Part of my stint out west involved a road trip with my mom, sister and 2 nephews (aged 6 and 10 months).  My dad wanted my mom to have an escape with her daughters so he arranged for us to spend a week at a chalet in Banff. 

Traveling with young ones stressful??? Not!

Driving with the two young ones was less stressful than I had thought it would be and posed many silly moments.  Harry (aged 6) had this habit of saying, "Auntie, I need to go to the bathroom."  To which I'd reply that I'd stop at the next road-side stop we came upon.  Seconds later he'd always counter with, "... but it's an emergency."  This led me to become quite adept at swerving onto the shoulder and throwing on the hazards so he could go about his business.

I also learned that while fruit (for example, blueberries) may be a healthy snack, it is perhaps not the snack you want to be feeding your 10 month old while on a 9 hour car ride.  I now know how blueberries interact with a baby's digestive system - info that I could have lived without knowing.

When we were little, my family would always travel to Banff at least once a year.  Often, we'd do nothing other than stare at Bow Falls and shop Banff Ave.  This time, I wanted to show my mom that there was more to see and do than those two things.  Lots more.  So true to form, I crammed a lot in and probably overwhelmed/nearly killed my mom in the process.

On day one, we went to Johnson Lake and drove the Minnewanka loop.  Harry loved this because he got to swim in the lake and play in the sand.  I also learned that he is a very social creature.  He walked up to everyone he found interesting and talked to them like they were best friends.

The whole lot of us at Johnson Lake.

One of my favourite moments at Johnson Lake was when Harry needed to use the facilities which were of the outhouse variety.  He looked down in the hole and proclaimed, "Gawd, that is SO wrong!"  I laughed and laughed.

We saw so much wildlife this first day it was amazing - goats, goats and a huge elk that emerged from some trees onto the side of the road just as we were passing (which startled me quite badly).

Baby Goat!

Also on the agenda was Johnston's Canyon.  My mom really wanted to go here, so off we went. 

Digging for gold @ Johnston Canyon

Harry and I hiked up ahead of everyone.  He was taking pictures like a tourist with his DSi.  It got a little sketchy in places: long dropoffs and inadequate fencing - well, these were my thoughts -- perhaps I was being a wee bit paranoid.

Not another picture Auntie, jeez louise!

By the time we got to the first set of falls, Harry was super annoyed with over-protective Auntie K - so we hiked in silence... until naturally, he had to get to the bathroom and we had to high tail it back to a washroom.

Moraine Lake

We also ventured to Moraine Lake.  I really wanted to take my mom here as I had stopped here a few years ago with my brothers and had thought it was mind-blowingly beautiful.  It is still a very nice spot but I was so annoyed with the many, many tourists that did not respect my personal space (apparently, I have a bubble and it was violated!)  While I can appreciate that I don't own a public bench, I'd still like to be able to sit for 10 minutes without having people stand in front of us and balance themselves on rocks using my 10 month old nephews stroller (that he was sitting in) as their f%$#ing balancing bar -- all in an attempt to get a photo that was easily shot from many other nearby locations.  Seriously rude.  While my sister thought this the most lovely spot on our trip, I'll admit to being so annoyed by the onslaught of inconsiderate people that it was my least favourite stop (by far). 

Oliver: Ladies, can we leave now please.  There are WAY too may tourists here.

Next stop was Lake Louise.  We didn't stay long.  Just got out to quickly look around and take in the views.  

My mom and I at Lake Louise.

It was great to hang out with my mom, sister and nephews.  Each night we'd hang out at the chalet or hit the swimming pool.  We dined on frozen pizza, orange jello and popsicles!  Good times!! Good times!!

 
Back from the pool!

On our last day, we took my mom shopping on Banff Ave. and to Bow Falls.  Overall, we had a great trip!!

To see the entire set of pictures from this trip, click here.

For the last 3 weeks I've been hanging with my prairie peeps. 

The first week, I hung out with N's family.  We spent a lot of that time with our super cute niece, Ashley.

