The mosquitoes and black flies that are common in this area during the summer are pretty much gone. And the kids are back in school.
But while fall doesn't officially begin until September 23rd this year, you can tell that fall is in the air.
Yesterday, the retirement facility where my mother lives held their annual "Fall Fair"... even though it's not quite fall yet! We had a few things planned in the city yesterday, so this was our first stop...
That's my mom running the cash at the knitting booth.
She does a lot of knitting and donates it to the sale.
Ruth always manages to find a dog to pet.
Some free musical entertainment.
Quite a few people around.
Ruth bought a couple of new (used) tops at $5 each.
Next stop was downtown.
Some of our regular readers might remember previous years when our son Alex and his friend Matt competed in a charity race called "City Chase". This year's event took place yesterday. They've done really well in past years, even coming in first place out of 300 teams competing.
Yesterday, they won again!
Matt and Alex, collecting first place!
The winners!
It involves making your way to 8 of 12 different event stations and completing whatever event is at that station. You can do it by foot, or using public transportation or a combination of the two.
Most teams take well over two hours to complete the race.
Matt and Alex did it in one hour, seventeen minutes! The second place team came in eighteen minutes later! But Matt and Alex are both avid runners. They completed 8 tasks including running 11 kms (7 miles) in a total of 1:17. They did it all on foot and didn't use any public transportation.
So they won first prize which is a "staycation" at the Westin Hotel in downtown Ottawa for them and their girlfriends!
Nice!
We had some lunch at the pub and visited with Alex and his friends who were there celebrating with him.
Then, we drove out to the east end of Ottawa to the community of Orleans. First stop was to see my old friend Bruce and his wife Josee.
Josee, Bruce, Kevin, and Ruth.
Bruce and I go back to the summer of 1978 when we were both 16 years old... we've known each other for 41 years! Nice to see them again, and I will be seeing him again in two weeks when I attend my annual guys weekend away.
Orleans is where we owned our house and brought up our kids.
So, we stopped in at our old house to see how things look.
You can't even see the house!
We planted both of those trees. The one on the left is a maple, and the one on the right is a little leaf linden. Nice to see that they are doing so well.
In August 2007.
My sister lives around the corner from there, and we stopped in to say hello but she was on her way out the door. We'll see her again another time before we leave.
Gotta get out and enjoy the day!
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I always enjoy your "doings". The retirement community looks lively and very attractive. We're also looking forward to the Ecuador blog since we'll be going for a 2nd time ourselves this winter but will miss the hidden gems you'll point out to us on YOUR trip.
ReplyDeleteThank you Jerry! It isn't like we do very much that is exciting when we come back "home" to visit family and friends but we always seem to be doing something.
DeleteWe are so looking forward to our trip to Ecuador as well. We still haven't really done any research on it as we have been busy but we definitely have to start looking at that soon. I hope we can give you some ideas for your return trip.
Nice to get back to see your old house and how things have changed. we have a cousin in Orleans.
ReplyDeleteWe almost always stop by for a quick peek at the old house but lately nothing has really changed except that the trees are bigger.
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