Trip North, 2025

Me and Lee-Anne recently got back from a trip up North to see my grandparents. We did this last year too, and I made three posts about it. Since there was such a significant gulf of time between then and the last time I'd been up, there was a lot to talk about. This time I'm pretty sure I can condense it to one post.

I took two weeks off work. I often run into an issue where, because I don't like scheduling, I put it off and wind up with excess vacation time at the end of the year. I once heard someone say that taking two weeks off at a time is preferable, because if you take only one, then people postpone things until you get back. If you take two, people need to figure out how to handle it themselves.

It also just makes scheduling easier. We figured we'd be up North for about a week, and taking two off allows for some flexibility and a bit of unwinding time after getting back.

We took the bus up. Last year, we had the same driver there and back. He recommended that me and Lee-Anne get the pizza buns at the rest stop in Bracebridge, and told us to ask for them microwaved. We took his advice, and he checked in with us to see how we liked them. He said that this was his dinner every day.

The affection he had for that little rest stop and his friendliness was very sweet, and his reflection that it's his dinner every day was slightly sad. Overall, he left quite an endearing impression. He didn't drive us either way this time, but we did see him at the layover in North Bay.

Last year, we came in the Fall. This time, we aimed more at the Summer, the express reason for this being that it's more seasonal for blueberries. Unfortunately, late frosts combined with harsh heat spells made for a poor turnout. I still found some wild blueberries, enough for me and Lee-Anne to get some satisfying samples, but not enough to make into jam or pie.

If you want to see the pictures I took, I made a Gallery post here:

http://gryphonsgallery.blogspot.com/2025/08/kenabeek-pics-summer-2025.html

I did some driving lessons with my grandfather. I don't remember if I posted about it or not, but last year I almost tested for my G2, but I'd needed to get an extension on my G1. I did this successfully, but I mistook the receipt for the license itself and showed up to test with the wrong documentation. So I never got to try, and just renewed my G1.

I'd planned on taking lessons through the Summer and testing again, but somehow the last couple of months feel like they've just melted away. Driving up North was my first time at it this year, but I refamiliarized pretty quick. I'm still holding out hope to get some lessons and testing for my G2 this year, but I just feel fated never to get it.

Me and Lee-Anne made dinner one of the nights, partly to showcase my growing culinary prowess. The item available was shrimp, so we did our yellow coconut curry. Based on this old recipe:

https://gryphood.blogspot.com/2022/01/yellow-coconut-curry.html

We used up their curry powder, so we made a custom spice blend to mimic it. The result was passable, but a bit sweeter than usual. I think because the honey we used was local stuff produced by one of their neighbours.

I'd finished reading The Children of Hurin on the bus ride up, which is a prequel to The Lord of the Rings based on the notes of J.R.R. Tolkien, edited and published by his son. I wrote a review of it while I was up there. Since there isn't a reliable Internet connection, I typed it into my computers Notes app and copy/pasted it into my Reviews blog when I got back. You can access it here:

http://gryphonsreviews.blogspot.com/2025/08/the-children-of-hurin-book-review.html

This led to some discussion about Middle Earth, and then me finally watching The Hobbit movies, which my grandparents have the DVDs for. I hadn't bothered to watch them previously because while The Lord of the Rings movies being a trilogy made sense because they were based on three books, doing this for The Hobbit, a singular book, just felt like a cash grab to mirror previous success. Fortunately, the films did retain the whimsy and adventure of the book instead of attempting to impose the stakes and grandeur of their previous work. Maybe I'll make a review at some point.

On coming back, we stayed overnight at a different grandmother of mine. The next day we all went to the Art Gallery of Ontario and looked at an exhibit of Joyce Weiland, a feminist Canadian artist. It included a rendition of a moving map of her brain once she'd developed dementia, showing first the impacts of the condition, and then the healing factor that took place as she did her art.

Since it isn't in the Gallery, here's a picture of me and Lee-Anne in front of an elephant made of old couches.

Lee-Anne observed that, between the discussions on music and literature with my Northern grandparents, and the art museum in Toronto, every side of my family is "artsy".