A Week of Numbers

We've had a big week this week!

Firstly, Mum and Dad arrived on Monday night, from Australia. They were with us for 10 days and there had been excitement about this visit for about 3 months! They were in great form and lasted a couple of hours with us before heading off to bed to sleep off the jet lag.

Dinner on the deck on the night of my actual birthday.

The first numbers event this week occurred on Wednesday when I celebrated my 40th birthday. I am very positive about reaching 40 and embracing it! Certainly the year thus far has far exceeded expectations and the experiences have all contributed to a very memorable 40th birthday. My final wish was for a warm birthday ... something I've only experienced once before when I turned 18 in Sweden many years ago! The weather was not looking promising until Tuesday, when summer arrived ... and yes, Tuesday and Wednesday were very warm. The children were promised a day off school this week to spend with Gran and Pa; and my children, as they do in Australia, "had things on" at school on Thursday and Friday so couldn't miss the days; so they spent Wednesday at home with us. We had a lovely brunch of pancakes with maple syrup (of course), then a long lunch and walk around Ile d' Visitation in the sun. Dinner was a casual takeaway at home, but we are planning to go out and celebrate in more style next week.

Tony pre-race

The second numbers event for the week was the Ottawa Running Festival. The group I regularly run with here in Montreal were entering this running festival and aiming to complete the half marathon. I resisted for many weeks, as I knew Mum and Dad would be here; however after I started doing the long runs with this group - 12 - 17 kms; I couldn't resist any longer and managed to get a late registration. At the same time, Tony decided to enter his first long run and he did the 10km run on the same weekend. So we headed off to Ottawa, with Mum and Dad, the kids and the Australian flags!

Cheer squad. 

Tony's race was held in the evening, at 6:30pm. This is the biggest running festival in Canada, so it was a huge weekend. On Saturday, there was a 2km, 5km and 10km event. In just the 10km alone, there were 12 000 runners. Tony has been working really hard for this and has increased the distances he runs and the speed at which he runs. It all paid off as he did an amazing time of 46.32 mins. We all felt very proud of him and he was certainly pleased with his efforts, placing about 600th out of 12 200 odd runners. We found a place on the course and set up our flags to cheer him on. Unfortunately it was very hard to be along the course and at the finish line, as moving our cheer squad along with the other 20 000 people watching was a slow process. We did manage to see him just after he had finished, before he came through the recovery zone.

Post race

It is worth commenting that due to the size of this running festival, there was a huge amount of consideration put into the recovery of runners. There were seats at the finishing line, but this was a considerable distance from the "main area" of the fun run and the starting line. Once runners had finished, you had to continue walking - about 600 metres. This was an area for runners only and blocked off from supporters and family. There was first aid initially, then you were then handed your medal; for my run, we were also wrapped in space blankets; then you proceeded through a food tent, where so much food and drink was shoved into your hands. Care of the runners was paramount and they were not wanting people to collapse just over the finish line: in a way, this long walk (yes, long after a half mara) was essentially a warm down for everyone.  The food was to ensure no-one fainted along the way. All up, it was probably 15 mins before I came out and could meet up with Tony and the crew. As they had been watching from the crowds, about 500 metres from the finishing line, they also had quite a walk back to the meeting spot.

1 km into the race when I ran past the cheer squad!

My run was Sunday morning, and along with 13,100 other runners, I lined up for the start. There were several waves and most people seemed appropriately placed in the waves. I was running before the start line which is always good. This photo shows me as I saw Tony and the family, just after the start. This also shows the crowd, which was like this, and more crowded, for most of the run.

21.1 kms is one very long way! I did a particularly fast first 10 kms which was a big mistake. Crowd and excitement urged me on so I did 10 kms in about 51 mins. Of course I paid for that shortly after and found it hard to keep going. A stitch slowed me down for a couple of kms; then at 15 kms, the 1hr 55 min pace bunny passed me ... that was my goal! It made me angry for while, then spurred me on ... but unfortunately I didn't quite catch him at the end.

The Rideau Canal

Gemma post race

Us with our bling!

