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Published: July 11th 2011
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It’s 8:15 a.m. and I am sitting on a lovely patio at the campsite here in Quebec, enjoying the already hot morning sorting through photos and attempting to write a blog. We made it to the Montreal area yesterday afternoon and are getting ready to enjoy the new experiences of a province with another language.
I should go back a few days first; I believe left off with us having spent an incredible time in Niagara Falls and heading to Toronto. Driving to Toronto was far easier than we expected, we left Niagara Falls after the rush hour so it made driving the 401 a lot less stressful. The 401 is Deerfoot Trail jacked up on steroids, a lot of steroids! There are collector highways that run parallel to the Express way that are 3 lanes wide, which bring traffic on and off of the Express way. The 401 Express itself is another 4 lanes wide, and although the posted speed limit is 100km/hr. no one was doing much less than 120 km/hr. BJ was amazing and drove the whole time in the Toronto area, he did a great job! Our GPS helped a lot though, every time we approached an
on or off ramp it would continually remind us to stay left on to the 401.
We stayed in a little Howard-Johnson hotel on the edge of Toronto as we didn’t want to have to fight driving in and out of the city every day. When we arrived our room was not ready so we decided to kill the afternoon at the Toronto Zoo. The zoo is an incredible facility, there are some pretty amazing enclosures and displays, and our favourite is the stingray and shark enclosure. For an extra $2.50 each you can the Stingray area and actually touch the stingray’s. BJ and I spent a good half hour in there touching and petting the Cow-nose Stingray. They swim around in circles and actually rise closer to the surface to allow you to give them a good rub. There was one little ray that really liked BJ and I and he would slow down and push up against our hands when we were rubbing him. AMAZING!
The next day we visited Casa Loma; a large castle inspired estate built on a hill in Toronto. The man who constructed it was a very wealthy financier in the early 1900’s. It
took 300 men to build it from 1911- 1914 and cost over $3.5 million dollars. The estate has over 90 rooms, some with secret hidden passage ways, there was an incomplete pool area built in the basement of the estate and an 800 foot tunnel. It is a pretty cool place to check out.
From Toronto we headed to Ottawa to visit with friends we had met in Cuba. Erika and Eddy were incredibly generous and welcoming and hosted us for 3 awesome nights. We toured Parliament Hill and the Parliament buildings on Friday, and even enjoyed a beer and lunch in front of the Parliament. The architecture of the parliament is stunning, there are hand carved pillars with faces of politicians and even the carvers themselves. There is also a portrait of Queen Victoria that has survived 4 separate fires and now is hung close to an exit should the need to save it from peril arise again.
The best event of our stay in Ottawa was the Medieval Festival we went to in Osgoode. Erika, Eddy, BJ and I spent the morning watching knights in full metal armour joust each other. We had the chance to speak with
one of the Knights about the jousting and found out that both he and the other knight actually compete in real jousting competitions. The jousting that day was full-on real contact jousting. The lances were made of white pine and when a good blow was made with the opponents armour those lances shattered and splintered into pieces. The Knight that won the jousting is currently the world champion in jousting and is starting production on a new show called “Full Metal Jousting” where normal everyday people compete and train to learn how to joust. After the festival we enjoyed a walk along the Canal and made the most delicious dinner ever!!! Bacon wrapped chicken kabobs and Bison Kabobs…. SO GOOD!
After thanking Eddy and Erika for their hospitality we headed on to Montreal. Today we are going to take in the sites of Old Montreal and hopefully meet up with friends of BJ for dinner and a catch up.
Happy Travels!
Erin & BJ
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Becky
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<3
Oh my I how I love you two! I swear I get a little teary every time I read your blogs... You guys look like you are having such a good time and I am just so happy for you! You are both so amazing! I miss you like crazy! You picture of your faces through the Knight and maiden display cracks me right up... "Yup those are my two best friends!" I just got back from a weekend in Cravin SK, Partied like the true red neck I am! Can't wait to hug you! Lots of Love Becs xxoo