TWO YEAR UPDATE

Where does the time go

We started the blog to keep our friends up to date with our events and before you know it we are not so up to date. Even before we say our wine fueled New Year's Eve Resolutions,we are going to address our lag in updates. The past two years are going to be captured in the segment few below. In our defence, Helen, Lesley's mom had a stroke last year at Christmas and her brother Tony was diagnosed with cancer. Both are doing fine but Helen is in a nursing home in London. The Blog languished as a result. Below is a quick overview of past couple of years in no special order.

TRAVEL

Kindom Valley, Vermont
Since our big trip to Chile and Argentina things have been a little quieter on the travel front. In August of 2009 we packed up the mountain bikes and went to the Kingdom Valley Vermont with our friends Barry and Joanne for a week. We rented a little cabin on the edge of East Burke Vermont. The Kingdom Trails has over 100 miles of off-road riding. Check out www.kingdomtrails.org. The riding was amazing and so was the food but there is something that makes one uneasy eating a burger made from a Belted Galloway while looking at a field of them.

Vermont Kingdom Trails

New Smyrna Beach
We have been to New Smyrna Beach twice. Once in December 2009, along with Aaron and then in the beginning of November 2010. In the 2009 pictures you will see the Santa Claus parade which is followed by the boat parade. We love Florida at Christmas time. As part to the 2010 trip we went with Walt and Liz to Savanaha. We saw the home of the Garden of Good and Evil and of coarse we visted the square where Forest Gump shared his box of chocolates. There is no bench or bus stop however.

Savannah & Florida

Chicago
We took a quick trip to Chicago on Easter Weekend of 2010. Unfortunately, the pics are weak as we somehow lost them. They were loaded on our new netbook but now they are mostly gone. We road up the coastline with our rental bikes and toured some neat streets. Chicago has some amazing restaurants including Pop Champagne; the Purple Pig and the Weber restaurant. Weber uses the largest bulb-be-ques we have ever seen. Like many other tourists, we had a blast playing with our images in the Bean in Millenium Park.

Bermuda
Christine arranged a house sit for us in Bermuda in July of 2010. This had to be one of the most relaxing trips we have ever been on. We started with an afternoon at the Swizzle Inn; then there was a day of boating on the ocean after that the days we pretty rountine: walking Garcia the dog, eating a little breakfast, watching some Tour de France; coffee in town; lunch and afternoons at the beach. After a few days Christine showed up thinking we were dead because we did not even call her. Brad and I showed up on her island, stayed at her friend's house and didn't even find it necessary to call or visit after that. We pretty much dropped out. Thank god Christine was looking after us because one of the hightlights was a dinner she arranged down on the beach. We had the place to ourselves and feasted on an amazing dinner and drank champagne. We tried to watch the Tour every night but we would find ourselves with a half of glass of port on the side table, passed out in front of the TV with Garcia at our feet. Bermuda still has the most beautiful beaches we have ever seen with aquamarine water and the pink soft sand beaches.

Summer in Bermuda

TARA AND COREY'S WEDDING

My neice Tara tied the knot in 2010. She married the sweetest man ever. Corey is also a chef so he is pretty much number one with the Pavan's. I hosted one of her showers which was held in June at One Restaurant. The wedding held at the Delta Armories. Tara did all the decorations, invitations, the wish tree and the centre pieces. All were beautiful. A friend of hers did the wedding cake which was amazing. One of the memorable things of the wedding was the drag queen convention going on in the other party room. That group added a certain exotic element to the party.

Tara & Corey Wedding

OTHER BITS AND PIECES

The rest of our photos are captured in one album. In 2009, we made it to the Cox cottage and the Levisky cottage while in 2010 we visited the Christie cottage. One of Brad's coworkers was married. The wedding was a traditional Hindu wedding and was simply beautiful. In 2009 we bought snow shoes. There are a few pics of us up at Scenic Caves near Blue Mountain at the end of the season.

2009 & 2010 Catchup