I'm pleased to announce that I have started my own little company - mare ad mare, which is latin for 'sea to sea' and part of the Canadian motto (check the cover of your new passports). Our goal will be to build a fresh new brand of clothing for Canadian (and wannabe Canadian) girls. I will be using this blog, much as I have in the past - to continue showing people around the globe (over 50 countries now!) what it's like to be a Canadian girl, tracing the footsteps of our 3 girls as we explore more of this great place we call home.
A big pile of leaves for you here! As a Canadian summer turns to fall, the leaves change colours and then fall off the trees. Kids rake them up and play! So go on, Jump into Fall with this Orange T.
Check www.mareadmare.ca for more details.
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Summer in Canada is the time for camping, camp fires and of course - Marshmallows!
Get ready to go roast some in this summer yellow T.
Check www.mareadmare.ca for more details.
All designs copyright of mare ad mare.
After a long Canadian winter, spring can never arrive too soon!
Pull on this Spring Green T and go planting girls!
Check www.mareadmare.ca for more details.
All designs copyright of mare ad mare.
How many times have you had to tell someone that it's not always cold here? Well, sometimes it is cold - but to make your point, grab this little winter blue T and let them know that it's not just snow and ice up here all the time!
Check www.mareadmare.ca for more details.
All designs copyright of mare ad mare.
'Gimme a little kiss' - says it all. Girls, grab this little white T, and go get your kiss ;-)
Check www.mareadmare.ca for more details.
All designs copyright of mare ad mare.
Just as it appears as though summer might actually make an appearance, the kids headed back to school yesterday.
It's so different from how I remember it - maybe it's because I was in a french immersion program, or maybe it's the new class size limitations - but there weren't 4 different classes for every single grade. We didn't need to wait for the first day to find out who we had for a teacher, or who was going to be in our class... I went to school from year to year, with the same group of kids. We knew who the teacher was for the next grade, and that was going to be your teacher the next year.
In this exploding area of Ottawa however, even with a new school opening up nearby to take a good chunk of the kids - it's still school-yard chaos on day 1. Papers posted on the walls for all the kids to see which class they're in, and for the older students - they had to wait to get into the gym to get their assigned teachers and classes... I can only imagine what kind of crazy the gym would have been for that. It's a brand new school, only a few years old - but they've put an addition on it now, and have 10 or 12 portables in the yard to hold all the kids. Of course they're still building a pile of homes in the area too - where the heck are they going to fit them all?!?! More great city planning Ottawa.
What's more amazing, is the names on the class lists... The ratio of boys to girls is at least 4:1 and the names, like the area, is so diverse. There's a ton of new canadians in the area, from Indian to Russian, Muslim and Chinese - the regular old 'canadians' are the minority here. Where I grew up, they used to have seperate areas in the class lists for Mc's and Mac's on top of the M's. Not quite the same problem here. Meghan said she had a few new boys in her class, one who's first name was Zhang, the other who's last name was Zhang ;-)
But the girls seem relatively happy with their classes and teachers, so here's to hoping for a good year for them!
Before the summer started, Sara and I actually got organized for a change (might have helped that I wasn't constantly traveling!) and reserved some camping weekends. One of the weekends/campgrounds we reserved was at Samuel de Champlain, the girls were going to be camping with their grandparents and cousins for the week, and we would go up and spend the weekend with them (and yes, the week at home alone was nice). Samuel de Champlain is a very nice campground, covered it last year so won't go into too many details other than to say - it's great one of the better ones, but at just over 3 hours away - it's not great for a weekend getaway. The girls loved being able to camp with grandpa and grandma though and they called in the middle of the week to say they had seen umpteen turtles, loads of frogs, a loon and her baby, river otters, great blue herons... on one canoe trip! Was a nice weekend for us - other than all the rain, but that's the way it's been this summer.
For more on Samuel de Champlain, check out my previous post.
