Adventure #3 - Rideau Canal with warmed up Maple Syrup

The last week has been dominated by school and work out of the hotel apartment. Whilst a bit of a challenge its not too bad but we are definitely looking forward to moving into the house, which will happen on the 21st. 

Well this weekend has seen some warmer weather with two days in double digits (above zero this time). We spent Saturday buying Ice Skates and helmets for the boys - a surprisingly long and painful process. Nope, you don't just tell them your size and away you go, you have to walk around in the blasted things, then they have to be handed to Tim the Toolman to have them sharpened to a surgical standard! We then checked out the 1968 Mustang that I will hopefully have soon - a mostly finished restoration (only a couple of bits to go).

So anyway, we shot off this morning without snow boots because there was no snow in Kingston, overnight rain had melted it all. This was soon to be realised as a bit of a mistake.

Warming up but still a bit foggy....

 We made it to Smith Falls on the route of the Rideau Canal, which connects the cities of Ottawa and Kingston at about 202 km in length. It was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2007 and in February it hosts the Winterlude Festival, where about 7.8 km of the canal is cleared for public ice skating. We are hoping to get up there for a Beavertail or two!! But today we decided to dine with friends, the Harvey's from Puckapunyal - we took a photo for you - great burgers too!

Lunch with the Harvey's.

 We have been very interested in the variety of road signs that are around the place and have added a couple of our favourites here....

A Deer Sign.

Snow mobile crossing.

 After lunch we decided to head off to Perth just to say we have been there.

Welcome to Perth.

Rideau Canal - Perth.

 We then headed off to Mount Foley which sits above the town of Westport. All of these places look great for fishing a bit later in the year too.

Mt Foley looking across the lake.

Looking down to Westport.

 It was while I was out taking these photos (remember snow boots were forgotten - I drew the short straw) that I almost suffered from an involuntary loss of bowel control, when I spied some rather large footprints in the snow....

What is this?

Its big!

 As it turns out we searched footprints when we got home and found out it was probably a dog and not the big brown bear that I thought it might have been!

We then headed off towards Jones Falls, but we stopped randomly on the way home and found a spot at Newboro Lock which wasn't too slushy for the boys to get out. I ended up piggy backing Ben as he had zero foot protection with just a pair of runners on. It was here that I had my second brush with involuntary bowel movements when I decided I might just check how solid the ice was - the answer is, not solid enough to hold 105kgs!

Tom at the Lock

Benny boy loving his shoulder ride.

Jared at the Lock.

The place where I almost went swimming.

 We made it to Jones Falls, but it was a bit of a construction site, so what we could see was limited and by the way, in winter time waterfalls normally freeze, who would of thunk it? But it was a nice spot anyway.

Jonses Falls.

Well that's about it for a while  We will probably start moving into our house next weekend, so the last of the adventures for a little while, although that in itself may be an adventure!!!