December Reflections

It has been a very busy time for Heather and myself since our wedding day in October. It has also been a time of many more milestones.

On November 23rd, I started a new job in Cambridge after leaving my old position some seven weeks ago. At least I managed to get at least one more ride in on Friday, which was my last weekday of unemployment. It was also around that time when one of our fellow VROCers generously gave us a set of highway pegs. Now, thanks to Kim and Mike's wedding gift getting the second set will be that much easier.

December was a month of birthdays. The most special ones were of course the 1st birthdays of our niece and nephew.

Jolene's party was first and it was full two weeks before her actual birthday. The family gathered on December 6th at a Cambridge community centre for this very special occasion.

Our niece Jolene.

The following Sunday, it was Adrian's turn and again it was a family-only function at his parents' home.

Our nephew Adrian.

Christmas Eve was spent, as always, with my family. It was held at my parents' home this year as we ate well and exchanged gifts.

Back on Two Wheels

It took over two months but we finally managed to ride today on what turned out to be a beautiful day. With a lot of things happenings in the past couple of months, like the wedding, plus sketchy weather, we've been unable to ride since Labour Day Monday.

Today's forecast called for 16+ degrees and we knew that this would be the best opportunity for one last ride this season. We waited until noon before starting our ride in best possible conditions.

The ride was short as it covered some 150km in 3 hours and took us through Erin and Fergus. We stopped in Erin for gas and for food in Fergus. The food stop was at Dairy Queen where we shared chicken strips and a blizzard. As we were leaving Dairy Queen we witnessed a lady back her van into a Honda Civic leaving a 6-inch gash on the Honda's rear fender. Surprisingly, the lady drove away without giving it much thought. The other exciting part of the ride came later as I went really low into a turn and scraped a floorboard. Seeing how it was my first time doing that, even Heather noticed that I was somewhat startled by that occurrence.

We returned from the ride at 3:30, just in time for supper with a few guests, namely my cousin from Poland and his brother (with his wife) who's visiting from New Jersey. While it was a short ride it will make the wait for next season that much shorter. Overall, we finished the season short of our goal but we still rode more than last year and considering other things going on this year, the season was fulfilling.

Heather with my cousin, Greg.

SEASON STATS
Today's trip: 147 km - 91 miles
2009 to date: 7,584 km - 4,713 miles (89.2%)
2009 goal: 8,500 km - 5,282 miles
To obtain goal: 916 km - 569 miles


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WATER TOWERS

Honeymoon - Day 8

We took our time getting up this morning as today's drive was going to be significantly shorter. We even had time to go out for breakfast, although after seeing the crowd at Gonga's, we ended up at Trevi's. Once we came back home, it wasn't until almost 1pm when we left Sudbury.

As with previous trips, we only stopped once, this time in Nobel for gas. We arrived in Waterloo at 5:30 and first visited my parents before finally going home. At home, we unpacked the car, which took several trips before settling in and relaxing for the rest of the evening.

It was a great trip and we've already discussing the possibility of going back to Stowe next summer. Until then, we'll have a lot of pictures to look back on.

Honeymoon - Day 7

Our hotel phone rang at 6am with a wake up call. It was going to be a long drive and we wanted to have an early start. It turned out to be too early as breakfast wasn't served until 7:30 on weekends. That little delay, however, gave us time to check out and be ready to leave. The door to the dining room opened early at 7:15 and for the last time, Heather and I enjoyed breakfast at the Green Mountain Inn.

The Green Mountain Inn on a sunny Saturday morning.

We left Stowe at 7:35 with many great memories and a trunk full of souvenirs. Once again, we took Vermont 108 out of town and made a couple of stops to take photos, for the last time, of the beautiful surroundings. As we were leaving, it was sunny and it looked like it was going to be a great day.

Mount Mansfield partially covered by clouds.

Our drive to the Canadian border took us through Vermont 15 and 104 before finally reaching I-89 near St. Albans. We crossed the border in Philipsburg/Saint-Armand around 8:50. When we got to the border there were about 5 cars ahead of us and only one gate open. The line, however, was fairly quick and we also didn't have any issues although the border guard did contemplate other actions.

