A Trip to the East Coast

Gary's 45th College Reunion

May, 2011

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After a great hike up to the Crack in Killarney Provincial Park in Ontario, we continued on to visit Susan Lolle, a friend of Dona's who lived just outside of Toronto. Max got to stay in the back yard at first, as he was just too enthusiastic. Susan had a dog of her own, and she was a great dog trainer. She got Max to calm down and then everybody was cool -- more or less.

Max

From Susan's we headed down to the border at Niagara Falls, which was totally unobliging and shrouded in mist. We continued on and stopped overnight in Rochester, NY, where we visited my nephew Brian Payne and his wife Jill and their rabbits.

Then it was on to Schenectady, NY, for my 45th reunion at Union College. I totally blew it and didn't take hardly any pictures.

We stayed at Thompson's Lake State Park a nice campground about fifteen minutes south of the campus.

We attended some great talks;. my favorite questioned our ability to multitask, or even single-task. You had to be there, but it was a great eye-opener for anyone who believes it's safe to use a cell phone while driving.

At a gathering of the class one evening, the glee club came by and entertained us.

The Glee Club

My old roommate Mike's wife Sherry had quite an admirer

We all got together for a fancy dinner with a bazillion other alumni. But it was fun seeing the gang again and catching up. Nobody was in a wheel-chair, which was good...


Dinner -- Janine, Kent, Sherry, Mike, Shelley, Steve, Jane, Howie	Dinner -- Janine, Kent, Sherry, Mike, Shelley, Steve, Jane, Howie


Dinner -- Dona, Bob, Donna, Klang, Kathy, Joanna, Vic	Dinner -- Dona, Bob, Donna, Klang, Kathy, Joanna, Vic

The last night there was quite a fireworks display. It was by far the best fireworks I've ever seen. Someone said one of the Union alumni owns a fireworks business, which probably had something to do with it. It just went on and on and on and on and on. Each one was like the grand finale of a normal show.


The Nott Memorial at Night	Fireworks


Fireworks	Fireworks


Fireworks	Fireworks


Fireworks	Fireworks


Fireworks	Vic and Joanna cheering the fireworks

There's a big interlude here, where we go on to Niagara Falls, stop in Rochester, NY, to visit my nephew Brian Payne and his wife and their rabbits, then continue on to Vermont to visit some friends of Dona's, then on to New Hampshire where we had a great visit with Dona's brother Bob and his wife Ann, then drove north through the flooded hills of New Hampshire and Vermont where we had trouble finding a place to camp that was above water. We picked up a carved wooden train set, our Vermont Fishing Dory, and drove across Lake Champlain in a howling wind -- the waves breaking on the bridge were throwing water over the car. Then we headed back via the north shore of Lake Superior.