Our Canada Trip

Monday, October 1, 2007

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 !!

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

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 vessels

Every 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.