Chicago - 2nd Largest City in America

Saturday, August 9, 2008
After going through yet another toll highway, we are close to Chicago. We called Owen's cousin but our battery died before we could make concrete plans. He did however tell us the best way to enter the city. We decided to brave the streets and give it a try. We entered the downtown core around 2:15. We drove around and took in the great buildings and architecture. We got a little lost because we were in the wrong lane and couldn't get over to exit where we were supposed to and finding parking was a challenge. We finally found a spot after driving around for an hour. We took the bus to our destination. Navy Pier.


We decided that with the little time that we had and with all the kids that we should just pick one spot to see. From the bus we people watched, it was clean and there were lots of greenery planted.
It is a bustling city. We got off and walked to the Navy Pier, we rode the ferris wheel and the carousel and the kids rode on a lighthouse ride. We had a quick bite to eat and the kids took in a puppet show.


We decided to walk back along the waterfront. It took us about an hour. The wind was picking up and there were some dark clouds looming but it was still warm. We got back to the RV around 8:00 and managed a call to Owen's cousin to quickly get directions. We arrived around 9:30 and visited. The kids became fast friends, Olivia and Ruby slept in their house. Max and Isabel reveled at getting their own beds in the RV. We went to bed just before 12:00. It's nice to visit with family and catch up.

Niagara Falls - Fort Erie

Friday, August 8, 2008
The rain was still following us, we decided to do Niagara Falls first and then Fort Erie. We drove by first and then found parking. There was too much tourist stuff being marketed everywhere. We enjoyed the falls and then left. We had to find a dumping site because we discovered that our grey water was backing up into the shower/tub. It was stinky! Luckily there wasn't much in there.
Fort Erie was a hub of activity. They were getting ready to reenact "the Siege". We did a self guided tour, watched a mortar round being fired. I learned how they baked cookies, Max and Owen dressed up.


We stayed for quite awhile and then left for Kirtland. Owen mentioned going to a buffet, the kids were jumping in their chairs with excitement. We hadn't eaten much all day, just snacking on things so we were prepared for a feast. Olivia especially ate her money's worth and more.
When we got to the Kirtland temple, Max and Isabel discovered things glowing in the bushes. Fireflies! They were successful in catching one and we let it go before we left. We had no luck in taking pictures of any.
We are heading for Chicago, Owen has a cousin there he hasn't see for awhile.

Palmyra

Thursday, August 7, 2008
We arrived in Palmyra around 2:30. There are a lot of toll highways or we seem to be taking a lot. We had lunch and then took a tour...we walked through the Sacred Grove and enjoyed being in a quiet place for awhile.


We could hear crickets and even the brook gurgling. It was very peaceful.We went to some other sites...printing press...Hill Cumorah, the kids rolled up and down the hill as Owen and I caught our breath.


Then we headed for Niagara Falls. We want to get there tonight so that we can start the day without having to drive. We had lots of lightning and thunder.

The Chocolate City of Canada

Wednesday, August 6, 2008
We started driving right away, we decided to go through St. John's and then through St. Stephens. We drove by the reversing falls in St. John's but because of the weather we didn't stop. By the time we got to St. Stephens the weather was looking better and it is also home of Ganong Chocolate. We of course had to go to the chocolate museum where you could eat as many chocolate samples as you wanted. The museum wasn't very big but it was very interesting. We let the kids have free reign so we aren't sure how many chocolates they ate but they were pretty high strung when we left. Owen thinks he had 13 chocolates...Jack says he only had 1 but no one believes him.


We headed for the border and had to give up our oranges. We decided to skip going into Boston because we didn't know where to go and we learned that driving with a 28 foot vehicle isn't very easy when you don't know where you are going. We drove crazy...almost ran out of gas...we missed rest area after rest area until we finally pulled over at 2:00 in the morning just outside of Albany, New York. Look on a map, from Moncton, New Brunswick to Albany, New York!!!

Halifax, Nova Scotia-The Atlantic Ocean

Tuesday, August 5, 2008
The weather finally is looking like it's going to clear up. We headed for the Citadel and were just in time to get a tour with Private Lee. The kids had scavenger hunt lists and at the end of the tour turned them in for a free cookie. We watched them fire the canon at 12:00. We learned that this Citadel was never attacked. There was a really good film called " A Harbour worth defending". After the Citadel, we drove around and made our way to Pier 21, this is where anyone coming or going into the country would have come through. It only took 5-12 days to cross the Atlantic.


We walked around the waterfront and downtown, it took us awhile to find the legislative buildings. They were tucked away between buildings. It was the only other time we had to go through security. This was the first legislative building in Canada. Max is thinking about a career in politics.


