Canada,  here we come...

After a quick breakfast we hit the road again. A few more hours and we would enter yet another country. The americans in the car began to get worried about changing their money. "We need to find a bank before they close..." I wasn't worried. "You can probably do it at the border," I tried to calm them. And they could. Then they finally understood when I called US money colorless and boring. Canada's got brightly colored money. They also had the amount of cents printed on the coins. Linda's been laughing at me for not knowing how many cents the nickles or  dimes are supposed to be. (I don't blame her really :o), she's told me a dozen times already and I'm still dumbfounded in the stores).

Vicky almost had a heartattack crossing the border. They told her she needed a specific form and her passport stamped or she might have trouble getting back into USA. She didn't have either.  While Vicky and Linda were sweating I was happily chatting along with three other Swedes in there to get their passports checked. It turned out that they thought Vicky was Swedish too (I had showed them my passport first and I actually think the americans were in a minority in there at that moment.) I'm amazed he couldn't spot the difference right away (he's supposed to be a proffessional passport checker, right?), the only thing that's the same would be the size. Coloring both on the inside and outside's different. Guess the hot and humid weather was getting to him, they didn't seem to have any airconditionin in there (or was that just us in the face of possible trouble?).

Boy did Vicky need a smoke after this :o)

Money exchanged in the next building and Vicky all done smoking we continued our path.

Taking a food and breather break at a Wal-mart we wondered if the rain at the horizon was gonna catch up with us. It did. Half way to Shakespeare town we encountered the worst rain I've ever been in. Lightning across the skies and literally buckets of water fell on us, Vicky had to go verrrry, verrrry slow and still the windshieldwipers didn't help her much even on highest speed. At least I was a bit scared while the nature was at its worst. We survived (whew).

Not soon enough we left the awful weather begind and entered Straford in bright sunshine. Our hotel was easy enough to spot, The Queen's Inn  was located right  on the main street in town. Parking behind the hotel we went inside to check in and see if Mimi or any others we know had arrived.

None had so we got our heavy suitcases out   of the car and dragged them around the building and into the big front entrance. The girl at the front desk smiled at us and said there were an easier entrance at the back, with a ramp, right from the parkinglot. Figures.

We got a nice cool room at the second floor and we just dumped our bags in there before we went out for a brief orientation walk around town.

We quickly oriented ourselves with some help of my printed map. The Patterson Theatre was located down by the river and that's where we headed.

A nice five minute stroll later we encountered the Avon River and the theatre. We walked along the river, enjoying the stillness and the birdlife. Sweltering in the heat, not much shade to be found around there.

The birdllife was amazingly friendly. Canada Geese and Swans came so close we could have touched them. Well, I could have. Vicky and Linda were alot less impressed about having those huge birds that close. In fact we abandoned just about the only bench in the shade because of those geese occupying the grounds too close to it.

Back from our little trip it was almost time to get ready for the evening, just a little rest first. And we still missed one PotterPal. Not for long. I don't know what set it off, but suddenly we were all running downstairs to meet Tas, June and our roommate Mimi.
Giggling we hugged and within a few short minutes we all knew we'd have a great time together.

Back in the room with Mimi's large suitcase I could easily see that I still was in a good lead in the *biggest suitcase* contest. But on the other hand Mimi didn't have to put her partydress in her's, she wore that elegantly over her arm, wrapped in plastic. A slim black dress with a fantastic fit (lookin' great Mimi :o) you too Linda :o))

Our hotel seemed to be *the place* to meet this evening. Tas, June and Lindy  met us in the lobby and we decided to have dinner before the play. We put some tables together in the bar and talked and ate and talked some more before it was time to go.

When we were about to leave the Queen's we stumbled into Jeanne DeVore entering the lobby. She'd run into some delays on the way (that storm must have been hell above it too). She just dumped her suitcase and headed towards the theatre with us.

The Play, I'm having a hard time finding the words for what I feel. Fantastic, marvellous, breathtaking, funny, tragic, difficult, entertaining are perhaps some words that inadequately describe my warm feelings for this "Winter's Tale"

Three actors from KFTLC were in it, Kate Trotter, Wayne Best and Geordie Johnson. Kate was magnifficent and a real Queen in happiness and laughter as well as tragedy. A mother frozen in time, holding up her baby in her arms, a grieving statue, she stood there so still that it hurt to look at her.

Geordie was the funny one in the play. A con artist looking like an aging hippie, I kept wondering where he fit into this story. They turned the very Shakespeare like dialogue of first act into a more modern tale in act two when Geordie entered the stage, leading the play into singing, dancing and some light entertainment. That was a good move and I just loved to see Geordie do something so very different from the very strict, polite and foreign George we know from KFTLC. I would have loved to see him in another play, the more I see of him the more I like him.

Wayne Best, I didn't recognize in the play (sorry Wayne). Later I realized why, he'd only been in two eps and one of them is the one I haven't seen yet (Shaolin Christmas). I think more than me had that same problem cause he really surprised us by arriving back at the Queen's Inn for a chat with us at the same time we got there. He just came strolling in, swinging his carkeys and started to joke around. He was a blast. He told us about this  favourite actor of his (I can't remember who) that used to be out of wardrobe and makup and out in the theathre bar having a cigarr before the audience was out of the place. Well Wayne sure had that speed matched :o) I ended up wishing I'd known who he was before the play and I'd payed more attention.

Kate arrived a little later and she was such a sweetheart. She gave poor Linda a minor chock sitting down right beside her. But Kate doesn't have a stupid zone so she soon found herself chatting with Kate like an old friend.

I was briefly in the spotlight when someone told Kate and Wayne that a girl from Sweden was there to see them and the play. I hope I made at least some sense when Kate asked me about my trip. I didn't expect anybody to announce my nationality like that, I was just one of the fans and suddenly I had the attention of the whole room. Going on this trip I didn' t realize it would draw any kind of attention at all that I had to fly a few hours longer than others, it was just transportation.

All too soon the evening was over when Kate reminded us that it was twelve thirty and some of the group had to drive back to Toronto that evening. Just before everybody was about to break up I managed to once again speak up and ask if I could take a picture of Kate and Wayne. They were more than happy to smile for the camera.

This night Linda didn't even try to snap the computer away from my suitcase, we were all exhausted and ready to sleep when we returned to our room.