Just as we crossed the border, the weather took a turn for the worse. The clouds now dominated the sky, the wind was noticably stronger and eventually it started raining. As we reached Montreal around 10am, it was pouring. Half an hour later, we were in Ontario on a pretty much empty 417 which allowed me to cruise at a speed just below what would constitute a ticketable offence. At 11:30, we drove past Ottawa and less than 30 minutes later we finally made a stop in Arnprior at about the same time that the rain had finally let up. We had a quick lunch at Tim Hortons filled up the car and were on our way again.

From Arnprior it was nothing but a mostly lonely drive along Highway 17, or Transcanada Highway, to Sudbury where we would visit Heather's parents. Finally, after some 530 miles and 9.5 hours after leaving Stowe, we arrived in Sudbury at 5pm. Shortly after, we all went out to Casey's for supper in order to avoid the trick-or-treating kids. From Casey's we went to Chapters to kill more time before Heather and I were dropped of while Jim and Sandy left to attend some sort of a community function. Heather and I spent most of the evening watching TV, especially several episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm which were taped for us since we don't have cable, not to mention HBO.

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Honeymoon - Day 6

Today was our last full day in Stowe but we still didn't have the need to do things at a breakneck speed and see as many things as possible. Whatever we've done up to this point was great and we definitely see ourselves coming back here in the future.

We had breakfast at 8:30 this morning, an hour earlier than yesterday, and then made our plans for the day. Our first order of business was to find a Wal-Mart and get some things that aren't found home. Unfortunately, we came away empty-handed in that department after visiting a Wal-Mart in Berlin, which is between Barre and Montpelier, Vermont's capital. Before leaving, we did a quick walk through the Berlin Mall.

Our next stop was also going to be the last tourist attraction we'd visit. That stop was going to be the Rock Art Brewery in Morrisville. The GPS told us to go back on I-89 and Vermont-100 to reach Morrisville but with almost two hours before the scheduled 2pm start time of the tour, I drove north on Vermont-14 and then west on Vermont-15.

We arrived in Morrisville at 1:20pm and stopped for lunch at McDonald's. We then finally made it to Rock Art Brewery 5 minutes before 2.

At the Rock Art Brewery in Morrisville.

As we entered the brewery, we met Renee, one half of the husband-wife team of owners. We had a brief chat before she left for the day. With a couple of minutes still to spare, we started the tastings of the four beers on tap (Sunny and 75, Cascade Harvest Ale, Golden Triple and Vermonster, the brewery's 10-year anniversary beer). Our tour started on time with tour guide Andrea, one of two full-time brewers at the company, with Heather and I the only two participants. Five minutes later, however, a couple of latecomers joined the tour as well.

Andrea did a great a job of explaining her work week (brewing is only done on Tuesdays and Wednesdays) and the entire process of brewing beer at Rock Art including bottling. She also went through the history of the company from its start in 1997 in a basement to how it got to its current location.

The tour ended and we went back to the bar area where we finished our tastings and purchased some things to take home. We tried to limit our purchases since we'd be crossing the border tomorrow.

Rock Art's bar and its offerings.

We made it back to Stowe at 3 and before going back to the room, we visited the Mercantile Store, Shaw's General Store and the front desk of Green Mountain Inn to get some last minute souvenirs. While there, we noticed an increased number of people checking in just as our stay at the hotel is coming to an end.

At 7:30 we had supper at The Whip for the third time this week. On the way over it rained quite heavily. Given our luck of overcast and rainy days at the Green Mountain Inn, we expect a sunny day tomorrow on our way home. Heather finished her stay with a pan-roasted chicken with Vermont cheddar and I had the Starr which is a sandwich with lots of turkey, bacon, lettuce and tomato. My beer of choice was Magic Hat #9. For dessert we had a creme brule and an apple strudel.

Once we were back in our room, we made sure to pack our staff and enjoyed whatever we had left of our last night in Stowe.

Honeymoon - Day 5

I guess, at some point this week we were going to hit the wall and today was it. All the exhaustion from the past weekend and this week has made us very lethargic. So today seemed like a good day to stay low key and stay in town.

One thing that we wanted to do today was go all the way up Mount Mansfield by taking the 4.5 mile long Toll Road. To our disappointment a 'Closed For Season' sign welcomed us at the entrance. It's even worse considering the fact that even if we come back to Stowe next summer on motorcycles we won't be allowed to enter as only cars are allowed. Unless, of course we rent a car.

A sign at the entrance to the Toll Road.

