Dear Friends and Family,
Hello there. I thought I'd make another entry in our blog which will take us from Toronto in Canada to the Big Apple. We have had some wonderful experiences over these last couple of months which we are happy to share the highlights with you. We hope you enjoy them...
Toronto Canada
Visited the Airport Fellowship where the Toronto Blessing started back in 1994 for those who know about it.We visited a satellite campus. A wonderful service especially witnessing 2 of our boys flying flags in worship at the front of the church. I attended a healing service on the Friday night, very lovely. We attended the Toronto Fair,a Royal Easter Show type event. Fabulous, the boys especially enjoyed the Bey Blade Show, the Super Dog Show and the Pizza making class.
Morrisburg, Canada
We visited here because of the Upper Canada Village. An 1800's style reconstruction of life in Canada. We absolutely loved it. The folks there were so informative and interesting. We learned about flour mills, wool weaving, chair making, schooling, tin making, shoe making, we milked a cow each and enjoyed an 1800's style lunch. Our whole family had a really great day. My prayer that night was one of gratefulness for having electricity and running water, indoor toilets and supermarkets which supply me all my food that I don't have to grow in order to have enough food all year round.
Ottawa, Canada
Visited an agricultural farm, got to tour Parliament House and for more family fun took the boys on a real Pirate Adventure where we we got to shoot the enemy, 'Pirate Pete', with water cannons, dance the Pirate fling, search for treasure on the high seas, hear some pirate adventure stories all aboard a pirate ship and come home with 3x very happy hearts.
Montreal, Canada
Visited a great Science and Technology Museum. Our walking tour took us to buildings dating back to the late 1600's. The French influence was really starting to kick in here. We enjoyed a beautiful 2 hour bike ride through the streets on a bike trail, imagine that a dedicated bike trail through the city! The boys are getting comfortable with black and white folks in church now and the church we visited here encouraged their comfort. But the biggest excitement here was the arrival of Alan, my eldest brother, to spend 4 days with us. He was in London meeting his third granddaughter and in Florida attending a mediation conference and chose to visited us too. We were all excited and the bus was a flurry with cleaning and baking. So lovely to see him.
Quebec, Canada
Alan witnessed a drive in Rover and arrival at a new RV campground and then off to explore. Visited the citadel, did a walking tour, enjoyed a French cafe for lunch. Imagine if you will a French crepe tantalising your taste buds with your favourite topping...Quebec is so French. All accents were French, not Canadian, we met folks who only speak French! Our visit was like a touch of Europe itself, amazing. All too soon we had to say bon voyage to Alan, but what happy memories we have and wonderful for us to share part of this adventure with one so dear.
USA Again...Maine
Our border crossing was uneventful, Praise God, we only had to surrender 1 lemon! Our feeling was one of delighted relief to be back in the States, interesting, we feel very much at home here for some reason. Starting to get rainy, windy much colder weather.
Acadia National Park, Maine
We loved this park. Did a great Ranger talk on beavers and learnt all about their 'lodges' and how they live. This park is also blessed with Carriage Trails, which are used as bike trails now, throughout c/- the Rockefeller's. So Barry and I decided to try for a big bike hike. One day we all did a 30km bike ride. We were delighted with the boys and their attitudes despite aching limbs. The trails are gorgeous, Autumn colours abounding, they trail through safe forested woods and passed lakes.
Freeport, Maine
We visited here mainly because we chose it as a mail and school work address. However, little did we know that this was the home of LL Bean and other such outdoor clothing outlet stores.. So, especially Heather had a wonderful time shopping, mind you Barry got into it too, buying some warm clothes, all of which we have been extremely grateful for because it's been far colder than we have brought clothes for. Great fun and a beautiful township. LL Bean stays open 24/7 365 days a year here!
Sandwich, Maine
Lovely to visit a local country fair. The boys especially enjoyed the Tractor Pull - imagine a John Deere tricycle, pulling a cart. The goal of the rider is to ride the tractor as far as they can but along the way bricks are thrown into the cart to slow him down. Our dear Wesley earned third prize and won himself $1 which he spent with Angus on corn feed for the Shetland ponies living at our RV park. Both Angus and Campbell however honestly felt that some of the tractors were faster than others and they unfortunately got the slower ones, otherwise they would be done better!
