Glorious Guelph Trip

8/12/2019 Glorious Guelph Trip

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Margaret and Janette's Salubrious Journey

Our Glorious Guelph Getaway


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Sunday, July 27 th , 8:10 amHere I am. The Train doesn't leave until 8:40 but I figured I might as well get on now anyway, justbe ause it's here. I've still got a nagging feeling that I'm forgetting !"#$THI%& (ave is going fishingtoday with his )unt *athy so I as+ed her if while she was at it she ould give me a lift to the &"station. That way I don't have to worry about lugging my bag a ross that huge ar+ing lot or for+ing outfor a ab. -e were s ared she was going to be late be ause the ower went ff in her building lastnight, robably be ause of the thunder storm, and the elevator had sto ed wor+ing. ut she alled

him from her ell hone just as she was getting into the elevator. I was getting worried so I alled aab. /ust as I ste ed out of the house, )unt *athy's ar ulled into the driveway so I as+ed (ave tohit redial1 and an el the ab.

2ast night was a restless night. I seemed to have to wa+e u every hour to use the bathroom. Thisalways ha ens when I'm e3 ited about going somewhere. )nd to to it off, there was thatthunderstorm at around three in the morning. It must have lasted at least half an hour.

)t around uarter to five I gave u trying to slee so I got u , had my shower, made my bed, gotdressed and a +ed my last minuet items su h as toiletries and my slee ing e ui ment. I was gladthat I'd washed my snuggie and slee mas+ on !aturday when I washed my sheets. #y mas+ loo+salmost brand5new The om oms around the edge are fluffy, no longer matted and the la e trim is ni e

and white as it was when I first added it. efore I washed it my mas+ was loo+ing retty gron+y, allmatted and stained ur le from a ombination of hair dye and ers iration. I've been using it for twoyears now and an't imagine life without it, es e ially now that we have entral air5 onditioning in ourhome and without my mas+, sometimes the ti of my nose free6es !ame with my feet. #ost of thetime I try to tough it out and ignore it but so far there have been at least two nights when I've had toget u and ut on so +s. Socks! (ammit That's what I forgot. -ith the e3 e tion of those two nights Idon't thin+ I've worn so +s sin e the 7i toria (ay wee+end. It's been an unusually old s ring thisyear. )fter a horrendously long winter, robably the worst one in ages.

/anette and I refused to let the horrendously old and sli ery winter sto us from elebrating her 0 th birthday at %iagara 9alls ba + in /anuary. )nd now we're off to &uel h to elebrate mine

&uel h has an anti ue )llan Hers hell arousel. /anette rode it when she was there in ;8


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Today I am wearing my light5blue s allo ed5edge =a ri ants with my light5blue hand5embroideredfloral T5shirt. I'd originally made it for my mom. It has a vase with lila s and lilies.

I ould not finish brea+fast this morning. I've never felt so %"T hungry in my life utterflies in mystoma h, go figure.

(ave gave me a birthday ard this morning with a > 0 bill. He was right when he said he +new it

would be something I'd want to ta+e with me on my tri .

I s ent a good art of yesterday organi6ing my raft su lies so I'd have my roje ts to ta+e with meon this tri . I sorted out whatever shades of embroidery thread I'd need, wound several globs of threadaround ardboard s ools and gathered them all in a tin. I'd also stit hed my $aster unny uilts uares together and found enough batting so I ould in it all together with the ba +ing. I almostdidn't ta+e it with me but then de ided to after all. The frame fits in my bag but it ta+es u even lesss a e when I ta+e it a art.

?esterday I made sure my batteries for my amera and #@A layer were fully harged and of ourse Imade sure I too+ the hargers along in my ba + a +.

I wish the announ er on this train wasn't so loud !he +ee s startling me &BBBB

7:20pmIt's been a great day. *ind of a sha+y start though. !ometimes I really hate Cnion !tation. -hy dofamilies with babies )2-)?! have to sit right ne3t to #$ "f ourse there were arents with two small

hildren and the mother holding the baby had to lo right down in the seat ne3t to mine, her littlebanshee right at ear level if it were to start aterwauling I gathered u my stuff as ui +ly as ossibleand bolted from my seat, waiting at the entran e by @urdy's for a few minutes. )t least they didn't staylong. I re laimed my seat, listening to musi on my #@A layer. *I!! was laying a live version of

9orever1. ) few minutes later, the studio version of the same song ame u in my rotation, but its+i ed li+e ra6y so I li +ed it to the ne3t song and of ourse while I did some little banshee waswailing its lungs out as I ussed a blue strea+ and let out an angry roar as I fumbled franti ally and

+e t li +ing but +e t getting stu id uiet slow songs AAAARRRGGHHH!!!!