Park Hunting
In selecting our other 2 weekend camping destinations, we had a few criterias which had to be met, and luckily, the provincial park website is not bad for checking things out and getting some decent information - whereas my parents used to drive in to the park on the way by to see if would be ok, and check out desireable sites - we can do that online now for the most part. It's not
100%, but far better than going in blind!
We wanted campgrounds that were around 1.5 hours away, sites that were a decent size, fairly private, grass covered and close to water... Not too easy, but we did manage to reserve the long weekend at the Voyageurs Provincial Park, near Hawkesbury and the Quebec border.
Camp Setup
We were anticipating the first half-decent weekend of the summer, it's been raining CONSTANTLY, and we're all getting more than a little tired of it...
We got there, got setup, had a decent enough setup too - especially for not anticipating any rain. We had a new dining tent, and lots of tarp to keep us covered if we did get some rain.
By the way - those are Eureka Apex tents, the 2 XTC and 3 XTC. Nice little tents. The fly completely covers the tent, and the tent itself is nice and airy - go up in a flash too. Have never waterproofed them, and have yet to see drop one inside the tent. Having the tarp over the entrances like this is nice though for when it rains - you can get in and out without getting wet and have your shoes outside. We had some nice little straw mats between the two tents too...
We bought a dining tent too, so we could hide somewhere if it rained, or if the bugs got too bad. Had one spec'd out - but Canadian Tire ran out, so settled on this much more economical model. Actually would have loved the 'Northern Breeze' from Eureka, but at $400 I wasn't that in love with it...
Two main problems of this Woods tent, was that there weren't enough trees around to hook up a tarp over it, and it didn't fit the oversized picnic table...
A Perfect Day of Camping!
Saturday was a perfect day of camping. It was mid-20's, sunny with a few clouds and we got in a ton of good camping activities. We went out canoeing and introduced the girls to fishing! Not that they caught anything, was probably a good thing we didn't, they're huge animal lovers, and even though we told them it would be a catch and release situation - if anything were to go wrong, it would have spelled disaster... at any rate, they had a good time learning how to cast and troll. Caught more weeds than anything - but they liked it.
Now - it might not have looked like the nicest of days - but that was relatively early in the morning and was actually quite nice for being out in the canoe (no burning hot sun).
We got back in time for lunch, and put on a fire to have pie-iron grilled cheese sandwiches. Normally, you do pizzas, but we screwed that up... The secret to a good pie-iron sandwich (just like marshmallows) is red-hot coals. Getting a fire going with camp store firewood is near impossible - since it's ALWAYS soaking wet! But we did get it going and got our nice grilled cheese - btw - this is what pie-irons look like:
After lunch, we went on a very lame frog hunt. There were some park guides telling the kids about the lifecycle of frogs, a little info about frogs and then we ALL went on a walk to find frogs. Now anyone that knows anything about frog catching, knows that you have to be quiet, slow, sneaky - so how does parading 40 something kids and their parents through a swamp help them find frogs?!?! Needless to say it was a complete waste of time - told the girls we'd head back later...
We headed to the overly crowded beach after that. Weekends at provincial parks are havens for family get togethers. The picnic areas usually surround the beach, so it's packed too. Lots of 'new canadians' at the park too. Couple of burqa's out too - one in full gear - IN the lake! Never seen that before.
For supper that night - we were tempted by the 3.99 spaghetti offer - but decided on bacon, eggs and beans. We had brought out the cast iron skillet, so we started another fire, got it down to a nice low burn and slapped the bacon in the pan - right on the fire! Tastiest bacon we've ever had - bar none. Perfectly crisp with a nice smokey flavour. Check it out:
Sara on the other hand, got to fight off mosquitos while cooking under the tarp next to the bush...
It was a late supper (we had gone for another canoe ride) so we were able to just let the fire go, and move right into marshmallow country - ending our perfect day of camping.
Then the rains came...
It was SUPPOSED to be nice all weekend, but we were rudely woken by raindrops at 6:30 the next morning. Sara ran out and put away all the things that had been hanging, and then headed back into the tent to wait out what we hoped would just be a short shower. But it didn't go away... and it gradually got worse. One of our bungees that was holding the tarps out over our table and dining tent had given way with the rain, so there went our cover! We decided to head into town for breakfast, get out of the rain for a bit and hopefully wait for it to pass over.
