More Black Belt Stitching Wizard Stuff

Sunday, July 31, 2011

On The Road With Bonnie

Self portrait... something I am often doing a lot... driving my car!

I would say from about March through November I spend a lot of time in my car!  I travel around Eastern Ontario visiting friends, enjoying life, and stitching!  My poor car is basic, but its a tank!  I've actually got over 280,000 KM's on my poor 2002 Accent.  I imagine either by the end of this year or early next year I'll break the 300,000 mark which is quite a bit for a car.  I currently hold the family record for most KMs on a car LOL!
I was mesmerized by how the back of this truck was reflecting the lines/road behind it

Tuesday afternoon I hopped back in the car after just returning home from Quebec City Monday evening.  Of course it was a little easier to hop back in the car since I hadn't done any of the driving to and from Quebec City.  I hit the road for the three hour drive to Bonnie's where we'd be getting back in the car the next morning for our trip to Canada's Wonderland.  Sadly I don't have any pictures for you from that day, I really didn't want to carry around a bag or anything to get lost/stolen/wet.  Which is such a shame because I would of loved to have gotten a picture of us eating the massive chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches we had that afternoon.  They were ridiculous and we both ate a whole one!  (do a google image search for Canada's Wonderland Cookiewich and you'll see what I mean!)  For a Wednesday it was a busy day and the wait time for most rides was on average an hour!  I think we got more rides done from 10am-12pm than we did between 12-5pm. 

Once I got tired of waiting in line for a quick thrill on a ride, I suggested we hit the road and head up to Sheila's who lives just outside of Honey Harbour on the fantastically gorgeous Georgian Bay.  Sheila hosts one of our stitching weekends in June and this time just Bonnie and I went up for a visit until Friday afternoon and of course some well deserved stitching since not much got done while we were in Quebec City.

Sheila & Jim's home on Georgian Bay

I'm going to leave you with some shots of Georgian Bay from the back of Sheila & Jim's boat to give you a glimpse of one of Ontario's scenic areas.

 An Inukshuk in the distance.  I find if you look around when you're out on lakes or driving the highways you can find these little hand-made stone statutes everywhere

 Wednesday night this Mama and her 4 babies visited Sheila's compost pile

 Ducks cruising the lake

 When I see large boat houses like this all I see is $$$$

 What a great boat's name!!

 Just a nice shot (in my opinion)

 Nature at its best!

 More wonderful work by Mother Nature


 Tiny cottage on a tiny island!

 You can dock your boat and get everything you need!

After cruising the lake we had a fantastic dinner here!

PhotoHunt for July 30th

I forgot to post yesterday's PhotoHunt!  The theme for yesterday was "Together"


I picked this photo since yesterday was Todd's Birthday.  Here he is together with his one true love: a Ferrari.  I took this picture just the other weekend when we were in Quebec City.  Todd is a true "gear head" he loves cars, especially the exotic cars!  His jaw just hit the ground when he saw this parked on the road.  Because he loves cars that means I know a lot about cars too.  I must admit I do like to drive and I do like nice cars... just wished I could afford a nice car too!

Saturday, July 30, 2011

TUSAL for July 30th

Very late last night I got back from my further adventures with Bonnie, and I will update you on that in a day or two.  Today was Todd's Birthday so we've spent the day puttering around together... a movie, a leisurely lunch on the Lone Star Patio (my fav. place to eat!), and then very dull affairs like grocery shopping (the fridge was a little bare).

I've also made some great stitching progress over the last couple of days, but I'll entertain you with another post in the near future covering that.

Without further ado here's my Todd's Birthday TUSAL


I had set up this shot that my dragon Beanie Baby would be overseeing the process... but then of course Zeus had to share in the shot as well!  She was quite amusing and was trying to paw at the threads on the side of the ort jar!

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Quebec City Part Two


Our second day started out with breakfast at the same diner then it was back into the car for a short drive out to the Montmorency Falls.  These falls are quite spectacular they're about 84 Meters higher than Niagra Falls and the amount of water that goes over it I believe is enough drinking water for the whole province!



 Lots and lots of stairs!

A fly fisherman wayyy down below

We decided to take the cable car up to the top of the falls then walk the stairs down.  I honestly couldn't imagine doing those stairs all the way up!  I also think that side offers a more spectacular view of the falls.

Our first view of the falls

Todd loves/is amazed by nature!

The view out to the St. Lawrence river from above the falls

 Wonderful view of the falls

The suspension bridge over the falls

 Todd and Blair checking out the falls from below

The boys went ahead to the "spray zone"

Bonnie & I with the falls in the background
 
Blair is checking out the river above the falls

Trees pooled at the bottom of the falls.

From Montmorency we headed further down the highway to the St. Anne Canyons... more waterfalls!  These ones were quite spectacular as well, there were several different falls and some very ummm interesting bridges to cross!  The suspension bridges that crossed the river at two points were a little too "bouncy" for my tastes!
 The lovely, calm river before it hits the narrowing canyons

First bridge at the top of the canyon.  This bridge was fine to go on.

 As usual Todd was marvelling at how amazing nature is


Me at Sainte Anne Canyons

Normally I'm a brave girl and things don't bother me, but boy was this bridge bouncy and when there was more people on once side versus the other it tipped a little.  I didn't stay on here too long.

 The bottom of the canyon

 The evil bouncy bridge from below!



After visiting the last set of falls we had the most amazing lunch!  On our drive back towards Quebec City we spotted a restaurant at the roadside with  quite a few cars out front (always a good indicator to me!).  The restaurant/coffee shop was called Trois Becs (three kisses).  I had a fantastic salad but even better than salad was the desserts!  Bonnie and I split a chocolate torte and a raspberry torte and I sware it was the BEST dessert I've ever had!!!  I was in heaven!

Stopping for a wee drink

Todd and Blair on the carriage

After a quick break back at the hotel we went back to the old city.  We went on a horse and carriage tour of the old city.  It was lovely and idyllic!


Todd's jaw dropped when we passed this on our carriage ride, he insisted we go back and I take pictures.



Before heading back to the lower city for dinner we went back to a church pointed out by our driver.  He said it was the prettiest church in the city.  It was called Notre-Dame, yes it was very pretty but no where near as amazing as the Notre-Dame Basilica in Old Montreal!






Form there it was back down to the lower city, we had dinner at a lovely Italian restaurant.  I had a wonderful pizza!  Normally I wouldn't order pizza at an Italian restaurant but when I saw the words "wood stove" my mouth started to water.  It was fantastic!


After dinner we wandered around a little more before heading back to the hotel for the night.

Monday was another day of travel after breakfast, it was nice to get back home.  I'm hitting the road again later today!  I'm heading to meet up with Bonnie again, we're going to go play at Canada's Wonderland tomorrow!  From there we're going to head up to Sheila's in Georgian Bay for a couple of days.  Finally there will be some stitching happening!!!