Roads and Races

Arrived in Montreal and checked into our self-catered apartment in the downtown area.  It was a great place, close to shopping and transportation.  Located in Montreal's Chinatown, we felt like we were in Sydney again.  In fact, there was a bakery about a half block away that was very much like our favorite Chinese bakery in Sydney.  Needless to say, breakfasts were excellent during the stay.

We went to Montreal to attend the Formula 1 Grand Prix, and before the race, we met up with our friends Steve and Angie for dinner.  What a race it turned out to be!  The two Mercedes drivers, Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, battled it out until Hamilton's brakes gave up.  The crowd cheered their neck-and-neck racing but cheered equally loudly when Hamilton was forced to withdraw from the race.  "Poor Old" Felipe Massa (he got the boot from Ferrari and is now driving for Williams) was actually leading the race at one point, but was taken out by Checo Perez in a spectacular crash with one lap to go.  Luckily, no injuries.  In the end, Nico's brakes weren't doing so well either and the race went to first-time race winner Daniel Ricciardo for Red Bull.

Here's Nico and Kimi passing near our grandstand:

The field passes under the Safety Car:

We drove across Canada, through Ontario, staying overnight at North Bay and Sault Ste-Marie.  It's a beautiful drive, often with views of Lake Superior.  Gordon spotted a moose, but this was the only one Pati saw:

The wildlife viewing was good.  Lots of deer (some of which were still alive, if you follow my meaning), wild turkeys, the moose...but the wiener dog count was zero/zero.  On the way home, we couldn't pass the outlet mall at Pleasant Prairie without stopping to stock up on underwear and Goldfish from the Pepperidge Farm outlet!  Successful road trip!

Reunions and Revisits

At the end of May we set off for Gordon's 50th Class Reunion:  Herndon High Class of '64.  We drove straight through to the Washington, DC area (12 hours), changed clothes, and stayed up way too late for geezers at the hospitality room.  It was good to see our friends Pat and Gayle again, and wonderful for Gordon to reconnect with old friends.  We wondered, where did all those old people come from?  Here's Pat, Mark, and Gordon, having imbibed a bit:

And Gordon received another diploma at the dinner dance:

Again, we all stayed up way too late for geezers and obviously, continued to imbibe:

That's Richard in the foreground, checking out Gordon's hair while Gordon and Clint discuss the price of wine at the Marriott (those two employees were keeping a close eye on us...we just have looked like we were up to something).  The next day, graduates from 1941 through the 70's all met up at a picnic on the shores of the Potomac.

After reunioning, we stayed a couple of days to, well, goof off.  It was too soon to continue the road trip to Montreal.  We spent an afternoon at Mt. Vernon.  Pati had never been there (yes, even after living in the DC area for five years.  Government working people are busy working people) and Gordon hadn't been since the obligatory grade school field trip.  So, here's old George himself:

And a couple of views around his lovely homestead:

Next day, we headed to Arlington National Cemetery to pay our respects at the grave of our Uncle Carl Payne, who passed away at the end of 2013.

Since neither of us had been to Arlington for a long time and we felt like a walk, we decided to look around the more "touristy" portions of the cemetery.  Here's the view from the Curtis Lee mansion:

We arrived at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier just in time for the changing of the guard, and then found some interesting grave sites, including Pappy Boyington (of Flying Tigers fame), Joe Lewis (he served in the Army) and, no kidding...Lee Marvin.

We had dinner with family and friends both nights, and then we were off for Canada.