Oh Canada!
Well friends and family we are back safe in Texas. Our trip to the north was quite interesting. We should have know the trip wasn’t going to be a smooth one, when not thirty minutes after picking up our rental car we were on the side of the road with a flat tire. Well you know Sean, always positive. As I slowed the car down and started a string of words I planned on telling the rental company, Sean jumped out of the car all perky and asked Julie if she’d ever changed a tire. When the answer was no he got even more peppy and said well today is your lucky day. As I got on the phone to figure out the situation Sean and Julie changed the tire in the pouring rain. A nice guy stopped at one point and helped, awesome to know there are still good Samaritans out there.
As we left the rental car place for the second time that day, Sean and Julie were staring at me strangely. I was confused and asked what I did? They both replied… well nothing. Apparently it is now more shocking to them when I don’t chew out crappy businesses than when I do. I can’t win. Anyway, we headed to Port Huron and dropped Julie with Aunt Louise, Uncle Al and Simon. Of course this was after having our first Tim Hortons doughnuts. Sean claims that at the end of the trip he was coming off of a 10 day high on sugar and maple cream… we did have a lot of doughnuts. 
Sean and I proceeded on to Midland, MI to visit some of my extended family.
As the evening wore on there was no way we were going to make it there in time for dinner. There was an accident that took up two miles of the road, rain pouring down and we had already been delayed. Thus we checked in with family to let them know and Sean sheepishly said lets stop up here for dinner. I was pretty hungry and fine with about any kind of food, so I chose not to read into that comment. Turns out he took me to Tony’s. He smiled and urged as he said we really need to share a sandwich. When the sandwich arrived I laughed till I cried. It was the biggest ruben and fries I had ever seen in my life.
The next morning we headed over to my Cousin Ryan’s place to meet our new family member — Roman John Patrick. Let me tell you folks, I have never felt my age so much in all my life. As I walked in my Aunt handed me Roman and I plopped down on the couch to get a good look. I have to admit part of me was dumbfounded there was even a baby. Not that I don’t believe my family when they tell me things, but if you knew this particular cousin, you would be a little hard pressed to believe that he’s getting married much less that he’s already a dad. I checked out the little guy and realized how much he looked like Ryan… and Ryan looks like my dad. It was like staring at a mini version of my own father. CRAZY! He was beautiful though. Sean played, checked and inspected as long as they would let him. He can be quite an engineer when it comes to babies. I also presented my cousin and his fiancée with a gift I had made for then. Now it wasn’t a perfect quilt, but it was made with love. I’m pretty sure they liked it and well Roman was blown away. 
After visiting with my Aunt and Uncle some more and briefly seeing my cousin again we headed into Canada. As we crossed the bridge I thought Sean was going to pass out. I wasn’t sure what he was so excited about until he made me head under the bridge. The fry trucks were there!!!! For those of you who don’t know what this is I will gladly explain. In Sarnia for most of the summer there are a couple of food trucks under the bridge. They serve the worlds best fries (my personal opinion of course). They serve them with salt and vinegar or you can get them made into poutine. We were in heaven people! We found out that they stay there on weekends until the end of October. I’m so glad we came for the week before the wedding instead of after!
From there we headed to Aunt Louise and Uncle Al’s place. Louise had made a beautiful meal. I had never had cabbage rolls but they were amazing! Though pretty much anything that Louise makes turns out great. She also gave me some recipes from Sean’s Grandmaman’s cook book. SCORE! We enjoyed chatting with them and Simon for the evening. Unfortunately Simon was a bit under the weather. Though he was perky enough to get in some Lego time with Sean. The next day we drove through Sarnia to check out Sean’s old stomping grounds… well his stomping grounds as a less than 9 years old. Sean moved from Sarnia at an early age and mostly remembers Edmonton. Though as he proved to Julie and I there are quite a few memories in this place. Like the fries for Jesus (Ask Sean to explain this sometime).
On Tuesday we packed up the car and headed for Hamilton. Unfortunately by this point we realized Julie had caught what ever Simon was sick with. We would soon come to find out that it was a mild case of H1N1. Poor Julie spent the next four days huddled under blankets in our hotel room. Sean and I did what we cold to make Julie comfortable, buy soup, lots of Tylenol, and whatever else we could think of. We didn’t want to sit around though. I mean we figured the longer we were with her the better the chance we would get sick. So we slept in most mornings and then headed out for the afternoon. On Tuesday we drove via the QEW into Burlington and up to Bronte Harbor Park. We also tried to check out the H.C. M.S. Haida which is a Canadian destroyer that served in WWII. Unfortunately they had already shut down tours for the winter. Wednesday we headed to check out Niagara Falls from the Canadian side. The day was quite foggy and rainy but the view was quite impressive. We then traveled along the Niagara river north through Niagara on the Lake and around into St. Catherine’s for dinner. The next day we stayed a bit closer to the hotel and walked all over downtown Hamilton. We found a specialty food store and two of the specialty items made me laugh, Mrs. Renfro’s and Zatarain’s. I think its hilarious when things you see everyday are specialty somewhere else. They only wanted about $5 Canadian for a small jar of salsa. We also got to check out an amazing farmers market though, and let me tell you those Canadian’s know their pastries!
That even we enjoyed a lovely dinner with Aunt Kathy, Uncle Iain, and Graham. I felt a bit bad as Kathy had prepared a beautiful meal, and due to some new dietary restrictions she couldn’t eat any of it. I helped make up for that the next nigh by making some Texas Chili. I felt a bit bad though as I’m not used to cooking with gas anymore and I left her pan and stove looking a little worse for the ware. The ladies, Kathy, Sally, Julie and I, had a great time chatting and catching up while the men were out for the stag party. You’ll have to ask Sean about what happened as I’ve been sworn to secrecy. However I can tell you Sean was still pretty drunk when he showed back up at our hotel Saturday around noon! We let him rest a bit, but no rest for the silly drinkers on vacation! We soon headed off to Aunt Pam and Uncle Jim’s for a meal with the whole family. Colin and Sandra were there and we got to question them all about the wedding, honeymoon and their future plans. There was also an unplanned bagpipe and drum performance by family and friends during the evening. All in all it was good fun and great to spend time with family.
The next day we all got dolled up for the reason we were there and headed for the wedding. They had the wedding in a lovely old mill called Ancaster Old Mill, in Ancaster, Ontario. There were an amazing number of friends and family that showed up for the wonderful occasion. We laughed, ate, drank, heard interesting facts about the couple, and some lovely speeches from friends, family and the bride and groom. We stayed until the end and wished them a good honeymoon as they left that evening. The next day Sean, Julie and I headed back to Detroit for our flight back to Texas. We were all exhausted but it was well worth the trip.
We would like to wish Colin and Sandra a long and happy life together. As Mark Twain once said, “Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of joy, you must have somebody to divide it with.” We are so happy you both have found such amazing people to share all your joys.
We would like to remind all our family that we would love to see you more often and you are welcome to visit us here in Austin anytime!
Today we are thankful for family, telephones, and each other!