Ottawa! June 23/24

I love campgrounds with Wi-Fi!

We left Montreal yesterday at 12:30 started out towards Ottawa. We FINALLY got to eat at a sugar shack. We were actually able to hit up the one Barton and I went to almost 3 years ago called the Sucrerie de la Montagne. It’s so awesome! If you’re ever in the area it’s so definitely worth it. It’s beautiful and delicious.

I wrote a story about it ages ago… http://smudgemedia.blogspot.com/2008/02/true-sugar-shack.html

Lunch was long and relaxing so we arrived in Ottawa just before 6pm when we found a camp ground and set up our tent. We brought out tent and sleeping bags but NOTHING else! (This is where Nikolai would correct me and say “Not NOTHING else!”) Just after we had everything set up and taken out of the van we heard some loud cracks of thunder… so everything got packed away again. We left the tent up and tried to cram everything else into the van.

The boys and Riley were out riding their bikes around the camp ground and within 10 minutes we found them, looking like drowned rats riding bikes. Nikolai was terrified, the thunder and lightning were so close! They jumped in the van soaked completely through and Bridger had a new gash across his chest where he tripped over Nikolai’s bike when Nikolai dropped his bike and ran for the hills. “That which doesn’t kill you…”

So we drove into Ottawa soaking wet and were unfortunately too late to actually go into any buildings. However, it was warm enough so we walked around the Parliament Buildings and some of the downtown. It’s very beautiful, especially along the Ottawa River. The kids really enjoyed the ‘eternal flame’ in front of the Parliament Buildings as well as looking for all the guarding gargoyles.

We were back to the camp ground and as we were all tired and wet and we had no lantern or campfire, we all found some softish object to use as a pillow and were all sleeping by 10! We woke up to the sound of light rain on the tent which is always a nice sound, especially when you’re dry and warm inside.

Mattea’s first night in a tent was a complete success! She slept very well and the other kids were great, they can sleep anywhere! We tried our best to manoeuvre ourselves into the van and change without getting too wet, most just ended up staying in what we slept in. We left the tent, hoping it would stop raining and at least partially dry out while we were in the city. When we found parking we changed into what we could and ate what was found in the car!

We went to the Museum of Civilization in Gatineau which is absolutely amazing! I cannot believe the detail and work put into it. You have to go if you’re here. There’s a huge kids section and all the other museum sections are so amazing that you can’t help but enjoy it. We ate lunch there and just returned back to the campground to pack up the tent. I’m not sure how dry it is, Barton’s dealing with that!

We unfortunately don’t have time to go for a tour of the Parliament which is something I would have really liked to have done. Maybe next time we drive across the country…

The kids were surprised at how French it still was here and were excellent at communicating at the sugar shack and the museum in French.

I forgot to tell you about the deer I almost hit in Fredericton! We had no wildlife encounters through most of the latter part of New Brunswick. I pulled into the city limits of Fredericton, was driving through major traffic in the industrial section and of all places, THIS is where a deer decided to boot it across the road. I had a semi to the right and barricades to the left. I really had to slam on the brakes that time, it was a bit frightening really.

And Mattea has two new teeth! One is French, one is English. I woke up today to discover a brand new tooth on the bottom, completely out! Who knew?! So that one came out somewhere in Quebec. Her new one is just poking through now, so that will be an Ontarian tooth. That makes 6! She also has totally stood on her own a few times and yesterday in the camp ground we thought she might teach herself to walk because she DID NOT like the feel of her knees in the dirt.

The lightning along the way has been so cool!

OK, that’s all for now, I should probably go and help the 'tent situation' and I'm still working on time to upload those photos…