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After about four hours we arrived in Cambridge, a small city at the confluence of the Grand and Speed rivers where brother Rich and Nancie had moved recently. The city was actually an amalgamation of three towns, Galt, Preston and Hespeler which became Cambridge in 1973. Nancie had lived there in the same house for 35 years, finally selling up and moving with Rich to a condo in a very quiet area off busy Hespeler Road. We stayed downstairs in their newly renovated basement, complete with a huge double walk in shower. Richard still kept active by walking daily following his major knee operation and we went with him wherever he wanted to go. We followed the bank of the Grand River in one of the cities many parks one day, driving later into downtown Cambridge to stroll about the old, historic part of town. Nancie and Richard both cooked while we were there but we also ate a a local Pakistani restaurant - the only non-Pakistanis in there among dozens of people who came in and out. One strange character gave us all the willies by stomping around with crushed pop cans stuck to his feet and glaring at everyone as if to challenge his right to wear such noisy footwear. Ah Canada, eh?
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| Nancie and her new cook book |
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| Settlers Fork, at the confluence of the two rivers |
We were lucky to see Jenny and Jamie and their children who came by the last afternoon we were there. They were all very well behaved - me and the boys had a long game of lawn darts and Hanna insisted on taking Ben for a walk down to the local pond. It has been years since we had seen his girls and it was the first time meeting most of Richards grand-kids. Unfortunately we missed Hayley and her boyfriend who come up after we had left to help celebrate Richard's 65th birthday. It was also a great pleasure to be able to meet Marjorie, my third cousin once removed (Dad and her father were third cousins) who drove up from Dundas, Ontario to get together for an afternoon with Richard and I. She and Marie had been communicating through MyHeritage and Ancestry.com sites and we were pleasantly surprised to find out she lived less than an hour from Cambridge. She brought for us
The Hebridean Connection, a large volume of written oral materiel preserved in Gaelic and English detailing the flood of emigrants to Canada in the mid-nineteenth century by Angus MacDonald. A lovely gift that we will share with the rest of the family so much thanks Marjorie! We enjoyed our stay with my brother and reluctantly left for our trek home after four days. We had to meet up with the fellows who were going to start building our garage this month as well as prepare for a visit by sister and Lyn and husband Don later in August. The break had done us good and reminded me that travel and change of place certainly impart new vigor to the mind...
🅶🆆🆂
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| Richard, with daughters Jenny and Jamie |
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| Jack and Ben |
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| Hannah and Ben |
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| Jenny and Jamie |
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| Rich and Marie in the front yard |
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| Nancie and her "egg" |
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| me and Richard, downtown Cambridge and Central Presbyterian Church |
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| Grand River, Cambridge, Ontario, 19th century mill in distance |
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| Pakistani restaurant |
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| cheers🍷🍷 |
