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 Di and I and Hal and Shirley Burke have started our trip to the Rotary International Convention at Montreal.

Our itinerary is:  5 June  fly to New York for 5 days sightseeing in the city that never sleeps. Yesterday we went touring from Times Square to downtown financial sector to visit Ground Zero. Did a Broadway show last night :"In the Heights".; leave New York 10th June for Elmira and Corning for two days and then on to stay with Malcolm and Liz Bugler in Rochester. From there to Niagara and the Falls for a night and then onto Montreal from Saturday 20th June until Wednesday 23rd June when we fly back to .Sydney from Monteal via JFK at New York

Thursday 4th June 2010 - left Tamworth and travelled by car to Sydney to pick up Di in the pouring rain.  Atrocious weather - took nearly two hours in the car to travel froem Petersham to the apartment in Sydney.
It will be an early leave tomorrow morning to get to the airport by 7am.

5^th June 2010

Sydney to New York via LA. A great plane trip although very long. Had to get our bags off for checking at LA but all went smoothly. Got into New York at 5.15pm local time after nearly a day on the plane of in airports. Got into the Wellington Hotel with no hasssles - just given the wrong room but got it sorted out for tomorrow.

6^th June 2010

Hal and Shirley and Di and I got our bearings in New York using the HopOn HopOff bus after a good breakfast at the hotel. Did the full downtown tour to the financial sector and went and saw Ground Zero and got some good photos. From there down to Battery Park for our first glimpse of the Statue of Liberty and then wended our way back to the hotel to get our proper rooms.

Out tonight for a Show on Broadway "In the Heights" - a great musical that kept us awake although we were all jet lagged.

7^th June 2010  A very busy day. Did a tour up past Central Park and then through Harlem to see uptown New York, That was after a tour up to the 86th floor of the Empire State building, shopping at Macy's and then a tour through the Madison Garden Centre at Penn Station.

Tonight we did the bus lights of New York tour which was absolutely wonderful. A memorable experience.

14th June 2010

It is now Monday 14th June and we have been in Rochester Upper NY State for the weekend doing quite a bit of touring around. We had an exciting two days at Elmira Heights with the Rotary Club there participating in a Rotary meeting and also an adventure in the park with all the exchange students in the District. The trip from Elmira to Rochester was somewhat eventful wth the car always wanting to take us south instead of North but we had little trouble getting here after we started north.

Yesterday was a trip around Rochester city and then out into the countryside to pretty little towns like Pittsford on the Erie Canal, Rush and Henrietta. At Pittsford we also got a tour over Wexford's which has to be seen to be believed - what a supermarket.

16th June 2010 Have had a couple of good days around Rochester having a trip down to the fingerlakes region and then yesterday down to the Letchworth State Park - a piece of lovely New York State. Today we have been into the Eastmann House for a tour over the Kodak Museum and then down to the vilage of Avon for a tour and lunch. Tomorrow we leave for two days at Niagara Falls. Had a great evening last night visiting Ronald Mconald House in Rochester with the Rotary Club of Pittsford and then off for supper with Bill and Barbara Moehle and a catch up on previous good times.

17th June 2010 Niagara Falls here we come. We had a wonderful day here yesterday at Niagara Falls - did an all comprehensive tour on the American side - cave of the winds, the whirlpool and an explanation of how the falls formed, the maid of the mist boat, the American and the Horseshoe falls - got soaking wet and a very late lunch pior to tackling the border with Canada which took about an hour with the traffic going across. Settled well into the hotel last night and did dinner while seeing the lights on both falls.

18th June - Niagara Falls - another fantastci day out at Niagara on the Lake for lunch.

19th June - left Niagara Falls for the long drive to Montreal. Drove through torrential rain getting into Montreal with lots of road works and traffic but did finally find the hotel and got settled in for the International Convention here. Caught up with Neville and Patti and Jo and Lindsay for dinner in Montreal old town and gradually finding our bearings around this old and beautiful city in Canada.

20th, 21st June. Did the opening ceremony and a boat cruise on the St Laurence River. The opening was fantastic. Spent some time getting oriented in the House of Friendship. All is good.

22nd to 24th June Since then we have been to a couple of the breakout sessions - one on membership and one on webinars and a most stimulating forum yesterday featuring where we are up to with Polio and a peace lesson from Queen Noor of Jordan.

We had our Francophone night up on the mountain that was a really great night and caught up with our aussie classmates at D K Lee's reception for us at the Queen Elizabeth hotel.

We have spent quite a bit of time in the friendship house and got out yesterday to do a bit of shopping and sightseeing. And even managed to get the car back to Hertz with no hassles except for finding the metro to get back. All in all a great time with Lindsay and Jo, Neville and Patti and Claudia Stern.

23rd June to 25th June - got out of Montreal this morning with no hassles - Hotel was good to sign out of and have had our trip by small plane to JFK here at New York. Spent he time in the lounge catching up before our evening flight out tonight at 6.45pm getting into Sydney on Friday morning so losing a whole day.
And we are going to do it again next year as Di is leading the team to New Orleans and Louisiana.

The Club visioning for the Rotary Club of Kempsey West was held on Tuesday 7th July 2009 and facilitated by a team led by DGE Jo Wilkin of the Rotary Club of Coonabarabran.
Here Jo introduces the session to the Rotarians who attended the session and had a great night.

 Here's President Kevin Farrawell of the Rotary Club of Kempsey West welcoming Rotarians to the Visioning session as well as acting as a very cordial host to the Visioning Team of Jo Wilkin, Ken Hall, Ian Dyball and Garry Johnston.

Members of the Club working hard on their responses. Very diligent and thoughtful part of the exercise!

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