Daddy and Bethany's Excellent Adventure

Last Friday Bethany and I took a trip to Sudbury. There were a number of reasons why we made the trip. First, I was giving a seminar on Saturday and speaking at a church in Sudbury on the Sunday morning. The second reason was because my parents are selling their house, and I wanted to bring a bunch of stuff back to Ottawa with me. But the third reason was so that one of my children and I could have a really good time together. I've been to Kingston with Bethany before, so I offered Joel a chance to go with me. But I suspect the 6 hour car ride dissuaded him. In the end Bethany agreed to go. I only took one of the children because I wanted plenty of room to bring stuff back with me.

It was the typical long car ride, with a ton of construction thrown in for good measure. But I had some music by Michael Card, Charlotte Church and Paul Potts to keep me company, and Bethany had a number of DVD's for the portable DVD player. We stopped for an early lunch at Logos Land, in the Noah's Ark shaped restaurant. And we got in some good discussion time during the trip.

We arrived on Friday in time for supper. Dad barbecued some nice Rib Steaks, and Mom did mashed potatoes, carrots and broccoli, with homemade apple pie and ice cream for dessert. And I do mean homemade; the apples were from my Dad's apple tree in the backyard.

On Saturday, my Dad was kind enough to take the van into the garage for me, since it started maying a noise while we were on the road. Turns out it needed a break job. After taking it into the garage, Dad took Bethany to Science North for most of the day. They went to the 4D movie, “Wings Over the North” which featured Rusty Blakey, a well known bush pilot who was once neighbours with my Dad's family.While they were learning about science and Northern Ontario, I was at the seminar. We started with breakfast, which was a John Johnston Special. Yum! About a dozen men came out for the seminar, where I talked about how to prepare and deliver a sermon. Each of the attendees got a booklet with my PowerPoint slides. For supper it was lasagna with a baked cake (hard to describe, but yummy).

On Sunday morning I continued my series on basic theology, discussing why I believe the Bible to be the Special Revelation God has sent. I thought it was very well received, and it is nice to see Sudbury Bible Fellowship strong and healthy. I slipped home for a quick lunch, of cold chicken, barbecued back bacon, ham, rolls, garden salad, potato salad and macaroni salad. One of the many nice events of the weekend was my Aunt Betty and Uncle Clayton coming for lunch. It was a whirlwind tour, and I didn't know if I'd get a chance to see them. Aunt Betty brought an amazing strawberry cake!

Other events included Bethany picking apples from Dad's tree and making apple crisp. And I spent a lot of time going through the house deciding what I wanted to bring back with me. We brought a number of special mementos with us. The trip back was uneventful, with Bethany sleeping for 2 hours, and a quick 10 minute supper at Subway in Deep River. And now we're back. I was (and am) somewhat emotional about my parents selling the old house but it's the best thing to do and I'm very grateful for a chance to visit home one last time.