May 31 -Tour of Ottawa with Lorne Conway

Peter and Lorne

We met with a friend of Peter’s, Lorne Conway, and he toured us all around Ottawa.  Lorne and Peter worked together at Office King in Lloydminster back in 1985.

We got together in the morning and went to a place near Lorne’s for brunch.  Then headed downtown Ottawa to tour Parliament.

It was a wonderful tour, beautiful building and great learning.  Most of all we had super company! 

Lorne told us one of the highlights is eating “beaver tails” so we had to try them.  They are like elephant ears, but you can put many more toppings on them.  Absolutely delicious! 

We then headed back to Lorne’s house for a BBQ supper.  We met his daughter, Briana, who played OzFlux with the kids to keep them company. 

After supper we watched highlights of Lorne and Briana’s trip to Australia where they sky dived. Then they scuba dived in the ocean to swim with sharks!

What a wonderful visit we had, thank you Lorne and Briana for your amazing hospitality! 

These are the things that we treasure the most, spending time with amazing people along our travels.  As we evaluate our journey, we are finding that the places are cool, but it is the people that make our journey amazing and the most memorable.

Canada's Parliament Eh!

The library was spared from the fire of 1916 due to a closed metal door

Eating a "Beaver Tail"

May 30 -Off to Ottawa

Closing the Gap

We travelled to Ottawa, staying in Camp Hither Hills Campground.  We got settled and worked on laundry.  We are camping here for a week.  Peter and the kids played soccer while I prepared supper. 

You know it is a small world when some of the same people we met in Cape Breton, NS were camping in this same RV park in Ontario.

May 29 -Birthday at the Botanical Gardens

It was another special day, as I turned 47.  It sounds old when I say it, but it doesn’t feel old.  LOL.

My family blessed me with breakfast in bed and we went to the Insectarium and Botanical Gardens at the Montreal Biodome. 

Then we all enjoyed Dairy Queen ice cream!  Yummy! 

I am so thankful for my family!!

Peter's favorite scent, Lilacs

Taken by Genesis

Caught in a spiders web

Zac's photo original

Zac's photo edited to look like a painting

Zac's photo original

Zac's photo edited to look like a painting

May 28 -New Laundry and the Notre Dame Basillica

Our renters had contacted us about strange noises coming from our washing machine at home. The repair guy said that the washer wouldn’t be worth repairing and we should just purchase a new one.

We are so thankful to know businesspeople at home to help us.  Thank you to Heather and Ken at Midwest Furniture for all your help it is greatly appreciated!

We toured around old Montreal.  We went to the Notre Dame Basillica, a magnificent church where Celine Dion was married.  Once again we are amazed at the old & beautiful buildings in Montreal, reminding Peter and I of Italy. 

We went to the “underground city” to see the tunnels and do some shopping.  For lunch we ate at a cool little café and then We went to Rueben’s for supper and had Montreal Smoked meat!  Yummy! 

Remember, you can click to enlarge these pics

Peter tried to have the kids arrange themselves to look like the statue. It seemed rather hopeless.

Reuben's Montreal Smoked Meat Sandwich. There is bread in there somewhere!

May 27 -Biodome Birthday

It was a special day, as we celebrated Genesis 10^th birthday.  We had her favorite muffins for breakfast (Banana Nut), then we headed to the Biodome in Montreal.  The Biodome is located at the former Olympic Dome.

It was a very fun and cool place to visit as we were able to see four eco-systems with the animals that live in each environment. 

For anyone who knows our sweet Genesis, you know she is an animal lover, which made her day extra special.

To top off an already great day we went bowling.  It was 10 pin with small pins and balls like we use for 5 pin bowling.  None of us had ever done this kind of bowling before, it was great fun!! 

May 26 -Driving Range

We were camped right in front of a driving range, so we purchased two buckets of balls and all took a turn at driving the balls. 

May 25 -Camping Alouette, Montreal

We drove to Camping Alouette Campground in Montreal.  Peter had to makes some calls to find tires for the trailer. They were too far worn for us to continue to travel on. After a few calls Peter found tires!  He and the boys jacked up the trailer, removed the wheels, drove to have the tires replaced and then put the wheels back on again. Yeah! 

May 24 -Old Quebec, Part Deux

We learned about some of the history of Quebec and  why and how they had to protect themselves.  We watched a presentation about the many battles between the British and the French over Quebec City, including the battle at the Plains of Abraham.  The British eventually took over the city, which is how Quebec later ended up as a part of Canada.  Quebec was also attacked by Americans as a strike against the British during the American Revolution.

Peter and I went out for dinner on a date night to an awesome Italian Restaurant.