Bluebird's Nest

Robin at Farewell Stranger had a wonderful idea. Write a blog capturing the moments from last year by using one photo from each month. Since I take a lot of photos and I had a pretty memorable year, I thought this was a splendid idea.

January

Well, January definitely didn’t go unnoticed with the birth of our beautiful baby, Violette. It was a hard delivery (C-section) but our family was so ready to welcome her into our family and our hearts.

February

Even though February is FULL of birthdays (even mine), I could only find photos of Violette as we were well into getting to know our wee babe. (Yes those are bags of bread on either side of her head) and we had a freak Victoria snow dump as well.

March

In March we headed down to Seattle to spend some time with all the cousins on the Howe side of the family. Ok, not all of them were there but we had a great time introducing Vivi and also getting to know my cousin’s new baby, Ashleigh, who was only born 2 weeks after Violette.

April

In April I started this blog!! I had meant to start it when Violette was born to capture all the thoughts and feelings that I had been having as a ‘new’ mom (ok, I’m not new but after 11 years, I was definitely rusty). We also went on a hike up bear hill and managed to snap some great photos of my girls.

We also went up to Cowichan to spend Easter with one of our favourite families. Definitely a time to remember.

May

In May we took a trip off the island to Vancouver for the tweenager to participate in the “Concours”. Her speech was on bottled water (and delivered all in French) and she did a wonderful job. She says that next year if she makes it to the semi-finals again, she will do her speech on Switzerland!

June

We were madly getting ready for our big trip across Canada. One of the things we needed to do was plant a tree that the hubby had received when it was just a little sapling. It was now big and in a pot that was too small so he wanted to plant it somewhere memorable. We took him to the spot where we got married in East Sooke Park and named him Xavier. One of the things I want to do when we get home is visit Xavier and see how he’s doing.

July

Wow, July is an entire month filled with photos of our trip across Canada. How ever will I pick just one? I think we only have one photo of us all together so I’m chosing this one. We were on the beach on PEI watching the beautiful sunset. PEI is an amazingly beautiful place (dare I say the most beautiful place that we saw?) so I think it’s right to have this photo depict our journey.

August

August was no slouch either for getting out and about. We started our 5 month adventure in Switzerland at the very end of July so we tried to pack in as much as possible for the one summer month we had before the tweenager started school. We journeyed to the Mont Blanc in France, Valbella in Switzerland, Zurich, Thun, and to the Gewürztraminer area of France, Alsace.

Again, hard to pick just one, but this photo really speaks to me. We were in Zurich and it was so freakin’ hot. There is a really cool ground-fountain thing (I don’t know how else to explain it) but it’s jets of water that come up from the ground and you never know where it’s going to spurt up next. We were so relieved to have the water falling down on us.

September

We spent the majority of September getting to know our new digs and our new Ville, Vevey. We explored around the town, walked Jaedyn to and from school twice, sometimes three time a day and spent a few evening (and days) at the lake enjoying the afternoon sun, having dinner lakeside. This is a photo of Violette on one of these afternoons.

October

October was filled with a much anticipated visit from my mommy from Canada for 10 days and a lifelong wish to tour around Egypt. When my mom was here we walked to Montreux and enjoyed a traditional Swiss event, Desalpes.

November

In November we celebrated Luc and Jaedyn’s birthdays in addtion to Luc’s sisters. Luc had a crazy dance party and Jaedyn had some friends to our favourite restaurant, Pizza Taxi. We also visited with friends. The highlight of our month was spent during a weekend away in Bretaye, high in the Swiss mountains eating crepes and raclette. It was deliciously wonderful.

December

We were in full swing Christmas mode during the month of December making crafts, baking, checking out the festivities in Vevey (JJ skated at the local skating rink), and visiting Santa in Rocher de Naye. We spent Christmas with Luc’s family and then heading back up to Valbella to ring in the New Year under a lot of beautifully falling snow.

I loved being able to recap the year in photos. It sure was hard to pick the one that represented the month the best since our months were filled chock-o-block fullness.

Looking back on the year of 2011, we had an amazing year filled with some of the most memorable experiences I will ever have.

Ugh… What a terrible sleep and not only that, my stomach was cramping all night long. I felt horrible. I just kept thinking… I’d been so careful not to eat or drink anything that I shouldn’t have. And on top of it, I was planning on seeing the pyramids today! How was I going to walk around them if I was doubled over in pain and unsure if I was going to be able to make it to the next bathroom.

It felt a little like my dreams were coming crashing down.