Ottawa is the capital of Canada, in the province of Ontario. It is a really pretty city,with amazing architecture and is famous for its tulips - a bigger tulip festival than Holland. It has a population of a bit over 800 000. The running festival had over 40 000 people participating over the whole weekend, so the city was packed. Ottawa has the Rideau Canal running through it, which was the basis for Tony's 10km run. I also run along part of it, then further into Ottawa, over the river and back into the province of Quebec and around the city of Gatineaux (Gatineaux is a border town to Ottawa) and back into Ottawa. I didn't really take in the scenery and landmarks very well! The crowds were amazing and the atmosphere was huge. Along the 21km route, there were at least 10 musical acts (singers, bands, drumming groups); about 7 water (and sometimes fruit) stations; and lots and lots of people.  It really was fun and from 18 kms onwards, both sides of the road were lined with spectators. At this 18km, the marathon runners merged into us and we both ran the same last 3 kms. They had started two hours before us, so there were still plenty of them running and the road became quite crowded. It did feel rather special to be running through a line of supporters cheering you on! I was really feeling it at this stage so did struggle somewhat, but the cheering certainly made it fun. I finished in a time of 1hr 56:06 mins which meant I reached my goal of under 2hrs. To give it some perspective, I came  3000th out of 13 100 runners,  so I was pretty happy. I was also struggling with a calf injury, so ultimately I'm just happy to have completed it! The buzz afterwards is certainly a good one!

We had found a great cafe on the edge of the canal in Ottawa and had lunch there on Saturday. It was a restrained lunch for Tony and I; focusing on water hydration and carbohydrates. We enjoyed it so much, as well as the space for the kids to run about, that we made a booking for lunch time on Sunday. Post races, there were some beers involved and a less healthy lunch! A great way to celebrate.

Birthday celebration dinner.

 The final celebration for the week of numbers was a dinner for my 40th. We had decided to wait until after the run weekend so that we could celebrate properly. We got a babysitter and went off to a lovely restaurant in town. We had a very impressive tasting menu, with some very interesting regional food, with matching wines ... that taxi was a great idea! It was also Mum & Dad's last night in Montreal, so a fitting way to end their stay.

Mum and Dad now head off on an 18 day tour of Eastern Canada. They will actually revisit Ottawa, be back in Montreal for a day next week (which we will spend with them), then they head to Quebec City and onto a cruise out through the Gulf of St Lawrence, to Prince Edward Island, then to Nova Scotia and down to Boston. They return to Montreal mid-June and will have 3 days with us before heading home. That will also be the end of our Montreal stay, but we are heading off travelling for a while before heading home.

Toronto

Our time in Toronto was short and sweet. While it is the biggest city in Canada, it is just another big city. It is known for the CN Tower, which for a while, was the tallest tower in the world (not any more). There are plenty of museums but we weren’t in the mood for an educational afternoon. The city is situated on Lake Ontario, one of the Great Lakes of US and Canada, so the waterfront is a big highlight and really where we wanted to explore … with an ice-cream of course!

However the little hitch was … the rain. Its hard to explore a harbour side in the rain. The children wanted to go up the CN Tower, but having just gone up the tower at Niagara, in addition to the cost of over $100 for the family to go up, Tony and I weren’t so keen! We opted for a Red Bus Tour, which we haven’t done yet, as a way of finding out a little about the city in the short time we were there.

So, rain and all, off we went. Started off sitting upstairs but moved down when the rain and wind became impossible. Toronto was founded in the late 18th century but has had two big fires (1849 and 1905) that wiped out the downtown area, so it really is quite modern. Anything over 100 years old is heritage listed, as it should be, so the city has an interesting mix of architecture. It appears to have a good mix of cultures and socio-demographics, as any city does, and we certainly found that the bus tour took us to parts of the city that we wouldn’t have walked to ourselves. We had two tour guides who were both good fun and from them, we got a recommendation for dinner. There were some great markets which we would have liked to poke around, but they were closed on a Sunday. Unusual! There is a huge shopping centre in the central area, the biggest in Canada, but Livvy and I were the only ones interested in that … so we lost out! 

After the bus tour, the rain had stopped, so we did head down to the Harbourside. The Harbourside reminded me a little of Darling Harbour in Sydney, as it is very developed and very family friendly: a grassy area with stage in the middle, good seating. There are some creative play areas for the children which entertained our crew for a while! 

Beaver Tails - definitely a "sometimes" food!

