Nice Leisurly Ride Down The River

The Phoenix lies with antennas lowered, ready to go into heated storage.

It was a nice, calm, sunny day as I departed our marina around 9:30AM. For the two previous days we scrubbed, unloaded, and got the Phoenix ready for winter storage. Wendy drove down in the car the 30 or so miles to Port Lambton on the Canadian side where I met her just before noon.

Metro Beach Boat Show

David and Reenie arrived around 6 pm on Saturday so we decided to go to the casino for dinner. We like to go there with friends and when the weather is nice we can walk there and back. The casino is right on the riverfront and has one of the best views in Point Edward.

Sunday morning Wendy whipped up a light breakfast. Mike Millar, the marina manager had mentioned yesterday that the 'in the water' boat show was on in Detroit so we made plans to drive the 35 miles down the US side to Metropolitan Beach. The weather in the low 70's and sunny was perfect for walking around the show. You could really see there is economic trouble here as the prices were quite attractive and it didn't seem to be packed with buyers. It's always nice to look at the beautiful big yachts.

After the boat show, we headed back up-river to one of our favorites, the Quay Street Brewery Restaurant in Port Huron for a superb Rueben sandwich and a beer or two.

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Back to Canada across the Bluewater Bridge. You can see the condos from the bridge.

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Back to Point Edward

Wendy relaxes on the Phoenix at our dock on this last day of summer. David and Reenie will be visiting later this afternoon so we stayed tied up today.

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Of Course There's Always Time To Stop For A Garage Sale.

You Never Know What You'll Find In Your Own Town

Erin arrives in the 'company car'.
Doors Open London is a city-wide event that allows the public to enter places that they normally wouldn’t visit - or wouldn't normally be allowed to enter. As part of Erin’s job with the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority, she was asked to participate by hosting one of the locations – “The Sifton Bog”. Erin welcomes visitors and describes what they will see at the entrance to the area.
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This bog was formed by a huge glacial ice ball which melted and flooded the depression in the earth made by its own incredible weight. Over 13 thousand years the depression filled with plant debris, dead vegetation and peat moss. Today it is a conservationist’s dream. A diverse and unique variety of plants and animals make up it’s flora and fauna.

Scientists from the University of Western Ontario and UTRCA were on hand to show us around and answer questions.

We would have liked to visit more of the Doors Open venues, but we were on our way to the condo to meet our good friends David and Reenie who were passing by on their way back from Sault Ste Marie. They planned to stay over night in Point Edward before driving home to Brampton on Sunday.

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September Is Always A Little Depressing

The end of Hurricane Ike poised to sweep by today.

September has been fairly non-descript for us. Summer is drawing to a close. Doctor appointments, car repairs, and generally disappointing weekend weather has meant that we have been lying close to London except for a quick visit to get mail and of course shop in USA.

Some Things Just Have To Get Done!

You can really tell summer is drawing to a close when our attention turns to mundane repair jobs. Scraping, preparing, and painting the garage door was enough to leave me longing to get back to the condo and the boat boat before we put it away for the winter. But there’s a few things that absolutely have to get done as you can see. I guess the work was worth it though because it looks like a new door now.
A new rad in Wendy's car, a new rear wheel bearing in my car and a thousand or so dollars later we're ready to go back for our last summer week.

Pete and Donna Visit From Orillia. Fishing Sucks!

Donna clicks a picture of the bridges

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Pete takes the Captain's station this week

Donna holds up her prize catch.

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I suggested that Pete hold his fish a little closer to the camera to get a better perspective.

Our long time cruise ship buddies Pete and Donna from Orillia came all the way down to Point Edward to see us and stayed over. What a special treat! Emails from Donna said they like to fish. Winds were a little high when we took the Phoenix out that first day so we enjoyed site-seeing around Sarnia Bay and enjoyed some fine steaks on the BBQ The next morning Pete and I took the old Oldsmobile over to the Outdoors store and bought some worms in anticipation of catching some whopper sized bass out on the wreck of the Sweetheart. In spite of a forecast for cooler weather, we were able to head out on the lake that day and do some fishing. The weatherman was wrong as usual and it turned out to be hot and beautiful.
All we could catch were some Gobies and Rock Bass but nobody let that spoil the fun.
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They Appreciate Us!

Click on a picture to enlarge

Our condo complex is virtually surrounded by Bridgeview Marina. For many years in its early history, this was the largest marina in Ontario. Of course its size has now been eclipsed by several huge marinas within 150 miles of Toronto. Each year the owner of Bridgeview Marina, Dave Brown throws a gala event. An appreciation barbecue night for its many members and friends. In years gone by all the people living in the condo were automatically invited to the barbecue. In recent years they were invited but had to pay to attend. This year Doug and I were invited because we store the sailboat there for the winter.

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Of course since we’ve lived here for nearly twelve years we’ve got to know quite a few people and there were many familiar faces at the party. If you follow this blog, you may remember that last year at this time I fell in the water with my phone and camera just before the party. No such bad luck this year and a good time was had by all.
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Dave Brown , marina owner and Mike Miller, general manager, (on your left) welcome everybody to the party. Our condos are in the background.

Ribs, shrimp, whitefish, sweet corn and buns; not to mention a live band, highlighted the evening.


Are they all having fun?

YES THEY ARE!