We all gathered at the front of the hotel waiting for our taxi that the company we had hired for the tour, had organized. And we waited. After about 20 mins the hubby decided to call Marmoud and see if he could help us. As it turned out, the driver who was supposed to pick us up had gone to the wrong hotel. So now everyone was a little concerned as we had a 7:20am flight that we needed to get on and it was about 6:00 am by this point. The hotel driver told us not to worry, the airport was only a half an hour away.

The driver of the bus said that it would only take him 6-7 minutes! So we all piled in the bus. It was one the most horrifying experiences I’ve ever had. So here I was in pain with stomach issues, breast feeding over a car seat while the side of it dug into my ribs while going over crazy bumps, potholes, and swerving around gates… by the time I got there I was already spent. And it only took him 6 minutes.

We went through a few different security checks at the airport (never once taking our water away from us – we could have as much as we liked), got our boarding passes and we were left with about 30 mins to wait. As we waited, I gradually got worse and worse… my hubby and the tweenager were wonderful the whole time. He took the wee babe and entertained her, he rubbed my back, scratched my hair and they both kept asking how I was doing.

Finally we boarded and I was sitting next to the tweenager. I was writhing in pain. The cramps were almost unbearable. I kept wondering if I should try and go to the bathroom and throw up in hopes that the pain would go away but I wasn’t sure if I stood up if I could make it there. Finally the drink cart came around and I asked for Sprite and expressed the agony I was in. They offered me some pills. I’m not even sure what I took but I trusted that this wasn’t a first for them.

After I drank the Sprite I began to feel better and better. Eventually the pain was gone! I asked for a bottle of Sprite to take with me (I attempted to pay for it but they wouldn’t let me) in case the pain came back.

An hour later we were on the ground, picked up by Mohammad and on the way to the Cairo Museum.

The pain did get worse, and the Sprite didn’t help. By the time we were at the museum, the pain was just as bad as in the plane. I wasn’t even sure if I was going to make it all the way to the museum without throwing up in the bus. Can you imagine how disheartened I was to be in Cairo, wondering if I was going to be seeing the pyramids from inside a van while passed out in the back seat??

Mohammad said that there was a doctor at the museum (I know weird right?) and that he could give me an injection that would fix me up immediately. Yeah, you read that right, an injection in Egypt. Of course I was a little wary but I was in agony and had no idea what the rest of the day was going to be like for me if I didn’t figure it out quick.

So almost as soon as we got to the museum, we headed to the doctor with the hubby in tow. Up onto the bed for the woman doctor (she was about 60) to ask some questions about how I was feeling in her broken English. According to her diagnosis, it was a bacterial stomach infection and I needed two injections. What you may ask were in the injections? Not really sure. But one was for stomach cramps and the other for diarrhea. I was in so much pain that I forgot to ask if they were ok to take while breast feeding. The hubby didn’t think of it either. Whoops. That was a bad parenting mistake. Luckily, nothing happened to the wee babe. I’m sure it hopefully couldn’t have been any worse than when the wee babe was in uteuro, I was passing a kidney stone and was given Morphine. You do what you gotta do.

So I got two injections in my rear, 4 more boxes of pills to take that I couldn’t remember when to take them, we paid some serious backsheesh and off to the museum tour we went. What I had neglected to hear was that the museum tour was going to be 2.5 hours. All I wanted to do was sleep. Like seriously – sleep. After speaking with my mom, she thinks it’s possible they may have given me a large dose of Gravol as Gravol makes you really tired. And I was so tired (no more pain thank god – it was instantaneous) that I think I fell asleep a few times standing up while Mohammad gave us a run down on the Ancient Egyptian artifacts. There was no way my brain could stay awake and translate what he was saying so I chose to try and stay awake and look at all the pretty items.

After 2+ hours we headed back to the bus. I almost instantly fell asleep inside. 40 mins later we were at lunch where the restaurant had prepared special food for me: lightly fried carrots and zucchini, rice and steamed potatoes. Mohammad instructed me to take my pills and drink my electrolite drink.

I was finally feeling back to my old self. By this time it was the afternoon and we were heading to the pyramids. Mohammad gave us some more interesting information while we sat in the air-conditioned bus. To be honest, I fell asleep through a lot of it which was really unfortunate for me. One thing that I did remember though was that you can put a pitcher of salt water in the centre of the Pyramid and it will turn to non-salted water about 3 hours later. Oh and people have been known to sit inside the pyramids to heal themselves.