We were heading for ice-cream, but instead, found “beaver tails”. Beaver tails is a sweet treat that has been on our list of “food to try” for a while. For many weeks, Lach and Sophie thought it meant that we would be eating a cooked version of the tail of an actual beaver, but that is far from it. Instead, it is more like deep fried pastry covered in maple syrup or chocolate! So much nutrition in that! When the kids heard that, they were very eager to try! Imagine a thin donut, shaped in an oval shape, covered with a choice of toppings: we chose cinnamon sugar, maple syrup and chocolate; and also cookies and cream ice-cream. Yummy! Lucky I’m doing a fair bit of running …..!  The final report is that they were rather yummy and the children would quite happily eat them regularly!



A walk a little further into town and we found an old railway roundhouse, which has been turned into a brewery and railway museum.  Interesting to explore for a while also.

So Toronto will be remembered for the red bus tour in the rain and eating beaver tails! A quick trip but we don’t feel the need to spend much longer there. 

Niagara Falls, Ontario

View from Rainbow Bridge

View from Skylon Tower

We’ve just had another long weekend here in Quebec. The children had another pedagogical day (equivalent to a pupil free day) on Friday; and Monday was Victoria Day / Patriots Day (depends whether you are for or against the Commonwealth). With four days once again, we decided to road trip down south, to Niagara Falls, right on the border with the US.

It was much further than we thought! It took us about 8 hours of travelling on Friday, through Toronto (largest city in Canada), to arrive late afternoon about 5pm. We were staying in a 2 bedroom house that was just beautiful, with lots of space and a huge kitchen. We all snacked on cheese toast then decided to at least go and view the Falls before dark. As this was the first weekend of summer, the fireworks over the Falls were starting, but not until 10pm. Lights also illuminate the Falls from 9pm, so we knew we were in for a long night.

Dinner with the Falls in the background. 

That first view, like any natural wonder, is breath-taking. We approached from the top, where the water is quite shallow with rapids. All of a sudden, the Falls just drop - a 70 metre drop down into the basin. The power, the amount of water and the speed at which it drops is amazing. The water is quite green, due to rock sediments, and the mist that is created rises nearly as high as the Falls.

We walked and photographed the view for quite a while. The weather was cold with light rain - remember this is first weekend of summer! We were very glad we had coats with us. We found a restaurant with views right over the top of the Falls, so enjoyed a late dinner and stayed there until the fireworks started.

Red ponchos for boat ride. 

On Saturday, we headed back to the Falls area. You can access the Falls from the Canadian side or the US side. We stayed on the Canadian side the whole time. It appeared to be more commercial than the American side, with many hotels right on the edge of the street, with views over the Falls. It is a huge tourist attraction with one street looking like Side Show Alley. We avoided that area!

Our first adventure was on the boat ride, which gets you up close to the Falls, as well as very wet! Both US and Canada operate boat rides, with everyone decked out in wet weather ponchos. Definitely needed! It was also still cold, so one memory I take away is that wet, damp feeling of clothes and hair. Sophie didn't like getting wet so stayed further back in the boat, behind the walls. Olivia and Lach didn't mind the wind or the water and were right up the front. The power of the water as it falls down is stunning and so loud!

A purchased, completely photoshopped family photo!

We then headed to the Skylon Tower for lunch and to view the Falls from above. We managed to go up the tower and see the view, but the rest of the lunch and a subsequent bus trip was ridiculous and made Niagara Tourism look terrible. No-one quite knew whether they were on summer timetables and schedules or not. Anyway, as we waited ages for a bus, we were all a little revived. Sophie did her normal trip of actually falling asleep on the bus, so when we finally made it back down to the Falls, we were all revived and ready to go again.

Yellow ponchos for Journey Behind the Falls!

We went on a walk behind the Falls. Not as amazing as it sounds but still incredible. There are man-made tunnels that go behind the falls, with  two port holes that you can look through. The water, naturally, runs with such force and creates so much mist that all you could really see was mist! Again, we had rain ponchos on and everything was wet and damp. There was a viewing platform at the bottom and that was great: you could see the side of the waterfall and see the water coming down. 

