Ottawa and Montreal "ooh lala"

So here we are living in Ottawa for a month before we head back home to Oz, we were warned that Ottawa was Canada's Canberra and it would be - if Canberra had beautiful old buildings, a multicultural population, some cool neighborhoods and people speaking French. Ottawa is lovely and we are enjoying living in a big city for a change. A walk over the bridge takes us to Quebec where things turn French and a couple of hours drive takes us to Montreal which is about as gorgeous and funky as a city can get. Maya and Scotty have been checking out the city's parks, pools and playgroups, Maya is most impressed with our new household which has two cats for her to terrorize. Anna celebrated the big 30 in a Quebec park surrounded by the famous autumn leaves - the autumn leaves are taken seriously here - there is even a weather type report on the news that reports on their progress. Ottawa is lovely place to be. This weekend we are heading north to celebrate Thanksgiving with Jen, James and Geoff's family Canadian style in a cabin on a lake with a beaver - hope we see a moose or two on the way!

This isn't Ottawa or Montreal but who can resist a Char broiled steak?
With the flavor in it?

Our latest residence - Osgoode St Ottawa.

Our lovely house mate Caroline.

Some of the fancy architecture in downtown Ottawa.

Our trippy room in the Ottawa backpackers -
no extra charge for the moonscape mural.

A large spider and a tiny Maya.
Its all a bit War of the Worlds at the Ottawa Art Gallery.

Maya and her flowers - looking at Ottawa from the Quebec side of the river.

Anna's 30th birthday picnic - Anna, Maya, Devin, Jen, Geoff and James.
Sipping sangria and eating olives - what more could a girl want?

We are in Montreal!

At the Ottawa backpackers we had the stylish moonscape room,
in Montreal it was all class.

Cruisin' the Montreal market.

Chillin' with the chillies.

With Halloween and thanksgiving approaching, they take their pumpkins seriously.

Maisey mastering the chopsticks in
Montreal's French speaking, Canadian, China Town.

We stumble across a rather impressive Biosphere while
strolling through the park .

I dig the wild style graffiti,
if only Mum and Dad would let me loose with my crayons.

Montreal , where old meets new.

We could make alot of soup from this one !

Street sculptures, mist and all.

Enjoying the Montreal morning sun .

Strolling through the old section of the city.

More grand old buildings

Lets go swimming !!!!!!!

"Hey hun Im just taking the Hummer out to get some milk"

Lots of these vehicles in Canada, just incase there is a war in your suburb.

Bye Bye from us
or as the locals would say Au revoir !!

Sea Kayaking the Gulf Islands

So over a beer and map perusing
the three intrepid sea kayakers set off
for 3 day trip of basking in the sun and floating around
the Gulf Islands off Vancouver Island.
Much fun was had buy these three ol sea dogs.

Our three trusty vesselsEvery great camping trip needs some night frisbee

AAAARRG me mateys , how about some snags for brekky.
Looks good eh boys?

Scotty and big Jim paddling to the pub at Salt Spring Island

Good Ol Johnny Mack always comes through with the goods.
Home smoked Salmon

A hippies little floating house out in the bay

On the way back from the pub, we saw Otters , Seals and porpoise
A beautiful afternoon

Goodbuy from the seals, this had been a great trip.
Thanks James and Johnny !!

Juan De Fuca trail , West coast camping

The Juan de Fuca trail winds its way along the south west coast of Vancouver Island, the walk takes several days however we cheated and took a shortcut hike down to a wild, windy and rocky stretch of beach. Most who were camped nearby had been walking for a few days so we were the envy of the camp when we rocked in with our esky full of cold beers and fresh food. Lex and Jack joined us for the journey, while James and Jen were our fearless hike leaders. Maya was the group motivator yelling from her backpack "were going camping woo hoo!" at the top of her lungs. We set up a cosy camp and enjoyed fire and food. Due to the local bears, before bed all food had to be locked in bear boxes of hoisted up a hanger each night - we were no longer the envy of the camp when we had to try and hoist up the esky....

Canada has native slugs - this is the banana slug. Cute little fella....

A rocky, stormy beach for some playtime.

A hanger to protect your food (and yourself) from the local bears. We hoisted an esky up there.

Scott and James preparing a beachside feast with their leathermans (camp cooks or serial killers?)

Our cosy camp site on the beach - Jack, Jen, Maisey and Scott.

Not exactly the white sandy beaches of home! A wild and windy coastline.




Anna and Lex - nothing better than warming up with a morning cuppa.

Baton down the hatches - its gonna be a windy night.

Ready for the walk to camp.

