Our club had a great outbound journey (alias exchange) from 5th - 26th August 2012 to Columbia Cascade, Oregon, USA; Edmonton and Saskatoon, Canada; Niagara, Canada.

The Ambassadors were:

Sydney Club

• Pat and Brian Hughes – Ambassador Coordinator (alias Exchange Director)
• Brian Nixon – Assistant Ambassador Coordinator (alias Exchange Director) and Treasurer
• Lesley and Andrew Nelson
• Thelma Lynch (phases two and three)

Tamworth Club

• Sally Henderson – Assistant Ambassador Coordinator (alias Exchange Director) for the Edmonton journey
• Eunice and Ian Holford
• Christine McDonald

Canada

• Barbara St Hillaire – Metro Vancouver, Canada

We arrived on 5th August from different directions in Portland, Oregon, for the Columbia Cascade exchange. We were collected from our hotel by our hosts on the morning of 6th. We enjoyed lunch on a river cruise, a walking tour of the city centre cultural area, Columbia Gorge where we visited Vista House built on a craggy cliff known as Crown Point, the Multnomah Falls, Mt Hood, the Interpretive Centre Museum with a demonstration of their full size fish trap, the Portland Japanese Garden, the International Rose Test Garden with 8,000 rose bushes, historic forts and a number of us were taken to Mt St Helens on our free day.

Eight Ambassadors were welcomed in Saskatoon on 12th. Here we enjoyed a river walk, a visit to the scientific Canadian Light Source Synchrotron, sampled Saskatoon Berries, visited a First Nation Heritage Park, a replica historic village and enjoyed their annual FolkFest with sixteen countries represented reflecting the multi cultural groups in the city.

On 18th we were rejoined in Toronto by the three ambassadors that were hosted by FF Edmonton where they joined with FF Michigan for a full and interesting exchange. We had one night for rest, recovery and regrouping.

Niagara club welcomed us in St Catherine's on 19th. We viewed Niagara Falls from above in the Skylon Tower, level with the top of the falls, and on the Maid of the Mist boat cruise. We also viewed the dramatic film in the IMAX theatre, including the Indian legend of "The Maid of the Mist". We visited the pretty town of Niagara on the Lake, a cheese factory, a winery, the entertaining show "O Canada, Eh!" where the waiters were the actors, the Welland Canal with eight locks between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, and Fort Erie.

The exchanges had welcome and farewell dinners, dinner hosting and day hosting. We mixed with a variety of club members which rounded out our exchanges.

It was a very successful exchange with new friendships being made.

Brian Hughes, Ambassador Coordinator