October 6, 2016. Day #3 of yard work, then fun.

LOCATION:  With daughter Meredith in Ferndale, Michigan

WEATHER:  Another beautiful sunny day.  High about 80

More mulching and trimming.  The mulch pile is slowly shrinking.

After a hard day's work, we cooled off in the swimming pool.

Raja, the dog, looked on but would not jump in.

In the evening, we met our friend Heather from Ann Arbor for a dinner in a Japanese restaurant.  It is a really traditional place.  Most of the customers were Asian, a good sign.

We shared some sushi rolls and sushi....

Then we each had a bowl of soba or udon noodles.  We were stuffed and a little ashamed of the quantity of food we ate until we watched the Japanese family next to us order plate after plate of goodies.  How do they keep so thin?!  

October 5, 2016. Day #2 of yard work

KLOCATION:  With daughter Meredith in Ferndale, Michigan

WEATHER:  Sunny and warm.  Highs in upper 70s

We spent the morning weeding, trimming and mulching.  George cut a lot of branches.

 Shoveling the mulch is giving us all aches and pains!

Next is spreading the mulch around the flowers and over the weeds that are hopefully dying from their doses of Round-up.

The pile is getting a bit smaller....

Our reward today was an outing to Ace Hardware, then the supermarket.  

Meredith made another great dinner....portobello  mushrooms and chicken on the grill with a very nice salad.  

October 4, 2016. Day #1 of yard work

LOCATION:  With daughter Meredith in Ferndale,Michigan 

WEATHER:  Gorgeous fall day. High about 70. Cool in the evening

What a busy day!

Our daughter and her husband bought their first house about 2 years ago.  They have a large yard with lots of flowers planted by the previous owner.  The yard requires a lot of care.  It needs to be prepped for the coming winter.  

We started with some weeding, then decided to buy Round-up instead.  While we were making our garden center list, which included lots of bags of mulch, we noticed city workers cutting down a tree in the park next door.  George asked, and they agreed to deliver a truckload of the  mulch from the tree to our backyard.....free.  

So, this will be the project for the week.....

 We worked hard all morning, then went out for lunch.  More work in the afternoon after a trip to Home Depot.

By evening, we were all worn out.  While we were working, we got hot and sweaty, but it really cooled  off in the evening.   George made a nice fire in the fire pit.

Our daughter is a chef and enjoys trying exotic foods.  We had grilled frog legs for dinner with an Asian salad.  

October 3, 2016. 3 countries in 1 day!

LLOCATION:  Ferndale, Michigan, outside of Detroit, with daughter Meredith

WEATHER:  Unsure......inside an airplane or airport all day!

Our flight from St. Pierre was at 9:30 AM. As usual, I wanted to get to the airport with plenty of lead time.  Mistake.  The security door wasn't even opened until 9:00, even though it was an international flight.  The only airline that flies into the island is Air St. Pierre.  Everything is quite relaxed here.

We landed in Halifax in about an hour.  They sell Nova Scotia lobsters in the airport for souvenirs.

 

Then,  a 2 hour flight to Toronto, then an hour flight to Detroit.  Three countries within about 8 hours.....France, Canada, the USA.  

Our daughter picked us up at the airport.  It is so good seeing her again.  She fixed us an Indian style omelette for a late-night supper.

October 2, 2016. Learning more about St. Pierre

LOCATION:  St. Pierre Island, France.  Off the coast of Newfoundland

WEATHER:  Another unseasonably warm beautiful sunny day. Highs in 60s

We had breakfast, rich French yogurt and slices of a baguette, in the restaurant associated with the hotel where Al Capone purportedly stayed during Prohibition.

At the town's excellent museum, we signed up for a guided tour.  The guide walked us around the museum, explaining the island's history, then took us for a 2-hour walking tour around the town.  

One of the things we learned is that the city used to be quite drab.  Later, homeowners coated their wood houses with cod liver oil as a (stinky) preservative colored with a reddish ocre color.  Colored houses became more popular, and now the French government subsidizes paint, encouraging homeowners to paint their houses in lively colors.

 

We learned about the traditional "tambours", entryways on houses built to keep out the cold.  Tambour means drums.  It is thought the name came from the custom of drumming loudly on the doors to enter the houses.

Our tour guide was excellent.  He was very dramatic...I think he must have attended acting school.

This is the town's main cathedral.

We learned about the island's historic fishing industry.   Since the 1500s, the islands went back and forth between ownership by England and France.  Along with much of Canada, France lost ownership of a lot of the Maritimes, but negotiated to keep St. Pierre et Miquelon due to its rich cod fishing.

Later, cod dwindled and the economy tanked.  In came new prosperity in the form of rum-running during the USA Prohibition era.  Liquor was still legal here, so men like Al Capone ran liquor transport based here.  We saw several liquor warehouses from during that era.

