The coolest part of the whole tour of Fort George was seeing the demonstration on how they put together a musket together. Before the demonstration, they divided the crowds into 2 groups – those who spoke English and those who spoke French.
Then we went to visit the Blacksmith area.
Views from around the fort. As you can see, Youngest was not in the mood for photos. He was a new 14 year old and well he was in that don’t take my photo stage of life. Well, actually a year later, he is still in that phase.
These photos are from the officers’ quarters. As you can see, they had it much nicer than the soldiers’ barracks.
I’ll continue with my tour of Fort George in another post.
A year ago, I traveled to London, Ontario with Youngest. Then we visited Niagara on the Lake before spending time in Niagara Falls.
In Ontario, when you drive on the On-401, they have rest stop areas called On-Routes. The On-Routes are about an 100 km, I believe. When we traveled between Toronto and Detroit, we stopped at all of the On-Routes. So when I was planning the trip last year, I was hoping I would be able to stop at one of those On-Routes.
So what are On-Routes? It’s like the travel plazas on the different toll roads in the United States except it’s on the main highway. There is usually a Tim Hortons, Starbucks, and other food vendors. There is also a convenience store, bathrooms, and a gas station. Free WiFi is offered at the On-Routes.
Here are some of the photos from the On-Route I was able to get to last year. I apologize for the fuzzy photos. As you can see, there is also a microwave and massage chairs for travelers.
After stopping there for my breakfast, I continued on my way to Niagara on the Lake, so we could meet my friend. We were combining 2 trips into one. It was Youngest’s 14th birthday trip and also my EPIC trip with my friend. We only see each other once a year.
We decided to meet up at Fort George which is located just outside Niagara on the Lake.
A difference between attractions like that and ones in the United States is that everything was both in English and French. They had a demonstration on how to use a rifle from the 1700s in both English and French which was interesting.
Once you pay with either Canadian money or American money, you are given a token that you give to the gate master (don’t know the real name of the guy). We waited for my friend because she had trouble getting across the border. Some border patrol people give you the 10th degree while others just ask you the basic questions and then allow you to continue on your journey.
This is in the gift shop. Youngest had fun looking at all of the souvenirs.
I don’t recall what he had in his hand.
Beginning our tour – Fort George was a British fort that protected Canada from the Americans during the War of 1812. There are different buildings that were in the fort when it was in operation. People dress in period clothing which add to the experience.
Widow Campbell’s House
British Flag
Inside the soldier’s barracks:
I’ll continue with my tour of Fort George in another post.
One of our favorite places to walk is Oakes Quarry. It’s a reclaimed limestone quarry that has the most interesting landscape.
Last night, the Scouts decided to meet there for a social distance walk / get together after not seeing each other for months. I joined along so that I could take photos.
Instead of staying with them, I took off, walked, and explored without the rest of them.
The quarry is located near an Air Force base. Last night a lot of planes were either coming into the base or leaving the base.
Those ponds disappear when there hasn’t been a lot of rain. I’ve been to the quarry when there has been very little rain. Instead of having those beautiful ponds, it’s dry land.
We had been there a week earlier and had found this stream full of tadpoles. So cool! I went back there last night. There were still tadpoles there but fewer than last week.
I am so fortunate to have this cool park to walk around and explore. You never know what you are going to find when you walk through this park.
Today I was talking to someone about seeing the cast of Boy Meets World while on the Disney College Program. I’ve been binge watching the last season of the show. Can you believe that the last season was 20 years ago?
I don’t have any photos to prove I really saw them. Just my memories and stories.
Anyway, Mom loved Days of Our Lives. She was super excited because one of her favorite actresses, Deidre Hall, was going to be at Disney-MGM Studios. Luckily, I was off the day she came to the Studios.
I got to watch her speak and put her hands in the cement. She had her youngest son, Sully, with her when she was at the Studios.
Did you know that they would not put all of the cement hand prints out in front of the Chinese Theater at Disney-MGM Studios? I tried to find the hand prints of the cast of Boy Meets World 5 years later. That’s when they informed that they didn’t keep all of them.
Back in 2000, Hubby and I went on our honeymoon. We had been married for a year.
Where do you think we went?
Well, Disney of course. While there, I turned 25 years old.
It was my first time there since my College Program. I was so excited to show Hubby around the World since it had been 15 or so years since he had been there.
I was also excited because I was going to be able to finally step foot in the Animal Kingdom because I watched it being built while I was on my College Program.
The first few days of the Honeymoon was great. We enjoyed spending time in Magic Kingdom and the Animal Kingdom.
Then the worse possible thing happened while down in Walt Disney World. I ended up with food poisoning. I spent all day Wednesday of my honeymoon stuck in our Mighty Ducks hotel room. All day long, I was worshiping the white porcelain God.
It was either the Key Lime Pie at the Rainforest Cafe or from drinking at the water fountains. I can eat Key Lime pie now but ever since then I don’t drink at water fountains.
The next day I was able to get out of our hotel room. We went to EPCOT and had breakfast or lunch at the Garden Grill. They gave us a free cake since it was our honeymoon. I don’t think I was able to eat any of it because my stomach was still upset.
We left on Friday of that week. I only wished I hadn’t gotten sick. The flight home was interesting but that is a story for another day.
