The one question everyone has been asking is: How are you dealing with the HEAT???

As you all know from the TV news, the east coast—Philadelphia especially—as been enduring one of the most severe heat waves in years.   So the one thing we all try to do to cool off is—HEAD TO THE SHORE!

Last time I told you about going to the shore as a little kid.  Well, I still do.  Because you meet some of the neatest people there.

Many years ago, my best friend Susan and I went to Wildwood, NJ for a long weekend.

While hanging out on the beach, we met a brood of guys, who turned out to be from Montreal.  Well, we continued to hang out with them over the course of the weekend, and realized that they were so cool, we just had to go visit them in Montreal.

I think it was the following summer we decided to drive up to Canada to see them.  It turned out to be an 8 hour drive, and we had a ball along the way.

We found our hotel, and of course not knowing the city, we continued to get lost.  You have to remember this trip happened long before GPS and Mapquest!!  But we managed to link up with the guys—Kenny, Andrew, Steve & Brian.  And they showed us the city. 

Montreal, to this day is still one of my FAVORITE cities!  Kenny took us for smoked meat sandwiches (I would NOT recommend these, I did not care for them at all), Poutine- French fries with brown gravy & curd cheese (not my favorite kind of fries!!),  he took us on a carriage ride around the Old Port, and of course the guys made sure we had plenty of Canada’s favorite beverage—BEER! 

We simply had a ball on our first trip.  In fact, we had so much fun on this trip, we returned many, many times.  While visiting one summer, through Steve, I met my long time friend Beverly.  While I am no longer in touch with any of the guys, I’ve returned to Montreal many time to visit with Beverly.  As a matter of fact, Bev is getting married next September, and I can not wait to return to good old Montreal!

Here are a few pictures from the early trips:


So my advice is to head for the shore near you—or lake—or theme park—or whatever is fun, look for other folks having a good time, and join in.  You just might meet some friends for life!

(Please let me hear from you: email me at angel@quackerfactory.com, or on Facebook.) I love hearing from Quackers!