G. W. A. 2023
For over 20 years I’ve been blessed to go on a weekend away with my sisters. We call it the “Girls’ Weekend Away” or the G.W.A. .
Once again we chose to stay at the ‘Retro Hotel’ in Chatham. Ontario, and once again it was a time away filled with laughter, love, and prayer.
We enjoyed some time in Blenheim, checking out the stores in the perfect weather. I took a photo of a very colourful, weathered post in the last pic above,lots of photos of our adventures, and we always find time for antiquing, clothing shopping, and book stores.
We stopped at one of our favourite stores, “The Birdies Nest” and found a few bits and bobs there and I love the architecture and farm views I saw as we drove around.
We enjoyed a first yummy breakfast together in Tilbury on the way out and enjoyed a “Franco’s” pizza (!) with Tile Rummy too. We all have birthdays so close together that we enjoy our birthday party night. Pam’s camera did something weird and elongated my legs and feet in one picture. That photo just cracks me up! The girls were very generous and thoughtful with their gifts. Love my ‘seestores’.
On Sunday morning we were happily shocked to find our dear friend, Fr. Gary, was the guest celebrant at Sacred Heart Church. He spoke about being afraid of a painted eye on the ceiling of his boyhood church until a kind lady told him that Jesus was always looking out for him and that he was the ‘apple of His eye’. He was never afraid of it again.
We had a lovely breakfast at ‘Eli’s’ after mass and when we returned to our hotel we were also surprised to see a painting about that same theme!
We also love to see movies while we’re away and we did get quite a few laughs out of the “Book Club” movie.
There was a man who was tapping his fingers on his plastic drink holder beside me through THE WHOLE MOVIE but I just found it sort of hilarious that he didn’t know how disturbing that was so I giggled the annoyance away.
We went to a park and played a new game called “The 5 Second Rule”. We had SO many laughs during this one! You get 5 seconds to answer questions that have 3 responses. For example one question was : Name 3 Wonders of the World. You get so nervous trying to answer quickly that your mind sometimes turns to mush. We all laughed so hard when Mary answered “7 Brides for 7 Wives”. WHAT? HA HA HA. She also had to name “3 Musicals” for one of her turns and she said, “Chicago, Cinderella, and….Ottawa” HA HA HA. I think she meant “Hamilton”.
We also had a hilarious moment with our annual “Scary Doll”. We have a long history of trying to scare Mary with old dolls because she’s afraid of them ( Nice sisters that we are) and this year was no exception. I brought this dried ‘apple doll’ from home and snuck it in her bed and was happy to hear the appropriate yell next door that night from next door. There were some very funny moments with the doll but like Vegas…..what happens in Chatham stays in Chatham…ha ha.
Soon it was time to head back and we had to say good’bye to our sister, Mary, early as she wasn’t feeling too well. (Covid test was negative later that day.)
We ended up at Applebees for our final dinner together and it was truly another memory making weekend that we won’t soon forget!