It wasn't long after that when /anette showed u , loo+ing retty fra66led herself. -e both felt ratherdis ombobulated as we tried to navigate our way u to the bus latform. -e were relieved when wefound the la e to buy our bus ti +ets. -e still had over half an hour until it was time to get on the bus

It was an e3 ru iatingly long, boring bus ride. The traffi in hed along at a snail's a e along the2a+eshore, at least until we made it ast the =%$ grounds. I listened to =ulture =lub for awhile and atfive after twelve I reali6ed it was time for !tuart # 2ean's Vinyl Cafe . I found it hard to on entrate onthe story as I was an3ious to get the journey over with. )t least it was a story I hadn't heard before.(ave ta+es his son !am, and !am's best friend #ur hy on a wee+end road tri to deliver an eight5foot

ython to a famous ro + star who has a reality show.

)s we assed ram ton !ho er's -orld, we got our our sammi hes and /anette shared her tortillahi s with me. They were an interesting lime flavour, li+e #argarita hi s. !he also gave me aho olate fudge oo+ie.

The bus made its monotonous mil+ run, meandering from town to town. )t one oint the bus sto edand the young man in front of me got off. I was on erned be ause he left his ba + a + at his seat soI as+ed the driver about this. Imagine my embarrassment when I was told he had to get out to go eein the bushes. &o buses need -)!HB""#! This is an even longer ride than %I)&)B) 9)22! andif this were our flight to %ew ?or+ we would already be there by now.


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-e were both uite tired and ran+y when the bus let us off and we seemed to be lugging our luggagearound in ir les loo+ing for a la e to at h a ab. )t least we found a young ou le who loo+ed it uon their smart hone. It turned out there was a ab la e just u the road a ross the street from us butwe were too tired to wal+ that mu h farther. !o they said they'd i + us u on latform DD. !till enoughof a wal+. -e waited....and waited...and waited. !o lose and yet so far. -e ould see the ab offi efrom where we were standing and we were getting so si + of waiting we got our se ond wind andmar hed right u there -hile we were waiting we made use of the vending ma hines. /anette got

herself a a +age of Hi +ory !ti3 and I just wanted water. !oon the ab ame and we were finally atthe motel.

-e felt e3hausted so the first thing we did was lo down on our beds for awhile and try to ta+e a na .ut we were too e3 ited and restless so about half an hour later off we went to the arousel

It literally is at the end of our street, about as far from here as the "shawa =entre is from my home-e're ra ti ally ne3t door to it I too+ several i tures of all the beautiful horses Eand two igsF and/anette bought our ti +ets. I too+ a autious glan e at the regulations, ha y to see no three digitnumbers, if you +now what I mean

I hose a big white horse on the outside row with blue, green and red tra ings, and a long, bluefeather down the side of its ne + and /anette hose a bright in+ ig on the inside row, almost but not

uite on the o osite side of the latform. There was no band organ musi , just mostly re ordings ofsome (isney tunes and &ordon 2ightfoot. There I was enjoying my first arousel ride of the year.

htt s:GGwww.youtube. omGwat h v 7?-bv(2 Iw+Jfeature youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYWbvDLcIwk&feature=youtu.behttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYWbvDLcIwk&feature=youtu.be


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htt s:GGwww.youtube. omGwat h v "02g5 mKL


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It was raining on our way ba + to the motel and we were getting +ind of si + of trying to maneuver ourway down the sidewal+ sharing my red umbrella between us.

%ow we are glad to be ba + in our room, just resting uietly.

Monday, July 28 th

Has this been the best birthday ever or what

-e must have really been e3hausted last night be ause after I'd showered and dressed and blown useveral more balloons I was sho +ed to dis over that it was already :00 -hen I was ta+ing myshower I had to as+ /anette to go find me my s issors be ause I ouldn't get that stu id little a +et of sham oo o en. I was tem ted to o en both be ause it barely ontained two dro s.

efore we finally left our room I got several more balloons inflated, in luding the giant orange one Ibought at the (ollar !tore yesterday. It's su osed to get u to four feet wide. I managed to get itmaybe about three feet wide and that was lenty big enough. I found that my arms were getting tiredand it was very hard to swit h hands without letting air es a e as it had su h a wide ne + and wasdiffi ult to hold tightly over the um . I tried just holding the balloon and letting /anette um for awhilebut that made my ne + hurt. I um ed u several of the or+s rew balloons. ) yellow one e3 loded

before I was even halfway finished and a blue one o ed when we were rushing around on our wayout. I might have ste ed on it.