Hanover, Maine
Ever heard of Dartmouth College? A lovely country town with a huge ivy league uni dating back to 1760s. We chose to do our school work in one of their magnificent libraries; A room, 2 stories high, huge arched windows, books wall to wall, highly estapoled sculptured timber furniture with marble fireplaces at either end, just inspiring. Consequently, school work done was quite good on this day. Lunch at the cafeteria was excellent too, eat as much as you like for $10 adults, $5 kids. We so enjoyed this experience.
North Hampshire, Vermont
Lovely rural settings, everyone appears to have a good lot of land around their homes, all homes are white and a similar style but the Fall colours are magnificent; brilliant reds, burnt oranges, sunny yellows, everywhere.
Boston, Massachusetts
Lovely very old city, dating back to the late 1600s, early 1700s. Took a trolley tour, found the Boston Tea Party site and where the Declaration of Independence was proclaimed to Bostonians. Visited the oldest sailing naval ship, the USS Constitution, spectacular old boat which has an impressive history of battle wins. She still sails. More rain.
Plymouth & Cape Cod, MA
This is where the pilgrims landed and began their township. We visited the Plymouth Plantation a recreated village of Indian inhabitants and pilgrims. All pilgrims were in character which made for some very fun conversation. We had listened to some cd's about the pilgrims and their experiences which helped us to understand the immense courage of these good folk and the tremendous strength of character on which this nation is founded we believe. Visited a terrific Vineyard church here and enjoyed their healing prayers. Cape Code would make a lovely holiday destination. Wonderful to see the sea. We especially enjoyed a lovely campfire with some neighbours in the RV park.
Falls River, MA
Ever heard of the USS Massachusetts? A WWII battleship? The boys and I got to sleep the night on her here at Falls River. She is an enormous ship, housing 2300 people in her prime. She has 35 battles to her name and an outstanding record of no one having ever died on board. We enjoyed some learning namely; knot tying, WWII story telling, we did a Morse Code class and sent some Morse Code messages, anyone get them? We had dinner and breakfast in the mess and slept on the squeakiest 4 deep bunk you could ever imagine. But we loved it all.
Newport, Rhode Island
Some bad weather again but we were able to enjoy a cliff walk here, lovely to be by the Atlantic, how we've missed the sea. We also got to take some tours of some of the amazing homes built here along her coast. Mansion after mansion line this part of the world. The Vanderbilt family seem to feature regularly with 'holiday homes' equal to Europes' finest. Marble and gold gilded rooms, detailed beyond imagination, built in the late 1800's, incredible wealth, made from building rail roads. The proportions immense, the dreams huge the capacity to match.
New York, New York
Well, we've just arrived today. To be honest we have had the most amazing drive of our lives today. The forecast told us to expect some light snow this afternoon, so in an attempt to avoid it we tried to set off as early as possible (ha ha) after 2 loads of washing! A 4 hour drive, beginning at 10.30am. Well, we actually arrived 4.45pm without even stopping for lunch. Why so long? It snowed nearly the whole way and hence the trip was really slow. There were a number of hairy moments for us; signs not being able to be read because they were covered in snow; our GPS taking us on a faster route because of bad traffic which ended up not taking vehicles over 8 foot high (we're 12'), so how does one do a u-turn when we don't know our way? The road chosen was not well used, very slippery and hence our car at the back did a little sliding too, bit scarey! There are tunnels in NY which we can't fit under so we were determined to miss them, but the route to the RV park chosen, meant we had to turn off the last exit before one such tunnel, all worked out well. However, on one of the many fly overs, and driving Rover in city traffic is a feat in itself, Barry was wonderful, the traffic was banked up the ramp such that we witnessed other cars and ourselves literally sliding on the icy road while stationery. Very, very scarey! We realised that danger was all around us but amazingly with the help of a prayer or three, we have arrived safely and the forecast is for freezing, but sunny weather for the week ahead.
If you've made it this far, you've done very well. Thank you for your interest! I feel I've chattered long enough, so until our next issue, Much love,
the Happy Hendo's with grateful hearts to the Lord for such an adventure;
Heather and Barry, Campbell, Wesley and Angus.
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