It's awesome when people you've only seen through the written word of e-mail come to visit you in person. We have met with them twice before but both times Bill and I traveled to Montreal to do it. This time they wanted to see where we lived. So, they came down. I must say we had a great time! They arrived on a Monday afternoon coming straight to our house instead of finding their hotel. They were later in arriving because they had stopped off to meet Lizzy before coming on down. Lizzy is another woman that is on the same Yahoo group that we had gotten close with. Mel just couldn't wait to meet her so she had to stop before coming here. When they arrived, Bill and I were in the pool. Bill had put a note on our front door (in French) letting them know where we were. The note didn't have to be in French because they speak perfect English but Bill liked to give his French a try. They proclaimed that they were hot so they slipped into their bathing suits and climbed right in. That was really fun. The beer and the conversation flowed readily.

I cooked busily that day providing bbq beef sandwiches on buns, macaroni salad, Ohio grown corn on the cob, tossed salad, and homemade blueberry pie. We ate on the deck in the dining tent. The fan we have in the tent provided relief from the heat. I don't fare as well as I used to when doing endurance cooking so I let Mel talk me out of doing more cooking for the next two days. This house was made weird. When they added the extension onto the back of the house for the dining room, they didn't put in any air conditioning ducts. So, the room gets really roasting in the afternoon sun even with a fan going full blast in the room. We had just come off a lovely month of cool spring temperatures so it figured that this week would turn out to be the hottest week of the summer so far. Made for great swimming, though. They stayed till it was dark and then figured they better get to the hotel and check in and get settled for the night. We didn't make any breakfast plans.

Tuesday morning they slept in and then went to tour one of the Victorian houses featured in downtown Hamilton in the German Village section. Then they found their way to the mecca over by our house and visited Wal-Mart (ugh) and Meijer (yeah!). It was mid-afternoon by the time they got to my house again and they had a brought a present for Addilyn. It was a cute stuffed rabbit with little bunnies of its own. Addilyn really liked it but I think she liked Serge even more. She had become quite fond of Serge in just one day's time. It was hot so Melynda indulged me in more swimming time. Serge wasn't that fond of swimming so he and Bill sat under the deck and talked. Mel and I discussed where we all would like to go for dinner and she said she'd like to try some Mexican food. Well, we had just the place for them. Acapulco, our favorite Mexican restaurant, and, as a bonus, we had coupons! We had to travel across town to get there but it was worth it.

Back at my house again, Melynda had the same idea that I had. Let's play Crokinole! And we did. I have to say I am very proud of our win over the two French-Canadians. It took us two hours to play one game. It was a tough competition. Melynda said that we would play till 10:30 and whether or not the game was over they had to go. She called it just right. It was just before 10:30 that the game ended. So, off they went to their hotel to get some much needed sleep. Before they left, I called Kate on her cellphone to see where she and Mark were. They were just on the road to the hotel so we'd see them tomorrow.

You may be asking, Kate? Who's Kate? Yes, there was another couple roaming down south to meet up with us. Another woman that we got to know online in the same Yahoo group we are in. She was going to visit for one day with us here and then we all were traveling two hours north to meet with Lizzy and her husband, Alan. It all felt like a great adventure even though I had already met Lizzy and Alan last year. Melynda and Lizzy had met briefly the day before and Kate was the only one that none of us had met so far. Here's the three of us lounging in the pool the next day after Kate got there. This picture was taken on Melynda's camera by Serge.

We met up with Kate and Mark at their hotel and took them all to The Red Squirrel for breakfast on Wednesday morning and then for a tour of Jungle Jim's. It was rather ironic that we went to The Red Squirrel because Kate is always telling us of the dozens of rogue squirrels in her yard and we like to tease her about them. Jungle Jim's is a glorified grocery store. It's something to be seen. It is considered a tourist attraction around these parts. You can buy nearly anything concerning food there that you would like. Throughout the store are animated displays that burst out with song. Remember the Elvis lion at Chuck E. Cheese's? Well, Jungle Jim has one of those there and many other more elaborate eye candies like that. If you are interested in seeing what I'm talking about, here's the webpage for the store.

After Jungle Jim's, Mel & Kate wanted to take another tour of a Victorian house so Bill & I opted to go home. I had to get back anyways to take care of Addy since her mum was still having troubles with the hernia. I was grateful to be able to go home because I was pretty exhausted after touring around Jungle Jim's. After they looked at the house and the library across the street from it, they came to my house again and it was pool time again. Just us women went in this time and the men sat under the deck discussing things. At one point, Amy and Addy came into swim, too, and we enjoyed watching her bouncing around like she does. We kept trying to get the men in but they woldn't budge. How they could stand the heat, I don't know. Oh, I know. They were beer cooled. I guess they were just entranced with the conversation. Soon, the talk got around to eating again. I had mentioned Chinese food to them before they journeyed down so they were anticipating that. Mel & Serge had seen the buffet over by the mecca and asked if we could go there. I told them the food was pretty good so that's where we headed. Guess they'll have to try my favorite Chinese place--China House--the next time they come down.

The meal went as expected and compliments were given for the choice of restaurant. We came back to my place and as soon as we got in the door we noticed something wasn't right with the air conditioning in the house. I felt over the vent and although it was blowing air it wasn't blowing cold air. Crikey! Bill and Amy both looked at and felt it and we deduced that our a/c had busted. There wasn't anything else to do but turn it off. And then the humidity spilled right into the house as soon as the windows were open. The air was too stuffy in the house not to open the windows. We had planned on playing Crokinole again but instantly knew it would be too hot in that dining room. I thought the dining tent with the fan might provide some relief but with most of them on the deck, feeling tired and too full from the buffet, the consensus came out that their hotel rooms looked more inviting than the good company and the fun with games. I sure couldn't blame them one bit. So, we said our goodbyes and would meet in the morning some time--hopefully 10-ish--to begin our journey two hours north to go to Lizzy's house. Actually, I was grateful to be able to retreat to my bedroom where our window air conditioner would put out fresh cooling air and Bill and I could relax for a little bit before we started packing for the next leg of our vacation. We were traveling north to Ontario to see Bill's brother and new wife after visiting at Lizzy's house.