Saying the vows
We arrived in Hamilton on the 07th following smooth passage from St. John’s Newfoundland via Halifax Nova Scotia. From the airport we got a free cab, courtesy of Discount Cars, to their depot in Hamilton on Upper James St. Ray, our contact there, and a friend of groom-to-be, Dan Minton, was there to greet us. What made it special was that Ray had stayed on after the depot’s closing time, to set us up with our car. We surely appreciated that. From Discount, it was a 20 minute drive to our hotel where we met the Mintons and most of the other guests from B.C. We relaxed the rest of the day and had dinner with the gang at night.
Friday was also a quiet day, the highlight of which was a BBQ hosted by Dave and Betty Freeman, friends of Dan and Rachel. The Freemans had been surrogate parents to Dan when he’d arrived in Ontario at age 19. Cynthia and I, along with Shelley and Andy, relatives of Dan’s, helped with the arrangements for the BBQ as we’d arrived early at the Freemans’ home in the PM. By 18.30 we had the BBQ fired up and Sean, the Freeman’s son-in-law did a fine job of cheffing. Andy, Shelley, Cynthia and myself left later in the proceedings and returned to the hotel for a quiet evening.
Saturday it was all hands on deck for the wedding. We left around noon for the wedding which was scheduled for 13.00. We traveled there with Cal and Clair Farnell more friends of the Mintons. The Church was a 20 minute drive from the hotel and we found it quite comfortably. The ceremony was great, simple, yet everything Dan and Rachel wanted. Dave Freeman did a fine job of marrying the couple. It was back to the hotel by 15.00 as it was scorching hot and the reception wasn’t until 17.00. We had some down time and recouped in the cool of our room.
We arrived at the Beverly Golf and Country club at close to 17.00. It is a private, members only club, and very swish indeed. The grounds were beautifully manicured and the first fairway looked immaculate. The reception was held in a very large room, somewhat like a ballroom. About 130 guests were in attendance. The meal, speeches, first dance, cake cutting all went well. Rachel and Dan did a super job of mingling and all enjoyed themselves. We took Jan’s elderly aunt and uncle back to the hotel after the music had started for dancing. We managed a boogie or two then the older folks wanted out, which was fine.
Sunday morning, the Minton family hosted a breakfast in the hotel, so by about 11.00 I was full and crawled back to the room to flop on the bed and watch the U.S. womens’ soccer team defeat Brazil in a cliff-hanger of a game. Later in the PM , Cynthia and I spent a lazy afternoon sitting on the lakeshore, enjoying the sights, sounds and smells of Lake Ontario. We had dinner with the Minton clan that evening.
Monday, we spent the afternoon with Cynthia’s brother Leigh who lives in Toronto. As it was again smoking hot, we picked him up at his home and drove to the lakeshore where we caught a ferry to Ward Island and had a lunch together at the Rectory Restaurant. Leigh’s daughter Emma managed to join us there for a meal and we spent an hour with her, before she had to leave us and we took Leigh home. We had a cuppa with Leigh until 18.00 when Leigh’s on Tyler came home from work. We were able to spend an hour chatting with both of them before we headed home to the hotel, swiftly and smoothly courtesy of our little Magellan GPS.
Tuesday, today, was our last day in Hamilton. Our flight left Hamilton airport at 19.20 so we got up late, checked out of the hotel by noon and headed off in the rental car. We visited the Ireland Farm, a heritage home in the area and enjoyed a guided tour of the place courtesy of a young lady named Vicky. From there we went to the lakeshore in Hamilton, through the industrial area of the port and on to the harbour front. Our purpose was to take a trolley ride of 75 minutes around the waterfront area. We ate the lunch we’d made for ourselves back at the hotel, grabbed an ice-cream from a Scoops outlet nearby, and were off on the trolley. The ride was most enjoyable. We learned a little of the area and at the same time managed to stay cool due to the gorgeous breeze coming off the lake. Once again, it was hot. At the end of the ride we headed back into Hamilton. We had a quick pit-stop for a cool drink at a Tim’s and were soon at Discount Cars where we checked in with our good pal Ray again. We got the car details sorted and gave him the gift we’d bought for him. He’d been so good to us. Somehow he didn’t seem to think I was telling him the truth when I told him to treat carefully the piece of Ming pottery we’d purchased for him. ( I hope he enjoys the little remote controlled chopper which was the actual gift). Once again Discount came up trumps for us when they provided us with a free cab ride ($17.00) to the airport.
We dumped our bags with the delightful Westjet staff at the airport and headed for a place in the cool of the building to wait for our flight, which is where I wrote this post. Our flight was scheduled for 19.20 local time in Hamilton and would get into Comox about 10.20 local time there. By my reckoning, that made our journey about six hours , including flights and wait times between flights. Not bad at all.
The flights went well, though we had to scramble a bit in Calgary from one gate to another. We flew direct to Comox where Ben was there to meet us. Bed felt good after a long day. Now we’re back into routine. ’Bye for now and God bless.
Apologies for the pics (below) being not up to scratch. My little camera couldn’t handle the distances and my wobbly hands didn’t help. Professional pics are due in a few days. I’ll try and get a link for those of you who know Dan and or Rachel and are interested.
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