Reached Montreal

Our journey north has ended when we reached Sue and Paul's Baei D'Urfe home this afternoon. Our final drive from Burlington took us through the islands in Lake Champlain which are very rural and are linked by causeways and lead up to the US Canada border. We got into Canada with no bother and there was not even a US border guard to bother us leaving the States. We worked out that we have journeyed to or through 11 States plus Washington DC, including visiting 3 big cities, which seems not bad. Apart from getting lost a few times the travel has been fine and often enjoyable. Brian thinks New York was the highlight, particularly the Empire State and the Village Vanguard closely followed by the Shaker Village in New Hampshire. Our visit was really enjoyable, everyone extremly helpful and friendly, we really felt we could talk to anyone. We saw the Vice President, a Senator, four Sherrifs from Florida and more fine art, buildings, monuments and countryside than we could have hoped for. We did see homeless people in NY particularly but you will probably see more guns in London than we have seen here - although the sight of gun stores on the highway (one called 'Awesome Ammo'!) is quite disturbing. All in all it has been a very positive and memorable experience - we will look forward to showing you the photos! Brian Yes the Shaker village was really wonderful, very peaceful and plain, but in a very delightful way. Wonderful bits of furniture, made to be useful, the right size for the job to be done at it and fantastic cupboards with draws of all sizes. One of the best things was a multi shelf revolving oven, in which the cooking sisters could bake 64 pies all at once! It was actually invented by one of the sisters and patented by the Shaker family. I also really liked the two art galleries we went into in New Haven at Yale University. Another high point has been the waffle making option at the motel breakfast places. All good and great to be at my sisters house now. Tess