We moved to Plan B which was to go back through Scenic 108 which was only 2-3 miles from the Toll Road. At its highest point, the road's elevation is about 2,500 feet. When got there at about 10am, on a very gloomy day, the condensation was very thick and it almost felt like driving through clouds. We stopped at the side of the road a couple of times to admire the scenery and to take a few photos.

In the heavy mist along Scenic 108.

We got back to the hotel at 11, parked the car and embarked on walk along Stowe's famous Recreation Path. The Recreation Path is a 5.5 mile paved walkway through Stowe that crosses the West Branch River about 10 times. We only made it as far as the 1.5 mile marker before turning back but it did take us just about 2 hours to complete that trip.

Taking a walk along the Stowe Recreation Path.

We made it back to our building, the Mansfield House, around 1pm to find that housekeeping was still in our room. So for the next 15 minutes we milled around the lobby and browsed through a couple of photo albums, one of which was dedicated to weddings at the Green Mountain Inn. Once housekeeping had moved on to another room, we went back to our room where we watched a few episodes of "How I Met Your Mother", napped and otherwise rested.

In the Mansfield House lobby.

At 5:30, I went to Subway to pick up a couple of footlongs for supper. I also picked up a pint of Ben & Jerry's creme brule ice cream. We got one after Tuesday's tour but after last night's power outage we found it melted this afternoon. Soon after supper we made our way to the local Visitors Centre, located across the Green Mountain Inn, where we had reserved our place in a Stowe Lantern Tour at 8pm. The tour included a visit to the local cemetery and a handful of stories about ghosts that haunt Emily's Bridge and even the Green Mountain Inn. Our guide was a local man, Shawn, who used to be a high school teacher. He also told us that his brother and sister-in-law both went to the University of Waterloo and now live in London. Small world. We retreated back to our room at 9:30 for the rest of the night.

Before the start of the lantern tour.

Honeymoon - Day 4

Just like yesterday, we started our day with breakfast in the hotel's main building, although an hour later than yesterday. However, in addition to the regular fare we each had an item from the kitchen. Heather ordered french toast and I had an omelette. Once we finished, we resumed our adventure.

Our first stop this morning was the Cold Hollow Cider Mill. There we watched the process of making cider. While there was no tour or a tour guide, we were able to witness the whole thing and one of the workers explained the different steps in the process. We had a small sample of the cider, stopped by the gift shop and then went across the parking lot to the Apple Core Gift Shop.

At the Cold Hollow Cider Mill.

In addition to the gift shop there was also a wine tasting room of the Grand View Winery. Oddly enough the winery itself is located some 45 minutes away in East Calais. Plus the winery does offer tours but we decided that after tasting six different wines, we've experienced enough.

Changing gears, we decided to drive around the countryside hunting for covered bridges. We made those plans last night after purchasing an illustrated map and guide of Vermont's 107 covered bridges.

The trip took us through various roads, paved and unpaved, and towns. Our first stop was at Emily's Bridge which is near Stowe and is believed to be haunted. After that, thanks to the guide's great directions, we were able to find 11 more in a span of about 3 hours. About halfway through the trip, it started raining and by the time we were going back to the hotel it was raining fairly heavy.

Emily's Bridge.

Also, on the way back we drove through a stretch of Vermont-108 called Scenic 108. It goes directly through a mountain including a mile-long stretch of very twisty, narrow road with no centre yellow line and poor visibility because of the rock on the side of the road.

With a quick stop at the Laughing Moon Chocolates, we were back in our room at 3pm. We spent the next couple of hours unwinding and napping. At 5:30 we went to The Whip for an early supper. Heather and I both had a flatbread pizza with bacon, apples, Gouda, mozza and marinara. For dessert, Heather had a berry croissant bread pudding and I had a strawberry rhubarb cobbler. In my quest to try new beers, I had a Long Trail IPA.

Eating supper.

Right after supper, we drove to a local cinema where we enjoyed a very funny comedy, Couples Retreat. We were back in the hotel at 9 and before going back to our room, we visited the front desk where we picked up a couple of glow sticks on account of a scheduled overnight power outage.

Honeymoon - Day 3

The morning started fairly early again with a wake-up call at 7am. We wanted to get an early start on breakfast plus we had a 9am appointment for a massage. We each booked a 50-minute session of a relaxation massage. What made it even better was that from Monday through Thursday there is a special on 50-minute massages for only $49. It's an amazing deal considering that a regularly priced 25-minute massage costs $55. You read that right - the hotel pretty much pays you to double your session. How can anyone say no to that?

