2015 Canada Trip August 8 to 11
Well, it's been quite a while since I took the time to post about something, so I might as post about one of the more exciting times in our year... The TRIP!
On Saturday August 8, Kai went to his swimming practice in the morning and after he came back, we had a quick lunch and headed out to Kagohara Station by bus. We got the train and transferred flawlessly to arrive at Haneda Airport on time. There, we relaxed, had a bit of a snack on the observation deck and checked out the stores a bit before going to catch our plane.
Everything went well but as usual, Ray got sick on the plane. Poor guy.
In Toronto, we were advised that we might be able to get on an earlier flight to Ottawa by using the stand-by system... and it worked like a charm! So, instead of waiting for three hours, we only waited two and we were on our way a little earlier! Yay!
We arrived at our destination, got our bags and waited just a few minutes before my parents showed up... a little bit surprised to see us already here seeing as our planned plane was just now landing!
Back home, we talked a little and quickly went off to bed.
JET-LAG!
Oy.... I got hit by the lag pretty hard this year and I was wide-awake at stupid-o-clock-in-the-morning.
Everyone else got up pretty early too so went out for some early shopping and took care of many of our souvenirs right then! Yay! I also got my Best of JALT Certificate laminated.
In the afternoon, Nadine, Marc, Heloise and Zavier came by and we all enjoyed the pool for a while. It was nice, relaxing day!
Monday was the start of a new adventure for the boys! We enrolled them for horse-riding camp this year and they had the time of their life there with Heloise and one other girl!
While they were having fun, we went out for more shopping. This time, it was to the Teacher's Store for some work-supplies for me as well as some dress-shoes from Moore's. I got some great things at the Teacher's Store but had a very poor impression of the Moore's Staff. (Fortunately, the staff at another location was later to amply make-up for the first lady's total-failure at client-service.)
One good point of that bit of disappointment was that it provided the basis for a very successful class on cross-cultural attitudes to sales.
Kai and Ray were absolutely BEAMING with joy upon their return from their first day of horse-camp. It was very nice to see!
Tuesday featured more riding for the boys and a few field-trips for the adults. Our first stop was Beau's Brewery near Hawkesbury where my cousin Zackary works as a chemist. The poor boy appears to be forced to imbibe beer on a daily basis... and get paid for it! Clearly, there are some pretty sweet jobs in the world!
We were treated to a tour of the factory and got to sample a number of beers. I liked some better than others. The Tom Green one was by far the chocolatiest beer I've EVER had... I liked it! That along with the Lug Tread beer topped my list for the day. The Coeur Noir beer was simply unpalatable to me.
Well... that was fun. Now slightly inebriated, we wondered how to pair our morning beers for lunch. The answer was obvious! CHEESE! And so we went off to the St-Albert Cheese Factory for a tour of their facilities where we saw a guy eat a large chunk of cheese as part of his Q/A work... I'm not sure if I envy THAT job or not... he seems to have to eat a LOT of cheese. My cousin may be getting the better deal here.
The cheeseburgers were very nice, though.
We had a more relaxing afternoon and then after an early dinner, Katsuko and I went to Ottawa to meet up with my friend Erik. We toured his house and then went to a restaurant to enjoy some poutine and chat with his girlfriend about Iceland and fun travel stuff! It was a great evening!
On Saturday August 8, Kai went to his swimming practice in the morning and after he came back, we had a quick lunch and headed out to Kagohara Station by bus. We got the train and transferred flawlessly to arrive at Haneda Airport on time. There, we relaxed, had a bit of a snack on the observation deck and checked out the stores a bit before going to catch our plane.
Everything went well but as usual, Ray got sick on the plane. Poor guy.
In Toronto, we were advised that we might be able to get on an earlier flight to Ottawa by using the stand-by system... and it worked like a charm! So, instead of waiting for three hours, we only waited two and we were on our way a little earlier! Yay!
We arrived at our destination, got our bags and waited just a few minutes before my parents showed up... a little bit surprised to see us already here seeing as our planned plane was just now landing!
Back home, we talked a little and quickly went off to bed.
JET-LAG!
Oy.... I got hit by the lag pretty hard this year and I was wide-awake at stupid-o-clock-in-the-morning.
Everyone else got up pretty early too so went out for some early shopping and took care of many of our souvenirs right then! Yay! I also got my Best of JALT Certificate laminated.
In the afternoon, Nadine, Marc, Heloise and Zavier came by and we all enjoyed the pool for a while. It was nice, relaxing day!
Monday was the start of a new adventure for the boys! We enrolled them for horse-riding camp this year and they had the time of their life there with Heloise and one other girl!
While they were having fun, we went out for more shopping. This time, it was to the Teacher's Store for some work-supplies for me as well as some dress-shoes from Moore's. I got some great things at the Teacher's Store but had a very poor impression of the Moore's Staff. (Fortunately, the staff at another location was later to amply make-up for the first lady's total-failure at client-service.)
One good point of that bit of disappointment was that it provided the basis for a very successful class on cross-cultural attitudes to sales.
Kai and Ray were absolutely BEAMING with joy upon their return from their first day of horse-camp. It was very nice to see!
Tuesday featured more riding for the boys and a few field-trips for the adults. Our first stop was Beau's Brewery near Hawkesbury where my cousin Zackary works as a chemist. The poor boy appears to be forced to imbibe beer on a daily basis... and get paid for it! Clearly, there are some pretty sweet jobs in the world!
We were treated to a tour of the factory and got to sample a number of beers. I liked some better than others. The Tom Green one was by far the chocolatiest beer I've EVER had... I liked it! That along with the Lug Tread beer topped my list for the day. The Coeur Noir beer was simply unpalatable to me.
Well... that was fun. Now slightly inebriated, we wondered how to pair our morning beers for lunch. The answer was obvious! CHEESE! And so we went off to the St-Albert Cheese Factory for a tour of their facilities where we saw a guy eat a large chunk of cheese as part of his Q/A work... I'm not sure if I envy THAT job or not... he seems to have to eat a LOT of cheese. My cousin may be getting the better deal here.
The cheeseburgers were very nice, though.
We had a more relaxing afternoon and then after an early dinner, Katsuko and I went to Ottawa to meet up with my friend Erik. We toured his house and then went to a restaurant to enjoy some poutine and chat with his girlfriend about Iceland and fun travel stuff! It was a great evening!