Still suffering..

.. from Jet Lag and post holiday blues. I was back at work this morning at 7am which was not easy but I am off now until Wednesday afternoon so it's not too bad. I have been given my hours for the next two weeks and I am not a happy bunny as I have been given 12 hours more than I actually want next week which resulted in me asking how much notice I need to give by 8am this morning. I think it may be time to start job hunting again if things don't improve soon. Not a prospect I relish as I do love my job it's only the amount of hours that I have a problem with as I only want a 20-25 hour week.

I still haven't got round to sorting out all my holiday snaps but it is on my list of things to do today if I get the time. I have managed to find this one though that can be used for today's prompt of HS:MS which is the letter "S".

This was a sign at Killbear provincial park in Canada. They have rare and venomous Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake and Eastern Fox Snakes there that get themselves run over, hence the signs. We didn't see a Rattler but a Fox snake did slither right in front of us and scared the life out of us as even though they don't have a rattle they do vibrate their tails in the dry leaves and it sounds like a rattle.

What would win...

.. in a fight a sperm whale or a giant squid? This is the subject that Pete and the boys were discussing for over 30 minutes while we walked along side Niagara Falls yesterday and I mean a serious conversation. Me? I was happy with my camera.

The ride on the Maid of the Mist was "Awesome" creating yet another unforgettable experience for us.

I even managed to capture a very rare moment of tenderness between my boys.

For food? We ate at the Flying Saucer Restaurant where we got to eat Poutine a Canadian delicacy of chips, gravy and cheese - yummy!

The evening was spent walking down the strip and seeing the falls all lit up I do have photos of it all but I have to get dressed now and re-pack (I am looking forward to not living out of a suitcase on Friday) ready to check out and drive round to the speed boat which we are booked on for 10am. The sun is up and it's nice and warm already so even though we will get soaked through we won't be cold. I will be hunting for a triangle for HS:MS on my travels today.

On the move....

AGAIN! We got back from the cottage yesterday after a wonderful week up there. We got to go up to Sudbury to the FANTASTIC science place on Saturday which meant that there was next to nothing between us and the North Pole except maybe a few polar bears. I have loads of photos to share but I have not had time to put them on the computer, so sorry Suzy you will have to wait. I have managed to do 2 though just to keep her happy.

This first one is the view we woke up to all last week - yes we could see this from our bedroom window! The land in the distance is Killbear Provincial Park.

As there are lots of leaves on the this picture I am using it as my HS:MS shot for today. I have played along over the last 2 weeks but have not been able to upload them - I will so a huge catch up when we get home at the weekend.

Happy Hour on the lake. It's a strong cosmopolitan in the glass and the reason for the face is that I am not as comfortable as the boys swimming with turtles especially when some of them are rather large (huge) snapping ones! I did relax eventually though.

In a couple of minutes we are jumping into the car - again and heading round to Niagara Falls which is about a 2 hour drive from my Aunts house. We will be riding the maid herself this afternoon before staying in a rather swanky hotel tonight and then tomorrow we will be partaking in a little bit of speed boating and white water rafting - should be fun.

In the Canadian Wilderness..

..sort of. We are currently living in a little cottage on the lake front somewhere on Georgian Bay which is part of Lake Huron, one of the great lakes. We don't have internet access here but I have just switched my computer to put some photos on it from the camera and I have managed to get on to a very very low signal coming from somewhere so I am taking advantage of it. The link keeps coming and going but if I can get it for long enough I will upload some photos later.

Last Sunday we drove from Ottawa through Algonquin National Park, with a few stops along the way, across to Parry Sound and then up to the cottage it took us all day but it was fun. All except the bit when I fell over and scraped all the skin off my knee at Peck Lake in the park resulting in me having legs that look like they belong to a five year old.

We still haven't seen any bears or moose but there have been sightings of them about 15 minutes walk away from where we are staying so we are hopeful. The boys are loving swimming about in the lake with rubber rings, floating seats, lilos and painted turtles and are only out of the water for about an hour each day. Chipmunks are everywhere, snakes, red squirrels, black tailed foxes, chipmunks, groundhogs, deer, snapping turtles, vultures, ospreys, humming birds, loons are just a few of the things that have been sighted. I'm just not quick enough to photograph them all especially when we are in a boat speeding along between the thousands of islands in the area.

We have been geocaching which ended up with Pete and Kyle doing a little bit of cliff jumping while we were there. Today we plan to drive about 3 miles up the road to Killbear National Park to walk some of the trails there and find another 3 caches and hopefully avoid the rattlesnakes. We have been told that there is a good beach there too so I am sure that Kyle will be testing that out as long as we don't get a thunder storm.

On the Road.....

