HE said/ SHE said

Lori:

It was not a nice day!  I did NOT want to go swimming. It was only 19 degrees outside and that wind was friggin cold.

Greg:

We'd been cooped up all day and I thought a change of scene would be good for us and the kids. Mostly the kids. They were making me crazy cooped up inside the RV. It had finally stopped raining so we headed over to the pool.  Lor would get over it and end up thanking me for the great family time.

Lori:

He dragged me there.  I tried to be a good sport and help out by sitting on the side of the pool wearing my dress as a tent over my shoulders to keep my whole body warm. I was fully prepared to help supervise all three kids from there.

Greg:

It was a great time.  The water was warm.  The sky looked a little iffy, but no matter.  We were having a blast.  Parker was enjoying getting towed around and Gracie and Sawyer were working on the duck diving for rocks I had showed them.

Lori:

From my lifeguard like vantage point, I noticed the kids doing some weird diving thing. It DID NOT look safe.  I decided I better hop in to keep a closer eye.

Greg: 

Eventually I convinced Lori that it would be more fun in the pool than out and she abandoned her make-shift dress parka and got in the pool.  Then we were all enjoying the water for a while. 

Lori:

IT SUCKED!  I started to feel really cold, no matter how much I tried to swim around. I decided to try convincing a child to get out of the pool with me and run back to the trailer for more towels. I thought it was a pretty smart way to get out of the pool and still save face.

Greg:

After a while we were all about ready to get out so I sent Lori back to the RV to get some towels. 

Lori:

So off Gracie and I went to get some towels. Greg had finally "trusted" me with the keys again, so we were going to be super organized. Into the RV, get changed, get more towels, back to the pool.  The plan worked like a charm!

Greg: 

Somehow, Lori and Gracie forgot a towel for me. So After Parker and Sawyer were out of the pool and dry, I got to rub myself down with some wet rags.  It was starting to rain by this time so Lori, Sawyer and Grace headed back to the RV while I got Parker organized and we followed close behind. 

Lori:

Sawyer's lips were already starting to turn blue by the time we made it to the RV. Standing around in a wet swimsuit in the rain will do that. I reached for the door, it was locked. WTF!!! I started breathing like a mad woman and wrenching on the door. I had left the keys inside, but I knew I hadn't locked it.

Greg:

She locked the freakin' keys in the RV!

Lori:

OKAY, so it is a dumb system where the key will open the door but if the handle lock is locked, once the door is closed again it will lock automatically.  SHIT, I'd locked the keys in the RV.

Greg:

At this point I took charge.  It was raining, my family was locked outside and Lori was doing a weird breathing thing but I was very calm and rational.  I looked at my watch.  It was 4pm and I know that locksmiths charge extra after hours.   I proceeded to the campground office and asked the manager if he could help me gain entry to the motorhome.  He called a locksmith for me.

Lori:

I started taking some deep breaths to settle myself. We needed to think and come up with a plan.  Where the hell had Greg gone?

Since he usually panics in these situations, and I couldn't find him anyway, I decided to take control. The boys were cold. I stripped them out of their wet clothes and put my sweater on Sawyer and wrapped Parker in a blanket that I found in one of the outdoor compartments.  Then I huddled the children together under a third blanket.  Then, I proceeded to check all the windows to see if they were open.

Greg:

When I got back to the RV, I noticed that the boys were naked.  WHAT WAS SHE THINKING?  I climbed on top of the RV to see if any of the roof vents were open. One was, but there was no way to get the screen out.  I then told Lori we needed to check all the windows on the RV to see if we could get any of them open. We finally managed to get a tiny little side window open, but there was no way anyone would fit through that.   

Lori:

EUREKA!  One of the side windows was open. I jimmied the screen around a little and managed to remove it from the window frame.  It made the hole just big enough for one of the kids to fit through.

Greg:

She was reaching for straws. There was no way that a child would fit through that window.  I told her we should wait for the locksmith.