At 10am we went back to our room to drop off our robes and seeing that housekeeping was there, Heather and I went for a walk around town. We walked to a local pottery place only to see that it was closed, visited a general store, a bookstore, a souvenir shop and a post office. We also stopped at the hotel's game room which has several arcade games, a pool table and an air hockey table. I played one game of Big Buck Hunter before leaving.

A pedestrian covered bridge in Stowe.

At noon, we left Stowe and went to Shelburne. There, we wanted to visit the Vermont Teddy Bear Co. The trip took about an hour and we got there just before the start of the factory tour. For $2 each, we were told a story of the company's history and also walked through the factory where the process of making teddy bears was explained to us.

At the Vermont Teddy Bear Co.

Following the tour, we visited the gift shop before departing. Our next stop was going to be a tour of Ben & Jerry's which we passed on the way to Shelburne. Before getting there we made a quick stop at The Christmas Loft in Shelburne and an even quicker stop at Shaw's grocery store in Waterbury.

Entering Ben & Jerry's headquarters.

The tour of Ben & Jerry's included a short movie, a look at the factory floor (where we prohibited from taking photos) and of course ice cream sampling. Today's sample was Mint Chocolate Chunk and it was delicious. One thing we learned during the tour was that the company has a plant in Simcoe, Ontario which is about 1.5 hours from where we live. At Ben & Jerry's we also stopped at the gift shop to pick up a couple of things. On our way back to the car we ran into a couple that was in our group at the Vermont Teddy Bear Co tour. Truly, Vermont has a lot of attractions and many people wanting to see them.

We arrived back at the hotel just after 4 and in time for some afternoon tea. We spent the rest of the evening relaxing in our room.

Honeymoon - Day 2

Heather and I didn't plan to stay in Cornwall for a long time and that's why after a quick breakfast we left the hotel at 8am on a frosty morning with the temperature at -2C. Before crossing the border, we made a quick stop at a local Wal-Mart for some last minute supplies.

Morning in Cornwall at the Best Western.

After paying a $3US toll on the Canadian side we crossed the border at 8:30am. The crossing took longer than we're used to as I was subjected to several questions like "Where were you born?", "When did you come to Canada?", "When did you become a Canadian citizen?" in addition to the usual "Where are you going and why"? On top of that I was asked to open the trunk.

The roads of New York we were traveling were somewhat twisty and the roadside was very colourful. We didn't make our first stop until we had to stop in Saranac Lake for gas. It was our first fuel stop since leaving home yesterday. Another 10 minutes later we stopped again but this time in Lake Placid. I made plans to include this town in our itinerary for a couple of reasons.

One of the reasons was a flying tour of Lake Placid and the surrounding Adirondack Park provided by the Adirondack Flying Service. For $40 per person, you were able to get a 20 minute flight of either the High Peaks or the Olympic Village. Heather and I decided for the High Peaks tour. The pilot, Phil, was summoned and after 15 minutes we were flying 5,000 feet above ground.

At the Lake Placid Airport with our aircraft.

Phil proved to be a great guide and a reliable pilot. Did I mention that this was only my second time ever in any aircraft? We had a great view of Adirondack's highest mountains and even saw the landscape of Vermont. With a clear sky the visibility was about 100 miles. In addition, we flew over the olympic village.

A bird's eye view of the town of Lake Placid.

While in the air, Phil also advised us that the best way to get to Vermont was to take a ferry from Essex instead of the bridge from Port Henry to Chimney Point as we had planned to do. Apparently the bridge is currently closed. We left the Lake Placid airport at 11:30 and made a quick stop at the Ski Jumping Complex where we met a couple of motorcyclists from New Hampshire. We chatted with them for a couple of minutes, exchanged photos and left for downtown and the Olympic Visitors Centre.

At the Ski Jumping Complex.

At the Visitors Centre, we found out that there are no tours at this time of year and most of the olympic venues are supposedly closed, except for viewing. With that in mind, we drove back out of town to Mt. Van Hoevenberg which is home to the Olympic Sports Complex. There we watched luge practice for a few minutes.

At the bobsled/luge park.

