Link to Pages of Photos from Canada Trip

Edited slightly for redundancy and such...

Trip to Toronto, and Visiting Snaige and Antanas

We awoke refreshed at the Chalets on Lake Muskoka early this morning - in time to say 'bye' to Dan and Noreen. We dined on fabulous rice pancakes that Jim had made, covered in Arleigh and Larry's wonderful homemade maple syrup.

I showed my abstract art portfolio to Terry, Betty, Joleigh and Vivien; Vivien really liked the musical series; she may be interested in one of them for her house.

Teal came to pick up Jeff and Gigi and Terry and me, and take us all to a car rental place in Barrie. Turns out it would be cheaper by almost half to rent a car for the 4 of us for a day rather than all of us taking buses, shuttles, taxis, etc.

It's Teal's 27th birthday, so we all sang to her; then the whole gang marched us out to Teal's car, banging metal utensils on pots and pans. What a hoot!

The drive to Barrie was, I believe, longer than our subsequent drive to get Jeff and Gigi to the Toronto airport. At the airport, we said our goodbyes to Jeff and Gigi; then Terry and I headed downtown.

We parked pretty near the CN tower and the sports arena; had a delicious lunch of panninis at Pizza Rustica; then wandered through various downtown areas in search of the art museum.

Great way to get the feel and smell of a city -- just wander about, turning where it looks interesting -- avoiding the too-polished looking streets. There were some young kids on the street near what appeared to be a University area with signs for handouts -- one said, "Spare change for pizza and beer;" another, "Why lie? Anything you can spare for pot." :-)

We sampled quite a variety of ethnic areas, before we came to Grange Park and The Art Gallery of Ontario. The park was lovely -- filled with people relaxing and kids playing and dogs frolicking, but the museum was surrounded by construction boards, and we couldn't tell if the museum was open until we spotted a sign on the construction boards saying it was.

So off we headed to the left around the construction zone...and around and around and around for blocks! Turns out the one remaining entrance would have been pretty close to us had we headed to the right, but we ended up circumnavigating about 80% of the perimeter before discovering it. And dang if it wasn't closed! On a Tuesday even! We were sorely disappointed, as it looked like a very good museum, and I'm sure we weren't alone in our disappointment, as about 15 other people tried to enter as we stood there scratching our heads wondering what to do with ourselves next.

We decided to head east, and found ourselves at the Peace Plaza of Nathan Phillips Square. What a lovely place! Fabulous architecture on the city hall -- beautiful fountain and gardens. We hung around there for awhile, then wandered through the gardens of the Osgoode Hall law buildings, before we decided to head back towards the car and maybe find a place for a beer along the way.

No shortage there! We settled into a small outdoor cafe, drank a good Canadian brew and watched the city energize for going home. It's so great to be in a city that works so well -- we weren't far from the underground -- trolleys passed quietly by every minute or so, as well as buses, taxis, cars, and people on foot or riding bikes. It seems like a very bike friendly downtown. For a city of about 2.5 million people, how cool is that? [Some info on Toronto.]

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We headed west during rush hour to my cousin Snaige's house. I'd really only met her once -- back in '93 when my mom and I came up to visit Snaige's dad, Algimantis, before our trip to Lithuania. Algis had been born in Lithuania, and when he was sixteen, he apparently had to leave Lithuania due to WWII, and wound up in a DP camp in Germany. He and my mom, who were first cousins, wrote back and forth during that time. Algis met a woman in the camp, Eugenia, who became his wife. If I understood the story right, they were able to leave the DP camp by basically becoming indentured servants to a farmer in Canada.

I don't know the rest of the tale, only that they had 2 children, and had since been living happily in Toronto.

When I met Algis in '93, he had such an effect on me. He was such a sweet and gentle man, full of intelligence and wisdom and lots and lots of love. He wrote to me from time to time; and sent me emails for years (once email became an option), and even had a subscription to a Lithuanian magazine sent to me as a gift. I had always hoped to get back to Toronto to see him and introduce him to Terry and vice versa.

But he had gotten sick, and early this summer, I received a card from Snaige saying he had passed away last fall of cancer -- 2 years almost to the day that her brother had also been taken by cancer (which was also news to me).

So, I just had to see Snaige. Being the not-so-hot planner that I am, I hadn't written to her until the night before we departed for Canada last week. I anxiously checked my yahoo email on the two days I had internet access after arriving in Canada, but no word from Snaige. I called on Saturday morning, and found out from her son that she was on a canoeing trip, and that her husband, Antanas, was also away in the country.