Lori:

With a little convincing, I managed to get Gracie on board. I proceeded to pick her up and try to shimmy her feet through the window. She started to freak out.

Greg:

Lori tried to jam my kid through a tiny window! I panicked.  It was really out of character for me.  I was really concerned Gracie was going to get her head stuck and then we would need a locksmith and an ambulance. 

Lori:

With Gracie and Greg freaking out, I put Gracie down.   Hmmmmm.....was Sawyer up for a challenge?  Yes, he was!

Greg:

While I was trying to calm Gracie down after her full blown panic attack I looked around only to see Lori trying to jam Sawyer into the same window, head first!  I stood there, mouth hanging open while she crammed his fragile little body through the window. 

Lori:

Head first!  That was the key!  Like childbirth, if the head the shoulders fit then the rest is good to go.  I have never been so proud of that little boy as what I was when he wiggled his little body through that window. 

Greg:

Sawyer quickly unlocked the door.  Crisis over, I calmly walked back over to the campground office to ask them to call off the locksmith so I might avoid the call-out charge. 

Lori:

Finally inside the RV, I quickly realized we needed to get the boys dressed before Parker peed everywhere. 

Greg:

When I got back to the RV Lori was stripping all of the bedding off of our bed.  I guess the combination of a naked 2 year old and suddenly getting warm and cozy was too much.  Parker had peed everywhere. 

Lori:

Too late!

The Best

I suppose you have to experience the worst to fully appreciate the best.  The best part of the trip so far, was definitely our visit to Quebec.  Greg's exact words were "best father's day ever". 

We spent it at my friend Mireille's cabin tucked in between Montreal and Quebec. They have a lake that no one else appears to share with them.  It's amazing!  We detached the dock and floated it out to the middle of the lake where we anchored it. We then spent the afternoon drinking beer, swimming and enjoying the sun.  It really was fantastic!

We followed our time at the cabin up with a visit to Loretteville, Quebec.  It's where I spent 3 months of my grade 11 year year going to school. It was like a trip down memory lane.  Mireille and her family were fantastic hosts. It was so much fun to watch mine and Mireille's kids play together (Mireille and I have not seen each other for 15 years). Even though they didn't speak the same language, they seemed to figure out how to communicate.  

While in Lorretteville, we briefly escaped camping life to take in what Greg and I affectionately called "Vegas for kids".  It was like an indoor playground on speed.

The place was covered in neon lights and candy. It was really creepy but the swinging tree above was kind of cool.

Finally, we said our goodbyes to our hosts and we headed to the KOA in Quebec City.  It was pretty fun with the giant pillow trampoline and the playground (and the popsicles).

We hopped the shuttle from the campground to Old Quebec and spent the day wandering the streets.  I got to play tour guide because "le vieux" had at one time been my home too. It is one of my favourite places in this country and I realized how much I had missed it.  We showed the kids my old apartment, my old backyard (the plains of Abraham) and all the other tourist stops. Gracie and Sawyer even convinced us to take a horse carriage tour which turned out to be really fun. They both got to drive the horse - their highlight by far!

In the end, we all left Quebec feeling rested and content.  Je m'ennuie déja!

The Citadel in the middle of old Quebec. It is the only historic sight that is also an active military base. 

There is a cannonball lodged in this tree from the war between the French and English. 

Gracie gets involved in a street performance

Too much fun for one little man...

Ottawa - Part II

We survived and no one was actually voted out.  It was close though.   The children's unlikely alliance proved strong and I was very nearly voted out, largely because of my refusal to support the purchase of toys in every single town we pass through, but in the end I convinced one of them (my favorite) to change their vote and so we're still a family of 5.   
ed out of the family.

Today, fresh off our pirate adventure, we heeded the kids' threats of mutiny and ubered it down to Wellington Street instead of repeating yesterday's epic six hour bicycle excursion.    We first took in the historic Ottawa lock system on the Rideau Canal adjacent to the East Block of Parliament.  It was fascinating to see Parks Canada staff operating all 8 locks by hand, turning huge cranks to open and close the lock doors and the valves controlling the water.  We were also fascinated that there are no railings anywhere near the locks despite hundreds of people milling around an incredibly turbulent and dangerous set of historic hazards!

