Huybers Retirement Adventure: Good Friends!

It is so wonderful to have friends come and visit us from BC. I had worked with Madonna back in BC for several years and had become good friends. Ross and Madonna had lived in Nova Scotia for many years and have lots of family and friends who still remain there. It had been 5 years since they had been back to the Maritimes, so everyone wanted to get some time to spend with them. We were lucky enough to be on the “visiting list” of family and friends that Ross and Madonna had.

When I found out that they were coming to the Maritimes for a visit, I was very excited! It was a little confusing though, through the chat messages on Facebook, as to how long a visit we were going to be able to have. At one point it was stated that they would like to stop at our place first before going to their friends place here on the island. To me, it sounded like it was going to be a short visit of maybe an hour or two. I was a little disappointed but grateful to be able to have any visit time at all. I know how popular they are and how they would want to see and visit with as many people as possible.

The night before they were to arrive, I received another message stating that they would be arriving on Monday and wanted to spend one night with us and one night with the other couple here on the island. I was ecstatic!! That meant that we could spend the whole day and night catching up on things. I could hardly wait!

We awoke to a beautiful day. It was warm outside but there was a gentle breeze to keep it from getting too hot. We were sitting on our front deck anxiously awaiting their arrival. When they arrived there were lots of hugs and excitement in the air. It felt so good to see old friends again!

We quickly showed them around the place and where they would be sleeping. Then we sat out on the side deck with a couple of wobbly pops and chatted, told stories and reminisced about the good old days. We laughed and laughed all afternoon.

We decided to BBQ some burgers for dinner. I had made some potato salad the night before and we also had some real nice corn on the cob. We topped off dinner with fresh fruit. We could hardly move after that.

That night the Perseid meteor shower was supposed to be at its peak, so we stepped outside onto the side deck to see if we could see any shooting stars. There some clear patches of sky with millions of stars visible but then there were some light thin clouds that would pass by every so often. However we did manage to see several shooting stars and very bright lightening strikes in the far distance that lit up the whole sky. It was a nice way to end the evening.

In the morning we had a big breakfast before having to say good bye to our good friends. To avoid the shedding of good bye tears, we tried to make the departure as quick as possible. To the best of my knowledge I think we both made it … although it was close.

It was a wonderful visit and it felt so good to see old friends again. I wish it could have been longer, but I feel very lucky that I was able to get an overnight visit opposed to just an hour or two visit like some of their other friends on this trip. Thank you Madonna and Ross for including us among your many visits while in the Maritimes. It was great seeing you again!!

I miss my family and friends from BC a lot. I hope that more friends and family will be able to make it to PEI in the future. It sure would be great to see them!