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One beautiful summer in the 90’s I took a glorious hiking and biking trip to the Canadian Rockies. One of the places the group stopped but did not hike was in the trail network at Lake Louise.

When the organized trip was over, I had an extra day, it was raining hard and was cold but I decided I could manage a couple of miles up into the woods for a spectacular cup of tea.

Along the way I encountered many intrepid hikers and a group of travellers on horseback—what was odd to me was that these enormous animals were led up the trail by a jack russell terrier that kept them in line.

It made for a pretty charming scene, rain and all.

My husband and I planned to honeymoon in Paris but our wedding fell in the weeks just after 9/11/2001, so we did not get there until 2002.

When we landed, all we wanted to do was walk in this beautiful city. My husband took me to a place where he had lived just after graduating from college. Really we just came by to see the building, but the building manager was in her office and I used my rusty french to inquire about the family he had as neighbors and who had befriended him in times he remembers with great fondness.

I was sort of getting my point across, and sort of getting more confused when an older gentleman, impeccably dressed, smoking a pipe and walking an enormous great dane asked who we were looking for. My husband described his old friends, and the man explained that although he did not recall my husband, he would go upstairs and ask his wife. She called down and asked us to return for a drink. We stayed for dinner and came back for another visit later in the week.

That was in 2002, my husband last saw these folks in 1974! They were so gracious and funny and kind. We could not have had a better re entry to Paris!

walk everywhere, and take an umbrella—rainstorms become deluges.