1887 Kilometres (1173 miles)

That’s the distance I drove in the last week. And I loved every minute of it! What a wonderful vacation!! If you read Kelly’s blog, then you know that we are back. We drove all day Friday and arrived home in the early evening, choosing to take the back roads. These brought us through many small towns that I had heard of but never been to. Interesting towns with wonderful history and architecture. Often when we entered a town, right below the name of the town and population, there would be a sign proclaiming “proud home of this person or that”. Most of the time we had never heard of the person, so Kelly decided they must be hockey players.  All famous Canadians are hockey players, right? At least the ones that small towns are proud of.

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The vacation itself was exactly what I needed. I honestly believe that I’ve re-added three to five years to my life. I feel de-stressed and relaxed and cleared of all things bad that had bottled up inside of me. On several occasions, small things made me laugh so hard I felt I couldn’t breathe. This is something I hadn’t done in years. How did I get to be this way? When did it happen? I don’t know. But it sure was nice to get the real me back.

Perhaps it’s the northern air. It could be the silence or lack of electromagnetic noise. Who knows?  If you read this post, you know that I am from the north and I have always felt that its part of me. I should head up there at least once a year to re-charge my batteries. 

Kelly told of how she was the source of my laughter on several occasions. When I read her post today of how she got lost in the curtains, I laughed again, almost uncontrollably. I suppose you had to be there. But try to imagine the person you love, going in behind some drapes to close a patio door. You hear the door close, the latch lock tight. You watch as the feet turn to face you, and then start to shuffle in one direction. Then a pause, hands are batting at the curtains from behind first to the left, then to the right, then to left again in increasing in speed as the feet shuffle back and forth. Then a pause and in a quiet desperate little voice you hear: “I’m lost in the curtains!” I was laughing already, but that took me over the edge.

There were a few disappointments. The resort was not everything I had hoped for. Well, that isn’t true. The resort was fine. It was the people there that weren’t what I expected. It’s a convention and golf resort, with 3 stunningly beautiful golf courses. As such, many of the people staying there did not come all that way to enjoy nature, fresh air and peace and quiet. They came to golf, drink, talk loud and party. A lot of them seemed to be the “see and be seen” crowd. The kind you find at trendy restaurants and latest clubs in any major city. I would have gladly sent them all back.

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But that was just a small blip, not even worth mentioning really. We spent most of our time away from the hotel anyway, exploring beautiful trails and connecting with nature’s wonders.

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And connecting with each other. I was reminded again and again why we work so well, how lucky I am to have found someone I can just BE with. Be happy, be goofy, be caring, be sad, be myself.
One night we were trying to decide what to do for dinner. For whatever reason, I had a craving for cheese. (No I don’t know why.) We went into town to get cheese and a few other things we needed, and soon our basket had cheese and grapes and some crackers.  I looked at Kelly. “You know, we have the makings of a pretty good little picnic dinner here”  Her eyes lit up, she didn’t really want to go out either! “That’s a great idea!” she said. So we rushed from aisle to aisle, adding olives and some sausage and a few other essentials. We already had a bottle of wine in the room that we brought with us. At the hotel I went to the convention area and found a table where I had seen a neatly laid out display of cups and saucers for the next morning. Presto, little plates for our picnic. We went back to our room, fed Rusty the squirrel, and had ourselves a wonderful, peaceful dinner.

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