Driftwood and more rocky beach.

When the tide went out we could walk out on the rocks and find crabs and starfish.

Driftwood and rocks.

From West to East Canada

We left Vancouver Island in our faithful Pontiac and drove over 400o km east from mountains, through prairies to lake country . Along the way we breezed through Whistler and stopped off for a night in Revelstoke. Tragedy struck when teddy was left behind in the change room of a shop in downtown Revelstoke. Luckily, we were able to track him down and the kind people from the shop posted him to meet us in Calgary - it would have been a hard journey without teddy. We spent a week in Calgary with Jen's family - Ron, Shirley and Geoff. With our local tour guides we explored the spectacular Kananaskis Country, the Drumheller dinosaur country and the city of Calgary. The Bonds spoilt us with some amazing Canadian cooking and a pre-thanksgiving dinner complete with a flashing jack-o-lantern on the table. Maya enjoyed haning out with Smokey the cat, Smokey was less keen on Maya. We were also spoilt with the use of a house in Canmore, this allowed us to explore the Rockies in more comfortable style than our usual tent style. Walking on a glacier, gazing at the Rockies from the jacuzzi and being on the look out for grizzlies were the highlights of the Rockies. We then hit the road - through Alberta, past the worlds largest Tee Pee in Medicine Hat and into the prairies of Saskatchewan. While some describe the prairies as a whole lot of nothing, we found the colours and the wide open spaces to be beautiful, we enjoyed spotting the iconic barns and grain silos along the way. Our first night in the prairies was spent in the thriving metropolis of Herbert. We camped between the highway and the railway and soon learned that the trains run every hour all through the night and honk their horns rights through town - all night long. Not our best night sleep ever.... We pushed on into Manitoba, through Winnipeg and into Ontario. The change from prairie to rocky lake country was spectacular, the lakes are so huge they look like the ocean and the autumn leaves were just starting to change. Highlight - smoked river trout just outside of Sault Ste Marie. Nine days after leaving Calgary we reached our destination of Ottawa, our car made it (only one flat tire and an almost lost set of keys), Maya made it ( 1045 readings of Olga the Brolga) and we made it still together despite the almost lost set of car keys. Ottawa looks interesting with some great old buildings, Quebec just over the river and some neighborhoods to explore.

Our little intrepid traveller - 4000km later.

Maya, Dustin and Jen Partying at the Cumberland Music Festival.

A very Canadian road sign.

The Canmore residence.

Maisey and Scott enjoying the spa in Canmore - rocky mountains out the window! Scotty looks pretty happy with his submarine.

Lunch on the balcony in Canmore - check out those mountains.

Yes, this is the real deal. A bear chase in suburban Calgary.

Woo Hoo its a pumpkin pie for me!

Heaven for Maya - making a pie with her darling Jen.

An early thanksgiving dinner with the Bond family.
Complete with jack-o-lantern, cranberry sauce, turkey - delicious.

Jen's dad Ron , Anna and Maya in Kananaskis country - Rocky Mountains.

One minute it was sunny, and then it poured rain. Maya didn't really enjoy being the bubble girl in her backpack.

Kananaskis hiking.

The famous Lake Louise.

Maya is an expert on 'the slides of Canada.'

A Golden Ground Squirrel - native to Kananaskis Country.

Pinky goes everywhere.

Walking on a glacier!!!! Slippery, yet gritty.

Wrangling Maya at awesome Takakkaw Falls a 675 mtr waterfall.

These strange rock formations are known as Hoo Doos.
This is dinosaur fossil country - Drumheller.
Rattlesnakes too !!!

The three mooses

Lake Louise

Downtown in Canmore - The Rockies

Two little pinkies.

Good ol' Canadian barn....

...and some little houses on the prairies.

Sasasketchwan grain silos.

Road Trippen Rockies'

