Home Sweet Home

Well we made it home safe and sound after being on the road for almost 6 months, visiting 35 states and 5 provinces and travelling close to 25,000 km. We all were very happy to be home and sleep in our own beds!We have a few more photos to share from Grandma & Grandpa's in Manitoba.

We also had a good visit with Uncle Ted and Aunty Lois in Regina. Emma just recently wrote a fictional story about her Uncle, when we got to Regina, Uncle Ted presented Emma with her very own story called "The Legend of Emma Taylor Pilkington" which he wrote for her.

We also had a good visit with Nana and Grandpa Ralph at Emma Lake in Saskatchewan. The tubing behind the pontoon boat was great. It was also good to see Aunt and Uncle Don while at the lake - thanks for driving up to see us!

Thanks everyone for following along with our blog. The interaction was lots of fun and made us feel closer to friends and family while being so far away. Special thanks to Uncle Gordie (aka master bubble blower) and Uncle Phillip for being regular video skypers throughout the trip. We also want to thank Emma's friend Nicole for being our most consistant blogger!

That's all for this trip....................

Homeward Bound

Yikes – it’s been a really long time since our last blog – how can you tell that we are on our last leg of our journey!

When we left the Windsor area, we decided to head west via the USA. After a long wait at the Detroit border crossing and a construction detour through the ever scenic downtown Detroit, we finally got on the road. We went through Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Iowa without a hitch. Lot’s of corn that is for sure! Ray really wanted to stop at Gary Indiana (Michael Jackson’s childhood home) but the girls and I talked him out of it.

We stopped for a couple of days just outside of Minneapolis, Minnesota at the fanciest ``cashino` that we have ever seen! The Mystic Lake Casino is a huge, new casino that not only has a fancy hotel, great campground, rv gas station, etc, etc – they even had fireworks in the early evening each night. But sad to say Ray didn’t hit the jackpot!

Of course, we spent a day at the Mall of America shopping up a storm. We went to an American Girl store – wow that was something! Dolls galore – can you believe you can take your doll in to the Salon and get their hair done for $20! Emma has a Mall of America story to tell :
(Emma now talking)
Well let me tell you all, on how I got attacked by a sales lady! You know those annoying people in the middle with little stands trying to sell you crappy stuff that no-one wants. It was insane in Mall of America! It was just as bad as Mexico! There was this European lady trying to sell us a fancy dandy hair straighter. She literally grabbed me and pulled me to her both seated me down on the chair and started doing my hair. Mom keep saying on how she wasn’t interested and we had to get going but she wouldn’t listen. Then she started curling my hair with the straighter. Then finally dad came to my rescue and pulled me away. So we are walking throw this busy mall and all of a sudden Mom and Leah start laughing. I ask what they were laughing at and then I looked in the mirror. The lady had only curled one side of my hair!!!! So all day I was walking around with one side of my hair curled and the other side not! It was horrible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We zipped through North Dakota with a stop at the Cabala’s store and then we finally were back in Canada!! We decided to pop in at our long time Delburne friends – David and Anita Brandt and family for a visit. A couple of years ago, they moved from Red Deer to an acreage outside of Winnipeg. It was great to visit and catch up with them all!

Our next stop was Grandpa and Grandma’s at the farm in Hamiota. We seemed to be busy doing various things:
*Checking out Grandpa's new tatoo!

*Fishing with cousin Ron at Sandy Lake. Although no fish were caught we still were able to have a yummy shore lunch!
*Spending a couple of days with Aunt Maggie in Brandon *Leah modeling a new Bobcat/Amazon Witch Doctor look
*Visiting a haunted house and picking wild flowers

*Emma visiting her friend Kira in Souris

We’re now on the road again and planning to stop in Regina for a visit with Uncle Ted and Aunt Lois.

Then home………….

Ontario Falls, Fireworks, Family & Friends

YIKES - It's been a long time since our last blog entry.

