Fredericton

I landed in Fredericton on Saturday, staying at Deb & George's condo near downtown along with their son, Sam, who's back from his 4.5 month trip in South America. Sam's voyage make the "Sky to Sea" journey seem like a backyard romp. And by the way, he'll be leaving for China and S-E Asia in September and gone for 10 months.

As I've mentioned before, timing is everything. Saturday evening, Deb, George, Sam, and now Bob were invited to Joyce & Joe's home to celebrate Joe's 60th birthday party. Skewered lamb was the main course with various salads and dessert. I like Joyce & Joe.

I spent Sunday afternoon going to Odell park on a 2 hour trek up and down a hillside specifically designed to get rid of mussels, cod, lobster, tenderloin, fries, chicken, subs, etc., you get the picture. The guide for my tour was none other than "Dendrologist George", who proceeded to educate me on the subtle differences between Balsam Fir and Spruce trees. This is stuff that gives Foresters goosebumps ... and why I chose another field. After this arduous workout which was followed by an appropriate exercising of the molson muscle, Sunday evening's main course courtesy of Deb's deft cooking was pacific salmon. Somebody pinch me. The remainder of the evening was time spent gabbing about all the water that has passed under the bridge. Sam has no end of adventures to share and Deb,George, Sam & I were all engaged in conversation. A good time.

Today is Holiday Monday and was spent with walks and talks with my hosts and getting the next few days' stuff sorted out. I've had a fabulous time here enjoying Deb, George, and Sam's company as well as Deb's great spreads. As with all good things, the visit always seems to come to an end quickly and abruptly.

In a post reply, a suggestion was made by Pete to ride an area of New Brunswick near Saint John's (his home turf). I haven't seen that part on NB before so I'll leave here tomorrow and head south to this area before turning around and going north towards Riviere-du-Loup to catch a ferry to the north shore of the St-Lawrence.

I've run into PC difficulties today so things such as post frequency and content including photos will be limited over the next few days. Hopefully it's nothing serious because I've found the netbook quite useful on this trip.