We walked around a lot and ended up at the waterfront market area for dinner. We promised Olivia that we would get lobster. We ended up getting calamari, chowder, tips & chips (not fish & chips)and lobster. Olivia decided that she likes calamari better. Max liked the lobster but thought it was pretty chewy.


After we got ice cream at a Cow's Ice Cream Parlor. There were a ton of spin-offs to the cow theme...Hannah Mootana...Moo Moo Lemon...Steer bucks...Lightning MooQueen etc..Max found a sign it said "When life gives you a pile, spread it over your tomato patch", he thought that was pretty funny.
We headed back to Moncton, the weather on the East Coast hasn't been great. We hope that it gets better inland. Here's the kids crashed out.

PEI-Charlottetown

Monday, August 4, 2008
It poured all night!!! Big drops that hit the RV and were loud enough that I woke up. I was even more grateful to be in the RV and felt for those who were in tents. I woke up to finish up some laundry. Max and Owen fixed a fantastic breakfast, then we headed out to check things out..first we checked out the beach but it was windy and foggy. Owen wasn't going swimming.


Then we headed to Green Gables Village,Isabel and I checked it out. I got a book that claimed to be the story of the "true" Anne, it will be interesting to read. Isabel saw some neat sayings on T-shirts..."Chocolate makes my clothes shrink...I would stop eating chocolate but I'm no quitter...I never met a chocolate that I didn't like".


After that we headed to Charlottetown. We found a local restaurant and had fish & chips, clams and chowder. The waitress was really great and took a lobster out for Jack and made it wave to her. Jack just wanted to look at lobster after that.
We went to Founder's Hall and did a tour. We all learned something about Confederation. There was lots of stuff happening.

It was getting late so we quickly went to the legislature and looked around. It was very much in the same style as the building in Fredericton. Simple. Sandstone.

It started to rain and the forecast for the next few days was for more rain. We decided to head for Nova Scotia via the ferry. We made in time to catch the last ferry. Owen has a bit of a reprieve from driving. BC Ferries are mini cruise ships. That's all I'm going to say. We drove to Dartmouth and parked at Mic Mac Mall. It's still raining...

Moncton - PEI

Sunday, August 3, 2008
Well even though we parked in the church parking lot we were still late for church. It was a small ward and I definitely appreciate how well organized we are back in Victoria. We headed out after a quick lunch for PEI, it was still raining on and off and the clouds were pretty dark. We headed over the Confederation bridge. It is 14 km long and there isn't much to it as far as construction. There's not a whole lot between the side of the road and the ocean far below. Owen was a little nervous because it was windy but we made it over.


The first thing that we noticed is that the dirt is red. We of course made plans to fill a bag to bring home. We headed through the island to Cavendish where the Anne of Green Gables village is and we got the last RV spot at the PEI National Park. The kids played at the playground and beach. It was wet enough that we were able to have a fire. So the kids made smores.


The scenery is beautiful, we only wished the sun was shining even just a little. Maybe tomorrow it will clear.

Fredericton, New Brunswick- It's Raining!

Saturday, August 2, 2008
It's raining hard! We were very happy to be sleeping somewhere dry. Owen was glad we weren't tenting, just thinking about doing this trip that way would mean that we would probably be still be in Thunder Bay...New Brunswick has beautiful forests and farmland. I think of it as a calmer version of the West Coast Mountains. We passed the McCain plant. They produce 10 tons of frozen French fries an hour!


We got to Kings Landing and decided to check it out, we'd been cooped up in the RV all day and the rain had stopped. We had forgotten about the time change and so we only had about an hour and a half to check it out. The kids were still tired from all the walking we did yesterday but we persevered. We saw people dressed up in the time period and asked questions, saw some dancing, fed some horses and Jack got to ride up front on the way back.


We headed towards Fredericton and got there to find nobody around. We found the legislative building but it was under renovation. We headed towards Moncton. We discovered on the way that our sugar had tipped over and was leaking into one of the speakers so the first thing we did when we got to Moncton was fill up with gas and use the vacuum to get as much sugar as we could out. We unscrewed the speaker and think we got most of it out. We found the address to a church and stayed the night.

Quebec City- WE LOVE IT!!!

Friday, August 1, 2008
We arose and decided to start the day off slowly. I found directions to my favorite store (VV) and the girls and I found some things to buy. Owen stayed in the van with Max who was feeling so so. We headed to a nearby mall where Owen and Isabel went in to see some stores that we don't have on the west coast. After setting up Max and Ruby the rest of us went in and we used the walkie talkies to keep in contact and set a time limit to leave.


We headed downtown and found designated RV parking, in the lower part by the port. We walked through the lower part and caught the last tour of the day at the oldest church in Canada. It was closing early for a wedding rehearsal. We wandered through the cobblestone streets and took the tram elevator up to Upper Quebec just in front of the Chateau.