Again! It seems like ages ago that we left home but it has only been 8 days, I think this could be because we have packed an amazing amount into such a short space of time. Today we have driven East to Ottawa stopping at "Bleasedell Boulder" along the way which Kyle just had to climb with a little bit of help....

After a nice relaxing drive to Kingston to see "Fort Henry" we turned North up to "Smiths Falls" where we visited "Timmy Horton's" for coffee, doughnuts and cookies before continuing on up to Ottawa. After parking the car we booked into the rather splendid hotel that we are staying in and got ready to explore the city. This place has the most amazing buildings on Parliament Hill which are beautiful, unfortunately the light wasn't playing so I couldn't get any really good shots tonight.

When we reached the top of the hill (and caught our breath back) we saw a couple of these little guys scrabbling about in the dirt which made my day.


We walked a little bit further and found the coolest fire fountain....

Dinner tonight was a great experience at a place called "Richtree Market Restaurant" where you are handed a card each on your arrival. You then walk round the restaurant finding the food that you fancy, you hand the card to the chef and they swipe it adding your choice to the final bill. It was that good that we are eating there again tomorrow night.

We have timed our visit really well as tomorrow the International Buskerfest is in full swing, the 1st Rideau Canal Festival gets underway AND the International Firework Competition starts at 9.30 just over the water and on top of that the hotel has a swimming pool so I don't think we will be stuck for anything to do.

The only thing I have left to say is a huge "GOOD LUCK" to my cousin Claire who is playing in beach volley ball competition this weekend in Toronto. We will be thinking about you.

Back in Claremont

The flight from Newark in New Jersey went well with no complications and after picking up a new hire car, which is not as glamorous as the first one, we got back to Claremont mid afternoon. We were all that knackered that we just relaxed and took it easy for the rest of the day.

Yesterday was a bit more eventful and active. On the way to Stouffville we dropped off 11 Travel Bugs and Geocoins off at a geocache, including Matthews coin which is in a race with Kyles to see which one can get back to Cheshire England first. Once in Stouffville we visited "Timber Creek" where we played crazy golf and went into the batting cages.

"SPS"
Someone Elses Portrait

After a walk round a giant "Wal-mart" we went to catch dinner at Burds Family Fishery. Between them the boys managed to catch four HUGE rainbow trout one of which Nick BBQ'd for us to eat - delicious. The others have been frozen ready to take to the cottage next week to be smoked for dinner one night.

To finish off a great day we went to watch "Batman The Dark Knight" at the local cinema which we all really enjoyed.

Walking for Shoes

The 2nd post in one day have I nothing better to do? The answer is no. I am sitting relaxing on the deck with a glass of Iced Green Tea watching a chipmunk running about in total peace and quiet - what better thing could I be doing than sitting editing some pictures. Pete has gone out with Nick for a spin in the car with the roof down and my cousin Claire and her friend Stacy (both 18) have taken the boys out to Canada's Wonderland to go on all the rides and visit the water park so they won't be back until late. When Pete gets back we will be repacking our bags ready to go to New York tomorrow morning. This morning we walked down this road....

to visit this tree .....

so that we could leave Kyle's geocoin in a cache that is hidden there. We then jumped into the car to go and find some more and I think someone may have enjoyed the ride.....

"SPS"
Some one elses portrait

We're Here

Well we got here safe after a very good flight that left on time and got us in half an hour early and with hardly any turbulence. I can highly recommend Thomas Cook for anyone who is tall as they have loads and loads of leg room which resulted in not one complaint from Pete the whole flight. The food was good (for flight food) and we got to watch "Enchanted" and the newest "National Treasure" so we were kept entertained.

Everything went smoothly at the airport and even the car hire was quick. We got the keys and went to find the car we were a little disappointed when we saw what was in space #20 but it would do. Pete clicked the button to open the doors, nothing happened, so he clicked it again and the next car lit up at this point the boys nearly wet their pants. We checked the paperwork and the reg number and make matched the car at #21 being the grown up in this outfit I suggested that we go back and ask if there had been a mistake but everyone else decided the best thing would be to jump in and drive so I was out voted (again) and that is what we did. Unfortunately in their haste they left the GPS to me - biiiggg mistake. I eventually got it off French and into English and put in Carolyn's address and we started to follow the nice ladies instructions. It didn't take long to realise that it was taking us in the completely wrong direction so Pete pulled up in a residential street to look at the GPS. To say he wasn't impressed is an understatement - the GPS wasn't switched on and we had been following a simulation for nearly half and hour which didn't make me too popular.

Even so we still managed to arrive early here .....

in this......



how cool is that!

Kyle is now best buds with Sierra the Husky again and they are following each other around everywhere. The boys are more than happy as they are sleeping in the basement with a HUGE TV and a Wii complete with guitar hero AND the dog - everything we don't let them have in their rooms at home.