But it didn't. It kept raining and raining. Luckily we had a nice breakfast in Hawesbury, but we couldn't stay all day. Decided to head back and heard on the radio that it was supposed to rain all day. That was it - we decided to pack up and go home. No sense in sitting in rain all day to just pack up in the morning. So I sent Sara and the girls in the tent to play cards, and I packed up. The tarps covered me for at least half the pack up - but as we started to pack up the tents and then the tarps - we got soaked. The tents were a muddy mess and the tarps were worse... but we managed to jam everything in and get away.
Voyageur Provincial Park - The good, bad and ugly Good: Close to home (1.5hours), decent sites, pretty good privacy (except when the neighbours feel responsible for providing the music broadcast for the area...and I love Metallica, but NOT while camping) I suppose you could say that the beaches were ok - but I'm stretching for good things here.
Bad: Close to the highway, you could hear traffic all the time. The water was not great for canoeing, way too many motorboats coming in and out of the Ottawa River into the bays. The park store barely had any supplies, and of course the wood was completely soaked.
Ugly: Dirty. The bathrooms were not nearly as well kept as some others we've been to, and there was garbage overflow at the cans - because the garbage dropoff was not within walking distance.
Overall - wouldn't go back... but not the worst place by any means.
Maybe next post I'll do a little bit on the amount of crap you need to have a 'nice and easy' weekend of camping!
Well - more Dance Finals than summer vacation really... but not for lack of trying!
The club where the girls dance decided to go to finals this year, and so 2 weeks ago we headed off to Collingwood. Normally this would be a 6+ hour drive from Ottawa to Collingwood, but we decided to break the trip up (5 in the car - plus dog is too much for that long of a trip) and head to North Bay for a night to visit my parents. A couple of 3.5 hour trips later - we were in Collingwood.
The finals were held at the Blue Mountain Resort, a pretty big resort - with a number of condo/hotels and a nice little village to walk around at the center. There's a conference center right there on-site, plenty of restaurants, groceries, a Beavertails and Starbucks right there - so no need to head into town even and it was all walking distance. Was nice that we didn't have to do much driving while there, and could focus a little more on the finals and some relaxing...
The resort itself is a 'ski' resort, although the hill is pretty small. It's reported as Ontario's biggest ski hill - which really doesn't say much for Ontario skiing. There are a number of runs, but the hill is only 450m high with a vertical drop of just over 200m. But we DID NOT GO FOR SKIING - it is summer after all...
We did go up the hill to look around - could see Georgian Bay from the top and all around the area. Nice view. The hill in the summer is used for hiking, mountain biking and downhill biking (which looked pretty fun).
Here's a pic from the top, village below and Georgian Bay in the background.
Rebekah actually joined us for the trip! (I think she was hoping for more sun...) Was pretty bored for most of the week, until she started hanging out with some of the older dancers that she knew from school.
Here is a quick clip of the resort and some of the views from the hill. clip
When we booked, we had hoped to have the first part of the week for dance, the second part for vacation - but the first half extended to Thursday to compete in the overalls - so it was more 75% dance, 25% vacation. Which ended up being ok - because the first part of the week, the weather was crap. We were able to sneak a few swims/hottubs during the few moments of sun in just about 20c weather... but Friday was great, hot and sunny, great for hiking and swimming.
As for the dancing...
Both Emma and Meghan competed. Emma only had one solo, and was done on morning 1. She did her best routine yet, but came up a little short against another girl from Elite. She was very happy with the way she danced - so it was all good.
Meghan did an amazing job on her solo, landing her tripple spin and all of her holds. She eventually won 1st overall in her category and a photographers award for the most photogenic routine - check out some of the pics!
Many of her other routines (solos and groups) did very well, getting high scores and one of the numbers competed in the dance-off. So overall - a great week for Meghan!
