Ultimat Finals

We joined the Montreal Ultimate Association this summer and played frisbee with the Lawn Deers. It was tons of fun and we met a group of really awesome people. Actually we had so much fun that we are playing in a fall league out here that plays with "on the fly rules". It's kinda like indoor soccer or hockey...tons of running! And... since this summer my one major flip out occured in Edmonton when a dude on the other team started jeering me about my chest...all Montreal ultimate players still think I'm a really calm level headed player! Yes.

First Day of School

Well my little "kidlets" went back for another year of classes this fall and what is back to school without a back to school photo! After putting on their new back to school outfits, okay, that's not true - after Jenn put on her back to school outfit and Steve shaved his face and Dom, well he's doing a correspondence class and didn't need to look good (and besides, he's a male model, idiot and always looks good - I cornered them for a quick picture to immortalize Fall 2007.

PS. The first picture kills me and it comes from a series of about 6 - hard to believe Steve is working on a PhD instead of learning how to cut and play nicely in the sandbox -seriously, why does he make this face when a camera pops up?

Granby Zoo

I don't think that I have been to a zoo since I was about 6 - neither had Steve or Jenn - so the three of us packed a picnic lunch and headed off to the Granby Zoo.

The Zoo is amazing and the thousands of pictures that we raced around taking speak for themselves - BEST ZOO EVER!!!!!

Jenny and Glenn - Part Deux

Montabello is only about 80 kilometres outside of Ottawa. After giving Jenny at least 26 hours to unpack and spend some time with her hubby-to-be after her move from Vancouver, Steve and I "crashed" their party of two.

Here is a picture of the two of them sitting on their new front porch.

Thanks for the visit you two~

Montebello

After Chambly we ventured out to Montebello. Located on the Ottawa River, Montebello is famous for the Papineau Villa and the Chateau Montebello. Papineau was a famous French Canadian involved in pre-Confederation politics and his villa, which was built in 1850, is a National Heritage Site. Located next to the Villa is the Chateau Montebello which the largest log structure in North America and is the Farmont Hotel where Harper, Bush and the Mexican President met for a summit last month.

The hotel and its grounds are beautiful - located right on the bank of the Ottawa River with its very own harbour full of ritsy boats.

Montreal in August

We arrived back in Montreal on August 22 and since then we've been trying to sightsee as much as we can before school, papers, work and bad weather keep us condo bound. Actually, we've started joking with Jenn and Dom that we are going to take them around for a tour of the Quebec countryside!

These pictures are of Chambly. It's a really pretty town about 1/2 an hour from Montreal where the Richelieu River opens up into a lake. The French built a fort there in the 1600s and its now a National Heritage Site. There is also a lock system there which takes boats into the Chambly cannal so that they can avoid a set of rapids.

Amy & Ry - 30.06, 2007

Aimes - I should have gotten these to you sooner. We had such a wonderful time at your wedding and you looked so absolutely beautiful!

Route de Dump

After our visit to MacDonald Campus (see blog below) we next went exploring in Hudson Quebec, a cute little town very UNfitting of the title to this post, Route de Dump - I will explain in a minute. Hudson stretches out long and skinny along the banks of the St. Lawrence and has the the most amazing houses and yards, many of which look out onto the water. We would have been content to live in just about every single one if we could!

The purpose of our trip to Hudson was to visit this antique market called Finnigan's Market. Steve - with all of his "crowd issues" - was a bit apprehensive about wandering around looking a "junk" for hours in the 33 degree heat of yesterday but, with a bit of persuasion and lots of food in his stomach, even he was charmed despite that he referred to it as Finnigan's Wake for the rest of the day. Finnigan's was located in the middle of a farmer's field and antique sellers were set up both in the old barn buildings and all across the field. There were so many different things - old knobs, furniture, trunks, bikes, skates, jars, china...you name it, Finnigan's has it! We are so going back in the fall!

Our plan after Finnigan's was to check out Hudson, head to the beach and then have dinner before going home. Unfortunately, we were finished cruising Hudson in about 3.5 seconds (turns out that there are more houses than downtown area and the beach was non-existent). So, like all good adventurers we consulted the map and continued on our way, this time to Cornwall, Ontario to check their famous fort which Steve believed was there.

Turns out that Cornwall is more aptly referred to as Cornhole and that their famous fort, is really a living museum (very cool) located 30 minutes further from the Hole. Anyways, by the time we realized this we did not have enough time to make it to the Fort. In an effort to salvage the situation we went knocking on the Hole's tourist information centre but even they couldn't think of something fun to do there.

Again like the good adventurer's we are, we consulted the map and decided to drive home along the road that ran by the river to check out all the cute little towns. This time we even consulted the Cornhole guidebook to make sure that we were headed somewhere worthwhile. While somewhat nicer than the Hole, our adventure turned out to be a succession of little towns along a route we nostalgically refer to as "Route de Dump". (Turns out that Alberta does not have a monopoly on rednecks either.) By the time the lights of Montreal greeted us we decided to scrap plans for dinner out and went home for stir fry. We finished the day with the movie Bon Cop/Bad Cop - super funny rent it if you can and or need a complete lesson in how to properly use the words tabernacle and chalice...hosties [sp?] - and went to bed with renewed optimism for our next excursion.

Hence, all photos in this blog are of Finnigan's market and Hudson except for the one of the gas sign which was taken in the Hole and represents the first time that we have paid under $1 for gas in months because, yes, we spent about $20 bucks driving to the Hole and back.

For My Gran

Yesterday Steve and I went exploring and stumbled across MacDonald Campus. MacDonald campus is a part of McGill located outside of the downtown in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue.

The campus was born in 1906, when Sir William Christopher Macdonald gave 300 acres of farmland and a $2-million endowment to McGill University with the idea of creating a revolutionary school that would "improve the lives of rural people in Quebec." Modeling the school after McGill, he established a farm laboratory where scientific farming could be tested and taught, the School of Household Science and the School for Teachers, because Sir William had the vision of schools becoming not only training centres, but the centres of the social life of the community as well.

When the doors first opened in 1907, 115 students were enrolled in the School for Teachers, 62 in the School for Household Science and 38 in the School of Agriculture.

Why this short lesson in history is exciting (besides the fact that I have a very useful degree in Canadian History) is because my Great Grandmother, my Grannie's mom, came over from England to Montreal to attended school here before the First World War broke out. I'm pretty sure that she was a student in Household Science.

I'm not sure where she stayed when she was here but I thought it was neat when we stumbled across the building Brittain Hall - maybe this is where she lived when she was here!