Since our last blog entry, I returned from Manitoba on Canada Day, to find Ray and the kids surviving in my absence. It was great to spend time with my family, unfortunately, my uncle passed away the very day I returned to Vermont.

Onward to Ontario - we travelled through the US with a stopover at the magnificent Niagara Falls. We actually lucked out and were able to see some fireworks at the falls which were very impressive.

Our next destination was Guelph (technically Ariss) to visit Aunt Sandra and cousin Randy, Nikki and girls. Emma and Leah were thrilled to spend time playing with their cousins and to have a brief visit with cousin Ian!

We took in some of the local sights such as St. Jacobs and Aunt Sandra arranged some impressive photo opportunities like watching the Old Order Mennonites travel through Ontario's only covered bridge with their horse and buggies and of course checking out the Pilkington Overlook! Thanks for the great hospitality!

Next was a visit to friends Mark & Julie and kids in the Windsor area. Dealing with the infamous Ontario heat and humidity was a breeze, since the Vickers' have a beautiful outdoor pool!

We were busy checking out the sites like Point Pelee on Lake Erie which is Canada's most southern point. We also got to watch Abbey's soccer game, Geoffrey's baseball game, see Mark at work at his pharmacy and Ray and Mark managed to get in a few games of golf and relive their "glory days".

We are now slowly heading back home, we are going to go back to Manitoba to visit the family via the US with a few stops along the way - like the Mall of America for one!

Bye for now!

We love Vermont!

Greetings everybody!

Sorry for not giving an update on the blog lately but we are not near any consistent cell phone signals. We are in beautiful Vermont – staying at a campground just outside of Westfield. This area is referred to as the Northeast Kingdom and is said to be one of the last frontiers in America. You won't find any fast-food restaurants, strip malls or brand name discount stores here. Instead, we are surrounded by large forests, mountain streams, covered bridges, maple syrup farms and lots of Ben and Jerry’s Ice cream.

When we go into town we shop at the “general” store and have to drive out near the local monastery to get a decent cell signal to make our phone calls (kind of weird seeing monks in black cloaks walking the farm fields).

Unfortunately we got some bad news lately - Carmen’s dear Uncle Doug (aka Coon) has taken a turn for the worse and was placed on life support in Brandon, Manitoba. Hearing this news, we made the decision for her to fly out of the nearest airport (Montreal) to be with her Uncle and Aunt Maggie at this trying time – our thoughts and prayers go out to you both!

So since being in this area for the past week, we have been busy doing the following:

- bike riding around the lake at Newport
- playing and swimming in the numerous mtn. streams/waterfalls in the area
- getting our exercise on some of the local hiking trails
- exploring the nearby small towns during our country drives
- playing golf at Jay’s Peak – hardest golf course I have ever played but simple beautiful
- catching fireflys and having smores around the campfire
- visiting the Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream factory – one word – YUMMY

Well that’s it for now – will post a new update once back in Canada!

Bye for now.

Shaking with the Shakers

Hello there,

After our Massachusetts experiences, we ventured to Canterbury New Hampshire to visit a historic Shaker village.

This Shaker Village was established way back in 1792 when founder Mother Ann Lee formed their 7th community in Canterbury New Hampshire which remained in existence for 200 years. At its height in the 1850's, 300 people lived and worked in the over 100 buildings and 3000 acres.

The Shakers are a religious group dissidents from various religions such as Quakers and Methodists. They were known as the"Shaking Quakers" of Shakers because of their use of dance, whirling and clapping in their worship.

They believe in:

*community ownership

*pacifism

*dancing in workshop

*celibacy

*living simple

"Hands to Work and Hearts to God" - Shakers were aggressive entrepreneurs with their well known "Shaker Brand" - furniture and brooms in particular. We recently read one classic shaker chair sold for over a 100k - WOW!

This was a very fascinating tour and look at the Shaker way of life. Today there are only 3 or 4 Shakers left alive in a community in Maine.