The first thing we wanted to do was have brea+fast, or more a urately this time of day, brun h. -ewere going to go to Tim Horton's but found a ni e little mom5and5 o 5ty e diner just ne3t door, theC town &rill, where we enjoyed ho olate hi an a+es with whi ed ream and strawberry

reserves and a side of ba on.. %ot to mention offee 2ots and lots of offee -e needed it I alsohad orange jui e.

-hen we finished eating we made our way to the $vergreen !eniors =entre where we bought ourasses for the arousel. -e were delighted to dis over it was only > M for a whole !$)!"% !i3 or

seven rides and it ays for itself This also in ludes the train ride.

-e made our way through the ar+ and I enjoyed ta+ing i tures of all the beautiful flowers.

There was also a s ale model of the first house ever built in &uel h. It was the erfe t si6e for me tota+e a i ture of both our dolls standing together in the front door...


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There was the 9loral =lo + and a beautiful little waterfall.

htt s:GGwww.youtube. omGwat h v "eAo3j ?jg

#aybe tomorrow we'll he + out the greenhouse. It was so beautiful and ea eful in this area.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oe3oxjBBYjghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oe3oxjBBYjg


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-e then made our way to the arousel I hose the horse I wanted to ride but had to get off be ausethe young lady who was running the arousel was doing everything all by herself and had to run thetrain first. !o we went for a ride on the train. Cnfortunately, when I was getting off my horse, my ringgot aught on the reins and it bro+e the diamond off #y mother's engagement ring )t least thediamond wasn't lost. I i +ed it u off the floor of the arousel and the only la e where we ouldsafely +ee it where it wouldn't get lost again was in /anette's bo3 of ills.

-e shared our train ride with at least one or two develo mentally hallenged young men and theirwor+er. "n of them de ided to sit it out at the last moment and ould be seen sitting on the ground,lut hing his tablet to his ear ma+ing ha y s ueals. -e both agreed we'd mu h rather hear that than

a rying baby

The train ride is mu h shorter than the one at %orth ay so we om leted three ir uits around thetra + until the ride was over.

htt s:GGwww.youtube. omGwat h v NL6$ t;y(Ag

-hen we went ba + to the arousel I re ogni6ed the song 2et's &et Together1 from The Parent Trap .I got ba + onto the same horse I'd lanned on riding before.. /anette wanted ti ride the other ig but it

was too high for her to limb u onto so she hose a horse in a beautiful, unusual shade of indigo5blue. I laughed as I sang along with the ne3t song: I love the #on+ey's Cn le and I -ant to be the#on+ey's )unt1 I an't hel wondering if there is a real band organ hidden behind the mural on theinside of the avilion but they're not using it be ause it needs wor+. I'll as+ about it tomorrow. I hadanother ride on the reddish5brown horse and /anette rode the one with the *I($"ti 1 tra ings I'dridden yesterday.

Then we went and had i e ream. Today /anette had butters ot h ri le and I had ista hio. I hadn'thad ista hio in years ?ou just don't see it around mu h these days. I guess the menu varies fromone day to the ne3t be ause yesterday's flavours were strawberry5banana, butters ot h ri le, otton

andy and Ho+ey5@o+ey. Today ista hio and bubblegum were added to the list.

-hen we finished our i e ream, we too+ a wal+ and headed for the bridge. eneath the bridge therewas a lovely waterfall. I filmed more footage. &o figure, we don't have to go to %iagara to enjoywaterfalls on our travels. It made su h a leasant, soothing sound.

htt s:GGwww.youtube. omGwat h v 5 (58oj d00

htt s:GGwww.youtube. omGwat h v y2


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enough to arry home in a bas+et but enough to eat them here and there along the way.

-e almost didn't want to leave but we had to start heading ba + be ause we were getting tired andour feet were starting to a he. !till, our feet didn't a he as mu h as they would have wal+ing on

on rete.

-e made our way ba + to the ar+ and sat on a ben h where we rested for several minutes. I wantedmore arousel rides but the la e was be oming s rogulated. !o we went for another train ride. I'msure we travelled around the tra + for more than three ir uits this time. I lost ount. ut we weregetting frustrated be ause a mother with a newborn ontinued to hover around in front of the arousel&o figure, 0 years ago I was a re ulsive little larva myself but my arents wouldn't thin+ of bringingme some la e li+e this until I was at least three.

