Welcome to Our Web Page
When this web page began more than twenty years ago, it described most of the activities of our whole family. Now that most of our children have flown the coop, it is mostly about what Ann and I (Dave) have been up to. I update it most weekends. We save all the messages over the past year in an Archive along with links to what we were doing ten and twenty years ago.
You can click on the pictures above to get a bit more information about each of us.
Sunday August 31
The Railers on the trail to Morell, PEI
Ann and I have been away for the past two weeks biking with the Railers in PEI and with the Ramblers on the Magdalen Islands. We left a week ago Monday driving to Caribou to catch the ferry to Wood Islands and then driving again to Souris. We had time to unload our stuff in the house that we had rented through AirBnB with Kim and Glen (Kim did all the arranging) before joining a short ride on the Confederation Trail to Harmony Junction (now just a place where two branches of the trail meet).
Over the next week we rode every day mostly on the Confederation Trail but with some short sections on roads as well. We went from St. Peter's to Greenwich Beach and back, then out to Morell; from Cardigan to Georgetown, back to Montague, then back to Cardigan; from St. Peter's to Naufrage; from Souris to Elmira, where we toured the Railway Museum, then a loop through North Lake before returning to Souris; and from Fortune Bridge to Sally's Beach. After the Greenwich Beach ride, we also walked out a trail to Greenwich Dunes (part of PEI National Park). In the evenings there were a couple of group functions: on Tuesday, a meet-and-greet with appetizers at the Lighthouse & Beach Motel where most of the Railers were staying; and, on Thursday, a group dinner, organized by Ann, at The Fiddling Fisherman Lookout. On Wednesday, Kim, Glen, Ann and I went out for dinner at 21 Breakwater Restaurant and on Saturday, the four of us drove to Charlottetown to have dinner with friends of Kim at the Sea Rocket Oyster House followed by the show Becoming Dolly at the Mack Theater (part of the Confederation Centre). The rest of the time we cooked and entertained ourselves at the house, mainly doing a couple of jig-saw puzzles that we had brought with us.
Near Cape Alright on Île du Havre aux Maisons
On Sunday morning, Kim and Glen returned to Halifax but Ann and I packed up and caught the 1pm ferry to the Magdalen Islands arriving just before 6pm. Our hotel, the Chateau Madelinot, was a short distance from the ferry terminal so we had time to check in and meet the rest of the Ramblers for dinner in the hotel restaurant.
On Monday, we were up early enough to make a trip to the bakery in Cap-aux-Meules before the day's ride started at 10pm. We rode around Île du Cap aux Meules stopping in at the marina; La Plage à Fatima, where they were constructing a giant lobster to be burned in a giant bonfire a couple of weeks hence; Belle Anse, where there are dramatic sandstone cliffs; l'Étang-du-Nord, where we dropped in at Le Flâneur, a café with some amazing life-size figurines; and l'Église catholique de Saint-Pierre-de-La-Vernière. After the ride we met Ingrid and Mike at l'Abri du Tempête, the local craft brewery, for dinner before going to a concert with a couple of local musicians in l'Étang-du-Nord.
On Tuesday, the weather looked a bit iffy with some light drizzle in the morning, so the rest day scheduled for Wednesday was moved forward. Ann and I went a for a coffee in l'Étang-du-Nord and then to the Fromagerie du Pied-De-Vent where we bought some cheese. In the afternoon we played pétanque on the grass outside our room with Sylvain, Colette and Barb while nibbling on cheese and crackers, and cucumbers that we had brought from my garden. We ordered a pizza for dinner, then Ann conked out while I went to play cards with Sylvain, Colette, Rita, Ted and Lynn.
On Wednesday, we rode from the hotel to Pointe-aux-Loups stopping at the fromagerie and the lighthouse at Cape Alright. We had a picnic lunch before returning (into the wind). That evening we ate in the hotel restaurant with Sylvain and Colette.
Thursday was the only ride which did not start at the hotel; we began a bit past Pointe-aux-Loups and rode to to Grosse Île and Grand-Entrée for a picnic lunch. That evening we had a group dinner at Le Vieux Couvent.
On Friday, we rode from the hotel to La Grave in Havre-Aubert, a touristy village at the southern end of the islands. After lunch at Chez Théo & Margot – Sandwicherie, Ann shopped in the boutiques while I biked around and took photos. On the way back to the hotel, Ann and I stopped and climbed to the lookout platform overlooking Cap-aux-Meules. That evening we ate, just the two of us, at Maisonée des Îles.
On Saturday, we were up at 4:30am to catch the 7am ferry to Souris which arrived just before noon. As our reservation for the Wood Islands ferry wasn't until 5pm, we drove to Georgetown and had a leisurely lunch at the Wheelhouse sitting outside on the deck overlooking the inlet to the Brudenell and Montague Rivers. We then drove to Wood Islands and were able to get on the 3:15pm ferry so we were home by about 6:30pm.
Although I harvested quite a lot of stuff from my garden before we left, some of which we took with us, it continued to produce prolificly in my absence, so I spent much of today harvesting cucumbers, zucchini, peas, beans, carrots, broccoli, tomatoes and eggplants then trying to hack back most of the weeds.