Sometimes the best plans are the ones you don't make ahead of time

Last Friday I had a morning coffee date planned with Laura, a girl I had two classes with in Fall semester and then hardly saw for the last half of the year. We were roommates for the History Students Association trip to Quebec City in January and we got together with a few others from that trip in April but that's been it. I've been meaning to contact her but she beat me to it and we set up a date for Friday morning. We tried out a neat little coffee shop in Cambridge but it turns out it's more of a bike shop than coffee place. That was fine though. We still had a nice conversation. When we had finished our drinks and caught up some we decided to walk up the street a few blocks and check out a second hand book store that she knew of. As we were buying our books (I just got a $3 copy of Little Women) she got a call from her boss saying that it was too slow and he didn't need her to come in that night. That meant that both of us had the rest of the day off! We had been talking about visiting some local historic sites together so we decided to do it. I knew of a place run by Parks Canada in Hamilton (about 30 minutes away) and we decided it would be a good destination. We stopped at Laura's house to drop off her car and have a quick lunch and then headed to Hamilton. It turned out that the place I had in mind is permanently closed. Luckily there was still something to see. In the harbour in Hamilton is the HMCS Haida, "the last of the Tribal Class destroyers which saw heavy action with the Australian, British and Canadian navies during World War II. Built for the Royal Canadian Navy at Newcastle, England, in 1942, this ship served on the frigid Murmansk run and in clearing the English Channel for the Normandy invasion. She helped sink 14 enemy vessels. Haida was recommissioned in 1952 and served two tours of duty with the United Nations in Korea, taking part in shore bombardment, blockades and attacks on trains."

The ship itself was pretty interesting. It was HOT on board though. I mean it was a hot muggy day anyways but on board it was killer, and then we went down into the engine room. Uggh. I guess that's what it would have been like though...when it wasn't covered in ice.

The best part of the day was discovering how compatible Laura and I are when it comes to touring a place like that. We seem to go at the same pace. She reads every plaque just like I do and we both find it interesting. We have plans to do more exploring together and I can't wait!

When we got back to her house I was invited for dinner. It was her parents anniversary and they were having a wonderful bar-b-que dinner to celebrate. Ribs, steak, salmon, potatoes, beans, mixed veggies, it was delicious! So that's how a coffee date turned into a very fun, full day event!