Canada Trip 2014 August 8 to August 11
We got up early on Friday morning for the kids' swimming practice but then after they came back, everyone promptly took a quick nap before lunch. Laziness!
Everything is now ready for our departure. All the bags are packed and our tickets are ready. It's go time! So, off we go to Kagohara by bus and then it's onwards by train until Haneda Airport in Tokyo. Sleeping time again! Narcolepsy?
We had a late dinner at the airport and then it was time to board our plane, bound for Vancouver! All went well, but it was interesting to note that our flight path was less parabolic than usual and we seemed to have avoided the entirety of Russian territory. I watched the "Hunger Games" movie and found myself mostly bored at how utterly devoid it was of anything surprising... and MORE bored at having genetically engineered wasps explained to me in painstakingly slow and ham-handed detail when the whole thing could have been cut and I still would have gotten it.
The arrival in Vancounver marked the end of that particular agony. We looked around the airport, played on the escalators and had a quick meal before finding a likely spot to sleep for the next several hours. (Yet more laziness!)
Time to board our next plane! The 5 hour flight from Vancouver to Ottawa was punctuated by the most horribly boring movies EVER! OK, that's not true... Air Canada has offered me an even worse movie experience once before. I chose to watch Spider Man 2 and found it amazing that even after sticking in as many random villains as they could possibly fit and rehashing a previously told story, they STILL HAD NOTHING to fill out their movie!
Huh... no food on this flight. At this point, I'm not sure if that's a plus or a minus.
Finally, it's 0600 on Saturday and we've arrived safely in Ottawa! Customs went by well and we soon got our bags and were reunited with grandma and grandpa! As always, Kai and Ray dashed past all obstacles to jump in their arms!
Back home, the kids picked tomatoes from mom's garden and we had a nice breakfast followed by a nap... followed by lunch... followed by cribbage. Katsuko and I had some shopping to do for souvenirs and as always, not enough time to do it in, so off we went!
Dinner was a very special affair. My dad cooked us some salmon on the BBQ and it was absolutely AMAZING! Katsuko and I agreed that we had never had better. Thanks!
OK... jet-lag is making its presence known to me and it's off to bed a bit on the early side!
Alrighty! Morning is upon us and it's time to get up and move out! No more laziness for us! After getting up and having a grand breakfast at Hotel Them, we got ready to leave for our next little trip up North. Kai and Ray had gotten cameras from grandpa and grandma along with some photography homework from their evil dad. (Who gives homework during summer holidays!?)
The kids were extremely excited about both the cameras AND the homework. All day in the car, they were asking about the next picture assignment and whether such and such a roadside attraction would pop up today.
We stopped for ice cream and again for lunch before eventually reaching Nore-Dame du Nord and uncle Gaetan's house.
I found out that he is very skilled at wood-carving and was impressed by his works. Being a man of many talents, he also impressed us with barbecued buffalo, deer and wild boar. Mighty tasty stuff!
Shortly after dinner, jet-lag kicked in with a vengeance for me. Keeping half an eye open was pretty much the best I could manage for the rest of the evening. Everyone else seemed to be fine, though. Kai and Ray played with their cousins and had loads of fun!
Got up nice and early again today (Monday) and had a great breakfast at Uncle Gaetan's place.
Today's plan was a bit on the eccentric side of things. Now there's something out of character for us!
We were to start the day off by visiting an abandoned mine about 20 minutes away from my uncle's house. We found the site easily enough and the son-in-law of the owner welcomed us to look around as much as we liked but to be careful of the bears.
Here, we found a a wild assortment of minerals including silver, millerite, copper, iron, iron-pyrite, charcoal-pyrite, mica, feldspar, quartz, calcite crystal, glassfied mine-waste, carrots (core samples) and asbestos. What a haul! This will be used for Kai and Ray's homework assignement... NEXT YEAR! Now, *that's* planning ahead!
A couple of hours later, we packed everything away and went on our way to Kap Kigiwan, the park where we used to play every month when I was younger. Here, we had a nice picnic lunch and the kids used their pocket knives to fashion walking sticks for themselves. We ventured to the waterfall and enjoyed the sight a good while before heading back.
It was mid-afternoon by the time we arrived in Kirkland Lake and checked into our hotel. Once we were settled in, we went out on the town to have a look-see down government road, the main stretch of the town. There were some new businesses and a few that I recognized from when I was young but a fair chunk of commerces were torn down to make room for a small park. It looked like a struggling town, which is to say that nothing much has really changed. I did hear that there was new gold strike almost exactly the day we arrived. I hope the deposit is big and that some of the extra income flows into the town itself!
