Four Hours, One Breakfast, 129K

It's Sue's pre-birthday week. We tend to try to do one or two different things leading up to the event because single events like that can flash by fleetingly.

Monday found us driving into the outskirts of Ottawa for a restaurant lunch, but we do that every now and again, so it wasn't that unique. Nice, but not unique.

Tuesday, however, entailed a more unique adventure although that sounds rather too grand. We went out for breakfast, which isn't unique at all for us, but this breakfast was in a little café in the hamlet of Portland, 59k away.

We left home at 10am and  arrived at Recess Café about 45 minutes later. We almost missed the place because we knew Recess was in a former school. In my mind, we were looking for a traditional old school house. What we found was something resembling a strip mall, but it was, indeed, a former school, and the café occupied one of the former classrooms.

Inside was also utilitarian, but it was bright and delightful, and the food was delicious and well worth the drive. I should interject here that the drive was quite lovely in the sense that it was a bright, cheery day. Although it was cold out – near the freezing point – we were comfy and happy in the car.

Sue required her sunglasses to face the window.

Sue constructed her own plate from various selections, but I ordered the Greens Egg and Ham (not green eggs): scrambled eggs, greens and ham on a house baked cheddar scone. It was tasty, delightful, and well worth the drive.

Mother organized, dad cooked and daughter served.

Sue was also taken with the pastries: maple butter tarts and cookies, in particular.

As you might have guessed already, we had to take some home: two of each plus one more butter tart for Shauna, for the next leg of our journey was to drive 34k to Perth where Shauna works at Lanark Lifestyles.

We toured the newest addition to the complex. For several years, Shauna has been executive director of phase 1, which is a typical seniors residence. When I say typical, I mean in how it functions, for it is a beautiful place.

The new Phase 2 features independent apartment living with pool, pickleball courts and many, many other amenities (link). We toured what Shauna called the granddad apartment, with two bedrooms and a den. Presently unoccupied, it is available for $6500/month: food, tv or internet not included. (Note: suites do start at much, much less.)

Needless to say, Sue and I will  not be moving in anytime soon.

We were going to make another trip to Balderson for an ice cream dessert, but since we already had dessert in the car, we turned toward home —  another 37k, for a total of 129k (80mi). 

In all, we drove for about two hours, and spent the other two hours at breakfast, visiting, and touring the new complex.

Somewhat stunningly, Sue didn't take any photos of the drive, Shauna, or Lanark Lifestyles, but she did make a collage of Recess when she got home. Well she actually made four collages, but I'll limit myself to two posting two of them. (The tiger represents the mascot back when the building was a school.)

It was a great day to do something a little different to begin to celebrate the Birthday Queen.

The Trip, Mapped for your Elucidation ↓

Red to Portland, 59k. Blue to Perth, 33k. Green to Home, 37k.