Tony went off to see the 4D movie presentation about the Falls; but the kids chickened out. We had heard the noise and felt the floor rumbling as an effect of the movie, so my kids who don’t like thunder and lightning weren’t having anything to do with that! Hot chocolates was more appropriate for us. And yes, Tony got wet!

Sunday dawned as a beautiful sunny day, so we headed off to walk over the bridge. (That sunshine only lasted a few hours though). The Rainbow Bridge connects Canada and the US and is a symbol of peace between the two countries. I liked it as it had the best view of the Falls, giving perspective. We had no intention of entering the US, but still had to take passports. The traffic queue on this bridge, and all bridges in the area, was back up to at least 45 mins. We walked halfway; admired; photographed; had a quick trip to the US and then walked back. Had to show our passports to get back into Canada though!

Another feature of the Niagara River is the rapids. The rapids are just downstream of the Falls and are Class 6, which is the highest in the category system and considered unpassable. A short walk along the boardwalk there and we were done. 

Niagara is a real tourist haven. Everything you do takes you out through the souvenir shop. It was tiresome by the end, especially as much of it is tacky. While it was a long weekend in Canada, the weather was cool and damp, which presumably kept the crowds away. Next weekend is a long weekend in the US and they are expecting a much busier weekend. 

Once again, I acknowledge how lucky we are to be doing this and seeing such amazing things. Niagara Falls are definitely worth seeing but you don’t need a long time there. We felt we did it really well and by late Sunday morning, we were ready to make our way North again and head back to Toronto. 

April happenings by Olivia

This has been written with photos selected by Olivia. It was prepared as a powerpoint presentation for her class, and then adapted into the blog format. 

My Latest News From Canada

Butterflies at the Botanical Gardens

We went to the Butterfly Exhibition in the Botanical Gardens.

There were not only butterflies, there were lots of sections that had plants in them, but the main part was the butterflies. There were so many different types. It was a really large enclosed room with lots of plants that attracted the butterflies. The butterflies were flying freely. There lots of flowering plants.  

Some people were lucky and butterflies landed on them. I was scared that they would tickle or hurt me. A butterfly landed on mum’s back.

Maple Syrup Cabin (Sugar Shack) 

We went to a sugar shack for an afternoon. It was a small family owned shack. The dad who owns it was quite old and he loves making maple syrup.

The family had 200 acres with 7000 taps in the trees. The farm didn’t use buckets to collect the sap, they use plastic tubes with a vacuum pump at the end.

We got to help “can” the maple syrup. This means that we put the maple syrup into a can and put the lid on.  I had never known how cans had their lids put on! To put a lid on a can you put the can onto a machine with the lid sitting lightly on top, then wind the can up, press a button and the can spins really fast tightening the lid. The syrup has to be a certain temperature before canning it. Once the lid went on, the can became very hot. You needed to wear gloves to handle the cans. 24 cans of maple syrup went into a milk crate, which was immediately put into a snow bath. The syrup had to cool quickly so no crystals formed.   

Some Maple Taffy photos 

We love the maple taffy! We made some after we had put the syrup into the cans. 

Swings in Town

In the city there are some swing’s that sing. 

 are 21 swings. (7 groups of 3 swings)

When people swing on them they play a note. When 2 people swing, the swings make a tune.

The 2 outside swings make a note but the middle swing does not make a note. 3 people do not have to be swinging at the same time to make a note.

They were so much fun.

Bike Riding

We have just started bike riding.

On our first ride, we did 9km as a family. I did a second ride with Mum and  and we did 13km. We did a bridge to bridge ride along the St. Laurent River and it was fun but was a little hard too.  

I have borrowed a bike from our neighbours and it is much bigger then mine back in Australia. It is white with a few strokes of light green on it.

I love bike riding here in Montreal. 

Change of Weather

The change of weather here is very dramatic! Everyone here says that this is a very long winter. There is still some snow around, but most of it has melted. 

We started to clear the deck a few weeks ago. This was hard work. Once we had clear the snow off the deck and thrown it onto the grass and it had melted,  we started to move the snow from the grass to warmer parts of the grass.

We now don’t have to wear snow pants and boots to school. We only wear a soft shell jacket, (a jacket that has a soft inside and is light, keeps you very warm) and our outside shoes. We don’t have inside and outside shoes anymore. OH YEAH! 