After the tour, we rested in the room, and George watched golf on a USA station, the first USA TV we have seen in 8 months. We haven't missed much.

The entire town was very quiet all day. Its mostly Catholic population rests on Sundays.  Almost everything is closed up.  We had reservations for dinner at one of the only restaurants open on Sundays.  When we arrived, we found it closed due to an emergency.  So, we found another one and shared a delicious French-style pizza. 

October 1, 2016. Exploring St. Pierre

LOCATION:  St. Pierre et Miquelon Islands, France. Off the coast of Newfoundland

WEATHER:  Another picture-perfect day, but windy. Highs in upper 60s

One reason people visit St. Pierre is to enjoy French food.  We started our day buying a piece of quiche, a croissant, and a baguette at a patisserie/boulangerie.  We ate the croissant and quiche in our room for breakfast.  Just like Paris!

Then, we took a walk around the waterfront.

We learned that fishing used to be the main industry, but a moratorium on cod fishing in the Maritimes in the 1980s closed down almost all fishing. 

This little island used to have lots of people living on it when fishing was in its heyday.  Now just a few summer homes left.

We found the local grocery store and bought some cheese to go with the baguette for a picnic lunch.

In the afternoon, we took a guided tour.  The driver/tour guide drove us all around the island.  He is obviously very proud of St. Pierre, proudly pointing out its many high points.  There are several brand new schools with a 12:1 student/teacher ratio.  The high school grads then go to university in France in Europe.  Most young people return to live and work here.  The French government is the biggest employer.  It must pay well, as we saw many large, new waterfront homes.  Lots of sports facilities, including a huge indoor swimming pool, ice arena, and soccer fields. A cultural center.  Virtually no crime.  Food and wine are imported from mainland France, and are heavily subsidized.  

After the tour we went to one St. Pierre's nicest restaurants.  It is very French....L'Atelier Gourmand.  We shared 2 appetizers and one main dish.....1) goat cheese cake wrapped in cucumber on a bed of tomato sauce, 2) cod fish slices stacked on toasted baguettes with avocados and chorizo, and 3) a skewer of grilled scallops and bacon served with rice and a vegetable pate.  This is a picture of how the skewer is served...

 

All was to die for.  The service was impeccable.  The dinner lasted about 2.5 hours.  Even though the population is small, the restaurants fill up on the weekends.  Our hotel front desk helped us get reservations here and in the restaurant last night.  Locals appreciate good food!

September 30, 2016. A side-trip to France!

LOCATION:  St. Pierre et Miquelon, France

WEATHER:  A perfect sunny, fall day.  Highs upper 60s

Our good friends Tony and Jenny took us to the Halifax airport where we caught a one-hour flight to France.  Yes!  Just one hour.  There are two islands off the coast of Newfoundland that are a prefecture of France.  Not French-Canadian, or a territory, but ja real French state.  Flying low, we flew over the Nova Scotia coast, and then could see Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland.  

These islands have been on George's bucket list, so we decided to come here since we were so close.

Traveling is always an adventure, and today will remain as one of our laughable, memorable moments. The island is quite small.  The airport is tiny, and our flight had only about 20 passengers.  In the terminal, everyone cleared out quickly.  We looked at a posted city map trying to figure out if we could walk to our hotel, or whether we would need to call a taxi.  We had made hotel reservations through hotels.com.  I looked for the hotel on the map and could not find it.  There are only 2 hotels and a few B&Bs.  The street name didn't appear either.  Finally, George found a customs guy and asked him.  Thankfully he could speak a bit of English.  He looked and looked at the address, and said there was no such hotel or street on the island.  Then, a lightbulb went off and he said that our hotel is in St. Pierre, Reunion, an island off the coast of South Africa!!!  He directed us to a free telephone in the terminal to reserve another hotel.  The conversations were a mix of English and broken French, on my part.   The first one I called had no vacancies.  The second didn't open until 5:00 pm.  Finally, the third one had a vacancy, and recommended we travel by taxi.  Again, we used the free phone to call one.  He arrived in minutes and took us to the hotel.  It is quite nice, and our room is spacious and modern.

Now, we have to sort out the hotels.com charge in Africa!

We strolled around the town, spotting a patisserie for breakfast tomorrow and checking out dinner options.  

Everything is very French.  Euros are used.  The car license plates are French.  The government buildings are all the same as France.  Nothing is in English.  

The harbor is cute.

We watched the inauguration of a new park, dedicated to lost sailors.  A delegation from Paris was here for the dedication ceremony.

On our way home, we passed a park where old people were playing bocci ball.

For dinner, we went to one of the restaurants that feature French cuisine.  It was wonderful.  We shared a ramekin of grilled, garlicky snails, and an order of monkfish served in a bell pepper sauce.  It was a local restaurant, and it was interesting watching families enjoy a Friday evening out, a la France.