Mohammad also instructed us not to talk to anyone. Not even a hello or hi which felt really weird when we were being constantly talked to by the locals trying to get us to buy things. If felt really bizarre pretending that they weren’t there. Not very Canadian of me. But from what I understand, if you engage with them, they can become really aggressive trying to get you to buy whatever they are selling.

We stopped up near the top for some photos of the 3 pyramids. The sun was at the perfect spot again for beautiful photos. We then moved down to the Great Pyramid and walked the entire distance around it. Altogether I think it was 800 meters all the way around. Time was running out before the area closed. I felt like I wanted to spend more time there. Really appreciate their greatness.

We moved down towards the Sphinx to take some last photos of the setting sun on the Sphinx and pyramids. It was truly awesome.

Before we moved on, I made sure I too grab the tweenager and the hubby and just reflect on our last glimpses of the pyramids and the sphinx. This would be the last time we see this in a long time. Time to just reflect and take in their grandioseness. One of the things that Mohammad said as we were leaving that was pretty crazy was that there was a archeologist that had taken a piece of the Sphinx and did some tests and research on it. He deduced that the Sphinx is actually 70,000 years old. This blows all the previous knowledge and thoughts about Ancient Egypt and Egyptians out of the water. I’m intrigued to learn more about that.

Then Mohammad took us to a perfume factory. A very nice exuberant woman gave us a demonstration of a lot of the perfumes and essential oils that she had. They always seem to start out with a “complimentary” drink of your choice. Don’t buy into this. It’s meant for you to feel a bit pressure to buy since they gave you something for free. My sister-in-law asked some poignant questions regarding their essential oils which the woman had a hard time answering. When it was all over, my sister-in-law asked everyone one at a time (while the woman sat in front of us) if we were interested in buying anything. None of us were. She looked like she was going to cry. The tweenager felt bad and felt like maybe we should just buy one thing from her so she wasn’t so sad. I explained that this was their tactic to try and make you feel guilty. We left a couple of euros to ease our conscious and headed to the next factory.

The papyrus factory was next. And I think we got ripped off – again. You know when you’re getting ripped off as they throw in a bunch of free stuff. And we got a bunch of free stuff. We bought the Egyptian calendar, tree of life, head of Tutenkhamen, a free bookmark and picture for the wee babe (with her name in hieroglyphics).

We left there and headed to the airport. It was a longer wait again but this time we had free wifi so I was able to check my email and connect with the outer world.

All in all I would definitely recommend this tour company. Some of the benefits were that you weren’t in a huge group being corralled around like a herd of cows. The guides did what you wanted to do. Everything just felt more personalized and customized to what we wanted. And I just wanted to take one last opportunity to thank my father-in-law for paying for all of us. That was really kind of him.

We got back to the Hurghada airport FINALLY around 10:00pm and back to the resort around 10:30pm. We were exhausted and all I wanted to do the next day was play in the pool and recharge my battery…

Tomorrow is pretty uneventful until the evening rolls around…

I’m so excited to be blogging today. I’ve had a special request from my friend Michelle. She asked me if I would blog about the breakfasts and what it’s like on our walk to school. Also a photo of the tweenager at her school. I love special requests (plus I was racking my brain what to talk about lately)! I realized after I wrote about the Swiss breakfasts (tomorrow’s post) that that was enough content for one post so this post on our walk to school will be of the solo style.

It’s a wonderful walk to the tweenager’s Swiss school. All in all it takes about 10 minutes and it’s all downhill. I walked it with the wee babe and the hubby one overcast morning when I had a bit more time and we weren’t rushing to school.

The street we live on. It mostly has apartment buildings on this side of the street.

A doggie doo doo trash receptical. Yes they have their own garbage cans.

That tiny little sign at the bottom is a red circle with a drawing of a dog. It means “dogs can’t pee on this tree”.  I’m serious. You would think that there would be signs like this all over the place but evidentially, dogs can pee almost anywhere else but on these seldom designated trees.

Street by our place with traffic calming.

I love the greeness of this street. It’s straight as a pin and there are bushes and trees lining it. I can’t wait to see what it looks like in the fall.

Same street I just wanted to capture the church steeple that we walk past. I also love their traffic calming approaches.

This is the opposite direction than we walk but I love the Swiss flag in the background with the mountains behind it.

We pass over a bridge and see this view. The first day we arrived in the town, we walked up this hill. I nearly died in the heat and grade of the hill.

Cobblestone path we walk down. So quaint.

Same path looking the opposite direction. Up hill.