Following Phil's directions, we arrived in Essex at 1:35pm. There we boarded the ferry which left mere seconds later. Of the dozen vehicles on board, at least five states (Massachussets, Virginia, Vermont, New York, Rhode Island) and one province (Ontario, of course) were represented. We actually talked with a family from UK who were on vacation traveling in a Jeep with Ontario plates. Apparently, they had already visited Toronto, Kingston and were on their way to Burlington, Vermont and then Stowe tomorrow.

On the ferry from New York to Vermont.

The ferry ride took no longer than 15 minutes and from there we decided to drive straight to our destination in Stowe. However, that didn't prove to be easy as I punched in the wrong address into the GPS. Apparently in Vermont, the Green Mountains State, there is more than one Green Mountain Inn. Luckily for us the difference between the two was about 6 miles. We finally checked in to our hotel at 3:30pm. As we got to our room, a bottle of champagne and a box of chocolates were already waiting for us.

Our room at the Green Mountain Inn.

Our hotel room is very nice with several great features like even a safe. One of the walls is adorned by a portrait of Fanny Allen. There's also a fireplace, a DVD player and a jacuzzi.

At 6:30, Heather and I made our way to The Whip, in-house restaurant, for supper. The food was amazing as Heather had a Fresh Vermont Chevre, Potato Dumplings w/Cheddar & Herbs and Maple Rice Pudding for dessert, while I had Grilled Duck & Brie Quesadilla and a Flatbread Pizza with roast pork, beef, ham, apples, BBQ sauce and mozzarella. To drink, Heather had a lemon martini and a white strawberry cosmo and I started my quest to had each of the seven local beers on the menu. Tonight, I tried the Long Trail Harvest Ale brewed in Bridgewater and Switchback Unfiltered Ale brewed in Burlington.

After a hearty dinner at The Whip.

We finished the night discussing tomorrow's plans and catching up with various things on the net.

TODAY'S TRIP

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Honeymoon - Day 1

After 11,361 mornings of waking up a single man, today I woke married to a wonderful girl. But with all the adrenaline from last night still rushing, I only managed to get 4 hours of solid sleep. When both of us were ready to get up, we hopped in the jacuzzi for 5 minutes to unwind a little. Then, with the help of Jim and Sandy, we moved all our belongings out of the room and were checked out by 9:30am.

From there we went back to my parents' house, where a morning brunch was scheduled for between 10 and noon. Since I didn't have a change of clothes at the hotel, the first order of business was to change into yesterday's civies. We then waited as people streamed into the house over the course of an hour. In the meantime, Heather and I opened up the remainder of cards and gifts received last night. The guys also assembled their tuxedos and Mike volunteered to return all seven of them on their way to Aylmer. What was noticeably different about today was the weather. As opposed to our wedding day, it was sunny and much warmer. Guess luck wasn't on our side this time but we were glad that we didn't have Friday's rainy, cold weather on our special day.

The brunch was great as my mom had prepared various sandwiches, muffins and other goodies. Then reality checked back in and everyone started the process of returning to their lives. For Kim and Mike it included going to Aylmer to pick up little Jolene and for someone like Darryl and Erin their focus can now shift to the arrival of their twins in less than a month. We finished moving gifts from Jim's car to ours, and he also, along with Sandy and her parents, were off to Sudbury. Heather and I were pretty much the last to leave at 12:15. But before we went home, we stopped at a bank to deposit the money from our guests' very generous gifts. Surprisingly the bank was open and we were able to exchange a think wad of $20 bills for $100s for a smoother deposit into the machine.

When we finally got home, it took us a couple of hours to pack but after stopping at a gas station, we were officially on our honeymoon at 3:10pm. Today's trip was only as far as Cornwall before reaching our final destination of Stowe, Vermont tomorrow. Without a single stop, we covered the 533km trip in 4 hours and 40 minutes at a brisk average of abouth 115 km/h. We encountered very few slowdowns, even in the notoriously busy Toronto. In and around Kingston we passed three cruisers including one on its way to an accident scene that happened just seconds before we passed the scene. Heather spent the majority of the trip asleep. What kept me company was the Buffalo-Carolina game on AM590 from pregame to first quarter, and on AM1180 from second to third quarter. Matt Good's Hospital Music provided the soundtrack for the last 1.5 hours of the trip.

We checked in to Best Western in Cornwall at 8pm and spent the rest of the evening catching up on e-mails, uploading wedding photos etc. We each also had a chicken bacon ranch wrap from our room service menu before going to bed at close to midnight.