For dinner, we went to M&M's Fish&Chip stand. Yep. It hadn't changed at all from when I was young. The tastiest Fish&CHips this side of Ottawa!
Everything is now ready for our departure. All the bags are packed and our tickets are ready. It's go time! So, off we go to Kagohara by bus and then it's onwards by train until Haneda Airport in Tokyo. Sleeping time again! Narcolepsy?
We had a late dinner at the airport and then it was time to board our plane, bound for Vancouver! All went well, but it was interesting to note that our flight path was less parabolic than usual and we seemed to have avoided the entirety of Russian territory. I watched the "Hunger Games" movie and found myself mostly bored at how utterly devoid it was of anything surprising... and MORE bored at having genetically engineered wasps explained to me in painstakingly slow and ham-handed detail when the whole thing could have been cut and I still would have gotten it.
The arrival in Vancounver marked the end of that particular agony. We looked around the airport, played on the escalators and had a quick meal before finding a likely spot to sleep for the next several hours. (Yet more laziness!)
Time to board our next plane! The 5 hour flight from Vancouver to Ottawa was punctuated by the most horribly boring movies EVER! OK, that's not true... Air Canada has offered me an even worse movie experience once before. I chose to watch Spider Man 2 and found it amazing that even after sticking in as many random villains as they could possibly fit and rehashing a previously told story, they STILL HAD NOTHING to fill out their movie!
Huh... no food on this flight. At this point, I'm not sure if that's a plus or a minus.
Finally, it's 0600 on Saturday and we've arrived safely in Ottawa! Customs went by well and we soon got our bags and were reunited with grandma and grandpa! As always, Kai and Ray dashed past all obstacles to jump in their arms!
Back home, the kids picked tomatoes from mom's garden and we had a nice breakfast followed by a nap... followed by lunch... followed by cribbage. Katsuko and I had some shopping to do for souvenirs and as always, not enough time to do it in, so off we went!
Dinner was a very special affair. My dad cooked us some salmon on the BBQ and it was absolutely AMAZING! Katsuko and I agreed that we had never had better. Thanks!
OK... jet-lag is making its presence known to me and it's off to bed a bit on the early side!
Alrighty! Morning is upon us and it's time to get up and move out! No more laziness for us! After getting up and having a grand breakfast at Hotel Them, we got ready to leave for our next little trip up North. Kai and Ray had gotten cameras from grandpa and grandma along with some photography homework from their evil dad. (Who gives homework during summer holidays!?)
The kids were extremely excited about both the cameras AND the homework. All day in the car, they were asking about the next picture assignment and whether such and such a roadside attraction would pop up today.
We stopped for ice cream and again for lunch before eventually reaching Nore-Dame du Nord and uncle Gaetan's house.
I found out that he is very skilled at wood-carving and was impressed by his works. Being a man of many talents, he also impressed us with barbecued buffalo, deer and wild boar. Mighty tasty stuff!
Shortly after dinner, jet-lag kicked in with a vengeance for me. Keeping half an eye open was pretty much the best I could manage for the rest of the evening. Everyone else seemed to be fine, though. Kai and Ray played with their cousins and had loads of fun!
Got up nice and early again today (Monday) and had a great breakfast at Uncle Gaetan's place.
Today's plan was a bit on the eccentric side of things. Now there's something out of character for us!
We were to start the day off by visiting an abandoned mine about 20 minutes away from my uncle's house. We found the site easily enough and the son-in-law of the owner welcomed us to look around as much as we liked but to be careful of the bears.
Here, we found a a wild assortment of minerals including silver, millerite, copper, iron, iron-pyrite, charcoal-pyrite, mica, feldspar, quartz, calcite crystal, glassfied mine-waste, carrots (core samples) and asbestos. What a haul! This will be used for Kai and Ray's homework assignement... NEXT YEAR! Now, *that's* planning ahead!
A couple of hours later, we packed everything away and went on our way to Kap Kigiwan, the park where we used to play every month when I was younger. Here, we had a nice picnic lunch and the kids used their pocket knives to fashion walking sticks for themselves. We ventured to the waterfall and enjoyed the sight a good while before heading back.
It was mid-afternoon by the time we arrived in Kirkland Lake and checked into our hotel. Once we were settled in, we went out on the town to have a look-see down government road, the main stretch of the town. There were some new businesses and a few that I recognized from when I was young but a fair chunk of commerces were torn down to make room for a small park. It looked like a struggling town, which is to say that nothing much has really changed. I did hear that there was new gold strike almost exactly the day we arrived. I hope the deposit is big and that some of the extra income flows into the town itself!
For dinner, we went to M&M's Fish&Chip stand. Yep. It hadn't changed at all from when I was young. The tastiest Fish&CHips this side of Ottawa!