Well, we survived our first family vacation, all of us together, the entire five members of the Grice Family. In a small car, driving sometimes for 12 or 14 hours at a time….we are all still alive, and we even still love each other! How amazing. We left Muncie, Indiana, for Medina Ohio (where my biological mom lives) on Saturday, July 28. It took us about 5 hours to get there, and we had a really nice visit, a fabulous supper, and we stayed the night to get rested up for our "long haul" to Canada.

We left the next morning, taking an extra hour to view Niagara Falls on the Canadian side. We didn’t actually stop, but I took some photos from the car window. A drive-by shooting! Ha. Then we continued on to Long Sault. The worst part was driving through Toronto, which seemed to go on forever and ever. We kept having to stop to go to the bathroom, get milk, etc. But we finally made it to the Lion Motel in Long Sault at 10:45 p.m. We had a nice apartment there, complete with sink, refrigerator, stove, dishes, pots & pans, and eating utensils. We spent 4 nights in the Lion Motel, but we were rarely there except for a few meals.

On Monday, we visited the Lost Villages Museum in Long Sault, and we got to meet Jim Brownell, who has been very helpful with my learning about the McNairn family. After lunch we met my great-aunt Ruth McNairn. Her husband, Geoffrey McNairn, was my grandfather Oral’s brother. We stayed at her house for quite some time; in fact, she served us a beautiful and tasty supper while we were there. Ruth also had many copies of old pictures, newspaper articles, and a Stillwell family history to present to me. (Stillwell was the last name of my great-grandmother, Arzetta, who married William Fletcher McNairn. I had previous been unable to find ANY information on her, so this was a wonderful thing to get!)

Tuesday brought more visits to my relatives. In the morning, I went to great-aunt Kay McNairn’s house in Long Sault, directly across from the Lost Villages Museum, and a piece of history in itself. This house was originally in the village of Mille Roches, before the Inundation in 1958 to create the St. Lawrence Seaway. The house was moved to its present location with special house-moving equipment prior to the flooding. I can see why….it was a wonderful house, full of history and flavor. Beautiful antique furniture is distributed throughout, and I got a chance to briefly glance at Uncle Stanley’s "Genealogy Office", a room upstairs that he devoted entirely to his genealogy research. Meeting Kay was great -- she is the wife of Stanley McNairn, another brother of my grandfather Oral. While Kay lives in the house, Stanley resides in the Woodland Villa Nursing Home. Aunt Kay and I had a wonderful visit, and arranged to meet my Uncle Stanley on Wednesday.

Later Tuesday afternoon, we visited with Kay and Stanley’s son, Nelson, and his family in Cardinal. They live in an old square stone building, which they gutted and remodeled. You can see the original beams of the house in their ceiling. Nelson has young children, so our kids actually got a chance to play and run around and we all relaxed a bit before eating a yummy cookout prepared by Sandra, Nelson’s wife.

Wednesday morning we visited the St. Lawrence Valley Union Cemetery, where several of the McNairns are buried. We stopped by the office and were directed to the family monument, where I took several pictures. We then took a little tour through Long Sault, and stopped by the Police Station where they also took us on a brief tour. At 11:00 a.m. I met Aunt Kay at the nursing home and got to meet Uncle Stanley. Although Uncle Stanley has been disabled by several strokes and is generally unresponsive, he did respond to my visit, which made me feel quite good. I think it was the mention of my interest in continuing the genealogy research that caught his attention. I’m sure he was happy that I am taking an interest in it. He smiled and tried to talk several times. We talked for awhile, and then Aunt Kay and I ate lunch with Uncle Stanley.

After our visit, we headed to the library in Cornwall to visit The Cornwall Room, a section of the library with lots of books and original documents on genealogy, area history, and family histories available for viewing. Afterward, we went back to the motel and had our first experience with poutine! Definitely yummy, although fattening. After supper we visited Guidon Park and took pictures of the water. We also drove down the Long Sault Parkway, which goes over several islands that were created when the seaway was created. It’s a very beautiful drive.

Thursday morning was our time to say farewell to the Lion Motel. We drove to Morrisburg to the Genealogy and Loyalist Research Center run by Lynne Cook. There I was able to find tons of material on the McNairn family, including newspaper clippings, articles, family pedigree sheets, and mentions in books. I didn’t have much time, so I copied a lot of the material to bring home with me and sort through later. While I was there, my husband Phil took the kids to Prehistoric World, a nature trail adorned by life-sized statues of dinosaurs. Pretty neat, according to the family.

We then went to Upper Canada Village, where we spent the afternoon. This is a great historic place, a working village depicting life in the 1840’s in the area. Jim Brownell got us in with complimentary passes and even bought our lunch! After our visit there, we drove to my cousin Judy’s house. Judy is the daughter of Geoffrey and Ruth McNairn. Judy and her husband, Vernon McDonald, have a farm. (No, I’m NOT making this up.) We saw horses, cows, a pig, and lots ducks. Though we only stayed one night, we had a couple of sumptuous meals and lots of good conversation. I also got to meet two of Judy’s sons, my second cousins David and Randy, and Randy’s wife Kelly and their son Aiden.

Friday morning we left for our long drive to Cannington, where my cousin Lois and her husband Ken live. On the way, we stopped by Prescott and visited Fort Wellington, a historic site. We also saw a couple of interesting ships while we were in Prescott, which is right on the Seaway. We arrived at Ken & Lois’ house in time for a late supper, which was wonderful, and stayed up rather late for some excellent conversation. Their daughter, Melanie, and her husband Murray and two children Jaired and Karrissa, were also there.