This long Thanksgiving weekend was spent in Montreal with Phil and family, following our Elton John concert there a few days earlier. The weather was cooler than usual for October but sunny and these five days away from home gave me an extended period of time to recuperate and let my arm heal. I just had to remind William to try and not rip the stitches off as he is a typical rambunctious four year old who often forgets Grandpapa's booboo! Friday when the grandkids were in school and the parents off to work Marie and I took the Metro downtown to the old port where we wandered about, had lunch at an outside café and visited the Pointe-a-Calliere Archaeology Museum. It was from here on this spot it is believed the city actually started and grew from this point out. The "Queens of Egypt (Reines d'Égypte)" exposition was showing, a very impressive collection of 3500 year old artifacts that included delicate jewelry pieces, life sized statues, frescos, sarcophagi, a mummy, and funerary objects related to such legendary queens as Nefertari, Nefertiti,and Hatsheput. I especially was impressed by the dozen painted coffins, beautifully rendered and after thousands of years just as colorful as they were during the ancient Egyptian Empire. Afterwards we decided to take out a years membership so we could take advantage of upcoming exhibitions.
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| Marie and Maisonneuve, founder of Montréal |
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| Italian cruise ship Aida in the old port |
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| Ramasses II, seated between Amun, the Sun god, and his wife, Mut |
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| Harem overseer Karat, 18th Dynasty, reign of Amenhoptet II (1425-1400 BCE) |
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| Amy, Fer and William |
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| Ben checking out his favorite canine dating site on Amy's tablet |
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| Amy checking out her favorite music videos |
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| best buds |
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| fun on the local soccer pitch |
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| checking out a local wall artist on St. Jacques |
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| Phil admiring his 7 hour smoked turkey |
Thanksgiving dinner was delicious and we ended up bringing the turkey carcass home to make soup. Thanks Phil and Fernanda for a great weekend. But before leaving the city I had my stitches removed at the Queen Elizabeth Health Centre in Montreal (after a wait of three hours) but the nurses were friendly and gentle so I didn't complain! A few days after returning home we had to drive the truck back to Thetford Mines where we had left our camper a few weeks before for repairs to an ongoing leak in the roof. It is a nice drive up past Lac Aylmer, past orchards and grazing dairy cows, then through Disraeli where we had bought Ben as a puppy two years ago. It was a beautiful day, hot and almost summerish there. Thetford Mines is well known for the discovery and mining of asbestos in 1876 - the city grew rapidly as the mines expanded and attracted people from all over. Although we hear about the health hazards associated with this "white gold" (L'or blanc as they like to say here) and demand has fallen, both the underground and open-face mines visible as you drive into the city are still in operation. But we almost didn't make it the RV dealer as the right front brake caliper broke on the way there. (Marie was driving and noticed the truck kept pulling to the right soon after we left home and when we stopped in Thetford I could see the rim was black with brake dust from the crumbling brake pads). We were lucky enough to make it to the local Ford dealer and have both front brakes and calipers replaced. When we finally arrived much later at the RV people (
VR Thetford) we discovered that they hadn't done as good a job as we had hoped. Although they had replaced the Styrofoam insulation and the ceiling panels the caulking job was very sloppy and unprofessional. You could even see the screw heads that were supposed to have been covered and to complete their poor job they decided to crack the plastic frame around the fan and the table insert on the floor. Grrr. We are keeping our fingers crossed no more water will find its way in, planning to cover the camper for the winter and check it again in the spring. As I've always said if you want a job done right you've got to do it yourself...
gws
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| back home, middle of October |
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| Cycling and walking path, Thetford Mines, Québec. |
