Toronto/ Homeward Bound

The trip back to Toronto began early Saturday morning with the destination for the day, Tracy's sisters house in Grand Haven Michigan. Tammy, Jeff, Georgia, Joey and Herbie along with their dog Chloe were expecting us and we were looking forward to a grand fireworks show signifying the end to the 2012 Coast Guard Days Celebration.

We met Aunt Sue in Manitowoc, just south of Green Bay for lunch and she help us get into the 4 hour Ferry Ride that would take us across Lake Michigan to Ludington, just north of Tammy and Jeff. Now for all of you that grew up in the late 60's early 70's you will remember that snappy little title sequence that went something like " Sit right down and your hear a tale, the tale of a fateful trip" and in the tune the line " for a 3 hour tour, a 3 hour tour" yeah right.... I should have known when all the cars were loaded onto the ferry we had to wait while they backed on this huge semi-tractor and trailer, but being side tracked by the 7000 questions the kids had about the ship, the evacuation plan, in case the ship went down, are there treats there, is their ac, I am hot, do they have a game room.... I was thinking about the bar and did not pay attention the truck.

We set sail, or steam if you will, only about 30 minutes late and settled down in the Corinthian leather seats and commenced sweating. Tracy, Kay and Billy found refuge in the air-conditioned movie theater, while Jimmy and I sat mid-ships sweating watching the Olympics and to our enjoyment the South Korean soccer team was taking on Great Britian, and we got to watch the entire game. There was one lone South Korean boy around 10 years old screaming and cheering for his team and the rest of the passengers gave him strange looks and a wide berth. The game ended in a shoot out with South Korea winning, the game score was 2-1, 3 hours of bliss for young Jim. (Kays comment about Great Britain? "I guess they arent so Great anymore, are they? I'm just going call them Britain from now on...") Meanwhile Tracy and Thing 1 & Thing 2 were watching movies (Happy Feet 2 and Journey 2 - note to self, anything with a "2" in it should be skipped).  We also brought Nikki with us; she and all the other dogs were all down in the hold, baking away. Several were voicing the concerns quite loudly and repetitively, scaring the rest of the dogs to no end.

We finally landed in Luginton only to have to wait (in the heat/diesel fumes) along with the rest of the passengers while the crew took over an hour and a half to the get the aforementioned truck off the boat. This is a family relate blog, if it were not I would have inserted an adjective here.... That placed us on the ground not a 7:30 but closer to 9:00 and out of the running for the fireworks. The silver lining in all of this is that after we stopped for dinner we were after the thousands of people who were lined up along the streets of Grand Haven for the firework's, and literally as we drove through town, the police were closing roads behind us. Finally we were at Tammy and Jeff's!! We had a cold beverage and called it a day.

We spent the next day just hanging out, going to the beach, watching more Olympics and spending time with our cousins. We left early Monday morning and the drive back was relatively uneventful and quite easy. We crossed the border, dog and all, imported our Pilot, snuck in a couple of items we "forgot" to mention we had and by 4:00 we were unloading the car at home and showing Nikki around.

It was good to get home and have it feel like home:)

 All good and more to come....