Reflections on 2015...

October

After two golf trips and 4 seperate visits to Calgary, we finally manage to get away together. Ross is attending a conference in New Orleans and I  come along for the ride, since that destination has always been on my bucket list. The hotel we stayed at was lovely and I spent most of the days walking around the museum district ( toured the Outlet mall but only spent about $40) while Ross was at the conference. The War Museum is well worth a stop with 4 buildings of exhibits ( but no mention of the Canadian contribution that I could see), and the Aquarium of the Americas was also a  good choice. I did not make it to Bourbon street but Ross did, and reports that I didn't miss much - it was very smelly and not very appealing. You can see that the recovery from Katrina is far from complete, lots of derelict buildings mixed it with new construction, people living under overpasses, and streets that don't smell great. It was not a city I would feel safe walking in alone at night. Best meal we had was at an Irish pub. Glad I went, but doubt I would return except perhaps to do a bayou tour.  On the return trip we drove by Loretta Lynn's country kitchen and had to stop in for breakfast ( very good) just so I could tell mom we had been there. Last stop on the way home was a quick trip to Point Pelee - will definitely be back probably in the spring for some bird photography.  

We left home Oct 17th to go south. That morning we woke to a heavy wet snowfall that saw trees bent over with the weight of it all.  There was actually one almost completely across our road, but we got around it and by the time we were at the Sarnia border the sun was shining. It was only when we got back that we saw how much damage was done by that dump to trees still in full foliage. The breakage in the Pinery was incredible, luckily for us only a few branches came down on our property. Over the next week as we walked the trails, Ross cleared many fallen limbs from the paths.  So sad to see all the extra devastation after the tornado last year.  Still the rest of the month was lovely even if we did miss the peak of fall colour, it was even warm enough for the turtles to be out on the river.