The Great North American Adventure Update

Well, we are more than halfway through our trip in North America.

We spent a fantastic week in Calgary at the end of September. The weather was splendid and we got to spend some quality time with the Pugh's. We went on a great hike in Kanaskis, where we saw a bear from the car, went to the Calgary zoo and finally went to Drumheller. It was great to see Calgary again and get to do some of the things we never got a chance to do when we lived there.
Check out photos on Flikr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpeterb/page7/

After Calgary we flew cross-country to St. John's to visit Maureen and Justin. The weather was mostly cooperative and Joel got to see a dramatic part of Canada that he'd never seen before. Joel definitely got some great photo-ops:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpeterb/page6/

We went to my parents for Thanksgiving where my mom made us tourtière! What a treat! We also finally got to meet the beautiful Ellena. We were certainly dazzled by her! We visited Steph and John at their new house in Montpelier Vermont. It was very exciting to see them settled in their new home and to visit their new town. Montpelier is really very pretty and the state of Vermont is truly fantastic.

We took a whirlwind trip to Québec City since Joel had only been there once and really wanted to go back. We arrived just in time for some twilight photos of the city and walked around in the early evening playing photo nerd and enjoying the historic houses and buildings dating to as far back as 1611! We found a really neat restaurant for dinner where we both had the most amazing boeuf tartare. yummy! We also took lots of pictures in the daytime as we walked around town before heading back to Ottawa.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpeterb/page3/

We had just enough time to catch our breath in Ottawa when we took off again for Chicoutimi to see my family there. The drive up was a bit hairy with a snow storm in "the parc", although that's par for the course for this part of the world. We stayed at Céline's cottage on Lac Sébastien, which was very beautiful in the fresh snow. We had a wonderful time at the cottage and also took some time to visit my grandpa, Andrée and Pierre and Esther. It was great to catch up with everyone. On the way back to Ottawa we took the long way home along the Saguenay fjord and down the St. Lawrence through the region called Charlevoix. I had never been that way before and it was really beautiful. No it's such a popular tourist destination.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpeterb

Again we had a couple of quiet days in Ottawa then headed to Kingston so Joel and I could attend convocation at Queen's... two and three years later! I got to meet with Mark for an afternoon, and we went to dinner with Mark and Jean. It was really great to see them again. Convocation was really emotional. Mark and Jean were there too, and Kathy convocated at the same time as us! Mom and Dad were there and I think they were really pleased to have been part of the event. We went to Kathy's house for breakfast the next day and got to see the famous Sheldon in action! How quickly they grow and become very active!

We spent our last few days in Canada relaxing at my parents house enjoying the country air and the time with the family. We met up with Steph in Montreal on our last day and had Montreal smoked meat. Yum! It was Joel's first tie in Montreal and I'm pretty sure we're going to want to go back on a future visit. On the way home we made a quick stop at Lise's house.

Leaving Ottawa was really tough. We had a really great visit and it was well worth taking the time between work to come home to visit family.

On our way to the US we made a quick pit stop in Calgary and stayed with Kirsten and David again. Thanks guys!

We're now finishing up our visit with Becci and Mike in Salt Lake City. This is one of the first times we've actually taken the time to go visit the mountains and stuff. We did a few good hikes in the Wasatch mountains and got some good views of the city and waterfalls and rocks... etc.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jpeterb


Lots of visiting done in the past more than a month. It's been great seeing everyone and sightseeing old places and new places. More to come in the next month!