James and Jen the crazy adventure lovers that they are decided there was no better way to spend their honeymoon than with 16 friends (plus 3 babies) and a road trip of about 1500 kilometers. We set out on a sunny summer day in 5 cars and were later joined by a 6^thvehicle. Our first mission was to board the ferry to Vancouver and then head east for our first stop – the Dairy Queen at Hope. The weather was hot, the air conditioning broken, the speedometer broken, the automatic transmission almost broken but we were on the road. Our car companion Blue, who hails from the Canadian town of Revelstoke gave us a running commentary on the scenery and entertained Maya in the backseat. The first night we camped on lake Okanagan the highlights being our first camp dinner - a Thai feast and swimming in the lake after a hot day while looking out to the snowy mountains. Steve Curtain also put on a dazzling display of Pink Floyd induced synchronised swimming, complete with head-torch lighting special effects. Some described it as graceful. The next day our destination was Nakusp where we spend a couple of days chilling by another beautiful lake. Many hours of entertainment was found in the humble game of balancing on logs that were floating in the water - a few injuries resulted from this activity and there was some stiff competition from local kids but I think Blue ended up being the champion of the logs. Again the camp cooks excelled and there was some impressive tarpology practiced under pressure when a storm blew in. We also had bush fires in the background and Canada's version of Elvis the helicopter working hard to put it out. Our next stop was Rogers Pass via Revelstoke - hometown to our travelling companion Blue. Here we stopped at the famous (well Blue said it was famous) Frontier Restaurant for some large beers. The weather was really heating up and at every opportunity we stopped to jump in a freezing lake and marvel at how we could be feeling so hot when looking at snow on the mountains. Rogers Pass was incredible, we stayed in a fabulous hut and did a steep but amazing walk up to Abbots ridge which gave us an incredible view of the glaciers. After two nights here we headed homeward and spent our final night of the trip camped on another lake at Nicola. All in all it was a blast, wonderful company, loads of food, Frisbee and fireball and a good look around the interior of British Columbia.The Gang - Gavin, Querida, Kat, Sarah, Scotty, Richo, Blue, Maya, Jen, Pete and James. Steve, Nellie, Maggie, Natalie, Anna, Steve .C. Leonie, Mary, Dustin and Brett are absent from the photo.

One of the first things to be packed for the road trip - The Doctor.

Our traveling companion Blue.

Camp Tucker at Nukusp.

Early morning reflections


Juvenile Bald Eagle with nest



Log walking
James not impressed with his efforts
Blue showing how its done


10 points for style Richo


Better luck next time Pete
nice holding of nose though
if you look closely


James has the vibe
"concentrate grasshopper"


The Canadians love their wide-arsed pick-ups.

An old barn


Maya and Teddy cracking a joke at the Frontier.




Bloody big beers cheers Jimbo



A mounted moose



A cougar feeling stuffed like the moose

As the sign said we waited

Scotty and Stevie C.

Cooling off outside of Revelstoke - spot the snow on the mountains.

Heading up into the mountains.

A Columbian Ground Squirrel
Cheeky little things


Rogers Pass Interp.

Our first sighting of big mountains

Wheeler Hut at Rogers Pass

Dinner time

Marrion Lake

We hiked up to Abbotts Ridge....

Dad carried Maya all the way to the top, I was puffed

Half way rest stop
time for some snacks

Blue our guide to the top

......and this is what we saw! Bloody big Glaciers !


We made it to the top Maisey

High altitude cuddles

Pete and Leone

James the mountain man

Time for lunch

The gang at the very top

3 wise monkeys

Stevie boot skiing passed the only quartz rock

Richo and Querida

Mum and Maisey having Lunch in the mountains

Maya enjoyed the snow after her hard days hiking in the backpack.

The waterfall fairy

The last nappy change of the trip on the ferry home



Bear


Patriotic Bum

Bye Bye

That was an amazing trip
Thanks everybody

Salt Spring Island -James & Jens Wedding

James and Jen were married on the 7/7/07 on Salt Spring Island at a gorgeous organic farm. An afternoon ferry ride took us to this funky little island that is known to be home to many creative souls and draft dodgers (maybe these are the same thing?). To us it kind of felt like we were cruising around the back of Byron Bay – lush and green, people thumbing a ride and a pretty laid back feeling – not to mention the views of the ocean. We stayed at Cushion Lake Resort with James and Jen’s families. This place was the quintessential Canadian resort – pine tree arch entrance, beavers and row boats, log cabins looking on to the lake. We felt like we were at summer camp. In the lead up to the wedding we enjoyed the lake - the weather had finally got warm enough to swim. Anna and Maya checked out the famous Saturday market and Scotty attended to his groomsman duties. Anna freaked out a couple of times due to the snakes that lived on the edge of the lake but eventually was reassured of their harmlessness. The wedding day dawned warm and sunny. Jen looked relaxed and magnificent in her two wedding gowns – the white and the teal green, James with his bare feet and big smile was the handsome groom. The ceremony was lovely with lots of involvement from family and friends. Maya played her role very well and with no fuss – she didn’t even pull the petals off the flowers as we had predicted. Scotty as a groomsman was dashing with his newly sprouted beard. After the ceremony the marimba band cranked up and everybody had a good old dance in the sunshine, Scotty joined in and played a couple of numbers alongside the band on a borrowed djembe. When the sun started to go down we all moved into a big barn for dinner, drinks and dancing - the food was Indian, plentiful and amazing, the drinks were flowing and the dancing was pretty wild. Maya slept through it all. All in all it was a fabulous day and a great weekend on the island.