I love this path! No cars and cobblestones all the way to the bottom. Then there’s beautiful hedges, bushes, and wysteria growing everywhere.

This path we take very infrequently but we pass by it every day. So beautiful.

A Russian church that we walk past.

The train station and the beautiful vineyards in the background.

And finally we arrive at the school of the tweenager. The school is probably close to 80 years old.

This time we drove clear across the little country to Valbella taking in Zurich for a couple of hours along the way. We did a 4 day excursion which was simply breathtaking.

We began on Monday morning (yeah I know, why do I travel on Mondays here???) and drove to Zurich for lunch. It poured like it did in Strasbourg. Wowzers. But it was really nice as we got to catch up with an old friend of the hubby’s, Maxim.

We tried to find some postcards for friends but everything cost way too much (sorry friends!!) so we bailed on that idea and headed back to the car to hit the road.

On the way we drove through typical picturesque lush green valleys. Not unlike how the book Heidi depicts. When I mentioned that I thought it reminded me of what it must have been like for Heidi when she lived in the mountains, my hubby replied that in fact, there was a place called Heidiland coming up and we needed to stop for gas there! I took some photos.

Back on the road and up through one of the crazy typical Swiss mountain passes where everyone goes mock speed and you can pass, but the roads are as if you took a pen and scribbled all over a piece of paper. I can hardly believe you can pass people on these roads. I did it once and it freaked the bejesus out of me.

We stopped in at a little meat and wine store where my hubby picked up horse sausages. Don’t ask. And then off to grandma’s house.

Ok, so grandma’s house is a 200 year old chalet in Valbella. This place is amazing and it’s just reeking of history. I kept asking my hubby about what he knew about the area 200 years ago and how the house came to be, etc… but he wasn’t able to tell me much. What’s even more interesting to me is that the house has been passed down from generation to generation. The original owner was not in the family but his grandma’s grandma bought it and renovated it in 1924. Too cool. You just don’t find houses like that in Canada.

We had a wonderful dinner after getting re-acquainted with her and then a splendid walk around the area. My hubby rehashed memories he had as a child growing up. The tweenager begged to come back there in the wintertime. You see, Valbella is well known for its ski resort. I would love to see it covered with a blanket of snow. We walked by a wonderful lake that I understand freezes over in the winter and you can cross country ski on it. I just love it here. It was a bit cold but really, compared to Victoria for 8 months of the year, it was nothing.

We awoke in the morning to a wonderful breakfast of bread and jam with coffee and then we got ready for a beautiful day. The sun was shining and the mountains were beckoning us. We took the bus to the bottom of the chair lift with my hubby’s grandma and then we embarked up the mountain on the chair lift. Up to the top and it was a balmy 23 degrees. No need for a sweater

We had a lovely coffee with grandma and then we said goodbye to her for the day. She is close to 90 years old and she gets around very well!! She headed back down the mountain and we headed up a bit and then off to the right.

Ok, let me try to do the scenery justice by explaining to you how beautiful it was. Try to imagine lush green rolling hills set against a mountain. Facing the opposite side is a valley where there is a beautiful lake and then on the other side of that is another gorgeous mountain range. There are cows everywhere with bells so the faint ringing of cowbells surrounds you. Butterflies fly by frequently and trickling streams seem to be around every corner. The path weaves up and down, the sun is shining brightly and there’s a fresh mountain breeze whispering through your hair. It’s almost too much to really comprehend how incredible you feel as you trollop through the mountainside.

We stopped for a picnic to take in the view.

All in all I think the walk was about 2 hours to get down the mountain. 2 glorious hours.

We continued home and we then ate some chocolate and said hello to grandma. It wasn’t long before the tweenager was asking us if we could go back to the lake and rent a pedallo. So, off we headed again and this time her and I took to the lake for a half an hour while the hubby and wee babe relaxed along the side of the lake.

We headed home and had a light meal that the hubby’s grandma had prepared. It was the perfect day. I must give it to my Swiss mister. When he plans a day, he really knows how to wow the pants off of me. I’m rarely disappointed when we take to the road, lake, sea or mountain as he has prepared.

After putting the wee babe and tweenager to bed, we chatted with grandma a bit about the house and area before we retired to bed as well.

The next morning we awoke, had breakfast, gathered our things and said good bye to grandma and hit the road. This was supposed to be our last day on the road but there were other things in store for us.

To be continued…

Continental breakfast. Not too shabby. Then we went back to the room and started to clean up stuff and organize for the next leg of our trip.