I'm ran+y I need my na 1 I e3 laimed as we left the ar+ and headed toward our motel.-)))))) 1 we both e3 laimed in unison. ?ou owe me a beer.1 I jo+ed..

a + in our room we just de ided to veg out and rest for awhile until it was su er time. I blew umore balloons. The room is getting uite full of them. /anette was already resting on her bed. I wentand rested on mine.

2ast night I had +ind of an interesting dream. I had dreamt that we loved this la e so mu h wede ided to just ull u sta+es and live here ) tually I thin+ I would li+e to live here If I wasn't marriedI'd dit h "shawa in a heartbeat In my dream, /anette and I were involved with some +ind of raft lub,sitting around the table ma+ing things and having fas inating onversations with other +indred s irits.

I love my husband but I'm not overly fond of "shawa. The la e where I live is a ultural wasteland

where my talents and ideas just aren't a re iated

)t around :00 we set out for su er. -e were going to go to the &ree+ la e but it was losed on#ondays so we ate at the la e ne3t door, a ni e, divey ub alled The @our House. -e ordereddee 5fried mushrooms, o onut shrim , otato s+ins and hi +en wings served with raw veggies.There were no #argaritas, so I had a beer. I ended u having i ed tea too. -e enjoyed our meal andhad lenty of laughs. "ne of the things we were getting the giggles over was the -ood =hi er. Iremember telling her before about the guy who won the hotdog eating ontest in =oney Island anddes ribing how he just ground them down li+e a wood hi erO Nyenynyenyenyenyen! I'm so fullwe're gonna have to B"22 me out of here 1 I said and we were laughing even more at the idea of that


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s ene in Willy Wonka where the girl turns into a giant blueberry and has to be rolled out by the"om a52oom as. I was laughing so hard I had tears running down my fa e

-hen we were finished, we returned to our room, but before we did we as+ed the lady at the frontdes+ when he +out time was and if we ould arrange a wa+e5u all for -ednesday.

-e still have an entire day here tomorrow.

a + in our room, before I too+ my battery out of my amera to re harge it, we too+ some i tures ofourselves being silly with balloons in luding a re5ena tment of myself when I was a toddler holdinggreen and orange or+s rew balloons on to of my head li+e bunny ears


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Then I managed to get a ou le selfies of us in the mirror doing the same thing...

Then /anette and I too+ a ou le i tures of ea h other with the ho olate igars she'd bought whenshe was at the hos ital awhile ago. oth were wra ed in in+ foil with It's a &irl1 to elebrate ourown births all these years ago.

I'm thin+ing of de orating some arousel horses with some of the sti +ers I bought at the dollar storelast night but the lighting +ind of su + in here at the moment and I don't have the energy to deal withall this lutter on my table. I thin+ I'm going to have a bath.

Tuesday July 29 th

/ust getting all my stuff ut away ever so gradually. This day has gone by in a blur. I don't +now whereto begin. I +now I dreamt that /anette and I were travelling again. I an't tell if it was ba + here or%iagara 9alls again. ut we had a ridi ulous amount of stuff with us in luding a arousel horse. Itloo+ed a lot li+e &as !ign Horse before her aint job and had a musi bo3 that layed !omewhere"ver the Bainbow1.

)t least I sle t retty mu h through the entire night but I had to wa+e u at :00 to use the bathroom. )t least I wo+e u again at


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and stuff for tomorrow's brea+fast as well as Tim5 its to enjoy in our room. The first thing we sawwhen we wal+ed in there was a mother holding a toddler and sure enough we found ourselves gettingfra66led and dis ombobulated when we were trying to la e our order be ause, of ourse, the toddlerwas whining and the restaurant itself had this annoying bu66ing sound that made it hard to

on entrate.

-e were glad to get ba + to our room to sit down for at least half an hour before we headed ba + out

to the arousel.

-hen we got there we found out that the arousel didn't o en until 0:A0. There was a tru + ar+ednear the arousel and inside was an e3tra horse. I too+ a i ture but it didn't turn out very wellbe ause of the refle tion on my viewfinder.

The weather was weird this morning. Csually the days surrounding my birthday are broiling hot but weseemed to have a hilly bree6e wherever we went. $s e ially in the shade. -e found a ben h by theriver and soon we were too hot in the sun.

-hen the arousel finally o ened we had two rides. Today's been a blur. I'm having troubleremembering whi h horse I rode when. -hat I do remember is that during our se ond ride every babyand toddler in town seemed to des end u on the remises li+e lo usts so we had to get out of there.

)t least we didn't hear the sound of any rying but we weren't ta+ing any han es.