Resting at the Best Western in Cornwall.

TODAY'S TRIP


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THE WEDDING DAY!

17 months after becoming engaged and over 12 months after starting the preparations, the big day had finally arrived. And it took me just as long to get nervous, since up to today I was believing that it'd be just another day. Of course, in the back of my head, I knew that I would be overcome with happiness and excitement throughout the day.

To help me through this transition, my friend Darryl, who will be standing behind me during the ceremony, stayed over at my place last night while Heather was already enjoying our honeymoon suite. Some five years ago, we were on opposite ends as I helped Darryl on the night before his marriage to Erin. Anyways, after a good night's sleep, interrupted by a couple of early morning phone calls from Heather, we were up around 9:30am. We had a small breakfast of day-old cold pizza and took our time getting to the Black Forest Inn where we left Darryl's car. His wife, Erin would later drive them both to the hotel. We finally arrived at my parents' house at 11:30 to start getting dressed in our tuxedos. Soon after we were joined my brothers Greg and Wojtek and future brother-in-law Mike.

Getting ready.

One of videographers, Joel, arrived at 12:30 to shoot the preparations. The guys tried to keep the atmosphere very relaxed but I just couldn't stop pacing. An hour later our photographer, Michael, arrived. We started with a few photos indoors and then went outside for take more photos including some with my motorcycle.

Mixing around the house, waiting for the ladies to arrive.

From there, the tension kept growing as we were awaiting the ladies' arrival in the limousine. They finally made it at 2pm. It was a very special moment as it was the first time I saw Heather in her wedding dress. We made the decision to see each before the ceremony in order to have pictures taken in daylight. After a few photos at the house we were off to Kitchener for formal photos in front of the Sunlife building.

The happy couple.

Our original plan was to shoot in the Waterloo Park but considering the weather we decided to head to Kitchener. And the weather wasn't great all day. It was mostly chilly with a few cold gusts of wind and a few brief sprinkles or rain and even snow.

The real stars of the show: Tina, Agnes, Heather and Kim.

We arrived at Sunlife to find another wedding party already there. Everyone took turns waiting in the limo as the photographer took shots of the guys, the girls, the couple with parents, grandparents, siblings etc. Our limo driver, Mark, turned out to be very helpful as helped Heather stay warm and dry and even helped her with a mud stain on her dress with a little Tide To Go.

Emergency touch up work on Heather's dress.

The pictures were wrapped up at 4:30 and we went straight to the venue which was about 20 minutes away.

At 5 or shortly after, the ceremony started with Trish from Kettle Creek Weddings leading the proceedings. She conducted a beautiful ceremony that included readings by our friends Dennis and Jessica and a special message from Trish which incorporated our love of motorcycles. We concluded the ceremony with a sand ceremony. That was followed with a very informal receiving line while the staff at the Block Forest Inn started to transform the venue for the reception. Throughout the whole night, they, led by our point person Barb, did an amazing job of hosting the event.

Minutes before entering the reception hall.

The reception itself started at 7 and the food and service were both excellent. In the meantime, several people spoke including Kim & Mike, Darryl, Wojtek, our friend from Waterloo Wings Kevin, Heather's parents and of course we did too. Everyone's speech was great and at times full of emotion. We definitely couldn't have picked a better wedding party. My friend Remi, also did an amazing job as an MC. By 9pm, the dinner was over and it was time to party. We partied for hours and at the end we thought the day was short.

By 1am, the venue had thinned out and it was time to wrap up the party. The Black Forest Inn staff collected our belongings and loaded them into Jim's van. As a final act before leaving, we had to pay for the entire evening. Thanks to a generous gift from our parents, we ended up getting change. Jim dropped us off at the Destination Inn at 1:30. Even then the feeling of being married still hadn't sunk in for both of us and we thought it was surreal that the whole day had just happened.

The day was definitely very special and we were ecstatic to have our parents, siblings and friends be a part of it. Their support is what helped us get through. Thank you, everyone!

Rehearsal Night

The wedding is now only 2 days away. We finally had to wrap up most of our preparations and hand over various items to our venue.

With the help of Kim, we loaded up my car and arrived about 45 minutes before the scheduled 7pm start time of the rehearsal. In that time we met up with Barb of The Black Forest Inn and moved various items into her office. The items included wedding favours for our guests, ceremony programs, seating chart, place cards etc.