I think I could have organized all day long but it was better that I just got out of the room otherwise I would have gone crazy.

The weather was crap. Ok, it could have been worse but it was foggy and rainy. Need I say more?

And there was 6 of us so we all couldn’t fit in the Sube so I needed to taxi a few people downtown and then go back to the hotel and grab the rest of the people. But first we needed to return the tent.

We stopped in at Canadian Tire to try to get our money back. They wouldn’t do it. They wouldn’t even exchange it but they said we could call a 1-800 number. So I did while I was there. The woman on the other end of the phone said that she had never experienced any issues with the tent that we had. Well we have (finger snap) so don’t tell me your tent isn’t inferior. She said that they have NEVER given money back for a warranty item. It’s replace or instore credit only. So we buckled at the instore credit and handed the phone to the Canadian Tire woman. BUT, Canadian Tire doesn’t give instore credit so they had to give us our money back! Shabam baby!! Take that! And now our extra night in a hotel is paid for.

By the time we got downtown, my hubby and aunt (who were taxied first) said that they had seen everything and they were ready to get dry and fed.

We parked the car and set off on Water St. There were a lot of neat little boutiques along Water St. but what I really wanted to see what the colourful houses.

We stopped in at a neat little bar for lunch. Great food. I think it might have been the best poutine I’ve had yet. After lunch, we kept on Water St. and took some photos and then walked back along another road that runs parallel to Water St. I asked a woman for directions to The Rooms and so my mom and the hubby took off uphill to it, while my aunt and the tweenager and I walked back to the car.

I picked up a Canuck’s hockey jersey while we were walking back. Kind of an odd thing to buy in Newfoundland but what the hell.

We headed to The Rooms. It was pretty cool there. Some nice artwork and a museum. I was a little disenchanted with the museum but the Inuit display was very interesting.

Then I did the taxi thing again and back and forth with every one we got back to the room and did MORE packing. Then off to dinner at the hotel again. Thanks for dinner mom!

Early to bed tonight so that we can start fresh tomorrow for our voyage over seas.

EXPENSES:

Sleeping: free since we brought back the tent.
Wee babe disposition: Really good.
Weather: 17.
Stress level: Climbing as the packing is looming. I would say about a 6.

Oh. My. Gawd. It’s raining AGAIN. I’m writing this from the tent on Cheticamp Island and it’s bloody raining. A huge thunderstorm just passed over us. I’m amazed we get dry during the day cuz nights are damp as hell. Well, I guess hell wouldn’t be damp but you know what I mean.

We’re on the Cabot trail in the way to Cape Breton. Let me back up and tell you about today.

So we woke up and wonders of wonders it wasn’t raining if you can believe it. We’ve been pretty lucky in the morning that’s for sure.

We hit the road and decided to take the day nice and easy. No speeding, just an even keel. We only drove about 80km’s an hour too. It would be hard to go any faster as the roads are narrower, winding and after all, we wanted to check out the scenery.

After looking at the map and wondering where we should stop we decided we would stop for lunch in Inverness. We already knew the menu (soup from Sylvie, left over rice and shrimp) but we needed a stellar spot to cook it in. For me, I needed a picnic table. But for the hubby, I can tell you that he found us a perfect spot but he needed to do a bit of hunching over to cook. Check out the photos.

It was warm and sunny there. Have I mentioned relaxing yet? Really nice. We didn’t have far to go today, so we could kick back and get our feet sandy.

We hopped into the car, and checked out the scenery. It feels a bit like you’re in Ireland (even though I’ve never been there) with the rolling hills, amazing views, cliffs, and ocean that stretches on forever.

We stopped in at a scarecrow field where there were the WEIRDEST scarecrows for you to check out and mingle with. I took way too many photos.

Then we hit up a grocery store and stopped for an early day at Cheticamp Island. We set up the tent (and the hubby ripped it, I was pissed) and took off to put on some laundry and get some wood (that would be useless). After that we headed down to the beach.

So there’s these really lame bugs here that are tiny and fly and when they bite you they must inject you with a numbing agent as you never feel them but the suck your blood and then fill up and drop off. That’s when we’ve been feeling them. Of course you go to touch the spot that itches and you squish them and then you smear blood all over your hand and the spot so then you look at your hand and there’s usually a bunch of blood. Really gross.

Anyway, there were a bunch of those bugs down by the ocean, hence the yellow ducky towel over my head and I guess there were a bunch of jelly fish in the ocean so that was a bit of an uneventful trip down.

