dinner later that evening. The cheese from here is also served at Gabriel and Olivier’s bistro in Ms. Penny’s books.

We finished the day with a visit to the Domaine Bresee Winery. There are quite a few wineries in the Eastern Townships. Their wines are not great by California standards, but they are quite good considering the harsh winter conditions in the region.

Perhaps most importantly, we enjoyed beautiful crisp and sunny autumn weather, and the fall colors were stunning throughout the day. For a bunch of Californians we experienced the most spectacular fall colors of our lives.

Our friends Chris and Reed came to visit for a few days and one of the highlights was exploring Vieux Montreal (Old Montreal). The city was founded in 1642 and the old original part of the city is preserved in a few blocks along the St. Lawrence River. While walking through the streets one can imagine what life might have been like in those early years (although I doubt that they had souvenir shops back then). We did some strolling and some shopping and we ate lunch in a small cafe.

After lunch we drove to the top of Mount Royal, the highest point in the city and the inspiration for the city’s name. Mount Royal offers a beautiful view of downtown and it has a network of forested walking trails that are heavily used by the locals. There is an old chateau building at the top with a large ballroom-type interior.

The next day we went back to Vieux Montreal, this time by boat. During the summer months a ferry operates from Longueuil to Vieux Montreal. The owner of our rental house told us that the ferry affords a spectacular view of the Montreal skyline and he was right. We were fortunate to catch the ferry on its last weekend of operation before the winter stoppage.

We took a couple of day trips while we were in Montreal, one to Quebec City (the old French colonial center) and one to Ottawa (the national capital of Canada).

Quebec City is very old, dating back to the early 1600s. The old central part of the city is set on a high bluff overlooking the St. Lawrence River, and it has a network of winding, narrow streets. It reminded us of old cities we had seen in France.

We took one of those hop on/hop off bus tours which allowed us to get an overview of the city. We don’t usually take tours, but this one seemed like a good idea because Quebec City has a rather confusing layout, with parts of the city on the bluff and parts near the river (with steep hills to climb!). We enjoyed the tour, even though it was cold sitting outside on the top of the bus. On the first circuit of the tour we found a place we wanted to explore more, the Joan of Arc Garden, so we hopped back on the bus and went there for a longer visit. The garden has an impressive display of flowers but a special highlight was a display of Halloween art throughout the garden. The Joan of Arc Garden is part of a large public park preserving the Plains of Abraham, the site of a decisive 1759 battle between the British and the French that led to British control of Canada.

On another day we traveled to Ottawa, Canada’s capital city. We went out of curiosity and didn’t have any expectations, but as it turned out we were very impressed. Parliament Hill, the center of Canada’s government, consists of a spectacular array of Gothic Revival buildings, built in the 1860s. The buildings are impressive from any angle, but especially as viewed from the bluffs overlooking the Ottawa River.

Adjacent to Parliament Hill is the Rideau Canal and its network of beautiful parks and walkways overlooking the locks. The canal was opened in 1832 to provide Canada with a reliable connection between the St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario as a precaution in case of war with the United States. In the winter a section of the canal passing through central Ottawa becomes the worlds largest and second longest skating rink. We don’t intend to return in the cold Canadian winter to check it out.

Also adjacent to Parliament Hill is a large statue commemorating Canada’s fallen veterans in all of its wars over the past hundred-plus years. Canada seems to be very proud of their military, and rightly so. Canadian troops have fought side-by-side with US troops in all of our major wars. Canadians were especially crucial in the battles that led to the end of WWI, a hundred years ago. We were fortunate to be at the statue during the changing of the guard, complete with uniformed Canadian soldiers and a bagpiper in kilts. All of the military commands were issued in both English and French.

We walked past the US Embassy, a massive building reflecting the close relationship between our two countries. The embassy is heavily fortified, with barricades along the street to prevent any sort of car bomb attack. Unfortunately the architecture is very uninspiring, especially in contrast to the spectacular nearby buildings on Parliament Hill.

We left Chicago and spent a few days visiting relatives in Illinois and Michigan. Then we crossed back into Canada to spend a few weeks in Montreal. We needed a place to spend some time on the East Coast between our Chicago visit and the New York Sheep and Wool Festival in late October, a highlight on Carrie’s knitting calendar. Montreal is a wonderful city but what sealed the deal was Charlie’s discovery that our beloved L.A. Kings hockey team would be playing in Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto during October.

We rented a house in Longueuil, a suburb of Montreal just across the river from the city. We didn’t know exactly what we were getting but it turned out to be wonderful. Longueuil is a lovely old village and it is away from the congestion of the city and far off the tourist track, just what we like. We got a taste of what daily life is like for the Quebecois.

