The Long Way to Kentucky

Our kids spent last night catching fireflies in the backyard with their aunt. It was a magical scene with tiny flashes of light dancing about in the air, silhouettes of children moving through the darkness, and delighted exclamations of "Look! I caught one!"

There are so many precious memories from this past year that I never want to forget. Memories like this.

Last week we left Maine and drove for six days before arriving in Kentucky. The first night we stayed near Lake Champlain in Vermont. I was impressed by how lush and green Vermont is. It has a peaceful feel to it and is one of those states that I'd like to visit again one day.

Lake Champlain is HUGE! We drove over several islands as we made our way through the area.

While there we made a stop in Burlington at the site of the first Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream shop. It was originally housed in an old garage that is now a parking lot. A little plaque  on the ground at the corner of College and St. Paul is all that remains. My husband and oldest son made sure to get some ice cream at the local Ben and Jerry's, though, just to be able to say they ate some in Vermont. Burlington is a college town and has a lot of neat artistic details.

I, on the other hand, had seen advertisements everywhere for something called a Cree-Mee. I tracked one down at a local gas station (apparently they are sold mostly at gas stations and small businesses) and found that it was a soft serve ice cream cone, much like the ones sold at McDonalds. I was told that many Vermonters like to add sprinkles to theirs. The flavors I saw were the basic vanilla and chocolate, but sometimes they have maple available.

The next day we drove through upstate New York and crossed into Quebec, Canada, which was an experience...

This is Fort Montgomery on Lake Champlain on the New York side.

French settlers moved to the Quebec area at one point and French is now the primary language spoken in that region. Over time the language has evolved into a variation called Quebecoise- kind of like how the French language morphed into Cajun in parts of Louisiana. I heard Quebecoise being spoken when we visited Saint John, New Brunswick, and was excited to visit Quebec and speak French with the locals. I like going somewhere and being able to understand the signs. Hey! It's the little things, what can I say?

Back to the border crossing. We pulled up as the guard was speaking to another guard in Quebecoise. He said something about Americans and then proceeded with his duties. I won't tell you the whole of the conversation but this was the basic gist of what we took away from the experience.

1. Unless you are a Quebec native, do not attempt to speak French with someone from Quebec....unless they give you permission first.

2. They don't care a snit about what you do or have done outside of Quebec.

3. Do not try to be friendly with the Quebec Border Patrol. Just answer their questions with the shortest possible answer and let them get on with their day as quickly as possible.

Quebec, itself, is lovely and the area we drove through was filled with farmland. We weren't there long before we crossed into Ontario, where my mothers family is from.

It's been about 30 years since I've seen them (man, that makes me sound old doesn't it?!) and it was great to spend time with them in person. I found that we have a similar sense of humor and we spent much of the night laughing. I asked a lot of questions about family members who they knew better than I did and learned a lot about my heritage, which was so wonderful.

While in Ottawa, the capital of Canada, we drove through the Parliament Hill area. It was like nothing I'd ever seen in person before! The government buildings look like castles all lined up in a row. We will definitely have to return some day and explore Ottawa more.

This year is Canada's 150th Anniversary and the city was dressed for the occasion.

On Friday we drove through the Ontario countryside and Toronto on our way to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. Most of it was country and farmland, which was gorgeous.

Toronto is a HUGE city and I think just about everyone who lived there was out driving that day. 

I liked the added touches of flowers  by the freeway.

Do you know what ER stands for? Elizabeth Regina, the Queen of England. Canada is a royal province.

This was our children's first time to Niagara Falls and I've heard people say that the Canadian side isn't as exciting as the American side, but I've seen both and can assure you that they are both awesome!

We stopped by the whirlpools first. You can take a ride right over them!

We drove past a Mountie too... ;-)

There is a giant sign in front of The Falls commemorating Canada's 150th Anniversary. It was fun watching the kids reactions when they saw the actual waterfalls.

We spent two nights in the Niagara Falls area and then drove through the rest of Ontario back to the United States (which was another interesting border crossing). I really loved the architectural details on a lot of the houses. If only I could have taken better pictures!! These were taken from a moving car.

Tim Hortons is the main fast food chain we saw in Canada. They were EVERYWHERE! They are kind of like a donut shop that sells coffee and sandwiches too.

We dropped in through Michigan, near Detroit, where we were immediately asked to pull over so they could search our trailer and car. We had to leave all our devices, etc. in the car and were escorted to the waiting area. In this area you need to ask permission to use the bathroom. When you do get permission, you have to wait by the door so they can buzz you in. We all had fun reading the poster that listed how many languages are spoken by the American Border Patrol. Fortunately, they moved us back to our car fairly quickly and were pretty nice about it. I think we were taking up too much of their search real estate...

Once we were back in the U.S. we made our way through Detroit as quickly as possible, which wasn't very quick at all due to all the road closures. Then we headed for Ohio.

We passed through farmland and stopped for the night near Lake Erie. Nearby we found a place called "Cheese Haven," which we had to check out. It was filled with different kinds of cheeses, as well as smoked meats, various candies, pickled goods, and much more. We left with "Chocolate Cheese" which sounded absolutely disgusting but was actually pretty delicious. It's like brownie batter!

We arrived in Kentucky on Tuesday and have been busy getting settled. So far Kentucky is green and covered in hills and trees. We all really like the house here in Louisville (especially the fenced backyard for the dogs!) The neighborhood is a suburban one and it's well-maintained. Many of the neighbors have yard decorations with a Kentucky Derby theme. The Derby took place last month while we were on Price Edward Island, so the thrill of Derby week is still fresh.

Barn Quilt!!

My sister, the nurse, is here visiting for a few days and we're planning our strategy of what we want to explore while she's here. Last night we watched "Secretariat", so maybe Churchill Downs? I guess you'll just have to see in the next update!

Have a great week!

- Jen