The clouds were looming so we thought we better head back to the camp to get in some fire time and start on dinner before it rained. We had just started dinner when the clouds opened up. The hubby dug some trenches and we retreated into the tent where I am now dreading going outside to go to the bathroom and brush my teeth.

Here’s hoping we don’t drown tonight

EXPENSES:

Sleeping: Camping and wood that we won’t use $39.
Wee babe disposition: Splendid
Weather: 17 and foggy. The skies showed blue for a bit but that was only a tease.
Stress level: relaxed.

We woke up after a lameo night with the wee babe. She nursed and nursed. I’m not sure if it was her teeth or she was too cold, or if it was because we were camping… but lame night for her means lame night for me.

Had breakfast and took off for Avonlea. We didn’t make it to the end of the book but we read enough of it to get the gist of it (Except for the hubby, he didn’t really care). It’s a little, quaint made up town with all the history of Lucy Maude Montgomery. It was pretty interesting. There was some singing in a barn and a little play out in the garden.

The tweenager and the hubby got dressed into some period clothing, checked out some shops. It was hugely over priced for what it was worth.

After that, we went for lunch to Sam’s. Sooo yummy. We had mussels, chowder and some more poutine (and you thought I was done with eating that J). It was delicious.

We then set off for the beach to check out the sandcastles.

The drive weaving through the hills and pastures of potatoes, rolls of hay and green, green, green everywhere. So beautiful. So PEI.

We stopped in at the beach to rest and recover from the day… it was the afternoon and the heat and humidity was getting to me a little. Everyone except for me went for a dip in the Atlantic. Wonderful sand beaches. It was serene but the clouds were rolling in. Dark, looming clouds.

So we headed back to the camp to get a shower and get changed for dinner. Tonight we would feast!

Some locals told us we should head to Fisherman’s wharf in North Rustico for lobster and a HUGE buffet. They weren’t wrong. We gorged on food. I felt a little sickly by all the food we put back but it wasn’t cheap so we thought we better get our money’s worth.

Man-o-man was a tired after all that food and wouldn’t you know it, a storm had started. I couldn’t believe it. Imagine what it feels like when you’re driving back to your TENT in the pouring rain and it’s blowing like a tornado. Yah, it wasn’t a nice feeling. We actually drove to the bathroom to save the drenching until later on in the night when we needed to hit the bathroom again. Too much pop and water at the feast.

We retired to bed and listened to the wind roar and the rain to pound. It was scary. I wasn’t sure we were going to make it through the night all dry. But we did. The tent faired well but it got a tear in it.

EXPENSES:

Sleeping: Camping in Cavendish $45.
Wee babe disposition: Seemed like she was teething today. A lot of spurts of crying.
Lost: Almost lost the shampoo,conditioner, soap, etc… but the tweenager saw it out of the corner of her eye.
Weather: Sunny and about 31. The turned nasty
Stress level: groovy.

What a picturesque local. We slept all night with the windows open listening to the sound of the rushing river beside us. It was awesome.

A slow moving morning (just what I like) with some great conversation with John. We had breakfast and took off to see his other camp not far away.

It was really cute and rustic. Not unlike his camp that we’re staying at but nowhere near as big. We met Sylvie’s brother and his wife there.

Then we drove to the Swinging Bridge where this rickety old bridge that crosses the river was. I had no problem going over it but the sides of the bridge are so low that it would be easy to go over board so of course I had my mommy hat on and I was letting loose by “Be careful” and “Walk slowly”. It was a very nice view of the river and surrounding land. No moose or bears sightings though.

We stopped off shortly after that to get some supplies at “Macloskey’s” John’s favourite place to shop.

Then back to the camp to have some lunch (sausages) and then we took off for a dip in the river.

So a few things about this river dip. John had us 4 x 4ing through the bush to get to the river and once we got there there were horse flies. I can’t stand horse flies. But the river was really pleasant to swim in and toodle around for a little while in. The wee babe had a great time and the tweenager had a splash fest with my hubby and I.

After that we retired to the bedroom to get away from the flies and the tweenager and I read some Anne and then me and the wee babe had a little nap.

What a low key, slow paced, relaxing day. I haven’t had a nap in the middle of the day in ages and it was just such a perfect setting to do so. I can understand why John and Sylvie bought the place.

After our well-deserved nap, we headed outside to take in the afternoon sun. Sylvie’s brother and wife came back over for dinner and we talked in French and I understood a lot of it! I even got a compliment that I can speak quite well!!! I was glowing with pride.

