It's time to say Good bye

It's been a very busy time but now it's time to say good bye.
Let's see, what have we done for the last couple of days. Sunday morning we were slow getting up but we had no real reason to be up early. Again it was beautiful and sunny. Greg calls every night to tell us that it's rainy and awful weather in Guelph. We had breakfast then headed out to Lakeside Beach. We were in search of some red sand for Meghan's teacher. It was quite chilly there and there's still lots of ice on the water - huge chunks that are washed right up onto the shore and a long way out into the water. We walked along the beach for a bit and looked for some shells. Unfortunately the sand at Lakeside isn't red. Contrary to what the advertisements might lead you to believe, not all the beaches have red sand. But we did find a really interesting piece of driftwood. It had been partially burned by someone attempting to have a bon fire on the beach, but one end is shaped a little like a seals head, and there's a knot in the wood right where the eye should be. Patti carried it to the car for me, and I'll put it into my flower garden when I make it this spring. That's one thing about this house that totally surprised me when I moved here - not a single flower bed on the place. But with moving in and getting settled last spring, I just didn't get to it, but for sure this spring.
Anyway, after we left Lakeside, we headed into town and Meghan and I went to see Alice in Wonderland at the movies, and Patti took James and Tristen swimming. When the movie, which was in 3-D, was over, we went and picked Patti and the boys up and went to The Old Triangle. It's an Irish Pub downtown on University Avenue. Every Sunday they have a jam session with traditional Irish music. It's all instrumental, lots of fiddles, etc, and it's very good. I thought it might be nice to expose the kids to something new. They loved it. We spent the afternoon there and didn't leave until almost 5:30. We had drinks, and food and the kids really seemed to enjoy the music.

On our way home, we saw Brenda walking down the road. She had spent the entire afternoon studying and was out for a walk to clear her head. We stopped and chatted with her, then we picked up another sled at her place. One of our crazy carpets seems to have gotten blown away at Christmas. The sharing of two carpets between three kids was not going so well. When I mentioned it to Brenda on Saturday night, she said she had two plastic sleds in her barn. Once again Van Gaal Sporting Goods has come to our rescue. (I had borrowed bicycles and kayaks from her in the summer when Petra was here from England). Now that the time had changed on Saturday night, the daylight lasts much longer. They went out in back somewhere. Meghan and Tristen didn't stay out too long but James was out for quite a while, with the dog.

Monday morning dawned, once again, bright and sunny. It was expected to be a little chillier and somewhat windier, but that was not the case early in the morning. It's been quite chilly first thing but it soon warms up.

Today was Cathy Lasby's birthday. She and I have known each other since public school at Brookville. I always try to call her on March 15th. We haven't talked since we had lunch before I moved here, so it was nice to catch up. She says she plans to make a visit to the island, and I really hope that happens. I'd love to share my new life with her.

After a leisurely morning, as we had no plans today, we finally headed out to Basin Head Beach in search of some 'singing sand'. It was quite vocal when Lloyd and I were there last September, but there was not a sound coming from it on Monday. I have no idea why, but we'll just have to go back again in the summer. The water on this part of the island has no ice whatsoever. The beach was totally deserted, as would be expected and we took a long walk. James found a sand dollar. I've been told that they are found here, but I've never seen one. When I mentioned it to Brenda, she said that she's never found one either. Apparently we have star fish as well, but we didn't find any of those.
After we left Basin Head, we drove along the north shore and made our way to Greenwich Beach. Patti and Greg had been to both beaches before when they were here but of course the kids wouldn't have remembered. She does remember that Basin Head was closed at the time due to some sort of construction.
Greenwich has a tower that you can climb up and the kids really enjoyed doing that. There's a wooden boardwalk out to the water, and unfortunately when we got to the end, it was closed off for the season. The end was barricaded off and the steps had been brought up from the shore, so you couldn't actually get down to the beach. So we headed out to go to town.

Once in town, our destination was a used bookstore on Queen Street. James has gotten into reading the Hardy Boys books. The older ones are out of print, and can only be found at used book store. He found two books and another Hardy Boys Detective Handbook. This one was quite a bit more expensive than the other two, but when we took it to the cash, she mentioned that it is quite rare, and they only get one in every three or four years. So we may have just found a treasure. It's interesting reading as it's really about fifty years old, and talks about police science being relatively new. Meghan and Tristen both got a book as well, and I found a couple for me. One was a book I've been meaning to get for some time called "French Women don't get fat" and explains why the French stay slim eating a diet heavy in cream and butter. (The key is moderation of course). But it also has some interesting recipes and a guide to eating better.
The second book is called "For my children's children" and it is a guide full of suggestions of how to start a journal that can be passed on to your grand children. It has lists of questions to answer, things that you would never think to write down, so that when you finish, there is a very comprehensive 'story' about who you really were - lots of tiny little details about you and your life. I thought it might be something fun to do. It's something you can just pick away at a little at a time.

From the bookstore to COWS - no trip to PEI is complete without a trip to COWS for ice cream. Needless to say, no one was going to be hungry any time soon (except Tristen, who's favorite saying is "I'm hungry", except of course for when he's "starving")

A quick stop at the grocery store, then to Froggy's then home.



Later in the evening, Meghan and I went over to Brenda's to return the sleds, and bring some cupcakes to Bernie. He told Meghan(2) that they could very well become good friends! Earlier in the day James had been looking through some pins I had, and I told him he could take any that he wanted. We found a Jaguar pin that I think I got from Mike Gibbs (that's a whole other story) and being as Brenda drives a Jag, we thought she should have that pin, so we took that as well. We had also found a cupcake kit at the book store that we thought Meghan(1) might like so we took that as well. It's quite cute, probably nothing new for her, but fun just the same. Meghan(2) thought that Meghan(1) would really like to have it.

Now it's Tuesday morning, and I'm on my way to work. They are flying out at 1:30 this afternoon, so I will meet them at the airport to say goodbye before they go. But I will be seeing them again on the weekend as it turns out. All in all, I think they enjoyed their stay here.

When I got home Monday afternoon, I got a call from Jana, who's in Mexico, telling me that her dad passed away that morning. I was very saddened to hear that and I immediately booked a flight out on Thursday afternoon. I can't not go to the funeral. The Balner family was so good to me when I worked there, you truly felt as though you were truly part of the family. Now it truly is a time to say good bye.