July 12
I always have a good feeling going back to my childhood home. Itˋs not the house that Iˋm talking about -- a farm on Ile dˋOrleans that my parents sold many years ago -- but the home (the heart and soul)
where my parents, my family lives, laughs, cries, plays, parties. My parents have a cottage on Ile dˋOrleans in a campground surrounded by farmers fields (this year, strawberries). Their lot is at the top of a slope from which we can see the sun set over the St. Lawrence River. It is very peaceful. My sister, Daniele, and her husband Richard have a beautiful house in the suburbs. They both retired from their respective jobs on June 4th.
During our stay in Quebec City, Frank is staying on the boat. He has a list of repair and improvement projects -- for once, itˋs his own list, not my honey-do list. LOL! I moved my belongings at Danieleˋs. It might look like a month on the boat was enough for Frank and I. Not so! LOL! I just wanted to take this opportunity to spend as much time as possible with my family and finally take a few baths (Yeh!). Iˋm visiting my parents every day. Every time we hug, mom said: "I'm filling up my bucket of all this love because for the next 8 months we'll be apart." Even though this trip is our dream come true finally, there are these moments of difficult feelings. Everyone is happy for us but it doesn't mean it's easy to part for so long.
Quebec City is celebrating one of its summer festivals. A variety of activities and shows are spread over the city for 10 days. Every night, it seems, we can hear music from downtown stages. Maroon 5, Alanis Morissette and Jack Johnson are part of the lineup. Driving around, I see so many cars with bicycles, motorcycles, campers. Summer is so short in Quebec, people enjoy every weekend and vacation days. Quebec people work to live, not live to work.
Back to Daniele and Richard, they are getting quite excited: they're going to sail with us from Quebec City to Halifax! We also plan on visiting Iles-de-la-Madeleine. They are land people: their hobbies include hiking and camping, not boating, canoeing or kayaking. So they are quite brave to experience many firsts with us. They've been preparing for this trip for months: what to buy, what to wear, what to learn. They bought life jackets, no-skid sandals, active clothing. They watch many sailing videos from the boat show last January. They read some articles. They learned about boat life, boat safety, boat handling, boat technology, PredictWind, Navionics, Marine Traffic. Frank and I are still learning about the St. Lawrence River tides and currents (reading, discussing, questioning the local sailors). So I'll include Richard and Daniele in my next blogs. Anticipation is high right now!