There were street performers and so we sat down to watch. We had poutine and hot dogs for dinner. We walked some more and saw the legislative buildings which had statues of all the founders of Quebec.



Then the wind picked up, we headed for the RV but not before trying a East Coast Beaver Tail...The kids think the ones on Mt. Washington are better. We headed out of Quebec City, it was a great day!

Montreal- Sick day

Thursday, July 31, 2008
After finding that we could park close to a subway station at Olympic Park, that's where we headed in the morning. Jack had been up all night moaning about a sore back and leg pains and so we hadn't had the best night. Max was also complaining of stomach and back pains. We were hoping the fresh air would help him feel better.
At the subway entrance I had to use my French and figure out what we were doing. It was nice to be able to communicate. We decided to explore Mount Royal first. It was hot today, we had the stroller we thought we were ready for the day until Max started to go downhill. His stomach ache was getting worse.


We made it slowly up to Mount Royal and the observation platform. Max was only sick once. He of course felt much better afterwards and so we thought we were good for the rest of the day. He was hungry as we traveled down towards town and so we looked for a noodle shop (his request) as we wandered the streets looking at people and at the city life.


Then there was a flash rain storm, we weren't prepared for that. We found shelter under an awning and waited. It lasted about 20 minutes. After it was over we found a noodle shop on the next block and stopped to have lunch. We walked around downtown for awhile but Max was starting to not feel well again...we weren't going to make it to all the neat historic buildings that I wanted to see...we decided to head back to the RV. Max was sick twice more on the way back to the RV and we decided to cut our losses and head for Quebec City. We arrived just after 12:00 a.m. Max slept on and off while we traveled. I hope nobody else catches whatever is going around. Isabel was a little disappointed that we weren't able to go to all the cool places her teacher had told her about. Une autre fois...

Ottawa

Wednesday, July 30, 2008
We made it into the city just in time to see the changing of the guard. Owen missed it because he had to find a spot for the RV but he was okay with that. We went through security again and went up the Peace Tower and looked around the city. Then we walked around the grounds and looked at all the monuments. There was even a stray cat shelter. Owen found a street vendor that sold dollar hot dogs at the market so we fed the kids lunch.
We headed for Montreal in the middle of the afternoon and found a campsite that was just outside the city. After registering we went to a Walmart to see if we could find a stroller for Jack. It seems weird to be buying a stroller but we have a lot of walking to do. It's time to start speaking French! The kids have been noticing the French. We'll have to put it to use. The mosquitoes are out tonight and Olivia and Jack got bitten pretty bad. In the evening Owen took the kids swimming and I did laundry. Owen and I tried to plan what we wanted to do in Montreal...

Ottawa-Canada's Capital

Tuesday, July 29, 2008
The rest area we pulled over to was more like a campground. We woke up among beautiful trees and sunlight shinning through. We got into Ottawa and found street parking after driving around for awhile and walked to the Byward Market to look around and get food for lunch. There were so many neat little shops and all kinds of food. We ate in a little square and fed some crumbs to the birds.


We walked towards the Parliament Buildings, on the way we passed by the locks and saw that 5 boats were ready to go down. We sat down and watched the boats go down. It took about an hour and a half. It was neat to see the process. We caught the last tour in the Parliament, we had to go through security similar to the airport. Isabel and I skipped out part way through to meet up with old friends that used to live in Victoria. Isabel really enjoyed catching up with Lauren!


We all met up and grabbed some late dinner at a nearby mall before heading back to see the light show that they project on the the Parliament buildings, which was very patriotic. We parked at our friends home and tomorrow we will watch the changing of the guard.

Canada's Wonderland

Monday, July 28, 2008
We promised the kids that this would be our one splurge and I really wanted to do the Behemoth. It is the newest roller coaster to the park and is the biggest, tallest and fastest roller coaster in Canada. Jack had heard us talking about it and also wanted to go on the roller coaster.
We did rides for the little kids first, then a few rides for the older kids, after lunch we headed over to the water park and let the kids play till dinner time. Isabel tried a few rides that challenged her security, all in all the kids had a great time. At 9:45 we raced to the Behemoth line up and got in line. The park closes at 10:00 and we couldn't let the opportunity pass. Owen and I got in line, which moved very quickly because they have 3 trains going on the ride. Once we were in line we started to really think about what we were about to do...but it was too late once we were in the seat and the safety restraint is in place. Usually on roller coasters I end up laughing because that's my reaction however on this one I screamed... I screamed before we even went over each hill. We'll have to tell you in person because it left our legs shaking. You can youtube it and see the animated version. Luckily we weren't in the very front.



We left and headed for Ottawa, Owen spent an hour on the side of the road helping someone...so when we actually stopped it was 2:30 am. We are going to buy a stroller for Jack, all this walking is getting hard for him and he's spending a lot of time on Owen's shoulders or being carried by me.