30 Years who would have thunk it?

Today of course is our 30^th anniversary, Jim and I started our day, thinking "How in God's name did we make it this far?" Despite our bickering and occasional impatience, I guess it just works.

We had a really nice day, although still quite cool out. Natalie generously lent us her car for the day, so we would not have to rent one. Even came to pick us up at the boat, imagine!

We discovered that we have some difficulty with distances like some of the Americans we ask directions from. So what we thought was a 1.5hr drive to Montreal, turned out to be a 2.5hr drive to Brossard. But it was all worth it.

We went to visit Carole and Michel at their home. For those of you who are regular readers, you will recognize the names as a couple we met while in the Bahamas. They did the great loop trip several years ago and since then have been wintering in the Bahamas on their boat. They had taken some time out to show us all their favorite holes in the Bahamas and this is where we found the million turtles.

Anyway, Carole has since written a book about their adventure, which Michel has edited and I have been translating this book to English over the course of the last few months, whenever I find some down time. It has been a treat for all of us! Our visit to their century home was also a real treat. Michel bought this house many years ago, but it was built in 1860. It is a beautiful house and they received us like royalty. We got to taste goose for the first time, which was an interesting experience. I can say that it does not taste like chicken. It had a bit of liver nuances and was quite tasty. 

Our Lunch was more like a 4 course dinner, followed by a 12 year old El Dorado Rum  as an aperitif. (eat your hearts out Simon and Alex). We had a lovely visit, animated by all sorts of great loop stories and turned out we stayed much longer than anticipated...and loved every minute.

We returned back to Ottawa, just in time for rush hour traffic; which is so foreign to us now; and brought Natalie her car back by 8pm. Natalie drove us to Vittoria, Trottoria restaurant, where we enjoyed a nice romantic dinner to end our anniversary day. Stephanie had suggested it as a nice restaurant and she was right. Thanks Sweety. We then walked back to our boat and ...well you know ....promptly fell asleep! Hence why I did not blog last night of course! 

Today we have an errand to run for new handlebars and a new break handle for my bike. This one had a little mishap while we were locking through the 8 steps on Sunday. Once we get the required stuff to repaire my bike we will make our way up the Rideau again, perhaps a bit more slowly than we came up it, and make our way towards the Trent Severn Canal. We have a date with Jeff and Sue as our next big order of business, and I am quite anxious to see them again.  

Y'all have a great day now.