Maya and Teddy leading the wedding party.

This way Maisey.

Maisey flower child.



The Groomsmen


Wedding Vows

Yeeeehaaa!!! We is wed!

Scotty playing a little number with the band

Jen and Maya tried hard to break that pinata.

Once again, Maya picking flowers.

The barn where the reception party rocked on.

Anna and Scotty amongst the dancing.

Jameson, Scotty & Blue at Ruckle Park for a pre-wedding catch up.

Maisey and Mum floating on the lake.

Unfortunately there was not enough life jackets for teddy and big rabbit.

Even the most hard-core of party girls have to sleep sometimes.

Cushion lake and our cabin.

A funny little shack on Salt Spring Island.

Post wedding salmon bbq - yum!!!!

Salt Spring is home to some large slugs....

and cute frogs....

...and non-threatening Garter snakes.

Salt Spring Island in all its glory.

Our log cabin by the lake.

Bye Bye from Cushion Lake -Salt Spring Island!

In and Around Victoria

Hello everybody Maya here! We have settled in to Canada now, I have been having fun with dad while mum has been brining in the biccies - although I haven't seen any biccies. Mum has had some crazy temping jobs - working on the phones at a Ford car yard and a BMW car yard, stuffing envelopes at a travel agency and now data entry at a electrical products manufacturer. Mum is also enjoying working with Keiron, on Friday night they are going out to Karoke which should be funny. Dad has had his birthday and has been taking heaps of photos and doing fun stuff with me, mum reckons he is a good house hubby. Dad and I have been to a few beaches and to almost all the parks in town. I have really enjoyed the baby goats at the Beacon Hill Park farm and I love the seals. We have been camping at Sooke and Dad went away for uncle Jimmy's bucks party. Dad has also been brewing beer - ask him all about it! Enjoy the latest photos!

Cheese Mum and Dad
Dont they look great in their matching jackets !!

One of our great camping spots by the Sooke River . The other day people saw 2 big Pussie cats, Daddy calls them Cougars.

Flowers flowers everywhere I cant get enough of them
I like filling my wiggles bag.

Daddy showed me this spider, its house is in a flower,
I would like to live in a flower

Daddy likes taking pictures of all
the rock formations carved by the Sooke river

Sooke River

The four way stone BBQ ,Yum Yum

The Squirrels like to share our dinner when we arn't looking
I love them they are funny.

Mummy carries me on her shoulders
and calls me queen of the castle

I love pulling the moss off the rocks, it annoys Daddy

A little Creek in a sassafrass forest
Daddy reckons he saw a Minx
Mummy reckons it was just a squirrel

Close up of a pretty flower that grows on the rocks

More rock shots with the pretty flowers

Daddys waving hello if you look close

I love yellow flowers



Daddy really did like these rocks

My daddy is brave (he reckons)

One of the beautiful swimming holes along the Sooke River

close up of a native daisy

More rock formations - dad can't get enough of them!

I love the flowers that spring up from the rocks.

butterflies drinking on the edge of the rock pools

I just love stripping off and getting in the water - even though it is freezing and mum reckons I am crazy!

I just love to freak mum and dad out by eating river rocks.

The scene of James' Bucks Weekend

The beautiful beach made from rocks
This is Vancouver Islands best surf beach
not today though !

I was impressed by the tarpology skills

Playing frisbee games, in this one you have to knock your opponents beer can off the stick and they have to catch it
Look at the concentration !!!

Daddy said that this is where the salmon comes from

Canadian Farm

These are my Canadian friends the baby goats
They are soft

I like to give them sawdust baths


Just hanging out

Sometimes Mum and Dad let the wind blow through my hair
Mum only lets me do this on little trips around camp

Daddy always catches me borrowing apricots in Chinatown

Mummy taking shots of Daddy taking shots of me

Time for a cuppa by the fire

If you look close Mummy and I are right up the top
It was a little scary

Our view from our campsite
Daddy likes to sit there with a beer

This is my favourite
playing in the sand at the beach

An old lighthouse

Swannies

This is a pregnant seal, I call them water doggies

Daddy said that she sits like this
in the water to relieve pressure from the baby water doggie

They will splash you if your not careful

One of the many totem poles around town
made by First Nation people

A Yellow jkt bee

they love flowers too !!

I hope you have enjoyed these pictures
I miss you Leuca

Love Maya