Time with Old Friends

Our first stop in Southwestern Ontario was at the Greens in Grand Bend. Their neighbour was kind enough to let us stay in their driveway for the night. The Green's was on too much of a slope.

Emily, Adam, Arch, Julia and Kendra

Kendra purchased The Little Red Roaster from me when we "retired" and moved to Nova Scotia. She was the manager of our first store and owner of our store in the Covent Garden Market. She married Adam a year before we left. Now they are a family of four. Wow! Time flies. So much to catch up on.

It was a wonderful visit. Not only did we catch up on their news and activities but we learned enough about soccer to enjoy the upcoming World Cup games. Beacuse it was "soccer night in Grand Bend" and Emily and Julia both play.

Emily suiting up

Soccer is a great game for kids. The equipment requirements are minimal, so parents aren't out a lot of money if they decide soccer is not for them (Last year Emily and Julia were both into dance) and the kids get great exercise.

Then home for dessert and coffee

And off to bed. Such lovely young girls.

The next day we headed to the KOA in London for a week. Lots of friends to visit and some repairs to be done on the car - the air conditioner wasn't working. Not a good thing in Southwestern Ontario.

One of the highlights of our visit was dinner with some classmates from our university days:

Sely, Arch, Kathy, Gill and Dave

Gill is the odd man (woman) out here - the others all attended university together and are friends of 50 years +. She joined the clan when she married Bob - seen below- and has blended in well with this motley crew.

Bob, Gill's husband, Sely and Arch.

The last time we saw Dave and Kathy was at The Glades in Feb 2013 and we hadn't seen the others for several years so it was a wonderful visit.

The question here is "how many people does it take to open a bottle of wine?"

Gill served a wonderful cold supper on this warm night:

Poached salmon surrounded by green beans, hard boiled eggs, asparagus, olives and of course, potatoes. "After all" said Gill, "I'm Irish" accompanied by a lovely dressing

This was our second "one-platter" meal. See the photo from our visit to the Greens, above. It must be a new trend. And such a great idea.

Another day we played golf with buddies Dave and Dorothy

Both are excellent golfers and gave Arch a run for his money. I just tag along.

Dorothy is a Party Lite representative and a very good one at that. While we were there she was enjoying the use of the Party Lite car which is awarded each month to a different representative, based on sales.

We also made quick visits to several other London friends (I keep forgetting to take pictures), and between that and visiting old haunts and getting car repairs done the time went quickly.

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A Tale of Two Markets - Part One - The Pike Place Market

When I was in the coffee roasting cafe business we opened a shop in the new Covent Garden Market in London Ontario. One of the markets used as an example of the type of market  the city wanted this new market to be was the Pike Place Market in Seattle.

The market is housed in several buildings 

So, despite the fact that our time in Seattle was short, we did take an afternoon to visit this market. Unfortunately it was Easter Day so many of the business were closed and it was hard to understand what the London folks were so excited about. The seafood vendors all were closed but this one looked interesting:

The cheese shop was very busy, as were the cheese makers:

The vats were huge. 

There appeared to be only one vegetable vendor:

I expected a larger display and more veggie vendors

The bagels looked like they were made "Montreal-style". Yum

And there were many tulips for sale:

Beautiful!

But the highlight of the visit was a cafe latte at the original Starbucks. They were really busy and there was no way I could get a photo that would show you what it was like so I "borrowed" this one from their website:

The store is quite unique and in no way resembles the Starbucks we see in most locations. You can read all about it on the Starbucks website.

While an historic landmark in Seattle, this is not the original store. It actually opened first in another location and moved to this spot 5 years later.  A smart move!

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