We took a water taxi across the Ottawa River to the Canadian Museum of History in Hull.  We only had time to take in the Children's Museum but the kids enjoyed it and it bought us some good will for our tours of the Parliament building and the Supreme Court of Canada. 

Our new ride...

Lori and Parker prefer this one, you can tell by her face...

The Parliament tour was pretty good.  I had never been in there before so I geeked out a little.  I have never before considered politics but being there made me just a little intrigued by the whole thing.   The guide talked a lot about how we would recognize things from watching media scrums on tv.   I couldn't stop thinking oh, there's the rotunda where the footage of them shooting at that guy was taken.    

It looks like one of the Famous Five is squishing Gracie

We got to the Supreme Court of Canada at the very end of they day.  I totally geeked out there.   It was inspiring.  The SCC courtroom seems so much bigger than it really is when you watch it on CPAC.   The Court is surprisingly well equipped to entertain young visitors so the kids got an activity book and they got to search for artifacts displayed in the lobby to win a prize.

By the end of the day it was hot, we were hungry and everything was closing but Ottawa has this incredible street called Sparks Street just a block south of Wellington.  On Sparks Street we found not one, not two but three giant gooseneck trailer food carts selling Southern Barbeque.  One of them was advertising that everything was gluten free so...we ate southern style barbeque on a park bench on a sweltering Ottawa evening.  It was amazing and it raised everyone's spirits.  Parker went from a hot mess to super happy and all it took was some authentic corn bread and a slurpee.   When he was done he started doing the hustle.  I swear to god. 

I can also report that I have learned of a secret salute between motorhome drivers when they pass on the highway.  I learned about it by waving at other motorhome drivers as they went past and watching for anyone to wave back.  Some of them actually do wave back.  Unfortunately this does not work with big rig truck drivers. 

Survivor Ottawa

Press this link and listen to the music while you read below...

Survivor Music

"On this season of Survivor, we are taking competitors to the political jungles of Ottawa. Here we have pitted family member against family member in a grueling competition to outwit, outlast and outplay.

Together they will compete in grueling competitions, like the 50 km bike ride to Mooney beach and back.  This competition will see some competitors fall..

 

While others will form unlikely alliances that further them in the game...

They will experience some of the worst conditions seen in Survivor history. Plus 29 degree weather (with humidity!) and forced to dress like pirates and participate in re-enactments on the Ottawa river; their shame will forever haunt them.

 

Yet, Survivor Ottawa will ultimately separate the weak from the strong and crown this season's sole survivor!"

The worst...

Sault Ste. Marie - June 16

In any long voyage there has to be a breaking point, for us that happened at the two week mark. We were in Sault Ste. Marie that morning wandering the boardwalk and visiting the Canadian locks.  That's where the ships drive into this long canal and this door swings closed behind them.  The water is then let out of the canal and the ship lowers down to the water level on the other side.  It's like an elevator for ships.  We were watching the locks and melting in the early morning sun and humidity.  Our tick count for the day was already at 3.  I should've known it wasn't going to end well....

At about 3 pm we decided to leave "the Soo" and head for a campground "just outside of Sudbury" for the night.  Our children were hot, cranky and tired.  We were too.  You'd think for a city roughly the same size as St. Albert it would be easy for me to navigate us directly to the highway. You'd be wrong. I managed to get us lost for about 45 minutes just wandering Sault Ste. Marie in our RV.  Greg was having to back the RV up in some pretty tiny places; I could feel my popularity falling by the minute.

Finally, we reached the highway. AH, FREEDOM! We were Fairbanks Campground bound.  It was going to be awesome.  Greg was still speaking to me through clenched teeth, but at least he was speaking to me again.  3 hours later we turned onto a gravel road. According to my superior navigating skills, this was the road to Fairbanks campground.  Yet, there wasn't any signage and it seemed to lead to farm houses. We were lost.