So about Ray's distant relative............would anyone believe it's Chevy Chase!! The Clark Griswold comparison is frightening!!

We are sticking around the northern Vermont area for awhile - stay tuned for a Pilkington family update soon.

Bye for now.

"Witch" you were here!

Greetings all!

Since our last blog we have travelled to southern Vermont and had a visit with the folks at the Robb Family Farm in Brattleboro and managed to pick up some farm fresh maple syrup (Grandpa Ralph - too bad you weren't with us)!

We then travelled to east Massachusetts to a State Forest in the Boston vicinity. Talk about crazy traffic and roads! Our 3 big Massachusetts outings consisted of:

*A quick road trip up to Gloucester which is right on the ocean - very beautiful! Tyrone managed to sneak in yet another swim in the ocean.

*Salem - which is witch central. This is the spot back in the late 1600's when 14 women and 5 men were hung (not burned at the stake) because the community felt they were witches (which they weren't).

Salem certainly has a witch theme with many different themed restaurants, gift shops, etc.. Apparently it's quite wild around Halloween! Emma and Leah were quite intrigued to learn about the present day witches.

We also visited the Maritime Historic Site which talked about non-witch things like the maritime history of the area.

*Boston - We also jumped on the"T" to check out the downtown sites, especially the Boston Common area. We walked along the Freedom Trail where the freed slaves walked so long ago. One of the stops along the way was the State Building where we saw a statue of a relative of Ray's by the name of Anne Hutchinson. She lived back in the Puritan times and was considered to be a courageous exponent of "civil liberty and religious toleration".

Our plans are to continue north through New Hampshire and northern Vermont - we just finished a great visit to a Shaker community which we will talk about soon.

Our blog question - After viewing the statue of Ray's relation, we did some further research to find that he is actually distantly related to a handful of notable individuals including George W Bush, Marilyn Monroe and another actor from the 80's (which there is a resemblance - Helen you should get this) - who is it??

Bye for now.

New York Today - Tomorrow the World!

We love NYC! Wow - what a place. We ended up jumping on a commuter bus in Pennsylvania for the 2 hour excursion to the Big Apple. Finding a hotel is a bit of a challenge here - did you know the average price for a hotel room is $400 a night. Ray found a deal, a great hotel with a 2 room suite in a perfect "Uptown" location.

We spent 2 action packed days taking in all the city sites. Here are the highlights:

*Central Park - Is lovely and much to Emma and Leah's dismay we missed seeing the live concert in the park featuring the Jonas Brothers by minutes! Also saw the John Lennon Memorial "Stawberry Fields" and later walked in front of the apartment where he was shot and killed.

*9-11 Memorial - Very powerful and emotional to see the stories from this tragic experience. NYC is in the process of rebuilding a whole new complex and park as a tribute to 9-11.

*Restaurants - There was this great little diner just by our hotel - lots of character and yummy food.

*Broadway - We stood in line in the rain for 2 hours to get discount tickets to Mary Poppins (no Wicked tickets were available). Mary Poppins was great fun - Chim Chimney, Chim Chim Chero.

*Times Square - I think it's even more overwhelming live in person - big tv screens and flashy lights everywhere and lots and lots of people.

*Subway - We spent lots of time travelling on the subway which certainly was a efficient and safe way to get around but are the subway stations yucky - very dark, dirty, dingy and stinky - I could just imagine the rats!
*Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building - are amazing to see in person.

*Ethnic Areas - Nyc has some strong ethnic areas so we toured both "Little Italy" and "China Town" which was really neat to see.

*Atmosphere and People - Much to our surprise, we always felt very safe and the people were very friendly and helpful.

So all in all a fun little excursion. We are right at the Massachusetts/Vermont border and just had a visit with some Strolling of the Heifers folks.

About the Amish trivia question - Grandma was right - this was a picture of a "Pennsylvania Phone Booth" - where the Amish families have phones for their businesses.

Bye for now.