We packed our things, said our goodbyes, and headed east towards that shining city in the clouds — OK, we went back to Ottawa; our warm and legal home. This is our time to spend time with Mom & Sis, to catch up on all those pesky medical appointments, and to cuddle with Hammi.
We arrived a few days ahead of a most auspicious event: Mom’s 80th Birthday!!! Of course, this meant presents, and margaritas, and special outings. This included one incredibly memorable evening at the Oh Canada Eh!? dinner theatre. It features an all-Canadian show of music and cornball skits, all accompanied by a very Canadian meal. Best of all, the servers were the performers, so they would be filling our beer glasses, then running up on stage to do their solo. It was a hoot. And of course, I got used as a small prop in the performance.
It was a great, fun, rollicking show. They even sang Happy Birthday to Mom (and a few others who were also celebrating).
Of course, that was only the beginning of the celebration. Ann made a mountain of much-demanded cookies, I baked a birthday cake that was inspired by Mom’s tradition of using two cake-mix slabs, slapping them together, and covering all the flaws with tons of pre-made icing. And we went out to the pub 
a couple of times so Kathy could show off her talents doing … well, I’m not sure what.
We also pitched in and gave Mom a high-tech electric poncho. She’s often cold, so we think/hope this will get some good use in the coming winter months … if she can remember to keep the batteries charged.
With all the festivities done we soon packed our bags and headed off to our friends in Truro, NS. We often stop in there on our transit between Ottawa and Lewisporte, but this time we were going to house/cat-sit for a couple of weeks so Chet & Margie could travel to Northern Ontario. We spent a couple of days with them before they packed up, leaving us to look after their lovely home, and their four sweet kitties.
In addition to their four kitties, the house was on the range of some free-range chickens that lived a few houses down. There was a resident groundhog, and we were visited by deer. Plus birds… lots of birds. One of the daily duties was to keep all the feeders stocked. No matter how much seed I put in, it seemed to disappear overnight.
Truro is not far from the Bay of Fundy, the place of the world’s largest tides. This creates a large tidal bore, which is basically the line where the tide water pushes stream. The Salmon River near Truro is a great place to see it, so we went out a couple of times, including once with Kathryn and Harald when they dropped by on their way to Newfoundland.
We had a lovely and relaxing time at Chet & Margie’s place, including spending some days with them, both before and after their trip. As it turned out, their time away was cut short by about a week since Margie was in the midst of buying a new house, and selling this current one. So we moved up our ferry crossing to Newfoundland, and headed off to The Rock a week earlier than expected.
But on the way, we decided to kill some time by going to the Fortress of Louisbourg. It’s a largely reconstructed historic site from the days of French and British colonial struggles. It was built by France, but changed hands a number of times in the winds of war. A section was reconstructed a number of years ago, so visitors can experience a bit of the life back then. Pretty cool.
The ferry crossing went smoothly, as did the drive across the island. We arrived back in Lewisporte by mid afternoon. We checked in on the boat, and she looked good, but was in the typical state of disarray. Happily, Kathryn & Harald had rented a BnB, and they offered to let us spend the first night in their spare bedroom. We had a lovely dinner with them, and Mark who had arrived a couple of weeks earlier.
The next day we moved back onto Pachina Mia, and began the slow process of bringing her back to life. Things were in pretty good shape, which is always nice to find. But it still takes a lot of time and effort to get her back into a livable space.
Arriving a week earlier than expected meant we got a start on things sooner. It also meant we were able to join in on the Start of Season party, including the official raising of the flags.
The days slipped by slowly. We got the cover off the boat, and began sorting, fixing and cleaning. We decided to replace the ageing anchor chain, which was a good thing because after pulling out all the old chain, Ann proceeded to vacuum up three liters worth of metal rust-dust out of the chainlocker and off the deck. Yuck (sorry… no pictures).
Mark had arrived a couple of weeks earlier, so was already in the water and pretty settled. So inbetween all the work, we had a lot of quality Mark Time.
The official start of summer was soon upon us, and with it came a few days of stinky hot weather, and yet another birthday. Party ensued, complete with supper at a local fish&chips place (courtesy of Mark), and birthday cake (courtesy of fellow boater Tammy), and lots of great gifts and well-wishers. In reality, it was just another great excuse to gather and drink, but I felt quite honoured.
