Instalment #2 Grand Officers Travel Coast to Coast for Canada 150!
July 3 Monday am brought registration and guess who was without a dues card? After inquiring into how the Grand Chapter would handle this situation, the response from a Past Grand was “let her in, no one would come her if they did not belong!” The members of Nova Scotia Grand Chapter were exceedingly friendly, welcomed us and were amazed that we had traveled so far.
There were no sessions until Monday evening so we all went to Pugwash, Nova Scotia and were delighted to see Tall ships. What a quaint little seaside town! Of course, we managed to hit the thrift store before we left. Donna was continuing to hanker for lobster, so we managed to find some at the Masstown Market. We later found that it would be at least 3 more lobster dinners before Donna was fully satisfied. Do you know what a lobster roll is? No, no sushi...it is lobster in a toasted bun (like a hot dog bun without the crust) mmmm! The trip back to the Best Western was 5 minutes. This is the time Wendy decided it was her turn for the middle “hump seat”. She is a planner that is for sure.
Monday evening was presentations during informal opening. We all agreed that we are always so proud to represent our beautiful jurisdiction. Our dresses were admired by all. There are no Grand Trustees or Grand Lecturer in Nova Scotia and so they were perplexed by where to line Wendy and Jacquie up. Our very experienced and congenial Grand Trustee and Grand Lecturer graciously assisted them.
Our WGM Jo-Anne provided the response to the welcome of Worthy Grand Matrons and Worthy Grand Patrons from other jurisdictions and, of course, it was beautifully done. A wonderful surprise for our WGM when she was presented with and Honorary Membership to the Grand Chapter of Nova Scotia, her previous home. Sessions went very late and we were still on our western time zone. So, our beds called.
Tues July 4th: In Nova Scotia, the elections are in the morning session so off to shopping we went. We had planned to attend the afternoon session and were excited to hear the MWGM (Helen Westmorland) address the delegation. We attended in the afternoon only to find that that the MWGM had spoken in the morning and we had missed it. Thank goodness we are going to New Brunswick later in the week. The MWGP (Robert C. Penoyer) though, was an amazing speaker. His special project is membership and he focussed on our need to keep the members that we have already! We think he will be really pleased with all the membership activity in our jurisdiction. The sessions were really interesting.
Time for dinner, lobster dinner. We could not find the right place to go for a great Lobster dinner so Joanne had a brain wave. She called Soby’s (think Safeway) and asked them to cook us up 5 lobsters.
There we are, in our hotel room, cracking lobster and enjoying a marvellous banquet! Lobster dinner 20.00 each, way to go Joanne!