Fireworks! Wear your red and white!
It’s already 149 years since Confederation, when the British colonies of Upper and Lower Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick negotiated to form the Dominion of Canada. That fledgling nation of four provinces (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, and Ontario) formed the core for our modern country. The rest, as they say, is history– literally.
Souvenirs! Souvenirs!
This means it’s already 49 years since a certain busload of high school band members travelled from Elmira, Ontario, to Montreal with their teacher and chaperones to celebrate the great Centennial year at Expo ‘67 for a week!
What beautiful concerts we performed each day on a picturesque peninsula, in the warm sunlight, while the audience relaxed on the lawn on the opposite shore. One day, suddenly a gusty breeze swooped some of our sheet music into the air and floated it gently onto the water. While we struggled on, our music director’s young son soon found a long stick and fished our music out again. The next day we were equipped with clothespins– no problem for these pioneer spirits to come up with solutions!
Was this episode the highlight of the whole trip?! Well, I assure you that our teenage selves found many more interesting things to be intrigued by in “la belle province” and far from home…!
Our adult selves love to travel too, and Canada is certainly a land of incredible beauty worth looking at! A major highlight of my adult life was our flight in a Cessna 150 (2-seater small plane) from Ontario to Alberta, in July 2003.
I already mentioned the travelogue I had made for our website, in my blog post of July 1, 2015. But just as we will look forward to seeing fireworks again this year, I hope our travelogue bears mention again too. For us, personally, the excitement of the adventure of flying across part of Canada comes rushing back vividly every time we look at the pictures.
Enough said! We invite you to have a look at this little slice of our life on our website:
Travelogue: Waterloo to Calgary in a Cessna 150, July 2003.
(Note, this link opens in a new window).
We hope you enjoy the experience!
Happy Canada Day!
chez Hildegard 
I checked out the travelogue – wonderful idea and lovely pictures. I have never been to Canada, but one of my favourite youth novels was a book about two bush pilots chasing arsonists. And whenever they took off in their seaplane, I was on board and enjoyed the flight. Your travelogue just reminded me of that reading adventure.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks very much – I’m really glad you enjoyed the travelogue! Ah, bush pilots chasing arsonists – the perfect Canadian adventure story, and even just a vicarious flight in a seaplane would be cool! 🙂 Well, our bush pilots are indeed very important people in our vast northern country. Someday you should come visit Canada – you would enjoy it!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I know those shirts!
LikeLiked by 1 person
…and so you should, and who is inside them… 😉 I suspect one shirt may already have turned into a hand-me-down this year… 🙂
LikeLike
Brings back some wonderful memories of a similar trip! What a super travelogue you did. Almost makes me homesick…Enjoy a wonderful Canada day! We’ve even taken the day off –marvellous peaceful location–though it’s no holiday here.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for your lovely comment, Audrey! Yes, I think we all had some memorable trips to Expo ’67, and of course your trip would certainly not have been devoid of some little extra adventure. 🙂 Happy relaxing Canada Day to you also, in whatever peaceful spot you found. 🙂
LikeLike
I went to Expo 67 with my family. We traveled in a travel trailer. That was an amazing trip!!
Your mention of pictures of the flight in a Cessna made me think of my father who was a commercial pilot and flew Cessnas and Piper cubs and Moonies. He took us kids up in a Cessna! So cool that we shared two experiences at different times.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Serendipitously shared experiences are very cool! I’m sure Expo ’67 was something a great many of us in N.A. shared back then; at least for us at that “impressionable age” it certainly left a strong impression! 🙂 And flying – well in those days, I didn’t realize ordinary mortals could simply learn to fly. I must have figured it was some special breed of people born in airplanes who soared, dipped, and turned over our farm (which as I learned later, happened to be in the practice area for a local airport. So they were probably oblivious to my mom and me waving at them!) 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
That Travelogue is amazing , beautiful pictures 🙂
Loved seeing Canada from a bird’s eye perspective 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for liking Maria Holm 51’s blog on my book cover about the search for my Danish father and his life in Seattle. The story has been a research project and includes the search for my mother and her family of Ukrainian immigrants to Alberta. I met 50 of them at a 2010 family reunion where we also travelled the Ice Fields highway and went to the Calgary stampede. And now I’ve travelled the remaining Eastern journey with you on your Cessna trip. Thanks for the fascinating tour!
LikeLiked by 1 person