We were a bit surprised at the predominance of the French language. English is common in parts of Montreal, especially downtown and in the tourist areas. In Longueuil, however, French is the first language for most people. Some folks also speak English well, many speak a bit of English, and some speak only French. All of the signage is exclusively in French, including the food labels in the grocery store. The French we had learned in Lyon paid off.

Traffic in Montreal is terrible, the worst we have seen in any North American city. The infrastructure is old, apparently from the 1950s, so there aren’t many modern freeway interchanges. The good news is they are investing a lot of resources into improving their roads. The bad news is they are investing a lot of resources into improving their roads, so there is construction EVERYWHERE. Major freeways frequently narrow down to two lanes or even one lane. They say there are two seasons in Canada, winter and construction.

 

We met up with some of our Food Group friends in Chicago, eight of us in all. Half of the group had been to Chicago and loved it, and half were first time visitors. We decided earlier this year to meet there for a four-day vacation and we rented a big house in Wrigleyville, north of downtown just three blocks from Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs.

We packed a lot of activities into our short stay. Several of us visited the house and studio where Frank Lloyd Wright lived and worked for twenty years around the turn of the last century. The architecture reflected the prairie style that became his trademark.

A highlight of the week was an architecture boat tour on the Chicago River. Chicago is famous for its architecture and a boat tour is the best way to see it. Our tickets also allowed us entrance to the Chicago Architecture Center, a new museum across the street from the river.

The next day everybody enjoyed the day at the Art Institute of Chicago, one of the world’s great art museums. We ended the day with a stroll through Millenium Park. We marveled at the reflective artwork in the Cloud Gate statue, nicknamed “The Bean” by the locals. An unexpected downpour hurried us back home for dinner.

Several of us took a tour of Wrigley Field, just down the street from our house in Wrigleyville. The Cubs were not playing during the week we were there so we got to see all of the parts of the ballpark, including the locker room, press box, and dugout. Wrigley Field is over a hundred years old and is the second oldest ballpark in the major leagues, second only to Fenway Park in Boston.

On our last evening in Chicago we visited Kingston Mines, a blues club on Chicago’s north side. We saw the Mike Wheeler Band, who we all agreed had one of the best bass players we had ever seen. We were having such a good time that we stayed up past our bedtimes to see an extra set.

We left California to spend a few days driving to Chicago to meet up with friends there. There is a lot of wide open country in Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, and Nebraska, and we enjoyed watching the scenery change as we drove east and seeing the small towns in what some people call “fly-over country.” Carrie noticed lots of deer in the cow pastures in Wyoming. Charlie: “It’s where the deer and the antelope play.” We never grow tired of driving cross-country and seeing the variety in our vast nation.

We spent a day in Des Moines, Iowa, visiting with Carrie’s stepbrother, Theo, and some of his extended family there. Theo moved to Des Moines from California over a year ago and we wanted to see his new town. Des Moines seems to be a very livable city and it has a lot to offer. Theo took us to the Des Moines Botanical Garden and to a downtown t-shirt shop that had lots of hilarious and irreverent shirts.

We left Canada after two months to spend a few days back in the Bay Area before heading east. We had an 11 AM reservation on the ferry from Vancouver Island to the mainland but we received a call shortly after 8 AM to inform us that it had been cancelled due to an equipment problem. We were all packed so we roared out of the condo and made it to the ferry terminal in time to catch the 10 AM departure. We had a wonderful buffet breakfast on board, looking out at the Gulf Islands as we ate. We crossed the border on I-5 and were greeted by a rather surly US border agent, quite a contrast to the friendly and efficient border agent who had welcomed us into Canada.

We decided to travel down the east side of the Cascades in order to see some different scenery. We crossed the Cascades in northern Washington, passing through the tourist town of Leavenworth. Of course, we also made a detour to Carnation, Washington, to visit a yarn store.

Along the way we spent the night in Bend, Oregon, and arrived early enough to take a walk along the Deschutes River, which passes right through the center of town. It was Labor Day weekend and the river was packed with kayaks, canoes, and tubes. Bend is a great town for all sorts of outdoor sports, both summer and winter.

We spent most of the next day in Crater Lake National Park. It is a spectacularly beautiful place, not to be missed if you are in eastern Oregon. The sky was rather hazy due to all of the summer fires in the northwest.

We traveled back to California on I-5. We later learned that I-5 was closed the very next day due to a fire in the Mount Shasta area. We settled into a small hilltop house in Port Costa overlooking the Carquinez Straight near Vallejo. We enjoyed watching the ships and trains go by, far below us.

On the weekend we took Andy and his friend, Jeff, to the USC/Stanford football game. Before the game we visited a new brewpub in Alameda that had a great barbeque food truck parked outside. Sunday was Carrie’s birthday so we celebrated with brunch at the Bull Valley Roadhouse, right down the hill from our Port Costa house.