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| Downtown Kingston as seen from Fort Henry |
We took a train to Kingston, Ontario, where we spent six days with Les' sister Mary. Kingston is a historic place (the first capital of the province of Canada), and had some interesting sights: Fort Henry, Royal Military College, Marine Museum of the Great Lakes, locks on the Rideau Canal that connects Lake Ontario with Ottawa, Penitentiary Museum, Queen's University, farmers market, ferry to a nearby island. One day we drove to Gananoque and Charleston Lake, stopping on the way for the Military Communications and Electronics Museum and the MacLachlan Woodworking Museum.
When we travel I always use
HappyCow to find vegan/vegetarian restaurants, and it didn't fail in Kingston, where we found two nice places downtown. One of Les' favorite stops was the Kingston Olive Oil Co., with hundreds of samples of oils and vinegars. I took advantage of my last chance for cooking, which I know I'll miss over the next few months.
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| We had a wonderful lunch at The Sleepless Goat |
Mary has a puppy named Paddington, a mixture of Bichon Frise and Shih Tzu. At first I was wary of him, as I always am with new dogs, but Paddington won me over through the course of the week.
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| Paddington |
Our days were sometimes jam-packed, with lots of city walking and sightseeing, other times very relaxing with Mary and Paddington. We next went by bus back to Toronto, to spend a couple of days with Judy B., who's been a good friend since our Cornell days 48 years ago. We went to Black Creek Pioneer Village, where we used to bring David and Julie when they were toddlers and we lived in Toronto, and we poked around the University of Toronto campus.
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| They were filming Anne of Green Gables at Black Creek Pioneer Village |
But mostly we lazed away our last days in North America. We closed a loop by eating lunch at the restaurant that the Esperanto group ate at 11 days ago, a meal we missed due to the train accident. It was so hot that we ate on the patio—our first sidewalk dining this year. And Judy introduced us to
laffa, similar to pita, and yummy with falafel, eggplant, coleslaw, and other fillings. As a bonus, Judy showed me the easy way to peel an orange; I can't believe the stupid way I've been doing it all my life.
Tonight we'll fly to Glasgow, via Reykjavik, to begin our European adventures.