Highlight of the week?
I think the girls would agree that the highlight of their week, was their workshops with Lisa from So you think you can Dance Canada! They each had a couple hours with her and learned a short routine in jazz funk - check em out...
No more dance for the year now... well, there are some summer practice sessions... but last night we found out that Emma has been asked to move up to Meghan's competition group - so she is EXTREMELY happy about that!
A final note - the year end recital for Elite went off well (prior to finals) and the parents number survived the back-to-back nights (with just the appropriate amounts of alcohol). As promised - here is a pic of the Dance Dads in all their glory...
If you can guess which one is me - you get a prize...
Just a little late for a Canada Day wrap-up, but it's been a busy few weeks...
We had a pretty tame Canada Day. I took the girls to Canada Day in Kanata to see what was going on, we had hoped to have our shirts on display, but we couldn't work out the insurance details in time... no biggie - we just went and had fun instead.
Carnival Rides
Ah carnies... those barely safe rides that go from place to place, weekend after weekend came to Canada Day in Kanata again this year. The girls like the rides - well, the smaller ones... they're slowly becoming a little more brave with each passing year - but we're nowhere near ready for Canada's Wonderland yet. They took on the Octopus and Scrambler, but I couldn't talk them into the Salt'n'Pepper shakers, or even the Ferris Wheel... too high... Meghan wanted to go, but Emma wouldn't budge! (clip)
There were some bouncy things around the corner, so the girls decided they wanted to give it a try. There were 4 or 5 of these things, so we found the shortest line and 10mins later the girls had a nice little race. (clip)
We lucked out too, as just a few minutes later - we could see the air coming out of it as the whole thing started to collapse. I would have been some pissed to have waited and then watch it fall apart just before my turn!
Beavertails!
Yummy Beavertails - a must have at any Ottawa event, or anytime wandering around downtown - at least for our girls. Beavertails are flat pastries covered in a variety of sauces - but the standard is Cinnamon and Sugar. We snagged a Cinnamon/Sugar and a Maple tail - the girls devoured them in seconds. Called Sara a little later - she had decided to stay home to prep for our guests, but made us bring one home ;-) (clip)
We didn't stick around for the whole day, so we missed whatever fireworks that might have been there and Loverboy... yes, they're still alive... was told by one of Meghan's friends who saw them - that they looked very old, and the singer was looking tired from trying to run around. too funny...
Now downtown Ottawa is another story. Tons of people pack the hill to see Sarah McLachlan and the fireworks
We're not quite ready for the crowds yet, but maybe next year...
We finished off our day by having our new Canadian friends over for beers and a bbq. It was their first Canada Day - so hope they enjoyed it!
Last week I volunteered to accompany Meghan's class to the Bonnechere Caves in Eganville - about 80 mins west of Ottawa. Had another great day for it, not that we really needed it, since we were going to be in caves - but actually spent most of our day outside - so the good weather was a good thing!
I've been on a few of these class trips lately, but this is the first time we rode at the back of the bus. I had completely forgot that that was where you got the worst ride... it was over an hour of bouncing down mostly country roads and was cursing myself the whole way for not bringing my noise cancelling headphones to reduce the screams for the trip.
My crew
Luckily I was assigned to watch over four very nice girls, all friends with Meghan and all kids that I already knew - so that made the day easier...
The history
We got off the bus, and were welcomed by the owner (was a bit surprised that it wasn't crown land) of the land and caves, Chris Hinsperger. He gave us a nice little speach about how the caves were found, marked by a map maker in 1853 by noting 'subterranian channels', and then told us a little about the founder - Tom Woodward. This guy must have been nuts - cuz most of the caves that we were able to explore were completely underwater when he started exploring. He eventually bought the land and blocked off some of the river entrances with concrete, and pumped out most of the rest of the water - and made it a tourist attraction!
Fossils
At the beginning of the tour we were told about the land that we were on, and that it was one of the richest fossil deposits of the Ordovician period (about 400 to 500 million years ago). These were little invertebrates and plant life that should have only been able to survive in tropical climates - says something about the continental drifts doesn't it!
