I'm still here

I've just been neglecting my little blog. The fall has proven to be very, very busy and I don't think things are going to calm down until Christmas. I'm not going to complain, though, because I still have a job to take up all my time and some people don't even have that.

I haven't quite finished writing about my Ontario trip. I got to spend about 12 days at my cabin. The first part of it was with the Core Four and the second part with my BFF, and the third part with my parents and their giant of a puppy, Barkley The Forlorn.

Sad, giant puppy

Wonderland

As part of my three week vacation, I spent a couple of days in Toronto. One day with my brother (Hurricane Michael) at Wonderland and one day to visit with friends in the city. I hadn't been to Wonderland since the ¾ of the Core Four 30h Reunion Extravaganza two years ago. I really wanted to go this year because I had the time and they have a new coaster I really wanted to try. So my brother got a day off work and we went on the Monday of the last week in August. Since returning from my trip, I got this email from my brother:

"A woman I work with somehow ended up at a function with the guy who designs the rides for Canada's Wonderland (talk about a great job).  He told her that the week we went, historically, is the busiest week of the entire year at the park.  So we got ridiculously lucky."

History!

My dad was in Ottawa recently and apparently he spent a lot of time looking for Laurentian Terrace, a place his aunt lived during the war. It was a home for unmarried women working in the city during the war.  I'd never heard of it, so upon googling I found this in a 2000 book ominously titled Whose National Security? Canadian State Surveillance and the Creation of Enemies:

The aunt in question is the Winifred Moyle mentioned in the book. Fun! Aunt Win was one of my spinster aunts, which may be ironic considering she had a degree in home economics from U of A (Class of 1926, 82 years before me). She worked in the RCAF before working at Laurentian Terrace for almost 20 years, eventually becoming director.

Lego

When I was back at my parents' house last month, my dad brought out my old Lego for my niece and nephew to play with. My oldest brother was all, "it's my Lego, I never said you could have it." He then proceeded to spend the entire day playing with it, building shit like this:

Road Trip: Day 2

The second day of the road trip was dreaded by me. It was the day we drove through Montreal. Since I moved to NS in undergrad I have heard nothing but horrible things about how hard it is to drive through Montreal – how crazy the drivers are and  how confusing and poorly labelled the highways are. Well, Oz is a master navigator and driving though Montreal was a breeze (for those of you interested – we took the 40 through the northern part of the city). Quebec City, on the other hand, was less breezy because the exit we wanted to take to connect to the 40 was closed. I didn’t have a proper city map for Quebec City because I had no intention of getting off the highway there, so that caused me some panic. But in the end we got on the right highway – in the right direction to boot, so it was fine.

We didn’t do any touristy stops that day. My French is horrible and Quebec makes me uncomfortable.  I did, however,  buy gas and conduct the entire transaction in French. I am so proud of myself. I believe the exchange went something like:

Me: Bonjour!

Cashier (in French): Good morning. That will be $53.76 please  (or something to that effect)

Me: (displays my Visa to indicate method of payment)

Cashier: (does cashier stuff, hands me the card machine, prints off receipt, hands it to me)

Me: Merci! (leaves the store with chest puffed out with pride).

We got to Ottawa pretty early, just before 3pm. We eventually found the place where Oz was staying, and I headed off to my brother’s place in Kanata.

Road trip

I mentioned in a previous post that Oz was visiting. The reason for her visit was twofold – to see Halifax for the first time, and to be my road trip buddy on my drive to Ontario for my summer vacation.  I took three weeks off work and planned a fairly comprehensive family-and-friend-visiting-vacation tour of Ontario. A grad school reunion with my closest U of A friends was part of that, so Oz hitched a ride with me.

We didn’t do anything fancy on the drive from Halifax to Ontario (our first destination was Ottawa). We left Dartmouth around 7am on Saturday morning. Our first stop was Second Cup, so I could get coffee and we could get oatcakes for everyone. We stopped for gas outside Moncton, then we stopped for lunch at park in a little town called Meductic in NB. We also stopped in Grand Falls, NB, to look at the titular falls. The signage to the falls failed to work and we got a bit turned around, but we found them eventually. The falls were interesting, but would be more impressive during the spring melt. 

Meductic, NB

Grand Falls, NB

The first day of driving was pretty easy. It rained on and off, we couldn’t seem to escape it.  We ended our day at the Motel Loupi in Rivière-du-Loup, Quebec.  The motel was perfectly fine. I would stay there again. The rooms had coffee makers and fridges, which is a nice perk. It was also in a great location and had a nice view of the town.