Antanas called me Monday to say Snaige was not scheduled to return home until Wednesday evening -- by which time we would already be home in Austin. So it seemed it wasn't meant to be this time around -- until I got another call from Antanas later that day, saying Snaige was actually cutting her trip short by a day due to the terrible storms they had been through last Friday, and would be home Tuesday evening and would we come for dinner, and would we like to spend the night at their house before our flight home? Well, of course, I was thrilled, and said yes.

Snaige and Antanas live in a lovely brownstone-type two story home, just as the neighborhoods seem to start becoming lovely real houses. Their house is beautifully and tastefully decorated with wood scandanavian type furniture and tasty fabrics, lovely colors of walls, with Snaige's beautiful art hanging here and there. We sat out on the back deck and drank Lithuanian beer and got to know each other a little better before Snaige's childhood friend, Amanda, arrived with the canoe, and Snaige ported it pretty much by herself to the backyard.

The photo above is of two of Snaige's prints currently in a museum in Vilnius, Lithuania. I shot this photo in 1993 when I was there -- my Lithunian teacher in Vilnius was quite surprised when I told her that was my cousin's work!

Antanas cooked us the most wonderful meal starting with bread and borscht (Polish style, but with delicious fresh beets), eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, some of the most delicious new potatoes I've ever had, and grilled steak. He made this truly great dessert of fresh peaches and blueberries on top of whipped-cream covered mini shortcakes. He had also completely cleaned the house for Snaige's arrival. What a guy! He truly wowed his wife (and us).

He's also thoroughly charming and pretty darned cute. He's had 3 books published since I was here last - 2 novels and a collection of short stories. Terry was quite charmed by this, and they talked a bit about the writing process and Terry's book in progress. Antanas used to teach at Humber college, but now he's doing more of an administration position, which he actually made sound pretty cool, as Artistic Director of the Humber School for Writers, Humber Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning.

Snaige's art career is going well. I had forgotten she had studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. She's recently had another show, and was featured on a documentary on Canadian artists that was shown on Bravo Canada. They also used her lovely brush strokes for the beginning and ending credits for the whole series. http://www.movingimages.ca/catalogue/Art/artistslife_sileika.html We watched the video of her segment, and talked some about the artistic process, and how best to carve out time for creating.

Anyway, the evening and the visit with Snaige and Antanas was much too short, and I didn't get much of a chance to find out too much more about her dad, or as much about them and their lives and art as I'd like. Another time, perhaps.

Snaige's website: http://www.snaige.ca/

Some pages on Antanas: http://www.writersunion.ca/s/sileika.htm http://www.randomhouse.ca/features/travelbypaperback/book4.html http://writerscafe.ca/weblogs/writers/Antanas-Sileika-Woman-in-Bronze-a-novel.php http://www.city.toronto.on.ca/book_awards/tba_shortlist2.htm#time

One More Day with the Lucketts, and I Get to Sail!

Our final night at Eden Place B&B, now on the king-size bed, was somewhat of an improvement over the previous two. The bed still sucked (she really should take her ill-gotten earnings, even if only from us, and buy some new mattresses!), but this broken down mattress had more padding on it, so the springs didn't hurt so bad. We also had a window that opened and a fan, so we didn't have to run an AC to get some air circulation. I still didn't sleep well, but when it came time to get up for another dreadful breakfast, I opted to attempt to catch a few more winks instead.

Terry and Erin joined the other guests, and reported that Ethyl had served some nearly inedible peirogi-type device, I guess in honor of her Polish missionary student guests.

We packed up and said goodbye to Ethyl, and she had brochures, business cards and such all prepared for us to give to our friends, and told us to be sure and come back. Yeah! I'll be sure and do that -- not!

One more stop at Oliver's for coffee. Elizabeth and Erin were heading home today, so we all headed back to the chalets for some more family and beach time before they had to take off.

Terry and I went back down to the beach, and it wasn't long before Dan asked if anyone wanted to sail. I, of course, jumped at the chance.

I headed off with Dan, and Terry joined Bob. After a while Dan started explaining the theory and practice of reading the winds, using a clockface as an analogy -- then handed me the ropes! So I controlled the sail while he controlled the rudder, and we sailed back and forth between the big island and the shore, and even around the tiny island a few times.

It is so much fun! I love the zen aspect of it -- that you have to pretty much focus your attention on just what you're doing -- it takes your mind off anything else you may normally be thinking about. Very relaxing. Kind of like painting.

