The big move, 2773 km and 2 weeks of our lives, July 2004

The packers arrived on July 7.

The Packers themselves, I beleive that is Bart Starr on the right

The moving truck arrived on July 8

Turns out one of the movers is a guy we know, Eugene.  Or as he is also known, The Fonz....

One last trip to Bowater Park with the kids.  So, it finally becomes summer the day we leave....

Driving to Port Aux Basques in a rainstorm, seems appropriate somehow

So we got to Port aux Basques at 10.30 at night, and had a 1.30 am crossing.  However they cancelled our reservations because the other ferry went down.  Not ours, but the other one!  So all of us with reservations on the MV Lief Ericson had to give up our spots to those that had reservations on the MV Caribou.  See the Caribou was out of service, so, they inconvenienced us.  How very sensible.  We waited in line for 21 hours.  Finally getting on the ferry the next day.  We had to sleep in the car.  The next day we went into PAB and had breakfast at a restaurant in the 'mall.'

Jonathan and I waiting for the bus back to the ferry terminal  from the mall in PAB. 

Finally, we got on the ferry.  For our inconvenience we got a free meal.  God it was awful.  Sort of preformed chicken patties in plum sauce.  But not even good plum sauce, it was like they had emptied a bunch of those little packets you get with Chinese food, and then added corn syrup....

Getting off the ferry at about 2.30 am in North Sidney NS.  Yes, we have been voted off of the island.  I have no pics of us at the Days Inn or Comfort Inn or whatever in Sidney, we were too tired.  Finally we got to not see the ass end of that red truck, we had been behind him for 21 hours in the parking lot.  Madeleine and I dubbed him Hank Hill.

Well there was not much to say about Nova Scotia, it rained the whole time and was very chilly, like oh 12 degrees, oh ya this is July 11.  We are crossing the border into New Brunswick here from Nova Scotia.

Here are Maddie, Jonathan and Isa at the Lord Beaverbrook Hotel in Fredricton, NB on July 11.  It was probably the nicest hotel we stayed in.

The next day we drove to Quebec City the Chateau Richer, home of Isabelle's mother  Here we are crossing the border from New Brunswick to Quebec.  It was quite warm that day.

Crossing from the South to the North shore of the St Lawrence on the Pont Pierre Laporte in Quebec. 

Isa and Noella in Chateau Richer.  We had a great time there.

Yes we are geeky enough that we picked up an 80211.G router so we could set up a Wi Fi network in Isabelle's mother's house......

Isabelle took full advantage of the wi fi

I drank giant beers.  I feel like Kevin Rose on thebroken.org

Isabelle was online and I was drinking beer.   Hmmm, plus ca change.....

One of the cooler things we did in Quebec was visit Isabelle's elementary school

Behind her old school was this theatre in the woods, you would sit on these rocks and they woudl project movies.  Very groovy.  Very 70s.  Apparently they showed Jonathan Livingstone Seagull here once.  I will leave the reader to make up his or her own joke....

Poor Maddie, her gameboy was constantly taken by Jonathan.

Eventually, Thursday I think, we left for Boucherville Quebec, just outside of Montreal.  Isabelle's sister Julie lives there.

It was right around Isabelle's birthday (she just turned  umm, errr, one year older) and Julie made a cake, which Jonathan blew the candles on.  Nicely constructed sentence there Dr. smart guy.

Me hanging out in Boucherville.

Isabelle went out for the day and I hung with the kids.  This is lunch with Julie, Maxime, Genevieve and the kids.  Mzxime speaks kick ass English now, quite an amazing feat over the last oh 2 years.  Genevieve and Madeleine got on tremendously and Maddie spoke French the whole time.  I mostly spoke French, except with Maxime, as he wanted some practice.

After a few really nice days in Boucherville we said goodbye and headed to Sudbury Ontario.  That would be on July 17.

Its a place to stand and a place to grow, and they call this land, Ontario!

Ahh yes, Sudbury.

On the way into Sault Ste Marie you pass through Garden River, which as you can see, in an Indian Reserve.

Sadly, the sign was obscured, but you get the idea

Driving by the AUC campus was surreal.

The view from our hotel in Sault Ste Marie, That is the international bridge, outside its America...

Jonathan relaxing in the Holiday Inn in Sault Ste Marie

76 Willowdale Stree

Having a Tim Horton's breakfast on the morning of July 19 in our then empty house

Hey look, our stuff!!!

Turns out, its hey look, half of our stuff....

Its Clarence the mover, and his mullet....

A couple of days later the unpackers showed up.  This guy was separated at brith from Rick Francis.  (If you know Rick Francis this is very funny, if you have never met Rick Francis, well, just ignore most of this caption).