The next year, we drove down to Walt Disney World in order to have a second honeymoon.
Never get sick in Disney. And not on your honeymoon. That’s the moral of my story.
Lately, it seems as though those are more and more days like that.
However, it is usually moments that are fleeting. Not the entire day.
Today was one of those days.
Listening to my son rant and rage about how he is feeling about the whole breakup has broken my heart. He usually has a kind soul who loves life.
I put on P!nk’s Hurts 2B Human album and played the song Hurts 2B Human on repeat and just bawled my eyes out on the way to work. I was a truly hot mess when I got there this morning.
I did listen to a few other songs but I played that song about 5 times.
I encountered some really stupid drivers on the way to school so that didn’t help. One of which pulled over in my lane and slowed way down so that he could get into the other lane so he could get off at the next exit. Luckily there was enough space between us so I could safely slow down.
Four of my co-workers allowed me to rant about the situation because I needed to get it off my chest before the students came in for the day.
Then the day started. I got hugs from students. One in particular gave me a hug several times throughout the day.
I escorted a student to class because he couldn’t figure out how to be sneaky so he wasn’t caught by me, the hallway patrol.
I had some good intervention sessions. In fact, I had some awesome ones. Then there were the ones where I am left in bewilderment on how disrespectful the students can be to each other and me. The one group sees me twice on Wednesdays so they made up for their not so good session. I don’t know why they were so bad during math intervention.
Listening to students get excited about what we were reading made my day. I had students asking questions and wanting to know more and other students using context clues. Those make an Intervention Specialist’s heart soar.
A student decided she needed to hang onto me as I was trying to lock my door. She has no concept of personal space.
During dismissal time, one of my students from last year showed up at the building. I got to talk to her and her mom for a while. It was such a sweet conversation. I love how she asked me if I had traveled anywhere lately.
I also found Swt. Blessings scripture plan for this month. It’s about finding comfort in God. I read today’s Scripture from 2 Corinthians 4: 7 – 9. It gave me comfort during this time.
So although at the beginning of the day and at moments throughout the day I felt as though I wish I had stayed in bed, I would not have had the beautiful parts of the day.
The sunrise today – So gorgeous!One of my former students posted this today on Facebook. It popped up in my notifications. What a great message.
The past week has been trying for us. The Oldest had his first heartbreak and break up. I’ve had to be a “friend,” mom, and sounding block.
As I said, it’s been trying. For 2 weeks prior to the break up, we have gone through mopey Oldest, angry Oldest, and then happy Oldest. It was hard to watch this roller coaster.
Last Sunday, she broke up with him via text and then immediately blocked him. He has to see her because they are in 2 classes and ride the bus together. Needless to say, he’s gone through a multitude of emotions. He is now happy and sees the break up is a good thing.
During those last 2 weeks, he would complain about being bored but refused to do anything. It was very sad to watch.
This weekend, I suggested we do something on Sunday afternoon. I was thinking of the Huffman Dam but he and his brother decided to go to the Englewood Dam. We also visited a favorite local restaurant for dinner. It was nice to have him back.
Not only was he was back so was the Youngest. My soul needed that because we used to go on a lot of adventures when they were younger.
Off topic: I’ve recently discovered Lizzo. She has great lyric in this song. “Don’t text me. Tell it me it to my face.” That’s how the Oldest is feeling right now. He is big on communication. That was the problem with the relationship.
Onto to the photos from our adventure:
After spending time in nature, we went to a favorite restaurant for our dinner. Airline Dairy Creme is located close to the Dayton International Airport.
I’m so happy that I got to spend some quality time with my teenagers. They are growing up so quickly.
Every year or almost every year since 2010, we have a tradition of going to see the sunflowers in a town near us.
They have a field that blooms for about 2 weeks. It is absolutely gorgeous so many people stop to take photos and even draw pictures of the sunflowers.
It’s gotten so popular that they have a parking area which they never had before a few years ago. I used to have to sort of parallel park in the grass near the field.
As I said, we go every year or almost every year. I have found photos from 2010, 2011, and then 2014-2019. I don’t remember if we went in 2012 or 2013.
This year, we took the Oldest’s girlfriend. She had never been to the field before so it was fun to watch her discover the absolute beauty of the field.
While walking through the rows of sunflowers, you have to be careful of the bees because they love to hang out there and the prickly plants that grow near the sunflowers. Other than that, it’s fun to get lost in the hundreds of sunflowers.
We also have a tradition of going to the local dairy that is just down the road after visiting the sunflowers. So we did that also on Monday. Oldest’s girlfriend hadn’t been to Young’s Dairy for a while so it was fun to treat her to ice cream made with milk from cows from the dairy and to watch her feed the goats.
Visiting the sunflowers is one memory that the boys are going to carry with them for the rest of their lives. Even though Youngest would have rather stayed at home and played on the computer.
The boys are getting older so there wasn’t very many day trips. Let’s take that back – We’ve done day trip. I’ve done some road trips with each of them individually.
The Memorial Day tornadoes change the dynamics of my summer. Even though it didn’t directly affect me, it affected the area I teach in so that made me upset.
It was not until our Youngest was 5-years-old that Hubby and I dared to take a trip away from the boys. In 2010, we drove to St. Louis for a few days to let us be a couple instead of just parents of our two boys.
Believe in the Magic Traci Diary 