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Currently living the dream of moving to Toronto for 12 months for a Firefighter Exchange!

Monday, February 21, 2011

Blue Mountain and Ottawa Winterlude

Unfortunately, our planned weekend at Wasaga Beach was 'whited out' which is kind of like rained out but only with snow.  We had been invited to Wasaga Beach to spend the weekend with Big Jack's two sisters and their families and we were really excited.  However, this is the life in Canada.....plans get shelved at the last minute due to the snow.   Instead, we spent a very relaxing and low-key weekend at home.   However, all is not bad....Troy got to go ice-fishing today with Big Jack's two brothers-in-law.    He can tell you all about it in our next blog.

On Tuesday, we went to Blue Mountain (about 2-3hrs from Toronto) for a day of skiing.  The weather was glorious - not a cloud in the sky and sun sun sun sun sun.   *sigh* how I love the warm sun. 
 Jack waiting patiently to begin


 Yep, love beanie hair!



 Am I going to break my neck??


 I still don't know how I managed to go first!


 Jack zoomed through like he had been doing it for years!


 Bob went ahead of us to take some photos of the view!



 Troy, Jack & Bob



On Friday, it was uncharacteristly warm here in Toronto.  The temperature got up to about eight degrees during the day!!  I wanted to go outside, skip, dance and run wild!  It was sooooo lovely.  I can't wait for spring to arrive.  I have since found out that this weather is just a 'teaser' and sure enough....the following day, the temperature fell back down to minus 5 (it went down to minus 16 in Ottawa, WITHOUT the wind chill).  Yep......winter is still here.  Oh and to top it off, we had more snow fall on Sunday night.

We travelled to Ottawa on Friday afternoon to spend the weekend with Pat and Melissa and Pat's parents.  We were able to take part in the Ottawa 'Winterlude' celebrations.   One of the big Canadian traditions is to skate on the Rideau Canal - the canal freezes solid in winter and you can skate the entire length of the canal (7.8kms).   Unfortunately for us, the Canal was closed on Saturday, probably due to the warm weather on Friday.   Instead, we spent the day doing a little sightseeing and shopping.   It was soooooo bitterly cold that day.  The wind was gusty and any part of exposed skin was numb in a matter of minutes.  It was so so so so so cold.  I can not even express just how cold it was.  My eyeballs were stinging, my forehead was aching and my nose - well I couldn't even feel that. 

Of course, we had to have a beavertail and it was worth the frost-bitten hand you got after eating it. 

 Mrs Hayter, Pat & Melissa

 The frozen locks - you might remember the photo we took in Summer of these locks.


 Troy carrying Jack - Parliament House in the background.  I heard about a stray cat colony at the back of Parliament House and decided it would be worthwhile to see.  Troy was so excited, you can nearly see him skipping in this photo! ha ha.
I figured that if I saw the famous Cat Colony in the ruins in Rome, then it's only fitting that I see the famous Cat Colony in Ottawa!  Right?  Yeah.

 View from the pathway.  This colony overlooks the river - they have the best view in the whole of Ottawa!


 I have now decided what I want to do when I retire....officially become a crazy cat lady.


 Pre-frostbite....waiting in the hotel lobby.

 Ice Sculptures at Winterlude.

 Entering the Canal to skate


 The ice was quite bumpy.







A long two days - Jack fell asleep for three hours on our way home to Toronto. 

Busy week planned for us.  Troy is playing in a Hockey Competition and I have to get things organised for Yvonne, Graeme, Margaret & Roger who arrive on Thursday!!  Yay.  Three more sleeps! xxx

3 comments:

  1. Hello! I am so glad you had a nice time in Ottawa! My name is Claudia and my daughter's name Manuela. We carved "The twisted cello" during the Ice Carve Competition on Sat 19th. I am very happy to see you liked it! We are both artists but it was our fist time ice carving and I have to say we had the best time ever!
    If you want to see the carving process just click on following link:

    http://claudiasalguero.com/blog/2011/03/ice-carving-winterlude-ottawa-2011/?preview=true&preview_id=330&preview_nonce=0b2705b724

    Thank you for having our Cello in your memories!
    Claudia and Manuela

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi! It's Claudia again! I just realized the link to my blog doesn't work. This one does. Enjoy!

    http://claudiasalguero.com/blog/2011/03/ice-carving-winterlude-ottawa-2011/

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks Claudia, your sculpture was fantastic and certainly one of our favourites!

    ReplyDelete