We had an amazing dinner. Ham, coleslaw and a typical French-Canadian been dish with molasses drizzled on top. I had to go back for seconds. Of course the hubby and I were playing pass the baby as that is her witching hour but the other people at the dinner table didn’t seem to mind and they even took her for some relief for us.

After dinner we cleaned up and headed outside again. The tweenager tried her hand for the first time at flyfishing with the help of Trefle. I was really impressed. It was pretty cool to see her down in the river throwing the fishing rod in the low sun. She said that it hurt her hands after a while.

The bugs were insane at that point so we retreated inside and chatted for a bit longer. I finally got the wee babe to sleep again. We had some ice cream and then headed outside to take advantage of the fire place that John has. We chatted and watched the fire flies. The stars were so bright (thanks to the absence of light pollution) and when the moon rose it was a beautiful orange colour.

Not long after that we said our goodbyes to Sylvie as we wouldn’t see her in the morning retired to bed.

During the night I woke up to get a drink of water. I walked quietly to the kitchen and this eerie sense of someone watching me came over me. I started to freak myself out and think that maybe there was a ghost in this camp. I tried not to look anywhere else than I needed to for fear that I might see a ghostly apparition. After making it back to bed, of course I couldn’t get to sleep and I swear I heard the sound of a door shutting far off in the house. I told the story to John and I hope he has a good sleep tonight as he’s going to be in the camp by himself tonight

EXPENSES:

Sleeping: At the camp at John and Sylvie’s camp
Wee babe disposition: A lot of squealing and screeching but all in all pretty even keel.
Injuries: Two horse fly bites. One for the tweenager (drew blood) the other for the wee babe behind the ear. OUCH!
Weather: Sunny and about 31. Cooling off in the river was great.
Stress level: Relaxing, but a little stressful for the swinging bridge.

We left the AIRBNB this morning and I was a little sad. It was such a nice all to our selves place. But the stairs were pretty scary.

It only took us about 2 and a half hours to get to Quebec City. And it was hot again. Sorry Victoria but the weather here on other side of Canada is dreamy to uncomfortably hot. It’s the type of weather where you NEED a shower at the end of every day.

Anyway, Quebec City is very European in its look and feel. The architecture is old. Like way older than Victoria. I think I would have been a little more wowed by it if I hadn’t been to Europe and Switzerland so many times. (I’m not bragging, just telling it like it is. After all, I’m married to a Swiss man remember?) It was still very impressive and definitely felt like a different country altogether. Everyone was speaking French.

My first impressions of Quebec City weren’t really amazing unfortunately. There was the sweet smell of piss where we had lunch on the lawn. The wild aroma of weed on and the drunk/druggy half awake/asleep on the side of the road in the main tourist spot. Thank god the architecture was amazing or I would have regretted stopping.

We headed up the funicular first so we could get a good view of the city. Stopped for lunch by Chateau de Frontinac where we ate our pre-made sandwiches. Then just walked around the city. If you can believe it, the other totally random thing was that a Metallica concert was playing that night so there were people drinking in the streets and lots of rockers wearing heavy metal t-shirts. Kinda strange.

That was about it for Quebec City. We were there for only a couple of hours but we felt like it was enough. It’s a beautiful city. Very charming.

The heat was really beating us down (33 degrees) and with all the people we made a bee line outta there and headed to Riviere de Loup.

I think the lack of sleep from the last two nights (the bed was tooo hard), coupled with the heat and the walking, oh and lets not forget the living out of a car for the last two and a half weeks, made me really sleepy for the drive, and I was driving. My hubby and I played 20 questions (I sucked but it helped to keep me focused). When we were getting closer we typed in accommodation and a Beluga Hotel came up. Since we sang a few rounds of it today we thought maybe it was a sign.

So we took the side road to Riviere de Loup and man-o-man am I ever glad we did. I think this is our first taste of east coast living. Beautiful little sea side/St. Laurent cottages built on quaintly tree lined roads. Picture perfect. My hubby was going crazy. He even got the notion in his head that we might be able to do a BnB if we found something perfect. And did we ever.

Two bedrooms with a welcome drink, a night cap liqueur, a gourmet breakfast (I’ll let you know how it is tomorrow) seemed to be worth the $115 we paid. The only catch is that the tweenager is in her own bedroom in the basement sharing the space with another family. She was ok with it though.

