Canada

After leaving Washington I stayed with Ann and Carla in Ann’s very centrally located wee house in Toronto for a couple of days– always feel so welcome there. Lovely old house filled with artworks and memories of Ann’s travels – three storeys and a cellar.
Had lunch with Marta who is a Civil engineer I met last time I was in Toronto – she is heavily involved with Ontario professional engineers, especially the Women in Engineering Community.
Travelled down to Cornwall on Sunday afternoon – after a leisurely morning – before we left went for a walk to a lovely park up the road, beautiful trees, did a little bit of gardening and just generally chatted and caught up on lots of news. Beautiful drive down – all the trees looking a picture – lovely day, past the “Thousand Islands” – beautiful area with cottages close to the water, and arrived at Carlas house – another lovely house – three storey ( + basement). Lots of houses with Hallowe’en scarecrows and pumpkins.
Monday – just took it easy doing some reading, and long talks with Ann about her work for women inengineering and an International Task force on Women in ICT, then had lunch in town with Carla and Stacey. Ann and I did a test run over the US border to make sure they would let us through tomorrow ( Ann had forgotten her passport) – all OK, so home and I made apple crumble!
Another pleasant evening… getting colder – temperature down to 10 deg C – quite a change from Washington.
Tuesday
Left Cornwall about 9 am and went over the high bridge to the USA on a drizzly morning- – through Mohawk territory and then into northern NY state. Drizzly and wet but still a beautiful drive through Chateaugay and Mooers ( yes that is its name), to Rouses Point where I was to get the train – unbelievably decrepit looking station – but all organised even with a US Customs and Border protection site.
Train ran alongside the lake Champlain - beautiful train trip into the Adirondacks– all the trees were glowing yellow through to red – if it had been a sunny day would have looked as if the trees were on fire, but even in the drizzle bright and inviting…cottages perched alongside the lake – ground paved with leaves – I like riding on the Amtrak – have a fold down table, even a power plug although mine is not working. Not a very speedy train but time to see the lakeside scenery -
Arrived at Saratoga Springs – and nice hotel – conference tomorrow!