Jim and Kim's Travels: June 2024

On the road again 🎜...we're off to Quebec and Ontario. First we're meeting up with our grandson, Dominic, in Lennoxville, Quebec. After that, it's on to Port Hope, Ontario to meet up with Jim's school friends for their annual reunion.

Always love this view...

Not so much when it turns into this...

We went through the US this time, as it is shorter to get to that part of Quebec. And they have sunshine!

Although these didn't look like happy clouds...

There were many pretty sights along the way...

With quaint little towns...

And lots of trees...

It was the story for the day...a bit of sun, usually followed by some serious downpours.

Pretty little towns...

It was a lovely drive when it was sunny...

And then back to rain...

We were really happy to arrive at our hotel in Sherbrooke. The OTL Gouverneur got good reviews, especially the breakfast. The lobby was beautiful. It also had a very posh spa on-site.

And huge pillows!

We were picking Dominic up the next morning and taking him on a tour of the eastern townships. My mother was born there and I have great memories of visiting my grandparents, aunt and uncle, and our cousins nearly every summer.

I made a very quick family tree, so he would know who I was talking about.

Arriving at Bishop's College School to pick up Dominic and get a tour of the campus. It would take quite a while to walk around the campus, so we did a quick drive around and I took zero pictures. What the heck?

I pilfered this one online...a little fuzzy, but it's a nice aerial view...

After our tour of the campus, we decided to head to Magog Street in Sherbrooke, where Aunt Roberta and Uncle Bob lived with their three children, Richard, Nancy and Debbie. We had great memories of this house and loved that the basements of the duplexes were joined so you could go from one residence to another. Now it seems weird!

We went on to Cookshire, where my mother was born. This is St. Peter's Anglican church that she attended, built in 1868.

I kept seeing signs for Chemin des Cantons and was trying to figure out what it meant...

And now I know...the Townships Trail. This whole area was English, having been settled by the Loyalists.

When I couldn't find my grandmother's house, I called my brother, who informed me it is no longer there. But he did recommend that we visit the standing stones in the churchyard. Called a callanish, they are similar to those found in Scotland in 3000 BC and were used to track the passages of the moon. These commemorate the Scots who came to this area of Quebec.

The church was important, but not as much as the Dew Drop Inn across the street from it, which held great childhood memories for us. We would get there by running through the yard across the street from my grandparents' house. The store was fascinating to us as kids. It had everything you could imagine in it...housewares, food, candy, comics! We were able to pick a comic for our return drive home to keep us quiet in the car.

The owner, Ken Fraser, always seemed happy to see us and let us pick some candy each time. His wife, Susie, had a hairdressing salon in the back. So the men would gather in the store and the women would gather in the salon and lots of tales would be exchanged. We loved this place.

Not surprisingly, it is no longer there. A pharmacy occupies the spot where it stood. Dominic with his eagle eyes noticed that one of the pharmacists listed on the sign was a Desruisseaux, my mother's maiden name. Hmmm! Not sure who that would be.

On to the cemetery...

My grandmother...

Grandfather...

My uncle who was killed in a car accident when he was 22. Devastating for the family.

On the other side of the headstone is Mom's sister's grave. Aunt Roberta was married to Bob Cilles and they are buried here, along with their daughter, Nancy, and her two sons (ages 12 and 14), who were all killed in a tragic car accident in 1988.

We were about to leave when I spotted another Desruisseaux.

This would have been my great uncle. He had a twin brother, Roy, who we would visit in nearby Scotstown. I didn't remember Uncle Ray at all, which made sense when I saw the dates. He died in 1948. They had a daughter who died in her forties.

Grampy had a cousin, Oscar, whom he was very close to. We would love visiting Uncle Oscar and Aunt Maude's. They didn't have any children and put up with our shenanigans while we were there. In the shed at the back was an old wall mounted phone with the crank on the side, which would then ring in the house. We rang that phone constantly running back and forth between the shed and the house. We must have driven them crazy with the noise!

They also had a hand water pump outside, which we took great pleasure in playing with.

And this is the house today...thank heavens for Dominic's good eyes. He matched doors and windows from the old picture with this house. And then we saw the shed in the back. Such great memories.

We stopped at Resto 108 nearby for brunch. Food was excellent and prices were quite inexpensive.

Time for Dominic to go back to campus. I'll do my proud grandmother brag here...he is 15 and went to Bishop's on a hockey scholarship, ended up playing on the golf team as well, and received the Matheson award for the highest marks in his form (grade) at the end of the year. Not the best picture, but at least we got one with him. So great to spend the day with him.

It was time to head to Ontario to meet up with Jim's school friends. They all grew up in Noranda, Quebec, and they've known each other for almost 80 years! We have a monthly Zoom call (one good thing that came out of the pandemic) and there are usually a few others who join in each month.

Arriving at the cottages on Rice Lake...

The long road to the cottages...

They were older cottages, but very clean. In the left cottage were Rick and Tracie. In the middle cottage were Ray and Dianne. Jim and I were in the cottage on the right. Bill was going to share with Rick and Tracie, but both of them were under the weather, so he moved in with Ray and Dianne.

We were all happy to have the AC/heater. It was cold at night!

We had a bunny visitor...

Lots of kayaks, paddle boards and canoes to use...

Just a tad warmer would have been fabulous. We joked about how nice the forecast was for the following week.

Ray with Bill's bottle of scotch. Bill was religiously following the protocol for drinking fine scotch. We're all classy with some chips!

We held the reunion in this area as Andy is undergoing chemo and couldn't travel, so we brought the reunion to him. Andy, Bill, Tracie, Jim, Ray and Dianne. Lots of great conversation...

Ray, Dianne, me, Andy and Bill.

The next day, Jim and I went to a restaurant nearby to have lunch with our dear friends, Barb and Ed. We met on a plane in 2005 when we were going to China. We heard them talking and realized they were on the same cruise as us. Many years of travels and friendship followed. They are now living in a retirement home, and we were very fortunate that their son, Paul, offered to bring them to meet us.

Barb, me and Jim...

And Ed on the right...it was so nice to see them and catch up.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, Tracie was feeling better, but was looking for anything to help Rick feel the same. We headed out to find a drugstore. Kawartha Dairy ice cream...mmm! So good and cures any ailments.

Finally on the last day, we had sun! And Rick finally felt well enough to join us. Dianne and I sitting with (from the left) Jim, Ray, Bill, Tracie, Rick.

And the guys...everyone was trying to keep their distance as nobody wanted anyone else's bugs!

And with that, the 2024 Reunion was in the bag. We headed towards Kingston...always love seeing the Big Apple in Colborne.

We were meeting up with another grandson, Nick, in Bath. Nick is working in the area on new house construction, and suggested having lunch there. We were a bit early and found this nice park to chill.