I also had an evening I'd rather forget (man, am I real chatty after a few glasses
of wine -- oh and some rum punch -- and oh yeah and some misc shots),

We also took in a Rider game (vs Montreal -- talk about a drag -- worst game I've ever seen live),

and golfed 9 holes.

After the first week, N headed back to TO and I took off on a road trip with my mom, sister, a 10 month old baby and a 6 year old. 

More on that later.

To view a few shots from my time in Regina -- click here.

I love to camp.  Neil and I both do.  After a long afternoon hike, supper cooked over an open fire, a night sitting by a campfire under the stars, N and I are both struck with an overwhelming desire to never head back to the city.

My brothers had never camped before and thus were uncertain they would enjoy it, but enjoy it they did.  We took them out to Tobermory on the Bruce Peninsula.  The Bruce Peninsula is a little slice of heaven -- so beautiful.  

We camped in the Cyprus Lake Campground and our site backed onto the lake.  We hiked some rather treacherous trails thanks to Neil and his mastery with a trail map.  

This year over the Canada Day long weekend, we ventured to Quebec City with my brothers.  Quebec City, while very touristy, is beautiful.  The city exudes 400 years of history.  This proved to be more history than some in our party needed but none-the-less we all enjoyed our foray into french-speaking Canada.

There were cobble-stoned streets and quaint old buildings.  At times you forgot that you were still in Canada.  The shopping area in the lower town, Quartier Petit Champlain, reminded me very much of shopping the Getreidegasse in Salzberg.

The old town in Quebec City is very steep and we climbed many many stairs over our few days there.  Here is a view from the Citadel (the military fortress built on the city's highest point).

As you can tell from the picture above, we had horrible weather. It rained our entire time there... but we only got caught out in a downpour once.   So in that respect, we were very lucky. 

On our last night, we ventured to the Old Port and took in the Moulin a Images or Image Mill.  The Image Mill is a projection produced by Robert Lepage and Ex Machina.  It is the largest projection ever done.  It uses grain elevators in the harbour as it's projection screen - giving it huge dimensions -- 600 feet wide by 30 meters high!  My pictures of it do not do it justice as we were too close and could not capture all of the screen area but I managed to find a video clip on youtube so take a look.

Overall, we had a good trip.  Our car ride home was LONG as we got caught in "cottage country" traffic -- everyone returning en mass back into the GTA. Ended up being a 12 hour day.  Needless to say, it was a tiring drive.

The entire set of pictures from the trip is up on flickr and can be found here.

N and I are off on a road trip to Quebec with my brothers from the prairies.  I only note their place of residence because at every turn they are trying to tell us that Saskatchewan is better (than everything and everywhere). 

I got them up at what they called an "ungodly" hour (7AM) and forced their cranky asses into the car by shortly after 8AM.  We stopped for breakfast in Pickering at the Golden Griddle - a tradition we started last year en route to Ottawa for Canada Day.  This brought forth the first moment of hilarity of the trip.  You see, my baby brother Joseph, ordered bacon and french toast with a side order of bacon strips.  I'd explain why this was hilarious but I'm not sure this blog should delve into potty humour.  Again though, he quite seriously asked the server for a side order of "bacon strips" and Tim and I were beside ourselves in laughter.

After breakfast, we were back on the road.  We made good time until we got to the Quebec border.

After we were in Quebec, we hit construction everywhere.  Our progress slowed dramatically.  Then, we hit rush hour traffic driving through Montreal.  We were in Montreal around 3PM and we got to Quebec City at 8:30PM and it is only a 2.5 hour trip normally.  Painfully slow.

Once settled into our hotel (the fantastically new Four Points by Sheraton in Levis) we ventured out to find out where the ferry station was.  We chose to stay in Levis, QC which is on the south shore of the St. Lawrence and directly across from the Old Town of Quebec City.  The views across the river of a lit-up Quebec City were beautiful.  My grainy night pictures do not do it justice.

Afterward, we found this great poutine shack.  Yum.

A good first day.  Now if only the sun would come out.  We are in QC for 4 days and it is supposed to rain everyday.  Seriously dampens my spirits!  

I've started a set of QC pics on flickr that I will try to update everyday.  The link is here.