Prairie Scenes

You don't really understand the vastness of Canada without actually starting to drive it.   And the big sky of the prairies, the openness, the space.  Far from a "boring" drive, we enjoyed the expanse around us and the extra few seconds you are given to take your eyes off the road (because it's pleasantly straight) and glance around to your right and to your left.  I found it much more enjoyable as a driver to be able to use cruise control and take in the sights.  Dave took most of the photos though and for some reason, they often include farm machinery . . . I suppose that's scenic enough.  

What the boys were doing as we were driving . . . 

  

 We got to count the train cars for this one - 130 and it included 3 engines (front, rear and in the middle).  Sooooo many trains across sunny Saskatchewan.

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 Lovely picnic spot on the side of an unpaved road by a hay field . . . it's quite hard to plan your stops when many of the towns say "no facilities or services".  Luckily we have a cooler and had stopped at the grocery store in the morning for a roasted chicken, spinach salad, cheese & pepperoni sticks - it worked!  We keep picking up the 50% off stickered stuff from Zehrs since we're going to eat it that day anyhow. 

 

What the boys were doing while we were driving (Nintendo DS - special trip presents - thanks Rachel!)

 So we ditched the Transcanada for the later part of the day.  It was a bit controversial as I'm kind of an idealistic traveller.  I see a road on a map and think that I can go there.  Dave looks at the map and asks if I really want to travel more than 50 kilometers on a gravel / dirt road??  In our minivan loaded down with gear??  Undaunted, I said "yes" to adding 2 hours to our journey.   

 Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park  - thanks for the recommendation family, it truly is beautiful, but Dave kept asking for a dune buggy / 4 wheel drive / anything but a mini-van!  We drove through the whole park, which meant that Dave drove on the unsealed road for a good part of the 2 hours drive where cattle roam freely . . . yes mom, there are no fences, so they wander right across the road!    If you're thinking of coming this way, may I just suggest the sealed section nearest Elkwater (Alberta side)?  The rest was pretty, but that was the best area. 

 This is the highest elevation in Canada in between the Rocky Mountains and Labrador, something like 1400 meters above sea level . . . I kept having to pop my ears.  We got out the boys binoculars right here and with Xavier's camera, that kept them busy for awhile!  It was an amazing view.  And worth the trip.     

 

 Saamis teepee welcomed us to Medicine Hat after our "scenic route" kind of day . . .  and that's why you didn't get a blog post yesterday.  Wasted = Sleep. 

Next stop . . . DINOSAUR HUNTING! 

Kid-Friendly Canada

Our scenic route needs to take into account that our kids don't actually know what "scenery" is . . . so we've been trying to incorporate lots of kid-friendly hands-on activities to balance these long driving days (6-8 hours / day).    Sometimes this is REALLY easy: 

1.  Science North in Sudbury
      Butterfly conservatory

 Fin whale skeleton

 K-Nex race track

 Human Body exhibit -  There are buttons to push to hear the various sounds produced by the human body.   Sneeze, burp, heartbeat, hiccough, tummy rumbling and of course the young boys favourite once they discovered it . . . farts.  YES, my children got to stand in public and push a button that made a fart noise.  YES, they did it repeatedly.  YES, they giggled hysterically.  YES, my husband stood by grinning.  And, YES, I just walked away and looked at different display!   

 There were a few Olympic themed displays, so you could test your athletic abilities.  The boys also did this sprint start repeatedly (it was timed on the wall above each lane and they are REALLY competetive, so they kept saying "Just one more time!"), and lucky for them it was only the 4th day of school, so there were only preschoolers in the building wandering around with blankies and soothers (literally), and no one else was lining up waiting for a turn. 

 Finally we ended the day with a beaver feeding.  Yep, sweet potatoes, rat chow, pear and greens, hand fed by a staff member to Drifter, the beaver.  Great info session!       

2.  Children's Museum in Winnipeg  - Recently renovated - and easily the BEST Play-Based Learning environment I've seen (walking to age 10)  http://childrensmuseum.com/ Thanks for the recommendation! 

Look carefully for our faces and hands . . . (push pin wall)

 Hard at work! 

 The BEST water table ever  (H2O shaped!), they played here for almost 30 minutes alone! 

 Daddy's favourite:  Pom-pom's in a vacuum tube travel all around wall and you can switch the direction of the airflow so they pop out and fall through the air or go into the collection basket (another 30 minutes!)

 And the last 30 minutes was spent here inside a lasagna, placing giant foam tomatoes in the right matching holes in the walls to complete the "recipe" . . .

 There's a restored train from the 1880's, complete with LOTS of flashing lights and buttons and switches for the kids to press inside. 

Or course, right outside at The Forks in Winnipeg is one of the coolest playgrounds I've even seen! 

By now Dave was tapping his watch as we needed to drive all the way to Regina before night fall and it was after midday.  Gotta burn off the energy somehow!

3.  Wascana Park in Regina  (specifically Candy Cane Playground) - Regina claims their Wascana park is larger than Stanley Park, Vancouver or Central Park in NYC . . . it's quite beautiful to drive around and through and it has these fun climbing structures (among other things!)

 QUEENIE  - the Canada Goose!  Loved it! 

   Even I couldn't resist spinning around on here with the boys! 

For those of you who were hoping for more "scenic" photos . . . I'll work on another post! 

