The trouble with the trail system in this area, is that there are so many little loops and turns, that you can easily go the wrong way - we never said lost - but with 30 km of trails, you can be out for a looooooooooong time, and not see civilization. Luckily these trails are bordered on all sides by major roads - so you're never truly lost - but it sure felt that way at times. I've biked back there a number of times, but rarely gone the same way twice...

Mistake Number 1 (pink star #1 on map below)

We started out ok, made our way in and found the bird feeder intersection and turned right. We cursed this decision for a good part of the next few hours. A left turn limits the area we can go before hitting a big road, and is usually good for a quick tour. But this time, I felt like going right. Like I said, there's lots of little loops and usually you can make your way out pretty quick from that area. After awhile, we did come up to the big pond (missing one out point already), and from this point I was fairly certain that if we continued this way, we would make our way around the pond and come out near Klondike road by the flat rock section.

Mistake Number 2 (pink star #2 on map)

I'm not sure that you can call this point a mistake - as we really didn't see the connections that the map is showing. We really did not have that many decision points. Lots of places have spots that could be trails, but don't look like a main trail. So that could have been the case here - but we didn't see it... If we had seen these connections, we might have been able to get back relatively quick - but we didn't.

Mistake Number 3 (pink star #3 on map)

Keeping in mind the looping, we came to an intersection and had the option of continuing further into the forest, or turn right (which theoretically would have kept us in the direction I wanted - back toward home). Guess which one we chose? Yup the wrong one. If we had gone left, we could have looped around and been back within 30mins or so...

But no, we continued around the lake and finally came to the Inukshuk.

Mistake Number 4 (pink star #4 on map)

For more on Samuel de Champlain, check out my previous post.

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).

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.

Anyone else remember The Pop Shoppe?

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Since it is father's day weekend, just a quick note from me - then need to get ready for a big dance weekend for the girls - RECITAL weekend, which means a full friday and saturday...then recovery on Sunday - which is a decent way to spend fathers day ;-)

For those of you who don't yet have any elaborate plans...here's a few ideas from things I've done with the kids over the past year:

1. Build a hanging tomato planter.

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.

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...

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!

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...

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.

Known to most as the May two-four weekend, I had to check up on the actual relevance of the day after the girls asked... figured it had to do with the former queen (why we celebrate this I have no idea), turns out it's for the former Queen (Victoria) and the current Queen. Yiippee.

It's always been the first weekend to start planting gardens and/or prepping the cottage and/or going camping for the first time of the year. Typically it falls around May 24th, and the two-four is for the case of beer that is usually consumed during the weekend. (per person or is that just me and my friends?)

We did gardening - check out the makeover!

The girls love planting vegetables, so we went out shopping at the local nursery (which they thought was going to be some baby place). We picked out some tomato plants, cherry tomato plants, cucumbers, pickling cucumbers, beans - and some hops! Was told by a friend that hops grow great up here, and I make beer - so maybe I'll be able to use them...

My neighbour came over and pointed out that the garden was 4 inches beyond the property line. I had simply extended what the previous owner had put in, and thought nothing of it. For some reason, he HAD to have this land back.

Now along the side of his house, he's planting a garden that goes all the way to the edge of my propery line, and every time his kids (or unlicensed daycare kids) run-by, they run through our garden! I'm TRYING to be the good Canadian and turn the other cheek... (don't salt his garden - don't salt his garden...) but now I'll have to put something up to stop that.

Isn't it fun living in the burbs?

For those of you that know us - you know that the girls are dance CRAZY. They are members of the Elite Dance Studio here in Kanata, and practically live there... They were very happy to find out that So you think you can Dance - was going to be doing a Canadian show, and watched religiously. Being typical canadians, they didn't pick their favourites - just liked them all. They were even happier to find out at the end of the season, that they'd be going on tour and that they would be going to Scotiabank Place. Sara went online almost immediately to snag tickets - heard they sold out a very short time later.

Getting the arena and finding our seats - geez... 40 bucks doesn't get you much of a view! You can see in the vid - pretty much the view we had. I didn't have my video camera with me to zoom - so it's pretty representative.

Despite the view - the girls had a great time. And I was SEVERELY outnumbered, it must have been at least 10 to 1, girls to guys... 20 years ago I might not have thought that too bad ;-)

But pretty much all around us, and particularly directly to my one side - there was group a french girls just gushing over Nico - this seasons winner. I guarantee that not many of them were able to speak the next day after all the screaming they did that night...