They had a number of fossils to pass around that had been found on site, pretty interesting little presentation, and the kids actually listened...
The Caves
So following that, we got to go in the caves - we were the first of three groups - was glad that we weren't the last!
The caves themselves were nowhere near as big as the Luray Caverns down in Virginia, and since the caves had been pretty much filled with water up until about 50 years ago - there wasn't much in the way of stalagtites or stalagmites. This was pretty much the biggest in there...
But it was quite interesting in the way some of the caves had been formed by having rushing waters flow through them for hundreds of millions of years.
You can even see how the different water levels created layers in the rock - it was like a big wall of razor blades.
There were a few smaller caves off the main path, that the kids (and some of the more adventurous volunteers) were able to explore.
There was something like an overall 50m drop from surface to the bottom of the caves, and a temp drop from 24c or so outside, to 10c inside! And since it had rained quite a bit lately, the kids were constantly getting dripped on - so cold and wet, I think they were ok to see the other end of the tunnel and get back out to the nice sunny day.
We had to wait for the rest to finish their tours, so had plenty of time to explore - although they warned us against going off the beaten path - poison ivy. I thought they were just trying to scare the kids into staying put - but I could see plenty of it lying around! The kids got to check out the store and shovel in mounds of sugar that they were able to buy there. The owner Chris said he wouldn't let anyone buy anything until they were done their tour - I think it was a clever way to keep kids relatively calm until being done with going down into the caves ;-)
The river that flows by is really nice, and had this old broken bridge - had to take the shot.
I wasn't looking forward to the ride home, but figured I could maybe sneak in a few minutes nap... Even with all the kids yelling and screaming - literally all around me - I put my knees up, head to the wall, and napped the entire way back! Now that's a good school trip.
My girls have always loved to go camping. There's just something about camping and being in the great outdoors that keeps people back. I love the smell of the air, the sounds of the trees, the picturesque lakes and being able to leave it all behind and just relax. Even when we were living in the U.S - where it was hot and muggy - we tried to go camping. That experience was a bit of a disaster. Emma was just a baby and Meghan at 2, it wasn't easy, but the heat was unbearable. We spent more time in the air conditioned van than anywhere else. Worst of all must have been those deafening cricket sounds at night. After that experience, we gave up on camping in Virginia - and went back home to camp in the summers.
Fitzroy Provincial Park This summer we went camping a few times. Our first trip was to Fitzroy Provincial Park, about 30 mins from Ottawa. The whole family went, but it was a bit of a short trip. This summer was not the best in June and July - raining soooo much, and this week wasn't any different. We were tenting, and everything got soaked. Not only was it wet, but it was muggy and when the afternoon's rolled-around the bugs came a calling... We found out there was supposed to be huge storm rolling in later that day - so we decided to pack it in, better luck next time.
Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park The following weekend, I took Meghan and Emma to go camping with Grandpa and Grandma at Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park. I stayed for the weekend, and they got to stay out for the week. It wasn't a long stay for me with them, but we packed in the activities. We had a great site, one we've stayed at before - nice and close to the beach and a playground. And it's a great beach. Water is nice and warm for swimming, and the beach is great for making sandcastles. Just off to the side of the beach there are some marshes, and the girls will wander around - hoping to find some frogs to catch!
Tents vs Trailers The girls got to stay in the trailer, while I tented. Tents are for the purists - but not the most comfortable or dry - especially if it gets wet outside. Trailers are kind of like a mobile cottage, they have many comforts of home, but you get to live out in the forest. It all depends what you like, and what you can afford ;-)
Campfires At night, the girls are always hoping for a campfire. There's nothing quite like watching a fire. The flames flickering and dancing - I guess that's why people keep putting fireplaces in their homes. The girls get into their PJ's (to cover up from the bugs!) and cozy up to a nice fire, and then wait for the marshmallows! They like them roasted with a nice and golden brown outside, so you have to wait for the fire to burn down to get those red hot coals, perfect for marshmallows. Another campfire treat is pie iron pizza's. They're basically iron skillets on sticks that you put right down in the coals to cook. You put a piece of bread on either side, and whatever you want inside, then close it up and into the fire it goes. It toasts up so nice and hot - it's the original pizza pocket! mmmm...Tasty.
