A Visit to Ottawa

For the August long weekend, we took a trip up to see Auntie Joyce and Auntie Judith in Val des Monts, Quebec just outside of Ottawa. When we got there we were tickled to see that they had pulled out all the stops to welcome us - the signs lined the lane:


Upon arriving, Joely was very pleased to discover that the lake upon which the lot is located was bigger than a wading pool. Our first day was a warm, glorious, sunny day - the exception this year especially in the Ottawa region - so we wasted no time and headed to the dock to cool off with some swimming and water fun. The latter involved an old slide with some water drizzled down the chute, and a blow-up pool mattress serving as a crash pad. The kids wasted no time in "rippin' 60" (to borrow a phrase from Auntie Joyce):


The slide was the undeniable hit of the weekend; the following short video clip shows the pace at which the girls would go up and down it - pretty much as fast as they could - for long periods of time. No wonder they slept like logs in the evenings:

After a break for dinner, it was back down to the dock for the sunset and more swimming. This time out, Joely discovered the joys of launching herself from the dock into the lake:


The straigh-ahead jumps soon gave way to spinning jumps as the level of difficulty was upped. Tan captured this fantastic shot of Joely mid-spin...you can see the little yellow whistle on her life jacket at the end of its tether from the centrifugal force:


Through it all, Buddy the faithful hound would wait for his girl to swim to shore where she was greeted with kisses:


Meanwhile, Lucy was content to puddle around and just be her cute self:


And somewhere in there we squeezed in a canoe ride. Did I mention we all slept well that night?

The next day was rainy initially, so we went to the Children's Museum at the Museum of Civilization. Our picture fingers must have been worn out, because we completely forgot our camera. It was a blast though. Later in the day though, the sun came out in time to hit the lake for more swimming and sunset watching:


On our final full day, we headed to Wakefield, Quebec, to watch an old steam engine and train pull in from Ottawa. Joycie and Joely opted for the "down by the tracks seat", while Lucy and the rest of us got up on a little platform:


The girls thought seeing a train that actually went "chugga chugga choo choo" was pretty cool:

After a lovely lunch on the patio at Chez Eric's, followed by some tasty nibbles from a local bakery, we hit the trail back to the country for - wait for it - more swimming! This time out, we dragged the slide to the end of the dock and used it to launch into the lake:


Watching Joely zip down the slide looked like too much fun. So, even though the slide is "made for children" and "too small for my butt", I managed to position myself on it sideways and slide down - with the grace of an elephant seal sliding into the sea:

A bit later, some cheeky juvenile ducks came by and waited expectantly for us to feed them. When we didn't oblige (you know, the whole teach a duck to fish proverb), they became irritated and flew off:

It was a fantastic visit - looking forward to our next one...