The next day was family day in Ontario, and with Winterlude going on - we thought it was the perfect chance to finally see it... Going to school in the Ottawa area, I never attended - I believe that we referred to it as 'Wienerlude' - some dorky thing for tourists and families to attend. Well, guess what... we kinda fit both those categories now - so off we went!

Against a pretty nice backdrop of the parliament buildings over in Gatineau, was the Winterlude park. It was an absolutely gorgeous day for it - just hovering around 0c with the sun shining. Good weather is quite necessary for the kids to actually enjoy themselves! There were snow sculptures, tube rides down a snow hill, ice slides, snow mazes and of course food... Since we went on the monday, none of the 'exhibits' were open - but those are pretty much only advertising venues - so not really missing too much.

As you'll see in the next video - the girls got to enjoy the tubes and the ice slides, but didn't get to taste the Beavertails...

We had a hard time convincing Emma to finally go down those ice slides. She heard that someone had been hurt and was unconscious after going down one of the slides. Didn't help much when that person had to be dragged out on a toboggan by the medics! But she finally warmed up to it and we all went down together. After that she didnt' want to stop!

All in all, a pretty good weekend. But that was over a week ago! I'll write something up in the next day or so about the job search and my strategy...

Meghan and I made a birdfeeder awhile ago out of a few things we had lying around.

What you'll need:

Step 1.

Untwist the coat hanger, use the pliers here if you're not superman with the hands. You don't have to straighten it, just get it apart.

Step 2.

Poke holes in the Peanut Butter jar. Positioning of these holes is the key... if it were laying on it's side - the hold should be just above halfway to the top, and just over halfway to the lid.

This allows it to stay upright - but allows for movement so the squirrels aren't able to stay on it.

Step 3.

Put the coat hanger through the two holes and then twist it back together so it looks like a normal coat hanger. (that's how you hang it!)

Step 4.

Cut hole in lid. Just big enough that birds can get in.

Step 5.

Poke hole in lid, just below opening - for the bamboo skewer. Something for the birdies to land on.

Step 6.

Fill with birdseed.

Step 7.

Nuke the bacon fat. Then pour it into jar with seeds. Give it a good shake.

Step 8.

Put the lid on.

Step 9.
Put a little tape on the hanger, on either side of the jar. Stops it from falling to one side or the other...

Step 10.

Hang it.

Now just a warning... I tried this at first without the bacon fat. The squirrels figured out that they couldn't stay on it, but could knock it over a bit, and spill some of the seeds out. That's why I went for the bacon fat... The bacon fat (not too much - don't want to weigh it down!) holds the seeds in - no spillage.

Here's how I found out that I needed to add the bacon fat...

And here's what it looks like in action! A birdfeeder... feeding birds!

Once we arrived - the kids and supervisors were given little in the way of direction - it's lucky most of them made it on the hill... But we did make it. Meghan had to go for a quick ski test, and then had a 1 hour lesson. I took advantage and headed up the hill.

It was an absolutely beautiful day for skiing. Clear sky, warm sun on the face, little in the way of wind and around -10c. There weren't many at the hill - it was a tuesday after all - mostly retirees and the school kids. The lifts take a little while to get to the top, but getting into the lift on my first trip up, I got to ride up with a retired couple. Since it does take a bit, there's lots of time to chit chat, and downhillers are among the nicest out there. Friendly and chatty. Any given day, you could hear a hundred different stories. Who they are, where they're from, line of work, kids, other ski hills and of course the weather... every story is unique. They're usually surprised to hear that I have 3 kids, have lived in the U.S, Germany and worked in so many different places. Have to admit, that feels pretty good.

And then there are the times, when you get to ride up with just your thoughts. Just look around, take it all in. There's a great view of the Ottawa Valley, the local lake and river, the hills of Quebec can even be seen from there. And there's lots of time to think...

Of course, I'm thinking about the company issues, where I should apply next... but really being quite content at just getting away from it for the day. Relaxing. Having fun. Enjoying life. I'd only come to find out later, that while I was trying to forget about it all - it was happening anyways. But more on that later.

Meghan and her friends had a great time. Had lunch at the chalet, and then a full afternoon of skiing. Took a little longer than expected to get everyone back, as the buses were running late, but all in all - it was a great day.

On my way back, I received a text from Sara that 'the sh!t had hit the fan today at Q' - doh, that didn't sound good. I had already agreed to help our friend pick up his new car that day - so was running late for that, but had this news looming overhead. He was happy to finally get his RAV4, the bus strike had been a huge pain for him just arriving and not having any mode of transportation... We were going to hit Canadian Tire for a shovel and a few other things, but I asked him if we could skip it for the day - I had a few other things to take care of...

