girl(s) between places

Welcome! It's a road trip blog: at the very least, it will give me something to think about during the long hours in the car. What little tidbit can we share with friends and family who are following us on our move West? First, we have a few introductions. Above, meet Semi, our trip mascot. Thanks to Willow for the gifted ceramic puppy who now rests on the dash of the car and lets me know if I'm braking too hard. The car has already been named Teacup, and I'll take this to mean that it is warm and relaxing to spend time inside it.

So far on our trip, we have visited Fredericton, where I couldn't take my eyes off baby Beatrice's beautiful front teeth, and Quebec City, above, where Eowyn and Emilie were once again reunited. The girls were all smiles during our skating expedition (even after staying up until midnight the night before), but dissolved into tears when it was time to say goodbye. With heavy hearts we drove off, making plans to pick up a postcard to start the penpal mission as soon as possible.

Next up was Montreal, where I worried that Eowyn would be ambushed by giant squirrels when we walked on Mont Royal. Emilie, Lila and Jose were wonderful hosts and we look forward to more time knitting, drinking and watching pirated movies together in the future.

Katrina and Anna-Louise took us out for a most excellent Indian meal, also in Montreal, though I was too dazzled by the light display behind them to eat much. We were introduced to the fine art of speed bathing suit shopping, and also stocked up on much needed windshield wiper fluid - we're going through a whole tank about every 200 km.

We've also listened to approximately twelve hours of books-on-CD, from Ramona to Laura Ingalls to Despereaux. Amazingly, Eowyn sits, listens, and draws or hums quietly. I can count the number of times she's asked, "When are we going to be there?" on one hand, and this is a real blessing. That said, she is very eager to get to Auntie Joanie's house in Canmore, and asked, when we arrived in Quebec City, "Is this Nelson?" Sorry to disappoint you, kid, but here, let me draw you a map of Canada. Yup, it's big (and the Great Lakes aren't shaped quite like that).

While we've been driving, the sale of our house was finalized, and so I'm drinking a cold beer to celebrate. Alone. In a motel room in Wawa. Cheers!