According to our budget, that’s it for hotel/bnb/AIRBNB type dwellings for us. We’ve got to camp and or find some friends to crash at. Thankfully we have 2 more nights at friends of the family in Fredricton and then we’ll be camping the rest. Oh we have a night crossing on the Ferry to Newfoundland and already paid for our last night in St. John’s at a motel.

We headed off into town to get some grub. Since this will be the last meal I take in Quebec, it had to be a serving of poutine. And again, it was not any better than something I would eat in Victoria. But I understand that I totally missed out when I was in Montreal as evidentally, there is a place that serves 50 different types of poutine! Doh!! I’m so pissed I missed that!!! I guess there will have to be a next time.

We came back to the BnB, watched the sunset over the St. Lawrence, all had showers and then relaxed in the living room reading Anne of Green Gables. We’re desperately trying to get through it before we get to PEI in around 3-4 days.

Sleeping: BnB: $115
Items lost: I lost my favourite flip flop while we hiked/walked up Mont Royal. I have since bought a new pair of Crocks but it’s not the same
Wee babe disposition: Hot in the Ergo but other than than, stellar.
Weather: 32 degrees. Smokin’ hot.
Stress level: Tired.

Today we let loose on Ottawa. I was imagining a clean, capital city with well laid out roads and sidewalks. I wasn’t disappointed.

I actually really liked Ottawa. It is a pretty city situated around a canal and there seems to be water everywhere. Not unlike Victoria.

So we set out on foot. Today was the first day we didn’t use the Sube since we started.

First stop: tourist info booth to get our bearings and figure out how to pack in as much sights as possible in one day and not tire our feet out too much.

En route we just happened a chance to see the changing of the guards that occurs in the mornings in the summer. A lot of marching and music playing. It was interesting.

Then we walked around the parliament buildings and scheduled a tour for later that night.

The weather was pretty interesting. As you can see from the photos, it started out as a blue sky day. Then it turned ugly and mean out and rained and then later that night it was beautiful blue skies again. Tres bizarre.

We walked along the water way for a bit until I realized that I was supposed to get the wee babe’s 6 month shots in Toronto. Oops. So Allison came to our rescue again and suggested we stop by Appletree Medical Centre and we set up an appointment with a pediatrician for the next day.

Back to the parliament buildings where a peaceful protest was being staged for China and where we stopped for sandwiches.

Then we headed over in the direction of the Mint with a stop off at a viewpoint where we could see the Parliament really well and snap off some photos.

We did a tour in the Mint. It was cheap which was nice and pretty interesting. We picked up a 3$ coin with the tweenager’s birthstone in it as a memento and another 3$ coin for the wee babe’s birth year. (The certainly didn’t cost 3$ though J) We looked for the hockey quarter that they tweenager is missing from her Olympic collection, but no luck. If any of you find a hockey Olympic quarter, please let me know. It’s the last of the quarters we need to find.

And then just in time for a rainstorm where we had nowhere to take cover. It was windy! The storm didn’t last long before we found a patisserie where we took in some delicious sweet goodness. A nice afternoon treat after all that walking.

And lastly onto some shopping in the mall.

We picked up some frozen dinner again to cook at Allison’s and Dave’s place. We retreated back to their condo where we had showers and ate and enjoyed a bottle of wine. A nice break before heading BACK out for the night.

We had a 7:30pm appointment to do the tour through Parliament. If you ever make it to Ottawa, you MUST check out the Parliament tour. It’s impressive to say the least. I’m astounded that the entire building burnt down save for the library and they rebuilt it back up during world war 1. The interior stone carvings are amazing. I only wish that our tour guide had told us a lot more about the inside of the building as I think there is a lot more to know and I feel like we only just scratched the surface.

Allison and Dave met us down on the front lawn of Parliament Hill to watch “Mosaika” that started at 10pm (it was a really long day but well worth it).

Mosaika is simply stunning. The weather was perfect and the light show was amazing. I don’t know how else to describe it. I was actually almost moved to tears while watching it. If I can explain what it is, it’s a half hour animation of Canada’s history, it’s people, and it’s land all projected onto the front of the Parliament. I think the thing that moved me so much is that we’re on this huge once in a lifetime voyage across my country and the show really had me feeling very much in love with my Canada. How lucky I am to be a Canadian and proud too. I don’t want to get all patriotic on you but it was, as Dave put it, very timely for us.

After that, we trucked back to the condo and passed out in the bed.

EXPENSES:

Sleeping: Free again! Thanks Allison and Dave
Wee babe disposition: Wonderful as usual.
Weather: Overcast and about 24, rain, clear skies at night.
Stress level: Fab.