Aussie visit

We had such a lovely visit with our Australian friends, Jennifer and Kevin.  They stayed with us for seven days of fun, laughter, talking, eating, drinking, etc.  It was our goal to have them experience our lifestyle here in the near north part of Ontario and to do things that they have never done before.

Be forewarned .... this post has a lot of photos!  We spaced out our activities during their visit with some down time so that we weren't tired out.  When looking at the photos, no, we didn't do all of this in one day.  :o)

Our kitchen table was the gathering place for many meals and hours spent with the four of us having heaps of fun.   Here, Jennifer and Kevin are raising their glass of cheer.

Jennifer and I exchanged gifts and this is what she gave to me.  See that bit of ribbon at the top .... that was Miss Ashes and Miss Hank's gift and what fun they had playing with it.  Thank you, Jennifer, for my lovely gifts!

After our first supper, we all bravely climbed the hill in our backyard to take in the city view and the sunset.  That was the last day of sun (during their visit) that we had before Hurricane Sandy came ashore.  We were OK as North Bay was far inland; but we did get rain and some wind.

A city tour brought us to the shores of Lake Nipissing where Jennifer had to dip her hands into the cool water.  That is me in the middle.

We went to a local church bazaar where we bought some local crafts and pastries and tried our luck at a penny sale (with no luck).

We drove to Sturgeon Falls one afternoon and pulled into a look-out to have a better view of Lake Nipissing.

 We did a corn maze at Leisure Farms in Sturgeon Falls.  It was amazing to do!  :o)

Anyone for some TV Bingo?  Our local TV station has two nights where we can play bingo and it was just luck that Jennifer and Kevin were here for one of those nights.  Was anyone lucky?

Yes!  Jennifer won $75.00.  Later that night, a member of Lion's Club dropped off her cheque and graciously posed for photos.

Since North Bay is so close to the province of Quebec .... well, we just had to go there for a drive.  Jennifer got to practise her French that she learned in school when she was a wee tot.  We bought some French liqueur that has maple syrup in it and stayed for coffee and cake at a local restaurant in Temiskaming, Quebec.

It was raining, but we took a little walk along the Ottawa River which separates the province of Ontario and Quebec.

Lunch one day at Average Joe's restaurant on Trout Lake in North Bay was lovely.  It was their treat to hubby and I.

Since Jennifer and Kevin have never done Halloween before, we purchased some pumpkins when we were at Leisure Farms.  Here, we are all taking turns carving the pumpkin.

It rained Halloween night and we didn't have many kiddies come to the door.  We all took turns at shelling out.

My sister and niece dropped by later in the evening to bring us dessert and stay for a visit.

Every day, Kevin would sit at our kitchen table and look out our patio door to see if he would be lucky to spot a bear or a deer.  On their last day here, we were just finishing eating dessert when Kevin spotted a deer.  We were so thrilled to see the deer (three in total).   If they had left earlier in the day, they would have missed this sighting.

And, if they had just stayed just one more day ... they would have woken up to snow on the ground, this morning!

Jennifer and Kevin ... you are more than welcome to come back and visit us any time!

A few of you are probably wondering how we first met?  It was back in 2009 when there was a bad bush fire in Australia and I had made some quilts blocks and a quilt top for donation to the victims of that fire.  Emails went back and forth and we met up in Toronto (we were living there at the time) in 2009 when Jennifer and Kevin were visiting their son and the rest is history.

Have a great day!