How Sweet It Is to Meet Another Blogging Friend in Real Life!

Having lost any time management skills that I might have once possessed, I am still working on writing posts about my July trip to Canada and Niagara Falls where I not only got to see one of the most amazing natural wonders in the world but also was privileged enough to meet another blogging friend.  One of the greatest things to ever come out of my having started a blog is all of the wonderful people that I have had the opportunity to meet both on-line and in real life and I was thrilled to have the chance to meet Carole as she is a woman after my own heart.  She loves history, she loves learning about history, and she loves to travel around as much as she can to find that history and share it with her readers along with all of the other wonderful things she writes about at Pea's Corner.  I always thought that it would be a lot of fun to get together with her and explore and I wasn't wrong in the least!

Carole lives in Sudbury, Ontario which is a good six hours away from Niagara Falls but she often visits the area with Steve, her special someone, and I am always amazed at how much they can pack into one day!  Sometimes I think the days are just longer up there in Canada as she manages to fit so much in and the day that she and I got together was no exception!  As a matter of fact, that's part of the reason it's taking me so long to get all of the posts written as we went to so many great places in one day that I darned near wore out the Nikon taking pictures!  Still, I will hopefully have those posts up soon at The Distracted Wanderer so I can share as much of the Niagara area with you as Carole and Steve shared with me.

In the meantime and until I can get those posts written, the picture above is of Carole and I posing in front of Lake Erie where we went later in the evening in order to take a "Ghost Walk" at Old Fort Erie. You can see the city of Buffalo, New York behind us in the picture and now that I've been there and seen both Buffalo and Lake Erie, I'm going to know what the weather forecasters are talking about when they refer to Buffalo's "lake effect" snow!

When Carole and Steve came by Kilpatrick Manor, the Bed and Breakfast where I was staying while at Niagara Falls, to pick me up on Friday morning, the first thing Carole gave me after a big hug was a "Welcome to Canada" gift which she had wrapped beautifully in Canada's red and white colors. She told me that it was maple syrup that was made by her brother and having read several posts about her visits to her brother's home and the maple syrup making process I knew that it was going to be good!


Before we climbed into the car to head out for our day of sightseeing I brought my gift up to my room and gave Carole a quick look around Kilpatrick Manor so that she could 'ooh' and 'aah' over the rooms just like I had done when I first checked in the day before. Being that I was the only guest at the house my first day there, I was able to show Carole the entire house and she just loved it - but of course! If you've not seen the post I did on Kilpatrick Manor, please feel free to click over here and check it out.

Being that we were out until well after midnight and I was totally worn out when I finally got back to my room, it wasn't until I got home to Connecticut that I finally had the chance to open my gift and to my surprise I found not a bottle of maple syrup as I expected but a short headless woman wearing a Canadian dress!

I had to laugh when I saw her it and then have her it pose prettily with some of the very tasty maple candies that had accompanied her it! 

Turns out, of course, that under that cute little dress was a jar of beautiful Canadian maple syrup just calling out for some pancakes for it be poured on.  Naturally I had to oblige! 

Let me just say that syrup was quite delicious and almost as sweet as the lady who had given it to me though not quite as Carole is definitely a true sweetheart!  I had such a good time with she and Steve seeing so many things like historic memorials and old forts and a screaming tunnel and a house where runaway slaves were hidden with so much in between that were it not for the many, many pictures that I took I'm sure I would have forgotten something from our travels!

Now to just get it all written up so I can share with you what Carole shared with me ...but this is as close to my syrup as you're going to get! Which is too bad because you have no idea what you're missing!

Three Years of Blogging and Friendships

Holy cats! Has it been three years already since I first started writing this blog? Seriously? For those who never had the chance to read my very first post, feel free to click here so that you can see what this blog was supposed to be about when I first started it back on July 25th, 2006. I think I have more or less, at times!, stuck to my original goal of writing about being a single parent though I'd have to say that has definitely not always been the case!

When I first started blogging, I'm not sure I knew exactly what I was getting into as I had no clue that there was such a thing as a Blogosphere, had no idea what a meme was (a French grandmother?!?), and certainly never knew that there were so many wonderful people out there to meet and become friends with both virtually and in real life.

I was thinking this morning about the wonderful group of people that I have had the privilege of meeting face-to-face; people who have enriched my life and made me laugh and smile and even break down a little bit of that "hugaphobia" that I have!

The very first blogger that I met was Ms. Maggie Moo who, at the time we met, was also a fellow Nutmegger ...

We met on September 2nd, 2007 and of course the very thing she did when we met was give me a big ole' hug. In addition to that one of the things I remember most about our meeting was the "tiny Margaritas" we were served and the fact that we had no problem spending four+ hours laughing and talking!