Dan and I and Jim all tried to encourage Terry to consider getting a rig like this...we'll see how that goes. With the zero extra time we've had over the past 3 years, I'm not going to get my hopes up...or maybe I will! Things are changing with my job situation, and hopefully, it will be less dire financially and time-wise than it has been, now that I'm leaving Austin Regional Clinic for much better paying free-lance illustration work.

In the afternoon, we went back up to hang at the chalets, and I talked to Joleigh for awhile. She told me some wild stories of her youth at UT in Austin, studying under the radical John Henry Faulk, and getting involved with the Young Communists.

Later someone suggested a game of "Settlers of Catan." I normally don't do games -- generally, I find them too boring and a waste of time, but Terry joined the game, and I sat at his side as it began.

What a great game! It was anything but boring, and we played for hours (one game). Folks had to tear us away to eat dinner, and we were so reluctant to pause playing, we missed the guacamole that Nancy and Libby served up. :-(

Dinner was fabulous; I got lucky and got some of the salmon and other fish, but as soon as we could politely tear ourselves away from dinner and clean-up duties, we were back at the game.

We were very nearly in a four-way tie, each of us only 2-3 points (out of 10) away from winning. Gigi had been behind (by a point), as she had started with the worst board position, but after another maybe 45 minutes of play, she whupped us all! It was a really fun game, and we're trying to figure out which of our friends we may be able to rope into getting addicted with us.

Terry and I spent our final night at the family reunion sleeping in one of the rooms in Joleigh's cabin. Finally, a comfortable bed!

As I look back over the past few days, I'm so happy that I got to spend more time with all the family folks that I did. What a great, kind, wise, and loving family -- I am so lucky to have become a small part of it.

Experiencing the Tub at the B&B, and Hanging out on the Beach at the Club Muskoka

An identical miserable night last night trying to sleep on that piece of garbage our Christian proprietess calls a mattress. I was so ticked off when I got up , I threatened to my husband to report Ethyl to the Canadian B&B authorities (if they have such a thing).

But at least, I thought, we'll get to enjoy those fabulous banana beignets she bragged about yesterday. But sadly, no...breakfast was every bit as dreadful as it was yesterday.

And then Ethyl had the audacity to ask how I had slept. In a very quiet voice, I told her I hadn't slept almost at all for either of the past two nights, and when she asked why...I eventually (after breakfast, after her other 'guests' had parted) told her it was due to the extremely hard and lumpy mattress, and told her we would have to do something to ameliorate this condition.

She offered to let us move across the hall to the room with the lumpy king-size bed, and still use the bathroom in the room we were currently in. She did not offer an apology or a refund, however (the king-size bedroom was supposed to be cheaper than the god-awful room she had put us in). I thought it had to be an improvement, and the bed did seem to have more padding on it, and the room was considerably more cheerful, yet still not 'nice' like Erin's room or the room next to her. So move we did.

Then I went to take a bath or shower or...something. Trouble was, the bathtub is a bit on the short side for taking a bath, and since it's located under the eaves, it's also short height-wise, making showering something of a problem. I ended up standing up bent-over and spraying myself, soaping and spraying, shampooing and spraying, creme-rinsing and spraying. I've had worse bathing situations in third-world countries, so there's that to be thankful for.

Terry demonstrating the size problem of our tub/shower
at Eden Place Bed & Breakfast

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We eventually headed back into town for some real coffee in real coffee quantities, and then out to the chalets at Club Muskoka for a second breakfast of pancakes and maple syrup.

Then everyone who wasn't already on the beach (or sailing) headed down there on this quite gorgeous Canadian summer day. All the inflatable sailboats were in use, as well as the inflatable kayak. I was hoping for a ride on one of the boats, but had brought a book to read, some art supplies and my camera to entertain myself with in the meantime.

I chatted with Terry Luckett for awhile. She told me about life after her marriage to Vernon, HP's brother, and made me yet again so sad that I'd never gotten a chance to meet my Terry's mom, DB.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching the kids play -- Robert is great and smart and so cute, but almost never smiles -- he's very serious, you know; his twin sister, Catherine, on the other hand, is all giggles and light and reminds me very much of Gilda Radner's little girl scout character Judy Miller, of the Judy Miller show.

We watched Jim and Dan and passengers sailing on Lake Muskoka. Jim Luckett manufactures and sells these sail kits to turn an ordinary inflatable raft into a small and very safe sailboat -- one that you can pack and take with you on your world travels, even! http://www.sailboatstogo.com/

Bob and Vivien also have one of these boats and they brought it down to the shore to get it read to sail. I won't tell you how long they stayed out, though!

Bob starting to inflate and assemble his portable sailboat.