Spring ... but really winter

We think this will be a magnolia tree ... how stunning!

April has come and gone and supposedly, we are enjoying Spring. Our temperatures have hovered around 7-11 degrees most days; with nights down to zero or just below. There has been the occasional day where we experienced 13/14 degrees but they are have not the norm. April has been tough: when leaving Australia in the middle of summer, we comforted ourselves with the knowledge that yes, we would have a few months of cold (extreme) weather, but by April, we would be enjoying the warmer temps again. Instead, it feels like I've gone from extreme winter to a Canberra winter!

The weather is still a common topic of conversation with the Montreal locals, with most apologizing to us for the weather! As much as we feel its been long and hard, these Quebecoise folk had winter start early - the first snow fell in November, which makes it an even longer winter for them!

There has also been an extreme amount of rain and overcast days, so the impetus to get out and explore has still been low. On a positive note, just about all the snow has disappeared, thanks to the amount of rain. We haven't skied at all during April, as most of the snow has turned to mush. Similar to Australian skiing conditions, really!

So ... what have we done? Well here are a few snapshots:

• We've been to see butterflies which are released into a large aviary at the Botanical Gardens. There are thousands of butterflies flying around with many, many butterfly-attracting plants. It was also warm and humid in the aviary! Lots of opportunities for close up photography too. 

• We've been to a "sugar shack" which is a celebration of maple syrup which begins flowing from trees about this time, as the weather warms up. It usually begins in March and the season lasts about 3 weeks. In 2013, the maple season was over by 3 April; this year the season only started on 2 April, which shows the impact of the cold weather. See Tony's blog post for more detail on this. We did get to drink the liquid form of maple syrup - thinned slightly and warmed (better with rum, but we didn't try this form) and of course more taffy - the toffee style on the stick that we all love. Here are some pictures of the canning process: Lach was putting the lids on the full cans. 

• We attempted a bbq outside ... but as you can see, the adults needed coats! It was cold. The 7 children were running around too much to notice. We haven't found a sausage that tastes as good as an Australian sausage, despite trying so many. We miss sausages! We also miss barbecue sauce - its got a very unusual taste here. 

• Tony has taken the children to a few museums which have usually been science based. Lach loves museums and when it rains all day, he needs an outing! There are a good variety around Montreal and even today, we found out about another. Most have presentations in English at some stage during the day and all the hosts at the museum speak English. At some of the English presentations we've been to, we've been the only people in them. 

• The swings! This has been one of those stories that appears on Facebook from time to time: that a bus stop in Montreal has set up swings for the public to use. Well ... this has been a mission since we arrived! It is a spring time event, for the month of April and May. There are seven sets of swings, each set has 3 swings. When you swing alone, the swing just plays one musical note, from a speaker above your head. When three people swing together, it plays a tune. And don't swings make everyone smile? They are at a bus stop right in the centre of town, but in a court yard - not right on the edge of a busy road. 

 It was a rare sunny day, but notice that I am still wearing gloves - it was not a warm day. We have been back most times that we go into the city .

•  This photo just makes us laugh! There are many, many childcare centres around and they still need to get their little charges out ... so they will overcome snow! Here they walking in front of our house, all rugged up with full snow clothes and all "roped" together. You see similar scenes often and it cracks us up!

• De-snowing occurs regularly while there is snow (thankfully no major falls since early April). This photo shows our neighbourhood "snow remover man". Most people employ someone to clear the snow from their property - driveway and footpath. We didn't; instead Tony was happy enough to do it during and after each dump. The photo shows Dave and his machine, doing our neighbours' front path and footpath. Its like a vacuum cleaner that sucks up the snow and blows it to the edge.

• Dave is pretty efficient. These neighbours leave their house at 7am each morning and without fail, if there has been snow overnight, Dave has cleared their driveway so they can reverse out. The neighbours never see him, so we shudder to think at what time he comes! Tony has befriend Dave, as a) Dave is an anglophone so speaks English; and b) Tony loves a chat with anyone doing anything interesting or different!

• So instead of using Dave, we used child labour and handed each child a shovel! We wanted the deck cleared so that we could at least use that. Anything loose was thrown onto the grass below; otherwise we just broke it up as much as possible so that it would melt faster. Once the deck was done, we started on the backyard. 

