It was a great day!

Conditions at 5:30 am: light cloud and 17'
Expected later: mix of sun and cloud and 26'

Arriving at Victoria-by-the-sea

Well, what a great day we had yesterday.  We jumped on our bikes and left here around 10:30 and headed over to Tracadie under sunny skies but with some serious wind. We enjoyed the pancake breakfast at the Community Centre then headed off. We decided our eventual destination would be the Old Triangle but not till much later. We drove through some lovely spots and down some hilly, twisty roads, through Stanhope, Covehead, Wheatley River, Hunter River, Brookvale,

One of the lovely little shops

Crapaud and finally stopping in Victoria-by-the-sea. After parking the bikes along with all the other tourists, we set out on foot to explore. There are several quaint shops with some interesting items and we had a lovely time. There were some people wandering around but nothing you could come close to calling a crowd. When we had checked out every nook and cranny of the village we headed back to town. Brenda called Caitlin to see if she wanted to join us, and we would be there in about 45 minutes. We struck out on the Trans Canada with me in the lead for the first time. It was not as scary as I might have imagined. I just endeavored to - a) keep it right side up, b) keep up with the traffic.
I think we did an okay job. When we got into town we headed down North River Road and I let Brenda take the lead from there. When we arrived and found a parking spot, who should pull in right behind us but Caitlin. It had actually taken us about an hour so the timing was perfect.
The three of us decided to sit on the patio at the pub. The only trouble with that was we couldn't really hear the music out there but we opted for the sun instead. We enjoyed some food, and a cool iced tea before calling it a day - well almost. We stopped at the gas station on Grafton and then went to Tim's to enjoy a tea (in my case, a diet pepsi) on the picnic table outside. I was a little concerned they might ask me to park around the back of the building or something as there were several bikes there and of course,  they were all Harley's. They let me stay, but of course I was parked way at the end of the row of bikes, somewhat out of range of most! It was a lovely evening and I think we were both a little reluctant to see the day end. But eventually we headed across the bridge and up the road to Fort Augustus. I stopped at Brenda's as a couple of things she had purchased were in my back carrier and we got that all sorted around. I was surprised when I got home that it was 7:30. It had indeed been a full day.

Saturday was also pretty good, in spite of the fact that it rained all day. I worked in the morning then did a few errands before heading home. When I got here, I had a nice relaxing hot bath, then got dressed to go back into town. I picked up Mireille at 7:00 and we went to Boston Pizza for supper. We had a lovely time chatting and getting to know each other better. I had met her when I was driving the shuttle so we had only had little chats but we had a really nice time. She has a motorcycle - a really nice one. It's a 2009 Honda Shadow with approximately 1,000 kms on it and she has it for sale as she plans to move back to Montreal. But she won't likely leave until late fall so I suggested she get the bike out and do some riding with us. I think she's tempted so I'm going to call her later in the week and find out what she's decided.

After I dropped her off, I stopped in at Dave and Jocelyn's for a bit. They were having a bit of a party and I've been invited to these before but never actually was able to go. What a great time. It was my first real maritime kitchen party. There we lots of people and several musicians that Dave used to play with. He and two others were on the guitar, one fellow was playing a mandolin, another the piano and Dave's daughter was playing the fiddle. What a great time!  I left around 11:30 but I suspect they were there until the wee hours. He tells me it sometimes goes until 3 or 4 in the morning. I can understand why. What a great time.

Friday I texted Jamie from my old work place (he's no longer there, either) and we got together with a couple of the old crew.  We went for a beer at 5:15 and I cannot imagine where the time went because I felt it was getting late so I should get going. When I looked at my phone it was 8:45, making it 9:15 when I got home. Poor Cooper!  But he was upstairs asleep on the bed when I got home so he wasn't in too distressed a situation.  So Saturday when I went to work, I left him outside for the day and he was fine. I had left the back door into the porch open so he could go inside and I put his fuzzy blanket on the floor by the door. So I did the same thing on Sunday when I was out. On Saturday, when I got home, he came inside, and immediately ran upstairs and jumped up on the bed and rolled around and around like he'd really missed his nice comfy bed. He now has a favorite spot to lay down when he is outside.

Intently guarding his kingdom