Tuesday, August 07, 2012

New Brunswick Summer Sojourn

I'm baaaaack!
Back from my visit to New Brunswick.
Back from visiting old friends and driving the back roads.
Back from my 25th high school reunion.

And I had a great time!

I met up with my university room-mate who I haven't seen since the day I got married.

Here we are on that day way back in 1991:


And here we are a couple of weeks ago:


We spent a weekend together, yapping until 3 in the morning, going to the beach, watching a sand sculpture contest, going out for dinner, hanging out at a campground (no, we didn't camp there) and just catching up. It was wonderful - like we'd only seen each other yesterday, which is the way it should be with old friends.

Here's our favourite sand sculpture (and the overall winner) from the New River Beach competition:


Pretty amazing!

I also spent some time in the village where I grew up:


This is a picture of the village looking from my mum's house across to the hill where our old house sits (top right-hand corner).

I went out to the lake to visit my best friend Cheryl. There were drinks:


And gorgeous sunsets:


But we also had some work to do for the reunion:


And we took a trip into the city. Cheryl had a hair appointment and I got to traipse around the university.

 This is the main library. I spent many, many hours here when I was taking my BA.

 The Registrar's office. The building has a "real" name, but we've always called it the Old Arts Building. It dates from 1785.

 Gorgeous view of the city from the Student Union Building (SUB).

 The Education Building where I did my B.Ed. degree.

 The residence where I lived for 2 years (and met Mr. P waaaaay back when).

 And, finally, the daycare where the little tiny OnlyChild went while I was back in school getting my education degree and Mr. P was working two jobs out here, far away from us, to support my education addiction.
 
Last weekend was my 25th high school reunion. I didn't go to the 10th or to the "Millennium Gathering" in 2000 so it had been a long time since I'd seen most of my grad class.

Friday we had a meet and greet at a bar in town (it didn't even exist when we were in high school):

With Cheryl in front of the banner.

With my sweet friend Lyra.

 And my long-lost buddy Ann Marie.

Catching up with everyone.

Old friends, Joe and Wally, with Kathryn.

Tyler and Scott.

Venessa, Lori and Claire - happy to be reunited.

Heidi and Patrick with Cheryl's husband, Peter.

On Saturday, we had a picnic down by the river:

People showed up with their kids. We sat around and chatted and enjoyed the gorgeous weather.

I had to get my "tourist" photo taken in front of the World's Largest Axe. This didn't exist when we were in high school (nor did the park where we had our picnic). All the grads take photos in front of this monument now.

Saturday night was the big party. I went to Cheryl's house in the city to get ready and our friend Roxanne met us there:


We got all dressed up:


And everyone wore their fanciest shoes:

Roxanne's

Cheryl's

Scott's (haha)

We did a bit of decorating at the Lodge, but not much:


We chatted, played some games, and listened to music (but nobody really danced - are we too old for that?):

Jennifer, Michael, and Ben.

Cheryl and Jeff leading us down Memory Lane.

With Lyra and Cheryl, my two best friends from junior high and high school.

The reunion was a great time spent with old friends!

So...that's what I've been doing for the past few days. How about you?

5 comments:

Colleen G said...

I might have just missed you; I have a photo with that lobster on my iPhone and was toured by that Old Arts bdg. by a VIP my husband and I had dinner with last week. Lots of people visiting the east this year and I seem to have just missed some of the boggers I read. Glad you had such a nice time at your reunion.

Thimbleanna said...

That's awesome Rachel -- you look fabulous!!!! You look so happy and like you truly had a good time. Thanks for sharing your pictures -- it was fun to see where you come from!

PunkiePie (Jen) said...

Where are YOUR fancy shoes?!! Looks like you had a fab time. You got married the year I graduated high school. HA!

andsewon said...

You look like you had such a grand time! That is all that counts!! You are looking wonderful!!
Hugs,
Lola

Lynne said...

Sounds like you had a wonderful time. I haven't been to any reunion since we met in January 1975 to share our final exam results and thank our teachers! I wonder if there will be a 40th reunion in 2014 and if they'll remember me?