The rehearsal started on time with our officiant Trish in charge of the proceedings. We did a couple of dry runs and once everyone was satisfied we wrapped things up at the venue.

From there, we all went to St. Louis Bar & Grill for dinner. Joining Heather and I were our parents, Heather's grandparents Harry & Jan, my brothers Greg with Justyna and Wojtek with Agnes, Heather's sister Kim with Mike, and our friends Darryl and Erin, Remi and Lisa, Dennis and Diana, and Jessica. Also with us was my cousin Greg who flew in from Poland only yesterday for this special occasion.

The dinner went very well as in addition to great food, we also handed out some gifts for our wedding party. After about two hours at the restaurant we all dispersed and went home.

Heather and I would like to again thank everyone who came out tonight, especially those that came from out of town. It was a special night and we can't wait for another one in less than 48 hours.

Everyone is in position.

WRMRC

Heather's dad Jim came into town (Maryhill to be specific) today with his friend Leo, with their only purpose to visit the Waterloo Region Model Railroad Club, which had its annual open house today.

We met at the club location at about 11am and spent almost two hours visiting the layout. Jim is a fan of model railroading and to make things even better, the club is modelling Sudbury and area of 1970's. The work done on the layout so far is impressive but so is the amount of work left to be done.

After the quick visit, Jim and Leo headed back to Sudbury, while Heather and I went home to continue working on our wedding which is now only 7 days away.

One of the views of the layout.

Happy Birthday, Mike!

Our wedding day is quickly approaching but there are still other, important, things going on in our lives. Today was another one as we celebrated Mike's birthday. Mike will officially become my brother-in-law in eight days.

Tonight's celebration was low-key as we were Mike and Kim's only guests. We spent the evening playing with Jolene, eating a supper of pork chops with stuffing and veggies and discussing various issues. The dessert consisted of delicious chocolate Guinness cupcakes made by Kim.

The joy of receiving Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence.

Concert Night

Metric, hailing from Toronto, was kicking off its fall tour to support their new album, Fantasies, at the Centre in the Square in Kitchener with the support of Montreal's The Stills who are accompanying Metric on a handful of Canadian dates. I've been anticipating tonight's concert ever since I purchased the tickets a few months ago on the first day they were out. We were lucky enough to get aisle seats in the fifth row of orchestra. Very, very close to the stage with a ton of legroom. Coincidentally, Heather's co-worker Dave and his family had seats only three rows behind us.

The show started right on time at 8pm with The Stills kicking off their set with "I'm With You". Their consisted of mostly new material from Oceans Will Rise, which is a great album. The Stills' set lasted about 50 minutes which was then followed by a 30 minute intermission.

The night's headliners, Metric, played for well over an hour and covered most of their new material (9/10 tracks from Fantasies) plus some classics. They ended their performance with an acoustic version of "Combat Baby". The whole experience exceeded my expectations and was unforgettable. I already can't wait for another chance to see those two bands in concert.

Members of Metric acknowledge the fans following their performance.

Rocktoberfest 2009

It's been a very hectic time lately. Most of our attention has been on the upcoming wedding. We've spent a lot of time making sure that all the details fall right into place during our special day. Sadly, we haven't been able to ride since Labour Day and it looks like we won't have many more chances to do it once more this year.

This weekend is also Thanksgiving and Heather's parents were in town to help us out for a couple of days. We all went Saturday to my parents' place for Thanksgiving dinner and later watched movies at home. On Sunday, Heather and Sandy went shopping while Jim and I went to the local driving range to hit a few golf balls. We didn't pick a great day as it was very windy and cold. This was a first time with a golf club for both of us this year but next year, we'll have to get out sooner than October.

During the evening, Heather and I went to the annual Rocktoberfest at the Queensmount Arena in Kitchener which featured Sloan, The Johnstones and of course Walter Ostanek. During his performance, Walter mentioned that this year was his first not playing an accordion (he played keyboards) as he just had a pacemaker put in two days before. What a trooper. He played a set that lasted almost two hours which was then followed by The Johnstones. Sloan took the stage pretty much at midnight, well over an hour after The Johnstones left the stage. Despite that the evening was very entertaining. On our way home, we made through a RIDE (Reduced Impaired Driving Everywhere) stop without a problem since neither of us were drinking.

Andrew and Jay of Sloan.