Got to the house, rushed downstairs to check my voice mails, sure enough I had one from my boss. Uh oh - that's not good. Tried to login, as the first that happens when you're laid off - is that your account is removed. I was able to login, good maybe I'm not quite done yet... Spoke to my boss a little while later, and he broke the news.



Well - it wasn't exactly like that...but you get the idea. They had announced it earlier in the day (ironically while I was busy trying to forget about it all going up the lift!) that the factory would be closed, and that I had two weeks left. I wasn't really surprised. The company had been on life support for sometime, and I had been looking around - but didn't quite start looking soon enough I guess.

Luckily - it won't be a complete break. There won't be any severance package - but they'll be paying out a few things at least... we'll be ok for awhile, but I won't have to chance to be as picky now. It's the kick in butt I needed - time to try something new.

So, that's how you have a perfect day...almost.

Managed to see a few places on both Saturday and Sunday - some weren't in the right area, others not available just yet, but then we managed to look at a place that was perfect!

It was the right size, in the right area, the right price and AVAILABLE! We were very lucky to find one so quickly - but glad it worked out so well.

I took him to the local Toyota dealership, and we looked at a few vehicles. At first, we looked at the Cienna - but seeing it up close, it was huge! At least to a guy that had just arrived from Germany, where the biggest cars would be considered average at best here... After speaking with the Rep, we started to look at the Rav4 - was a decent size, and had the option of a 3rd row of seating. Also had 4wd, a nice option for someone not used to driving in the winter here.

For a break - we took him to Tim Horton's! It's basically a religion in Ontario and most of Canada... It's about as Canadian as you can get with coffee and donuts as the main attraction. It was one of the places we used to always insist on visiting when we came back from overseas! Of course it's not quite the same as it used to be - it's owned by the Wendy's burger chain now, but we choose to ignore that point. They just about lost me forever with that stupid Tim card - no longer accepting debit etc... they say it's for speed, but we know better...

For you expats out there - what's the furthest you've taken Timmies? I've smuggled some in my car down to my work friends in Virginia...

Anyways - thought I'd grab some video of the 'occasion'. He seemed pretty pleased with the day, and the treats.

BTW - Peanut Butter is VERY uncommon outside North America. You can find it - but you have to really look, and it's not that good either...

It gets cold here. And it snows here. Last year was ridiculous, but Sara will always remind me that I was away for the big storms and that she had to dig them out... which is partially true ;-)

It hasn't been horrible this year - but lately has been pretty cold. And while it hasn't snowed in a week or so - it appears to be on the horizon - so, thought I'd share this little edit...

It's not really that bad - it's good to make me get out of the house and get some excercise every once in awhile!

But there - the awful truth is out. It does get cold here...

What do you do for fun in Winter?

Having just arrived, and not receiving much in the way of help, I was only too happy to assist. We ourselves had gone through this same life-altering move a few times, and so we know what it's like - and it would have made our lives a little easier (and our time more enjoyable!) when settling in those places if we had had someone to guide us through the process and introduce us to our new surroundings a little better.

It is sooooooooo important to get off on the right foot, and not make those first few decisions bad decisions that end up haunting you...

He had been told that our public transportation system was quite good. I don't know if I'd go that far - hello light rail system... but of course, right now there is NO public transit thanks to our 40 day old strike! It's pretty much impossible to get a car rental or lease now... So I offered to take him around to get a few things done.

I picked him up from his new workplace yesterday afternoon, and gave him a whirlwind tour Morgan's Grant, Bridlewood and Kanata in general. Also got him up to speed on some of the local customs. He mentioned having read 'How to be a Canadian', but I guess didn't cover everything...

Obviously he's interested in some key things - house or apartment, rent or buy, car - lease or buy and those things we can take our time with - you should not rush into those decisions.

But as I showed him around Morgan's Grant, we discussed townhomes, semi-detached, single family homes... coming from Europe where most people don't buy and sell their homes as we do in North America, there's definitely a different approach. Going from a 100 square meter flat (about 1000 sq. feet) to a home in the area that would be at minimum 1500 sq.ft (plus a basement) is a big change.

The sun was setting, but with the streetlights on, I was able to take him by some of the different types of homes, showed him the schools, some of the parks, talked about the local bike trails, skating rinks...etc It really is a nice area to live and raise a family. And in this neighbourhood, you don't have to worry about feeling like a minority - the minority is in the majority here! So close to the tech park, there are people from all over the world living right here. I can go to the park any day of the week and hear ten different languages!

After that little tour, he needed to get setup with a few things - namely a cell phone and laptop, so I took him to our Canadian based electronics superstore - The Future Shop.

