and the relaxing...
there was time for family visits.
My Dads.
My uncle Jean and his partner, Leona.
My high school best friend, Anne-Marie, drove up from Toronto. We shared a cheese course with my aunt Lyse.
Anne-Marie is into compacting a lot of living into one lifetime. She's gone from being an MBA toting stock trader to a college professor of culinary arts and one of Canada's top cheese judges. Her selection of cheeses, as you may imagine, did not disappoint.
My contribution to the day: exercise to burn off the cheese!
Chuck takes us up a mountain in the Gatineaus.
Anne-Marie contemplating murdering us both.
Back home, we turn a plain chicken pot pie recipe into something elegant. Anne-Marie puts on a cooking demonstration that has me writing notes until we crash around midnight.
The next day brings a visit to my cousins' homes. Anne-Marie, part of my family, is dragged along to meet her new cousins.
Dax takes readily to Phil and after that we hardly see the dog as he has become one of the pack of children. I should've figured Dax would love kids!
Left to right: Philippe, Jamie (known as Anyque in Canada) and Fabien.
Left to right: father of three, perennial clown, father of two.
Beautiful, smart and engaging children.
The fam takes a walk down to the local ice rink.
I tether Dax to a sled and tell the kids to go have fun because that's the kind of responsible adult I am.
All fun and games until you realize the sled doesn't have brakes.
The last night, Anne-Marie puts on a traditional Chinese tea ceremony.
Two hours of sipping tea with my best friend: magical.
With a heavy heart, I load up my posse and aim South.
As with the grueling 36 hour straight drive up through brutal storms, a winter storm advisory hits us. Once again, no rest for the weary, I have to drive straight through to avoid getting stuck on a snowstorm.
Drained, exhausted, feeble, I creep up to my county road late at night to see a truck overturned, blocking access to my driveway. I'd made it 1300 miles, one driver, no sleep, four dogs and a neighbor couldn't make a 10 mile round trip beer run. Wow, I love my life, wouldn't want to trade it for anyone else's.
I brought back with me all the love of my family and some of my mother's creative crocheted lampshades (don't call it macrame, she'll be insulted).
Another long distance adventure with my pack. If I can't bring my dogs, then it's not somewhere I want to go.