Buffalo Football Trip

Wanting to keep things low-key, a couple of guys in my wedding party decided to take me out to Buffalo as part of my bachelor party. In the end six guys made the trip including my best man Darryl, my brothers Wojtek and Greg, my friend Stuart and Wojtek's friend Mike B, who coincidentally is getting married a week after us, on Halloween night. Unfortunately, Mike K was not able to make as he had a Blue Jays game to attend that same day, as well as couple of other guys who had passport issues (as in didn't own one). Heather stayed busy today by babysitting Jolene whose parents were at the said Jays game.

Breaking from the norm, today's game was at 4pm as opposed to the usual 1pm. That late start meant that we didn't have to rush to leave. We left at 9am when Wojtek picked me up. We then picked up Mike B, Stuart and Greg. From Kitchener, all five us drove to meet Darryl somewhere around St. Catharines. There we stopped at a local Tim Hortons, changed seating arrangements and continued on our way shortly after 11am. After another stop at the Duty Free to pick up beer and a Styrofoam cooler and an uneventful border crossing, we were at Ralph Wilson Stadium at 1pm. We parked in a lot adjacent to the stadium and proceeded with tailgating until game time.

The tailgating crew: Mike, Greg, Wojtek, Stuart and Darryl.

Our pre-game food consisted of hot dogs, sausages and hamburgers. Along with beer, it made for a pretty standard, but yet excellent, tailgating experience. At some point, Darryl and I made our way towards the stadium to see what the vendors were selling. Even before we reached any vendor tents, we ran into the Buffalo Jills who were selling calendars. Darryl was kind enough to get me a calendar and take a photo of myself with the Jills.

Posing with the Buffalo Jills.

When finally finished with the vendors, I ended up with a Bills hat and t-shirt, while Darryl got a Trent Edwards authentic jersey. We went back to our group and continued partying until about 3:30 when we joined the masses of people heading to the stadium. Wojtek managed to purchase side endzone seats in the lower bowl. Having attended a handful of Bills games in the past, this was the first we weren't in the nosebleeds. What also made it different was the weather (although it rained for most of our drive, it was nothing but sunny throughout the game) and the atmosphere, which was quite different than we were used to. Both Darryl and I commented that we spent most the game on our feet largely due to the jacked up crowd.

In the end, the crowd couldn't help as Buffalo lost to New Orleans Saints 27-7. Buffalo's offense didn't do anything all day as their only touchdown came on a fake field goal. Also of note, Buffalo's stud receiver Terrell Owens didn't catch a single pass thrown his way, thus ending his streak of games with a reception at 185 (that's almost 12 seasons; 3rd longest streak all-time). Add insult to injury, the biggest cheer of the day was at half-time when a scrimmage between a couple of childrens' teams featured a 100-yard fumble return.

Half-time entertainment.

Getting out of the parking lot was challenging at best as it took well over 2 hours to get from the lot to the border. Once in Canada, we made another stop, said goodbye to Darryl and drove home. I finally got home at midnight after an excellent day of good, clean fun with great friends. Couldn't have asked for anything more.

I saw Darryl again on Monday as Heather and I drove to Brantford for supper with Darryl, Erin who were also hosting Imad and his wife, in town from Dubai for a couple of weeks.

Taking the Long Way Home from Cyclefest

It was another early morning as the Cyclefest attendees began heading home. Heather and I said goodbye to her parents then stayed behind to help with the wrap-up. As more and more people were leaving, we also rode off at 11 am. But since we haven't ridden in over three weeks we went for a short ride before getting home at 3 pm.

We rode to Guelph and down towards Hamilton where we stopped at Breezy Corners restaurant, located on Highway 6 north of Hamilton, for breakfast. From there we rode through Dundas, Brantford and Paris and again stopped in Kitchener for ice cream at Marble Slab. I should note that as we were approaching Paris, a group of five Harleys rode by and not a single one of the riders waved. While in Paris, we also rode by the Paris Fair.

Breakfast stop at Breezy Corners on Highway 6.

When we got home, my parents invited us for dinner at Del Dente in Kitchener. We went there for 6 and after a delicious meal, finally arrived home for at 8 to rest after a hectic weekend.

The family at Del Dente in Kitchener.

SEASON STATS
Today's trip: 170 km - 106 miles
2009 to date: 7,437 km - 4,621 miles (87.5%)
2009 goal: 8,500 km - 5,282 miles
To obtain goal: 1,063 km - 661 miles


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