Well we just got back from a 4 day weekend in my new favourite place - the Georgian Triangle - namely the Collingwood, Blue Mountain, Thornbury areas on the southern shore of Georgian Bay.

We were there with my brother Neil & his g/f Martine, scouting out retirement homes for us. Burnie & I are both seriously considering moving there! The area is booming right now - condos going up everywhere, & many are still affordable, although there's no doubt the prices will climb as the retiring Babyboomers start moving in. The lifestyle is perfect for retirement, with just about anything a retired person would want to do.

The beaches are amazing. The waters of Georgian Bay are a sparkling turquoise... very Caribbean-like. There are hiking trails through wonderful scenery, golf courses, skiiing (not that I would try that LOL!), fantastic restaurants & pubs (more my field of expertise), and much more. On top of that, the winters are shorter & kinder than Sudbury's.

Collingwood & Thornbury are much closer to London, where Kim, Steve & Gordie live. However, those towns are not too far from Sudbury either, & the drive will be much faster once the 4-laning is finished. If we move there, we'll be making that trip on a regular basis because it will be really hard to leave Abby & the rest of the family here.

But...
Burnie will be able to see Dave all the time, as we'll practically be his & Tammy's neighbours, less than an hour away from them & their little squirt!
Tammy, watch out, I'll be there to supervise your every move as a new Mom... that will be my job as your step-mother-in-law, you know. ;)
Just kidding... LOL!!! :)

Anyway....
Here are a very few of the nearly 100 photos I took of our trip.... mostly the waterfront because I love it so much). Burnie took pictures of the Village at Blue Mountain (a mini-Whistler) but I didn't take my camera with me that day - darn it. You'll have to see the pics he took from the gondola we rode on, up to the top of Blue mountain & down again. That was fantastic. The view from up there was breathtaking.

Anyway... there's too much for me to tell you here with my snail's pace typing.

Hope you enjoyed your shower & got all the gifts that you wanted, Tam. Sorry I couldn't make it but we had been planning this trip with my brother all summer, before I was told when the shower would be.
We've had just about everyone else in our families (other than the BC gang) spending time here with us this summer, so I only had time for one of my brothers till now. (That was when my youngest brother Andre & his wife Sharon came up to stay with us for a few days.)

I've come to the conclusion that summer is too short to fit in everyone from all the different families! Geez... well at least we finally managed a trip up to Elliott Lake to see Ralph last month! He's been asking us to go up there for years!
But then, it's not like we never see Ralph... he comes here often, in fact he stayed here with us for a few days in July too.

Once Burnie retires, & we move from this big roomy house to a dinky little place, we'll be visiting everyone all the time instead of having everyone here.
Watch out, you guys... your Dad retires in November. Get those spare rooms ready because we're going to have lots of time to spend visiting! :)

The Thornbury Marina 

A waterfront park at Collingwood 

Neil taking pictures on the beach at Collingwood 

Rocky beach & waves at Collingwood 

Gulls on the rocks at Collingwood 

Rocky shore at Collingwood 

Water's edge at Collingwood 

See the boat on the horizon? 

Steps down to beach in Collingwood 

Neil on the beach in Collingwood 

Collingwood waterfront 

"John & Marie's Emporium" in Creemore 

Burnie, Neil & Martine at the river in Creemore 

Neil, Martine & Burnie in Creemore 

Creemore Downtown 

Creemore Downtown 

Thornbury Downtown 

Thornbury waterfront 

Thornbury waterfront 

Thornbury waterfront 

Thornbury waterfront 

Has it really been 4 months since I last posted?

Hey there! Yep, I'm still alive. I've forgotten how to use this blogger thingy though.
I have some brand new photos of handsome little Gordie, who was here for a visit with his Mom & Dad yesterday, but I'm not sure how to post them up here.

Let's see if I can figure this out. Here goes:

Well, it seems this blog has a mind of its own when arranging photos. Believe me, this wasn't the way I was trying to do it! LOL!

Oh well, we had a wonderful day yesterday. Steve, Kim, & Gordie arrived about 8 a.m. just in time for breakfast. We had a good visit with the 3 of them until it was time for Steve to depart for his business trip, later in the morning.

After that, we played with Gord & yakked with Kim, until later in the afternoon, when t'other Kim & Lyndsay arrived with Sunny Bunny (aka Beans). Gordie turned on all his charms for his aunties... I think he's going to be a lady-killer when he grows up.

It was a great day!
I only wish Abby had been here too. She would have loved to have seen Gordie, but she's gone to visit her father & his family until the end of August. It seems strange not having her around. We miss her a lot.

My dream is to, one day, get all the grandkids together, but it doesn't seem too likely - not for a very long time anyway - with Kayley & Erika so far away.

This weekend we're off for a little vacation with my brother, Neil & his g/f Martine. We've been planning this since the beginning of the summer. I really feel like I need the break away from here before the weather turns cold again, when I'm stuck inside here for weeks on end at a time.
We seem to have had an unusually busy summer, with lots of things to do & a lot of guests as well.

We're going to check out possible retirement places, especially around the Collingwood area. We had planned to go as far as Pelee Island, but it's too far for just a few days' trip. We'd spend the whole time driving.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to it, although I do feel bad about missing Tammy's (non-surprise, so I can mention it here) shower. Unfortunately, our plans were made before we learned that the shower would be this month.
I'll make sure my gifts get to you anyway, Tam. Hope you have a lovely time... I'll check out the photos to see what I missed.

Well, I'm such a pokey blogger that I've taken a couple of hours doing this. I'd better get to bed. :)