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Dinner was sort of a disorganized affair this evening. Erin, Nancy, Libby, Terry and I decided to go into Gravenhurst and pay somebody to feed us. When we reached Gravenhurst, we discovered that only 2 or 3 restaurants were even open. We opted for the better looking of the two Chinese restaurants, and Libby ventured inside just as the clouds broke open, only to discover they were only open for take-out. So we headed down the street to the other place, and it was perfect!

It was delightful getting to know Nancy and Libby better over a leisurely, more intimate dinner. Libby told us how we are related to Tim Berners-Lee (more), inventor of the World Wide Web (he's her husband's brother-in-law). Through Libby, we are also related to Kevin McCarthy (more), the actor, and Mary McCarthy (more & MM quotes), the author (she wrote "The Group," among many others). Pretty cool!

The So-Called Eden Place B&B, & Barbeque at Arleigh and Larry's

The woman who owns and runs the Eden Place Bed & Breakfast in Gravenhurst, Ontario, Canada, is a small, pretty Jamaican Christian woman with bright orange hair, and a very sweet demeanor. We had been grateful to find a room with a bath on such short notice during a busy weekend in Gravenhurst...until we tried to sleep, that is.

Well, Terry slept OK -- as he says, he could sleep on a meathook. He gets lots of practice sleeping. Me, on the other hand -- a completely different story. I haven't been able to sleep through the night for about 5-6 years, but I usually can get by just fine on only 6 hours of sleep a night -- provided I sleep well those 6 hours.

I wasn't expecting the small, cramped garrett room that Ethyl put us up in, filled with all kinds of her personal junk. It was kind-of a tent-like shape, as it happens, so we joked about our tent karma on this trip. The bed was merely a double, and one that I could swear had been dragged out of the garbage pile years before, due to it being completely worn out, hard and lumpy. The pillows were in about as good condition as the mattress, and had to be squished all together to get any kind of support under one's head. For this, the Christian woman Ethyl was charging us $100.00 a night!

I managed to fall asleep and maybe stay asleep for a couple of hours, but once I turned over, the rest of the night was more like a nightmare. I tossed and turned and turned and tossed and started counting sheep at least thirty or forty times, and every time I would get close to going under again, I would be so uncomfortable that I had to turn, and that would wake me up. I was totally miserable, but finally went under for another hour or two before 'breakfast' a 8:00am.

Now I've stayed at B&B's several times before over the years, and breakfast has always been a real pleasure...until Eden Place. Ethyl served us a tiny cup of partially frozen, yet still 'old' and partially rotted fruit as a first course. The second course consisted of a storebought hashbrown patty from the freezer case and canned boston baked beans. When she finally got around to serving us our coffee halfway through the 'meal,' she served it in tiny little teacups, and we had to practically beg for seconds. There were no thirds. With those meager portion sizes, I could've used sixths or eighths or maybe tenths, even!

We went back to bed for more non-sleep before the gang came to get us to take us to Arleigh and Larry's. We were so grateful to find a place, Oliver's, to get a huge cup of coffee in town on our way!

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The afternoon at Arleigh and Larry's was delightful (in spite of so little sleep). We went for a walk in the woods, and Larry explained about the very hard work that they put themselves through every spring to tap some of their many maple trees, and make maple syrup (which is delicious!) .

We traversed the not quite overgrown path out to the sugar shack where Terry once spent a week in contemplation, and farther on to where the beavers build their dams and make lakes out of the marshy areas; then headed back past poisonous mushrooms and fallen birches to the wireless tower that Larry and Rob had erected for internet service.

We had a delicious meal of barbeque meat and salmon, and fabulous vegetables and fresh fruits; then started lining up for the family photos. I didn't quite get in on the picture taking at first, but here are a few of the smaller groups of folks whose pics I shot:

The siblings and step-siblings:
Dan, Jim and Arleigh Luckett,
Libby McCarthy Carlson and (my hubby) Terry Dyke

Born in the Seventies (plus one):
Carolyn Prochazka, Quin Shirk-Luckett, Elizabeth Luckett, Erin Foster, Gigi and Jeff Luckett, Teal Shirk-Luckett, and Rob

The cousins: clockwise from upper left:
Elizabeth Luckett, Erin Foster, Jeff Luckett,
Teal Shirk-Luckett, Robert Tota, Sofia Luckett, Catherine Tota, Louisa Carlson, and Quin Shirk-Luckett

Some of the younger generation:
Louisa Carlson, and twins Catherine and Robert Tota

The Rest of the Gang Arrives, and We Move to a B&B

I slept surprisingly soundly in the tent on Arleigh's land, but awoke as it was beginning to rain -- a day that made some small weather history in Canada (more). We decided the weather dicated that we move to an indoor sleeping location, so we arranged for a room with bath at a B&B in Gravenhurst, where Erin would also be staying.