Greg turned the RV around in a ditch.  It wasn't pretty. I was now less popular than head lice and Nickelback.

Finally we found the exit to Fairbanks campground.  The road to the campground was mostly missing.  It was like Saskatchewan had taken a hold of the backcountry around Sudbury.  2 hours later we finally pulled into the campground for the night.  We gently navigated our way to our site which was too short and involved a sheer cliff drop off at the end.  After multiple tries to get into other sites, Greg had reached his breaking point.  We were leaving! I was scared to drive down that road again.  So at 10 o'clock at night we pulled into the group site. It was huge, there was no power and Greg was not levelling that "stupid RV".  The next morning we left at 5 am for Ottawa. Fairbanks campground would forever be known as Suckybanks to us.

We looked into switching drivers... apparently he couldn't reach the gas pedal. 

Group site B - thank you for saving my marriage.

Please don't leave us with these people...

Sleeping Giant Provincial Park

Ontario is wide!  It is feeling like forever to cross Ontario, particularly for Greg.  He's getting tired of hearing me say, " Lake Superior, AGAIN!"

Last night we camped at Sleeping Giant Provincial Park.  It's a pretty cool park at the end of a tiny peninsula that juts out into Lake Superior.  Our campsite was right on this lake (Marie Louise Lake)  in the middle of the peninsula.  It was beautiful.  The kids loved it, they could throw stones, boulders, sticks, our fly swatter (NO, PARKER) into the lake right from our campsite.  Greg and I loved it.  It's a really peaceful, serene feeling when you sit at your campfire and look out over the lake.  We watched ducks and ducklings swim by. On Greg's run he saw fox kits and a deer.

The bugs also loved it! We aren't sure what they were, some type of small black bug we think, but by the end of the day, our children were bleeding.   It was a little concerning.   This was Parker's ear...













The thing about camping in June during the week is that it is also really quiet.  Eerily quiet sometimes.  Like this day we spent at the beach in Sleeping Giant...

Lonely, lonely playground...they are missing their friends.

Our children are once again collecting things to throw in the water....

So is their dad...

Just outside of Thunder Bay we stopped at the Terry Fox monument. It's not far from where Terry Fox had to stop his run across Canada and even I had a moment where I was a little moved by his accomplishments.

Ya, to family walk!

*** We ran into some wifi free areas and had some difficulty getting the pictures to upload.  Here is the updated version ***


June 11, 2016

Today we hiked the Lower Rapids trail at Rushing River Provincial Campground. It was beautiful!  The rocks from the Canadian shield and the endless number of lakes and rivers make this place pretty spectacular. Every now and then we stopped just to take in the scenery and be amazed.  It was the same feeling yesterday when we had our own private beach at Dogtooth Lake (Parker calls it Dog Toot Lake).  It's a lake at the top of the river that is surrounded by rocks and islands that even the kids could swim out to.  It was so peaceful and serene.  I can't do it justice with the pictures.

Greg decides to swim across the lake with the kids...

This is what Parker and I do while they are swimming...

This is the lake, the falls are just on the other side of the orange things... it so cool!

I must have something in my ear...

Attempt number one for a family photo...where are Gracie and Sawyer??

Attempt number two.  I cut off Parker's head and my eyes are closed!  Seriously!

 I was reminded of how special this time is with our kids and I'm trying to soak it up.  Like Parker said to me yesterday, " you don't say no to family walk, you say ya to family walk".  So instead of doing the dishes or cleaning up the trailer- I say yes to family walk. 

Incidentally, Greg is also saying yes to family walk ... And today he brought home his first uninvited guest. That's right mom- Greg found a tick on his leg.   Now, I happen to be a tick expert (okay, I read an article online) and this was not the Lyme disease carrying kind.   We saved it just in case- and for this picture.   Gross huh!!!  Sorry, the tic picture is not meant to be...and I know you all wanted to see one.  Google it.  We are still having some technical difficulties.

Don't worry Greg hasn't shown any signs...yet...