And then we got to enjoy the deck for lunch!

• Our friends had three spare tickets to see the local soccer team, the Montreal Impact, play Philadelphia. It rained .... but they went anyway. Lach enjoyed it the most; Liv enjoyed hanging out with her friend Maia. 

• Easter was a quiet weekend. We had planned to go to Ottawa for some sight-seeing, but with the forecast of rain, we decided to stay locally. We went to a lovely restaurant for lunch and of course, ate plenty of chocolate! This photo is the next day, still eating Easter treats. 

• Lach and Tony have become ice-hockey fans. The Montreal Canadiens (known locally as the Habs) play in the National Hockey League and have made the finals this year. 

• The finals series is a very complicated process. Round one was the best of 7 games against Tampa Bay, Florida. Tony and Lach went to the 4th game here in Montreal.

• This match was very exciting as Habs had won the previous 3 matches - two in Florida and one in Montreal.  

•  Ice-hockey matches are more like an entertainment show than just a sports game. There was a pre-game light show, music and little machines that drove onto the ice that "shot" packets of puks into the crowd. Huge wow factor! The ice is smoothed out quickly once during each of the three periods of play, done by 4 guys on skates who take about 2 mins to do the rink; then during the breaks between the periods, machines come on to smooth the ice more thoroughly. 

• It was a very exciting game and during most of the 3rd period, it was 2-2. Then with 40 secs left in the game .... Habs scored! The crowd, including Lach, went berserk!

• Habs are now in Round #2 of the play-offs. They are against Boston Bruins, who are an arch enemy! They play rough so apparently we don't like them! Again, it is best of 7 games and it currently sits at one win each ... watch this space to hear the result!

• An aside ... Quebecoise locals laugh when we specifically mention ice-hockey - saying that we only need to say hockey. We need to tell them that "hockey" infers green grass ... not ice! They find that unusual and refer to hockey-on-grass as "field hockey". 

• One of the most exciting things we done recently is see Cirque du Soleil (yes, it rained that afternoon too). Cirque originates in Montreal and each of their new shows begins here. We saw the new show Kurios: Cabinet des Curiosities. The children were amazed and just as they thought the performers had done as much as possible with their bodies, they did something more and the kids' jaws dropped even more! We all loved it and were amazed at how performers can stretch their bodies to such extreme contortions. 

• We have borrowed bikes from the Dostaler family and also the neighbours and have all ended up with awesome wheels! Each time we plan to do a long ride - that is, go somewhere specific and ride for the afternoon, our plans get thwarted by the weather. We have managed a few shorter rides in between showers of rain - one day, the girls and I managed 13kms. In the background of this photo is the St Laurent River, which surrounds the island of Montreal. It is only about 3kms away from our house. We usually head there first and ride along the river. 

• Bike paths are not as good as Canberra. There is this beautiful river so close, yet many houses have built right to the waters' edge, so no possibility of a path. Instead, you need to ride on residential streets. There is a mixture of riding on roads in a bike lane; riding in a bike path that runs parallel to the road and then specific bike paths. When it is a specific bike path, they are well set out, as this photo shows - directions are clear and there is space for the pedestrian also. But this is rare!
  

• Tony and I are exercising regularly and have decided to challenge ourselves with longer distances. With the luxury of more time on our hands, I have decided to enter the Ottawa half marathon and Tony is entering the 10km distance on the same weekend. Neither of us have done these distances previously, so it's a big challenge. I run with a group twice a week who have been working towards the Ottawa half for most of this year. It's great to have the motivational support of a team. Tony is working it out on his own! The half marathon has been on my bucket list for a while now, and with extra time to train, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to attempt it. 

• My parents are coming to visit during in late May, so the next few weeks are very exciting. We are looking forward to weather improving so we can show off Montreal to them! 

• We also have a 4 day long weekend planned to Niagara Falls and a trip to Ottawa (capital city of Canada) for the half marathon. Ottawa is famous for its tulip festival in May, but as I write, it hasn't started as the tulips haven't bloomed! It's due to finish around 19 May (Victoria Day or Patriots Day, depending whether you are a supporter of the Commonwealth or Quebec) but like everything else, the season is running late. We hope we might see it the following weekend when we are there for the running festival. 

Take care and best wishes, Gemma x