Today was Family Day for the City of Hamilton's employees & their families. Christine & Brianna invited Tom & me to go with them for this fun day. We checked out the Discovery Centre, had lunch, a cruise around the bay, & then toured the Battleship Haida. Brianna also had her face painted.

Inside the Discovery Centre

Waiting to set sail

On the left is a lakeside view of the Haida.

On the right the Skyway Bridge is in the distance.

A multi-million dollar cabin cruiser is moored here.

It takes $10,000 just to fill the gas tanks on this baby.

Brianna

The captain's cabin

Chris & Brianna pose for a cute picture. Grampa & Brianna are touring up top.

Turrett guns, propellers & a torpedo from the Haida are on display.

Our small group spent the weekend of the 13 - 15 at our friend's cottage. What beautiful surroundings & great friends. We had a wonderful time sight seeing on the lake, fishing, canooing, & visiting.








The cottage. Lovely scenery

















The friends... Nancy, Tom & Kathrynn






Ron & Neil












Here are some of the "cottages" we saw on our tour around the lake. These look more like mansions than cottages! The top right one has a boathouse on one side & a seaplane hangar on the other.

The bottom right cottage has its own swimming pool!












Nancy & Kathrynn decided to go kayaking.
First the novice, Nancy, gets in






















then it was Kathrynn's turn.


They went quite a ways before turning back.














Then it was time for fishing!! And this is my catch. A good sized bass, which I put back after having the picture taken.

Brianna wanted to learn how to bbq... gramma let her help

I visited Paige & Chloe today. They had been busy with crafts, making these adorable masks. Poor Chloe was suffering from some eye problem. Both eyes were puffy & weepy but it didn't slow her down too much.

Today we celebrated Paige's 5th birthday.





Paige









Cousin Brianna looks on as Paige opens another gift.










Daddy & little sister Chloe loved looking over things.










Paige moved around so fast she sometimes was just a blur. Daddy & cousin Zachary watched from the sidelines.

The 4 girls got dressed up in their Easter dresses. They looked so cute!





Chloe (2) was a little shy about having her picture taken.













Paige (5) was more willing. Even her dolly is dressed up!











Sarah (7) is always willing to stop to have her picture taken.











Brianna (8) curtseys for us.
Her mom made her Easter bonnet.











Christine puts the finishing touches on Sarah's Easter bonnet




















This is Brianna's bonnet

We celebrated Sarah's 7th birthday at Carolynn's.

After another night of snow, this is what we woke to. A lovely sunny day! There will be no getting to our shed now, unless we want to dig our way there lol. No thanks.. digging out the driveway & sidewalks is enough work! Thank goodness the snow blower was taken out of the shed & put into the garage at the beginning of the winter!

Today we headed for Lake Placid, Florida. This quaint town is dotted with many wall murals & we were looking forward to seeing them.

One of the beautiful homes & grounds here.

We saw many orange groves. Most of them in this area are owned by one family.

On the way we stopped at a used car dealership that specialized in OLDER cars. Muriel & I weren't as interested as Tom & Jim were.


Some of the old cars... they looked in good condition for their ages but then... I don't know much about cars!












This is the clown school. There are many famous clowns living in Lake Placid & a lot of them went here.









2 of the student clowns. They said they were having a blast.








Tom is sitting outside the tourist centre. It has pictures of all the murals in the town & a we saw a video of the history of them. It was very interesting to see how they were done & what the criteria was.








A few of the murals... unfortunately it doesn't show up really well here

My favourite is the bottom left... it shows an eagle in flight.










Even the garbage cans are unique. This is just 4 of the many we saw.
















I had my picture taken with these bear statues & Jim got into a shot too.



At the old train station was this antique fire wagon.

After golf today, a group of us decided to go out for dinner. We went to a Mexican restaurant located in this building. We had a very nice meal here.





We are gathering outside the building.








What this pirate had to do with a Mexican restaurant is beyond me, but he stood guard at the entrance!

At least this one looked more Mexican.. he was inside near the bar. (where else would he be?)

This is our group. Great people who made us feel welcome.