Our cottage was called the Hummingbird House which was a short walk down the beach from the main resort. At night the clear skies gave us a spectacular view of the milky way on the walk back from dinner.

On Saturday Donna the resort manager drove Joyce and I to the Hermitage, which is a tiny chapel and hermit quarters built by Father Jerome atop the highest hill in The Bahamas. This Franciscan monk ministered to the people of Cat Island until 1956 from his Heritage, which affords a great view of Cat Island.

Our stay at Fernandez Bay Village was too short and we will return. It is a great place to relax and experience Bahamian hospitality at its best.

We spent four great days and nights at the Grace Bay Club. We dined at three very good restaurants including the Anacona at the resort. The weather was perfect, warm but not humid with a nice breeze, and the beach as well as the pool were beautiful. The evening were warm and in all it was a great stay.

On January 26 we departed a 9:00 AM for Fort Lauderdale, KFXE and with a nice tail wind were on the ground in Florida, in 3 hours. The flight was back up the Bahamas chain over Stella Maris, Nassau and Bimini, rarely out of sight of land.

The islands and water were beautiful.

We landed, cleared customs, refueled, picked up a box lunch and were in the air in an hour. We again enjoyed a tail wind and arrived in Hilton Head before 4:00 P.M.

It was another great trip to the magical waters and islands of the Bahamas and tropical Atlantic.

On Thursday, September 22nd. our planned departure day the weather between Dayton and New Hampshire was thunderstorms, rain and low ceilings. Worse, the Maine coast was forecasting bad weather on Saturday our planned departure day from New Hampshire. We decided to wait and develop a plan B, which was to fly to Burlington, Vermont if New Hampshire didn’t improve. On Friday the weather had not changed, so plan C was to fly to Burlington on Saturday. The weather improved Saturday, with a forecast of ceilings getting better in Burlington during our flight. As we flew toward Vermont, we had a nice tail wind, but the ceilings stayed at 400 feet, with mist and rain at our destination. When we got to Syracuse, New York, we decided to land and did an instrument approach in to Syracuse to wait for the weather to improve. It never did, so we stayed overnight in Syracuse and developed plan D. Weather permitting we would fly to Bangor, Maine refuel and proceed on to Sydney, Nova Scotia which would put us back on our original schedule.

Day two Cape Breton Island

We have decide to drive the Cabot Trail and leave after breakfast. This is pretty much an all day trip and we have not done our homework but off we go. It about an hour and a half drive to get to the start of the trail, if you don’t take the ferry. We decide not to take the ferry because we don’t want to wait for it and think it won’t save that much time. The scenery is great and the weather is perfect so we play tourist, taking in the rugged coast line, the vistas and small settlements along the coast.

We finally get to the Cape Breton Highlands National Park and stop for lunch at a sea food restaurant. Chowder, clams, fish and chips overlooking the coast, not bad. We then do some more touring until its time to head back. On the way we stop at the Keltic Lodge, which is a premier resort on the coast, with one of the top golf courses in Canada. If we ever want to get away from it all and cool our jets, this would be the place.

From the Keltic Lodge we head back and decide to take the ferry with some concerns, about how long of a wait and ride. We get to the ferry and it turns out to be no wait and its about a 1/4 mile ride and takes about five minutes. Back to Sydney and another fine dinner at the Governors Place and then get ready for our flight in the morning to New Glassgow.

Somehow we found our way back to the hotel, and it was time to check weather for tomorrows flight to Quebec City.

The hotel recommended a restaurant for dinner, so I trudged up the hill to check the menu and made a reservation. Trudging up hills is part of the Old Quebec City experience, and at the end of the first day may calves were complaining. That evening we had a superb dinner at restaurant La Cremaillere. We enjoyed French meal with, veal, excellent wine and a desert to die for, oo la la. It turns out the owner is Italian, oh well who cares.

Day Two Quebec City

We signed up for a walking tour that started from our hotel at 9:00 AM. Breakfast basket in the room was more than ample so we were ready for a walk. Sarah our guide, in period costume, did a very nice job of relating the history and pointing out the important sites. This gave an understanding of the history from the fur trading port beginning to the provincial capital of today. Quebec City, particularly the old walled city is very European and as someone said, its Europe without the jet lag. We soaked up history and enjoyed the sites before, guess what, lunch.

Time for lunch at a small French restaurant, then more touring of the city. We passed the giant hotel built by the Canadian Railroad, the Chateau Frontenac, the fort build to defend Quebec City against the Americans, we never came, and the provincial Parliament, that was flying an American flag, (they must have known we were coming). We made a pass through the old city Irish district, which has a special shopping street.

Outside the walls, Quebec City is a modern bustling place, but the old city has the charm. Dinner on our last evening in Quebec City was at an Italian restaurant near our hotel. Excellent with entertainment and the place was jumping. Back to the hotel, check weather for tomorrow and get ready for Montreal.

We finished off our first day in Montreal with a fine meal at a nearby Mediterranean style restaurant that specialized in lamb.

A cappuccino at the hotel bar, that was really jumping, and we called in a day. Tomorrows weather forecast didn’t look that good, so we signed up for a bus tour of the city.

Day Two Montreal

Saturday dawned blustery and rainy so the bus tour turned out to be the right answer. We lucked out with a great driver/guide with a great sense of humor. He pointed out a McDonald’s as the American embassy and had a giant belly laugh at his own joke. The three hour tour was good and covered all the high lights including the site of the 1976 Olympics, Basilique Notre-Dame, Mount Royal that looks over the city and many other points of interest.

We capped off the day with a great meal at a restaurant called Joe Beef. Fresh oysters on the half shell, great fish and Mike had lobster, all in a place called Joe Beef. Montreal turned out to be a very interesting city with a rich history, a unique combination of old and new architecture and great food.

Time to check the weather and get ready for our flight home tomorrow.

On Sunday, October 2nd. we left Montreal in low overcast and climbed to six thousand feet on top of a cloud layer. The temperature was above freezing and we had a 30 plus knot tail wind. The forecast called for the freezing level to get down to our altitude near Toronto on our way to Detroit. We were in and out of the clouds and rain with temperatures dropping but never down to freezing. We broke out of the clouds about one hundred miles east of Detroit and landed with a gusty wind down the runway. Customs at KDET, Detroit City airport, was a pleasure and we refueled and were in the air within an hour. We experienced a 40 knot tail wind and cruised at around 200 knots over the ground landing in Dayton in less than an hour.

We flew eight legs on our trip, three of which were what we originally planned. We unfortunately had to miss New England this year due to bad weather, however we enjoyed Nova Scotia and Quebec. Although we didn’t get our quota of lobster this year, we know they will be waiting next year and maybe be a little bit bigger. Overall it was a good trip for the the Williamson Family three musketeers, and we are already starting to think about our next flying adventure.

On Monday we flew to Colorado Springs after changing our flight plan to fly north around thunderstorms to Fort Dodge, Iowa. We refueled then continued on to KCOS. We packed a lunch to shorten our ground time but battled headwinds the whole way. We spent eight hours in the air and were happy to see the Rockies looming to the west. We arrived at 2:30 local time, due to the time change, and couldn’t believe the number of Cirrus on the ramp. More than twenty had come for the pre-migration courses or to tour in the area. We went to the Cheyenne Mountain Resort after tying down and immediately started meeting COPA people. After cocktails and dinner we hit the sack having had a long day of flying.