-e rossed the bridge and headed for the woods to enjoy the nature trail again. "n our way ba +,/anette res ued a oor, hel less bug who was struggling in the water. Then she began to ry. Ihugged her and did my best to try to omfort her. !he often gets wee y towards ill time and she wasreally identifying with this oor bug. It's about time -$ were res ued. %ot to worry, I thin+ a newseason is already beginning.

-e made our way ba + to the arousel area where we had our traditional daily i e ream. This time/anette had ma le walnut and I had Ho+ey5@o+ey.

Then we went ba + to our rooms and rested for awhile. 9or the nest half hour or so we just flo ed


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down u on our beds and vegged out but eventually I started to feel restless so I wor+ed on my $asterunny uilt. !oon we ate our sandwi hes. /anette lugged one of her i@ods into this ni e little ortable

s ea+er of hers and ut on a laylist of olourful arty musi and soon she had enough energy toma+e a Timmy's run to get us some offee to go with our Tim5 its. I stit hed away at my uilt and she

ame ba + ui +ly. That offee just hit the s ot.

-e enjoyed a uiet afternoon just rela3ing and listening to musi , first our arty laylist and then

*I($". &ood old *I($". The offi ial soundtra + of our lives D0 years ago when we were lotting oure3odus to the ig !mo+e

I'm ama6ed at how ui +ly I got all my bunnies stit hed. %ow all I have to do is hem the edges of myuilt. I'm going to save the to for last be ause I want to add loo s to hang from a urtain rod.

Today I also designed my offi ial &uel h1 horse, an Illions flame1 horse in ur le with shades of in+in its mane. This arti ular horse reminds me of =andy @almater be ause she has a rainbow flag anda row of fun+y s+ulls. =andy sometimes wears T5shirts with fun+y s+ulls. I wonder where she getsthem. I wouldn't mind a fun+y s+ull T5shirt or two.

)nyway, at around 4:A05ish, we de ided to head out ba + to the arousel. It was mu h uieter then.

-e had two or three more rides and then a ride on the train and then two more rides on the arousel.9irst we both rode together in the ur le hariot...

htt s:GGwww.youtube. omGwat h v gL?/!t m+

..and then another horse. I rode my favorite horse, the *I($"ti 1 one as I all her.

Today's been a blur. @art of me wishes that it didn't have to end so soon, that we didn't have to gotomorrow already.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqgZYJSt5mkhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqgZYJSt5mk


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-e then made our way to the &ree+ restaurant where we had our last su er. /anette had salmonwith ri e and I had the s ano+o ita. oth meals were served with &ree+ salad and we both dran+ginger ale. 9or dessert /anette had the lemon layer a+e and I had the sweet J salty1 aramel5

ho olate mousse heese a+e. ?ou thin+ that's a long name for a dessert I remember the &ree+la e my husband and I went to for his birthday had this dessert that had a really long name starting

with gala1. /anette and I were having the giggles over alling it&ala ti alio olusdes rabbyalado ious1 That one was a rPme brulee ustard served in layers of hilo

astry with strawberry sau e.

I am ha y to say we've enjoyed $7$B? meal we've had on this tri and ama6ingly %$7$B had anyof our meals ruined by s reaming babies -hile we were sitting in the &ree+ la e I said to /anettethat it felt li+e we were being reimbursed for all the shit we had to deal with on our %orth ay tri twoyears ago.

-e are now ba + in our room, gradually getting a +ed and we've arranged for a wa+e5u all at 8:00tomorrow morning.

Is this one of our best va ations ever or what

)s mu h as I've loved it here there are things I miss that I'll be glad to get home to, !u h as my ownbed. Hotel beds are always too high and too hard with those s uooshy illows that are too soft and+ee inflating themselves when you get u from them. 9or this reason I'm glad I have my leo ardbeanbag illow to su ort my ne + so I don't snore.

)nd entral air5 onditioning The air5 onditioner here doesn't wor+ very well. -e an't get it any oolerthan MM1 degrees but it sure doesn't feel li+e MM degrees. It's


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and ma+ing that journey. -e had arranged a wa+e5u all at 8:00 but we were already awa+e at


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afterglow of my salubrious journey, savoring the memories that have been laying in my head overand over again. I'm in no arti ular hurry to get ba + to the real1 world just yet. The %ew ?or+ tri isgoing to snea+ u on us soon enough

The rest of our i tures an be seen here:

htt s:GGwww.fa eboo+. omGmediaGsetG

set a.4A;AM0; D8

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Glorious Guelph Trip