I was afraid that he wouldn't be able to get setup with a phone without a bank account or permanent address, but we managed to go through the options with the sales agent, and he ended up with a Koodo phone, which allows him a little flexibility later, but gets him a phone quick. He also managed to get a nice laptop to stay in contact better with his wife and kids back home. He found it strange to see the staff being so helpful, but quickly realized that as they introduced him to new possible items - the totals very quickly rose!

As we needed to wait for the laptop to be setup with everything, I introduced him to our supermarket - Loblaws. I also had to inform him that he wouldn't be able to get beer, wine or liquor and the supermarket - which gave him a bit of a surprise. So then I had to show him one of my favourite stores... the liquor store...

Still needing to kill some time before picking up his computer, we stopped into Chapters - the Canadian equivalent to Barnes and Noble I suppose, where he picked up a few city maps and some books for his kids. I had to recommend some Robert Munsch books to him, being new to Canada - he's lots of Canadiana to get caught up on - and for kids, Robert Munsch is the king of Canadian kids books. His books are great, and if you get the chance - have a look at this vid - he's slightly crazy, but that's the great thing about him - and when he reads his stories, he's so animated very fun to listen to and watch.

And that was pretty much it for the night... he was starting to fade - jet lag setting in!

If there are new canadians out there looking for tips...just ask!

We lived in Dresden Germany for two years, and knew that there was a local team - but were just not that motivated to see them. There was a Canadian player on the team, who had kids at the same school, and he mentioned that he was one of those bruising type defensemen - but that you couldn't hit in this league! He wasn't quite sure what he was supposed to do... After we heard that, our desire to see a game was really low. However, feeling the itch for anything hockey - I finally decided to take the girls to see the Eisloewen's.

Right off the bat, we knew it was going to be different. They basically had the equivalent of what we might call 'tailgating', but it wasn't in the parking lot - it was in front of the arena. A number of beer and bratwurst stalls - and happy customers - surrounded the opening, concealing the ticket counters. It was so crowded, I was just about ready to go home because we couldn't figure out where to buy the tickets! But the girls wouldn't let me... Finally found our way, bought our tickets and headed inside. The tickets didn't have seat information, so we weren't exactly sure what to do... We did our best to fit in, so bought a couple of pretzels, some hot cider and a nice big beer and went for the seats.

There was absolutely no one inside. And no seats - just benches, going about 20-30 rows back on our side, while the other had maybe 10 rows and were mostly 'boxes'. Place probably held a few thousand, so close to a major junior sized arena I suppose... Since we had our choice of seats, we snagged front row and watched the players warm up.

A big siren went off - which I guess meant to everyone else that it was just about time to get started, as people started to pour in... Our front row seats went from great to crap as apparently they're able to stand at the boards and smoke! The house lights went off, and a big rock'n'roll entry show with screaming announcer, cheerleaders (of all things), entry lights...the whole ball of wax to introduce the teams to the ice. And in the stands - they were lighting off fireworks and flares! Not exactly what we would expect going to a game in Canada, and it through me a little off guard.

The smoke from the flares hung over the ice, as it had nowhere to go in the building that was maybe 3-4 stories high... The players had to carve their way through a fog through to the end of the second period before it started to clear!

Don't believe me? See for yourself!

The action was like watching a rec league game - without hitting... 90% of the 'action' was one man rushes and the odd shot. Even more infrequent, was the passing. And the passing was so poor - I could see why they didn't bother...

After the first period ended, I had no interest in sticking around to watch more - but at that point, I was there for the experience.

I look back on it, and shake my head at the very strange combination of cultural habits that was on display that night. On one hand, the fireworks going off indoors - seemed very unsafe and disorderly for the Germans - but I do know they love their fireworks... (a story for another time). On the other hand, the absolute spotlessness of the floors and seating - given they were smoking, eating, drinking...etc. everything that was brought into the arena was brought out and disposed of in an orderly fashion. Now that's the Germany I know...

So, after witnessing this strange dichotomy for an entire two periods - as well as the generally poor showing on the ice - the girls and I had had enough - and went home... never to return.

Was interesting enough though - once ;-)

I used to travel - a lot - anywhere between 25 and 80% of my time... and sometimes that leaves some free time at night. On one of my last trips, I decided to make some colouring pages for the girls, based on some great photographs. More recently, I've created some new designs - taken the colour out of them and put here to colour!

Check the side of the blog for the link - but if you're as lazy as I am... here's it is!

I just printed out a few of these for my girls - they're watching Christmas shows and colouring... and I have a new request in for some winter pictures!