Nadine and I had a wonderful 4 days in New York last weekend. We stayed in Midtown, Manhattan and were about 2 - 3 blocks from Times Square and 1 block from Broadway. We saw many of the popular sites including Wall street, China Town, the financial district, the site of the world trade buildings, and we got to the top of the empire state building. We also had a “Big Apple Greeter” who showed us around most of the south part of Manhattan on Saturday morning. We went to one broadway play (Spamalot) and one off-broadway play (the Perfect Crime). The weather was a little wet, however, we saw everything we wanted to. It is one great city.

A view from the Hudson River

Macy's, the world's largest store.

Peter and Adam are getting settled in in their new apartment on the 20th floor of Park Victoria in Halifax. Thanks to many people, the 2 hour rush for the elevator between 8 and 10 pm on Monday was a very busy time. Matt Malenfant and Aaron Atwater helped Peter, Devon, Nadine, Adam and I move Adam from his last place and move Peter from Durham. We could only move the stuff in from 8 - 10 and we had lots of stuff. Adam also had to work from 5 until 9:30 so he got off a little easy from the heavy lifting. Also a big thanks go to Larry and Sue for the use of their vehicles during the day. Nadine was working hard into the wee hours of the morning getting everything clean and livable. All in all it was a great adventure. Here are a couple of photos:

At first I was not sure what an enrichment leave was, but now after two weeks into it I am starting to see the difference. I am on a four month leave from my regular job with the college and am working on a project to find meaningful volunteer work in third world countries for second year business students to undertake. I am hoping to work with a University in Mexico to assist our students with this work. I am looking at helping people in one of three countries; Belize, Mexico and Guatemala. The work that the students perform must be part of their curriculum and they do it instead of learning it in the classroom, in other words real on-the-job training. I will also be taking a Spanish course so I can communicate with some of the people in these countries. I am working from the School of Fisheries Building in Pictou and enjoying my time there. I will be up-dating this blog with all of the interesting work as I continue this project.

Here is a picture of my new office....very cozy.

On Friday, July 25th, Colin and I arose and packed our clothes for Whistler and a couple of days of fun and festivities. We left around 9:00 am and with Colin as my navigator, we drove out of the busy city and headed north. Because of the 2010 Olympics being hosted in Vancouver/Whistler the road to Whistler is under a great deal of construction. Fortunately for us most of the work crews had been given the weekend off for various reasons and so the number of times we had to stop was only once. After a nice breakfast in Squamish we encountered a site that neither of us had experienced before, and that was a bear on the side of the highway. We arrived at the condo around noon just in time to start helping with some of the chores to get ready for the party that evening. It was a wonderful day with lots of people around, and the party Janet hosted went over without a hitch.

Saturday was a another day of festivities and friends gathering to chat and get re-acquanted. The wedding started at 6:00 pm and was a lovely ceremony.

It was held at the Fairmont Whistler along with the sit down meal for 200. The dance took place downstairs afterwards and lasted until the wee hours of the morning. It was a great day.

Sunday started with a brunch at the hotel and a send off for Michael and Shana. Back to the condo to clean up and get packed for our three hour drive to the city. Colin and I got back to Vancouver around 3:30 and went to Janet and Billy's to leave off some of the supplies from the weekend. We then went back to Colin's to rest and buy hot dogs and sausages for Sunday supper back at the Brittain's. We got back around 6:00 and Colin bar-b-qued the supper. It was a nice relaxing meal and we sat around and looked at the wedding pictures. Back to Colin's by 10:00.

Kingston Peninsula, Dover, and Vancouver...these were the stops I made in making my way to Michael Brittain's wedding.

Monday afternoon (July 21st) Peter and I drove to The Reach and spent the night visiting with Bev and Kate and enjoyed the company of Georgia and Molly as well. In the morning we left and headed for Dover. We stopped a few times along the way for food and to change drivers. We breezed through the border crossing at Saint Stephen's with only a 10 minute wait, we must not be the type of people they are going to search.

It was so nice to have Peter with me for the drive, we were able to keep each other entertained for the entire 26 hours we spent in the car together on the drive there and back. We listened to Pete's music on his ipod with the help of his new FM transmitter.

We arrived in Dover around 4 in the afternoon and Chris was waiting for us. We made ourselves comfortable and relaxed after the long drive. Chris and John have a beautiful home in Dover which is in a quiet neighborhood as can be seen in this picture.



John got home from work around 7:30 and we then had a lovely supper of bar-b-qued hamburgers. Chris makes a fine burger. After a couple of bottles of wine and some catching up we headed to bed to face another long day.

Chris and I drove Peter to the bus station in Dover were he caught the bus to South Boston. He was to meet his friend Omar there and stay with him for the week while I was in Vancouver. He had a great stay with him but found Boston to be very hot and muggy.


The two of us then took a bus to the Boston airport and caught our flight to Seattle via Cincinnati. After 2 uneventful flights we picked up our bags in Seattle and called the rental car company to come and pick us up. The E-Z car rental was where we picked up our rental for the week and drove it to Vancouver, a yellow PT Cruiser...go figure. Chris drove the 3 1/2 hours to Vancouver and we got to Janet and Billy's around 11:30 pm. It was so nice to get there and relax. Janet and Christine were still up to greet us and we chatted for a while as Chris and I unwound. After a beer and great conversation I was asleep by 1:00 am.

I awoke to the sounds of Bill puttering around the kitchen and finally got up around eight. I called Colin and told him I was going to pick him up and then going to McDonald's to pick up breakfast for everyone.

After breakfast and getting re-packed, Colin and I left for his place and to embark on a walk around downtown. Chris, Janet and Bill drove to Whistler to prepare for there part in the wedding celebrations.

Colin and I took a bus and then walked for a few hours taking in the sites of the city. We walked by the building he will be moving into at the end of the month.



We continued to find our way around for another hour or so and then stopped for a cup of tea. While enjoying watching the sites and sounds a friend of mine from RCS came over and said hi. Ralph Lutes is working in the city and just happened by while we were there. It is truly a small world. It was nice to see Ralph again, he is a very fine person.

After walking around part of the seawall, we headed back through town and grabbed a bus back to Colin's area of the city. We spent a few minutes cleaning up and chatting before we left for supper at Boston Pizza. After a great meal, we drove to Angela and Dave's place to pay them a visit. Bev was also there after having arrived that afternoon. Her luggage, however, did not arrive with her. (She got it the next day in time to take to the wedding) Angela and Dave have a condo in a very nice part of the city and it was so nice to see them again. We talked for about two hours and took our leave around 10:30 and drove back to Colin's. We checked in with all our contacts via e-mail and skype and let everyone know Chris and I made it safely to Vancouver. Off to Whistler tomorrow.

Devon had a 4 game basketball tournament in Halifax this weekend and he played very well. For lunch on Saturday, the team and some parents went to "Your Father's Mustache" a bar/restaurant in the city. During lunch the young ladies in the tight yellow t-shirts were giving away free Bacardi Breezers.

They took this picture for their promotion on the Bacardi website.

The weekend was great with lots of fun and activities. We spend Saturday night at Sue's and got a chance to jump on their new trampoline as can be seen here.

Adam and Devon took Lin and Jade on a fishing excursion to the brook. This is proof positive that there are fish to be caught. However, I don't think there are many fish to eat.