On October 5th, I got to meet my second blog-friend in real life, Morgen of It's a Blog Eat Blog World. Mo had taken the train down from Michigan to spend the weekend at Mags' house and we had a wonderful time of it slow-dancing in Mags' kitchen, eating some of her delicious food, and then exploring parts of Connecticut in one of the worst heat waves we'd had all year! Ugh!


Still, it was one heck of an outstanding weekend and we had such a good TIME even as we laughed our way through the HEAT of Gillette Castle!

On November 2nd of 2007, I had the extreme pleasure of meeting another blogger from Michigan - Carrie of Asara's Mental Meanderings, and her wonderful family. Carrie and Billy had taken a road trip with their two adorable children and we met at a Chili's not far from the hotel they were staying in. Mags joined us as did Amanda and we all had a really good time. Geesh, I look horrible in this picture so I think I'm going to have to get together with Carrie again to get a new one!


The next time I was to meet anyone from the Blogosphere again wasn't until March 29th, 2008 when I was ushered into the presence of Royalty at a Bertucci's Pizzeria in Glastonbury, Connecticut.

It was there that I met Queen Mimi herself who was visiting the north from her castle in Bloggingham and Princess Patti who had driven in from her estate in Ansonia. My hair looked like crap but in spite of that we had a great time laughing and carrying on and no doubt scaring the locals! It was a night to be remembered and we truly had A Royal Time of It!

On Saturday, August 9th I got together with royalty again when I met Princess Patti's husband and fellow blogger, Prince Ralph of Airhead 55 along with their lovely daughter the Lady Allegra at the local Olive Garden.

We giggled our way through a delicious meal and probably raised the eyebrows of a few other diners but I've come to the conclusion that when fellow bloggers get together, worrying about what other people think is not a problem!

Earlier in the year during a trip out to Stockton, California, I had the extreme privilege of meeting my first two West Coast bloggers - Sandee of Comedy Plus and Katherine of Wading Through My Stream of Consciousness - when we all got together on Friday, May 2nd for dinner at Cancun, my favorite Mexican restaurant of all!

Joining us were my friend Cyndi, Sandee's hubby Zane (the official photographer of the evening), and Katherine's significant other Dave (who now also has a blog of his own!).

This past May I found myself out in California yet again and Sandee and Katherine and I reprised our dinner at Cancun on Monday, May 4th. Unfortunately Dave was out enjoying his Teamster 5-0 Tour and couldn't join us but Zane was there with the camera again recording the event for posterity! We actually ended up closing the place down we were having such a good time and the evening remains one of the highlights of my trip West. Which also gives me good reason to go West again at some point!

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from the meeting but during my trip to Stockton this past May, I also got to meet another West Coast blogger when I first arrived in Sacramento on May 2nd. Shortly after arriving in Sacramento I had the privilege of meeting up with Carol from A Letter To Me at one of the local IHops where we had a lovely late breakfast. Carol is originally from Massachusetts but has been living in the Sacramento area for quite some time. She truly is a lovely lady and I was thrilled to meet her though I wasn't smart enough to take a picture or have someone else take one!

On September 8th, 2008 I met my very first blogger from Across the Pond when Claire arrived in Connecticut in anticipation of our Blogger Beachhouse Vacation in Rhode Island. What a great birthday present (my 50th was the day after her arrival) but I can't post a picture as Claire has even more of a phobia of cameras than I do. We spent the next day going out to a birthday lunch with my friend Rhonda and then hit the local pub, The Harp & Dragon, with some of my friends from work and Mags who drove down for the auspicious occasion. Because I don't have a picture with Claire from that night (bugger the girl!) I'll post one from our beach vacation ... that's her with her back turned to the camera looking home towards England!

Finally, on Saturday September 13th myself, Claire, and Kai (who had flown into Hartford from Canada the night before) piled in the car with a lot of stuff en route to a week on Matunuck Beach in Rhode Island for our much-anticpated Blogger Beach Vacation. Joining us there was Mo, Mags, and Callie of Scrappin' With Life ... who had flown into Boston from the wilds of Oregon and come down with Mags and Mo.

I find it hard to believe that almost a full year has gone by already since we spent that week at the beach and I can't go back to Rhode Island at all without thinking about at least one or two things that happened during that week which included a ferry ride out to Block Island, a lot of really good cooking, and a ton of picture-taking!

Just last week I met another blogging friend who has found herself in Massachusetts for a few months while her husband is assigned to a job at a local yogurt plant. Lois from Lowdown From Lois is just like she is on her blog - warm and friendly and a real hoot to spend time with. You can't help but smile and laugh when you're around her and her husband Hank is just as nice - he also has that streak of sarcasm that I so enjoy in a person! I'm hoping we have the chance to get together again a time or two while they're on the East Coast.

So ... after all that, the question now begs to be asked ... who's next as I start on my fourth year of asking "Are We There Yet??" Any volunteers?? I have a few blog posts available for future meetings!!