Rafting The next day was going to get really hot, so we decided to go rafting down the river. The Mattawa River at the campground has a great set of rapids to run down, and with all the rain we had had, the river was running high and fast - perfect conditions for rafting. My parents had bought a couple of rubber dingy's for that very purpose, so we got them all blown up, put on our lifejackets and headed out. Grandpa and Emma started down the river, Meghan and I tried to follow - but ran into a big rock right off the bat! The dingy popped and we quickly sank into the river. Luckily, it was only meters from our start point, so we headed back to the car to get the air mattress - and it was great for shooting the rapids. The river was warm, and the sun was hot as we slowly glided down the river. It was so relaxing between the rapids, I could have napped. The rapids were fast and high, splashing and bouncing us all over the place, but we managed to stay on. At the end, we jumped out of the river and ran back part way to do it all over again. Meghan and Emma absolutely loved it. Canoeing No camping trip is complete without going canoeing. I pratically grew up in a canoe while camping, and it was the highlight for me to go out and catch frogs. We didn't have any luck finding frogs this trip, but got up close and personal with some turtles and had a unparalleled experience with a mother loon and her baby. Paddling in the marshes and through the fallen waterlogged trees, we saw a number of turtles out sunning themselves. We were able to sneak in and get a better look at a few, but they'd dive in as we got closer. One though, decided that he didn't want to get out of the sun and Emma decided that she wanted to try to touch his shell. We got up against the edge of the tree, she reached way out and was able to pet him a few times. Of course, he got tired of it after a bit and jumped back in the water starttling Emma a bit - but she was happy to have been able to get that close.
Following that encounter, we saw a few loons out in the middle of the lake and decided to go in for a close-up. Loons are a water bird with an , and rarely can you get very close to them with scaring them off. This trip however, a mother bird was out with her baby, and couldn't exactly take off. We were able to get within a meter of them - with the video camera on! She called out with that haunting loon voice as we approached, to ward us off. I was a little worried when we got so close that the mother would attack us. We finally gave way, and veered off - but it's something I'll never forget and hope the girls will always remember.
It's something no Canadian, or visitor to Canada should ever miss the opportunity to try. Camping has even caught on with the new Canadians, who seemed to have embraced it. I was almost surprised to see so many multi-cultural campers, but I suppose it's very different - the great outdoors, from the busy, bustling cities of where they came from... I know - I've been to some of those places, where the people are shoulder to shoulder, loud and pushy - it's no wonder they like it!
Summer in Canada is THE BEST! The days are long, the sun is warm and lakes are everywhere. Summers in Canada - at least where 90% of us live - go from late May to early September. The temperature can get up to 35C and more, but most of the time is between 25C and 30C, which is very comfortable. Humidity is reasonable and we rarely need to turn on the air conditioning. It cools off a bit at night and that makes it great for sitting outside and enjoying those nice long days. The best thing about summers in Canada, is that we are outside enjoying it - not hiding inside from it... There's so much that Canadians can do in the summer, from camping to going to the cottage. Canoeing and Kayaking, biking and hiking, swimming and scuba diving - the possibilities are endless. The worst part about it? It never lasts long enough. Starting this blog a little late for summer, but I'm going to cover a few of my favorite activities with the girls this past summer.
It's not about the money you make, the toys you have, the clothes you wear - it's about the life experiences you go through, the challenges you face and the stories you tell...
Having just moved back to Canada (after almost 8 years in the U.S and Germany), we have lots to show our girls and our friends around the world about Canada. We're going to be telling our stories, hope you enjoy our adventures.
Mare ad Mare means 'sea to sea' and we want to show the world, from Sea to Sea - this is what it's like to be a Canadian Girl!
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