Leif & His Dad - Quebec City, Canada - August 1989

Here's another photo of Leif and Peter W. on our trip in Canada. They are posing in front of the Cafe de la Paix, a restaurant we particularly enjoyed in Quebec City.

I think one reason this trip was especially interesting to Leif was the European qualities of the Canadian cities and the French language in Quebec. Although Leif lived in Germany from when he was two-and-a-half until he was five-and-a-half, his memories of it were fleeting. We moved from there to Japan and then Hawaii and then to Illinois, so his cultural experiences had been vastly different. The only time he'd been back to Europe was our brief, five-day trip to Germany in May 1988, just the year before we went to Canada.

Leif enjoyed dressing up and wearing a tie, unlike a lot of boys and men, or at least he did when he was younger. He always liked going to really nice restaurants, and his dad joked (not without reason) that Leif would always order the most expensive thing on the menu . . . unless we gave him a price limit before he ordered. He enjoyed good food and drink and elegant surroundings.

I'm so glad we had the chance to take him so many places. We had been thinking of trying to take him on another trip or cruise in the two months before he died, but he had no vacation left and couldn't afford to take leave without pay from his job, nor did he have a passport. How I wish he had lived to travel with us again.