Day 64 - Oakville - 8th October 2004 It's Thanksgiving weekend here. It's at a different time to the Thanksgiving in the U.S. which I believe is in the first week of November. We've had a great week. Julie has been baking all week and sold out all her apple pies, choclate triangles and flapjacks at the school bake sale today. I think she had taken orders to deliver more next week. She also did her first church toddlers meeting with a craft which was a blinding success. It looks like she is settling in really well. Sammy went to a friend's house after school today and really loved it. The boy, Vito, wants to adopt Sammy (whom he calls Salami) and have him over for a sleepover. We are going to watch the boy play ice hockey tomorrow. The boy's mum gave us 2 pairs of hockey skates for Julian and Sammy to learn to skate. They can't wait. Sammy learnt his first tune on the recorder and Julian had a much better week at school even though he had a bit of a contre temps with one of his buddies. He has been learning all about the Great Lakes (which is great because we did the Great Lakes tour). He said he would like to stay here until his birthday so that he could invite all his new friends around! We've been for evening walks along the rocks around the lake. Starting at the end of our garden and climbing around to the harbour and talking to the fishermen as the sun sets. The weather has been astounding for Canada. Temperatures during the day up to 25 deg C. In the next few days it will drop by 10 to 15 deg and become far more seasonal. The trees are all a beautiful orange but we know the winter is just around the corner. The boats will all have to come out of the harbour in the next few weeks. They need to be winterised and stored. All the docks and jetties are removed as the rivers freeze over. We are moving into a period where we are looking at what we do next with our time. My Mum has said she would like to come back and visit again and we have friends due in November. But we can't stay here for ever. The rent we get on this house is my Mum's pension, so we have to get it rented again soon. We need to move on. Oh what a shame.