The rest of the family were all flying or driving in today, and we were all to meet for a wine and cheese party provided by Joleigh at the Chalets on Lake Muskoka around 4 or 5pm. In the meantime, Terry and I visited with Larry while also helping out with a few chores in preparation for the events of the next few days and listening to a great canadian blues musician, Paul Reddick & the Sidemen. Must get whatever albums of his are available!

We met Arleigh and Joleigh at the chalets around 5:30; Dan and Noreen had just arrived, driving in from Ottawa. Quinn, Carolyn, and 8-month-old Fin arrived from Guelph, and before long Bob, Vivien, Catherine, Robert and Terry Luckett arrived. Jim had called several hours before from on board the airplane on the tarmac in Toronto -- the storms were so bad, they weren't allowed to deplane, because the guys who operate the jetbridges don't during lightning storms -- so they had to wait (something like 4 hours, as it turned out) to get off the plane. Elizabeth was also stuck on a plane at the Toronto airport.

Teal arrived late with her boyfriend, Rob, who we liked immediately. He works as an arborist, and has a lovely Scottish accent (though he was born and raised in Canada).

I really can't remember in what order everyone arrived, but eventually, Erin and Elizabeth made it in from Toronto; with horror stories to tell of Erin waiting at the airport for 4 or 5 hours for Elizabeth to arrive, as they'd planned to rent a car and ride up together; and Elizabeth being stuck on a plane for hours due to the lightning storms, and finally, the captain had them all buckle up safely in their seats only to move the plane forward just inches to the jet bridge so they could deplane(!).

Nancy, Libby and Luisa made it in eventally, and the last stragglers were Jim, Betty, Sofia, Jeff and Gigi, who, after waiting forever to be allowed off their plane, also had to wait another two hours for the mini-van they had reserved! They were pretty wound up by the time they arrived (somewhere around 11pm, I think?) .

At some point, we all ran out of steam, and headed into town to our so-called B&B.

Luckett Family Reunion 2005: Getting to Arleigh's Dome Home...

We got up at 3am (though actually I had only gone to bed at 2:15, and then couldn't sleep, so basically, my day started at 7am Wednesday). The shuttle came at 4:02; we were at the airport by 4:20, though it didn't even open until 4:30am. No real problems getting on board our flights or anything, even though we were flying standby. There was a 2 or 3 hour layover in Cincinnati, though.

Arrived in Toronto about noon, and only a small hiccup at customs, due to the fact I was traveling on an expired passport and hadn't been able to find either my birth certificate or my voter's registration card, even though I'd searched for 2 or more hours (hence, the lack of sleep).

The first real issue came when we went to get the shuttle to Washago -- they were all booked for the next 4 hours. I tried to lay down and catch a few winks on a bench near the shuttle desk, and was almost there when a voice said "You lucked in." Another plane had been delayed, so we could get its passengers' spots on the 2pm shuttle.

Washago was the last stop, so with all the other passengers being dropping off along the way, we didn't arrive there until 5pm. Arleigh showed up about 15 minutes later, and we bought some beer and headed to her dome home.

The home is so cool! They built it beginning with a foundation pour in about 1971, I think, and the original structure was completed in 1975.




The main building (the dome) consists of a living area complete with wood-burning stove, a dining area, a kitchen, and a bathroom, plus a loft upstairs for offices and guests. They later added a octagonal tower with a couple of bedrooms and a workshop, plus a hallway and another upstairs room (up a circular staircase) in the middle, and a screened-in porch with hot tub.

The feel of the house is so warm -- with no actual corners for bad vibes to get caught in. I really loved the organic quality of it. I've been trying to figure out how I can manage to build my studio as a dome or get some land and build in the country somewhere...

Space being what it was, our sleeping accomodations turned out to be a tent in the yard. I wasn't really prepared for camping, but was grateful for a cozy little place of our own.

We had a pleasant evening visiting with Arleigh and Larry over a good dinner and several beers, and we prepared ourselves for a cold night sleeping outside with silk longjohns, Cutters (for the mosquitoes), warm socks, pj's and a robe, several blankets, plus some good earplugs to drown out the sound of bugs....and whatever else there may be. I remembered before going to sleep that Arleigh had talked about the racoons and otters and the bears that occasionally wandered in from the woods...