Thunder Bay

  We spent a beautiful Sunday in Thunder Bay (as a restful, non-driving day!) with dear friends who took us on a hike to Kakabeka Falls.  We only saw a deer or two near the highway and Xavier and Jackson are noisy enough to scare away any bears while we are hiking!  

  

 Beautiful scenery and an exhilarating hike (read:  some STEEP hills), the falls are the 2nd highest in Ontario and the rock walls are so cool to look at with all of the layers of shale.  There's lots of iron in the rock, so the water takes on a rather unique colour.  Unfortunately, Xavier later on declared it to be a horrible, terrible, no good, very bad day as he managed to get a large sliver on the palm of each hand from the wooden railings along the boardwalk and his walking stick got stuck on a tree root and bopped him just to the corner of his eye.  So, it was quite the procedure to remove them as they were too deep initially for tweezers . . .  I'll spare you the details (and the photo), just be assured that Dave was in charge and I just did the hugging and provided the candy bribe. 

But, all's well that ends well and we enjoyed an ice cream treat for dessert at a shop that offers 24 flavours of soft-serve, plus hard ice cream galore!  Dave managed to smash the last of his into my face (yes, you're being spared the photo of that as well!) before we drove down to the waterfront to scope out The Sleeping Giant and amazing marina views. 

The hotel's out here (just made it to the prairies) all offer "high-speed wireless" internet throughout the hotel, but alas, we've seen faster connections with dial-up, so hopefully no one's disappointed that I'm just blogging rather than sending individual emails.  We'll get to those eventually, but thanks for all of your facebook comments in the meantime! 

The Scenic Route

So, we were getting into the elevator as we left the hotel in Sault Ste Marie and the boys were each pulling their own carry-on suitcase (Lightening McQueen and Buzz Lightyear of course) and a lovely retired couple chatted to the boys and asked them where they were going on their journey.  Xavier calmly replies "New Zealand".  They glance up at us and back down to the boys and we all share a laugh.   "Today, just Thunder Bay, but in about 5 weeks we'll make it to New Zealand via the scenic route"  I told them.  Then Jackson filled them in on our itinerary.   Here's the breakdown:

Sudbury - Science North
Sault Ste Marie
Thunder Bay
Winnipeg
Regina
Medicine Hat
Drumheller
Turner Valley (south of Calgary)
Banff
Jasper
Kamploops
Vancouver
**flight**
Honolulu, Hawaii
**cruise** 18 nights including port of call in
Maui
American Samoa
Samoa
Fiji
Vanuatu
LIberty Island
New Caledonia
Sydney, Australia
**flight**
Nelson, New Zealand 

There'll be lots of touring around NZ after that of course.  And our return plans have yet to be arranged, but you can expect us back around July 1st.  We're chasing the sun all year!  \

Anyhow, we've started clocking kilometers on the Trans-Canada Highway and enjoyed the stunning scenery around Lake Superior.    We stopped off to hike and see the Agawa pictographs and had lunch (Timmie's - thanks for the gift card!) at Old Woman's Bay.  My grandparents spent many summers up here camping at Rabbit's Blanket campground near Wawa, ON and it was important for me to check it out for myself.  Dad - you would spend all day finding the most special rocks on the beach! 

The boys are doing great in the car and Dave's back is holding up so we are sharing the driving.  More on all of that another night! 

The Beginning

We left St. Catharines on Labour Day, and spent a few glorious days relaxing at a cottage with my parents.  Playing in the rapids, campfires, canoeing, kayaking, BBQ's and sparklers were the on the agenda.  Oh, and Grandma indulged the boys with many games of Skipboo and Grandpa played ladderball to give us some peace and quiet for reading novels and sunbathing!  

  

 
It was a great time to unwind after the stress of packing up the house and van and organizing all of the details before we left.  Nothing left to do but enjoy . . . and feed the chipmunks.  Thanks Bear's Bottom for a peaceful beginning to our trip!

Choices & Changes

The last few weeks have been full of choices.  I had to make a decision about practically every item in my house (store it, leave it for the tenants, sell it, donate it or pack it in the suitcase!)

If you've had a conversation with me in the last month, you know that packing a suitcase for 10 months is a bit intimidating, particularly for the type of journey we're doing that includes 2 weeks traveling by car, a cottage visit, hotels, flights, 18 day cruise (requires formal attire!) and then a camping trip in New Zealand.   It's going to be about 2 -3 months before we have a rental unit to call "home".  Until then, we'll be living out of suitcases.  Ladies, if you're wondering, here are the shoes that made the cut and fit in my suitcase . . . 

It's been a great couple of weeks in August and with a family wedding, farewell party, plus some get-togethers with friends, we've been able to see many of the special people in our lives and bid them farewell for the year.  A special morning with Rachel this week was key for our boys - our favourite babysitter world - EVER!  We keep reciting the same mantra to everyone . . . it's OK, we are coming back next year, time will pass so quickly!











Lots of changes (job, house, school), but so far the boys are coping well.  It will be quite a while before they have separate rooms again (maybe even until we return home next year), but after 4 sleeps at Uncle Mike's and Aunt Laura's, they seem to have mastered sleeping in the same bed.  

Thank you for all of the well wishes for our adventures!  Sorry if we missed seeing you over the summer!  We leave mid morning tomorrow . . . and so the journey begins (at least for the kids who haven't spent a year planning this!), tears and excitement all mixed up together.