Mmmm Wine Gums!

Ok, so the title really has nothing to do with the blog except for the fact that I am enjoying some Wine Gums right now! Yummy! This week flew by and I can't believe it's already been a week since Carl's mom and brother came for a visit! They flew into Toronto on Thursday night and Carl drove in on Friday morning to meet them and take them on a tour of Toronto! They came home that night and we grabbed a bite to eat in downtown Kingston! It was so nice to see familiar faces! It's hard to believe that its been six months, going on seven, since we've seen everyone from home!

Saturday morning, after our pancake breakfast we headed to Montreal! We checked into our nice hotel and then spent the day touring the main street and the old town. Even though Carl and I had been there once already, we got to see some areas we had missed our first time! I think that we might all agree that Old Montreal is pretty neat and that one of our favorite moments of the day is when we came across an old church and decided to go inside! It reminded me of a church you would see in Europe, very high ceilings, ornate and so much detail in every little thing - it was beautiful and peaceful!

We happened to be in town the same weekend that the Montreal Jazz Festival was going on! This is a huge festival that draws thousands of people to the area - we tried to steer clear of the crowds!

That night we went for dinner where Ryan drank a beer that was about the size of his head!

The following morning we enjoyed a delicious buffet brunch at the hotel and then headed to Mont Royal for a short walk and a beautiful view!

Then it was time to head back to Kingston where we made a nice dinner and enjoyed it outside with a bottle of champagne (that one of my clients actually gave me - my first gift from a client!)

Monday morning Carl had to head back to work. I on the other hand wasn't feeling well (wink wink) so I was able to spend the day with Dori and Ryan! We took the bikes out for a ride and met Carl for lunch outside his building! We then ventured to the Penitentiary Museum where Ryan got to experience a bit of what it would have been like to be put in solitary confinement...

And Dori got to experience the torture of drowning...Or in her case, more just claustrophobia!

From there, we rode downtown, explored the main street and enjoyed relaxing by the water! We made a big spaghetti dinner that night and did one more walk around town. When 2am rolled around, it was time to take our guests to the bus depot! It felt like Ryan and Dori had just gotten here and then they were leaving already! But we did get to see a lot in those few days and we were able to have a really nice visit! It's pretty neat to be able to show our family and friends where we've been living for the past 10 months....Has it been 10 months already?! We are looking forward to seeing our next visitors - we have 2 couples coming in the next week!!! Stay tuned to see who :)

HAPPY CANADA DAY!

Recovery

Well, should I start with the obvious?! What to say, what to say, those darn Canucks! They played hard, they played well and we were proud to be wearing our Canucks t-shirts! There is always next year...Right? But those riots, that was something else! It was the buzz around town (and around the world) this week! But I must say that after the embarrassment subsided, we were once again proud to see our fellow Canadian and Vancouverites cleaning up our beautiful city!

To get over our loss with the Canucks, we decided to check out a new sport and cheer on Kingston's local Roller Derby Girls! Ever seen the movie "Whip It"? Watch it and you'll get a better idea of what we were watching! In simple terms a roller derby is when you have 2 teams of girls, all on roller skates competing against each other trying to score points. Each team has blockers and jammers. The blockers from both teams skate together in front of the jammers. Their purpose is to block the other teams jammer from getting through the blockers and to assist their jammer to get through. Every time a jammer gets through the blockers, a point is scored. It can get pretty rough when the girls start hip checking and knocking each other over, but it's entertaining to say the least! Our Kingston girls won against the Peterborough team by about 200 points!

Saturday morning we decided to ride our bikes downtown and rent some kayaks! We actually got a pretty good deal to buy 20 hours of paddling that we can use at anytime! We paddled along the shore of the downtown area for about 1.5hrs and are looking forward to more evening cruises throughout the weeks to come!

In front of me is a bit of Kingston's downtown area!

Behind Carl is the Kingston City Hall which is currently under a bit of reconstruction!

Saturday night we went to a friends house for a seafood extravaganza! We tried out 3 new recipes of fish tacos, a crab dip (served on bread and a slice of cucumber) and a non seafood recipe for mini quiche! They all turned out yummy!

This week we are looking forward to a visit from Carl's mom and brother who are coming to stay with us for a few days! We can't wait to seem them!!!

Lastly, HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

to our amazing Dads,

to our wonderful Grandpa's,

and to all the other Dad's and Grandpa's out there!

Hope you all know how appreciated you really are!

Bon Echo echo echo

It was about 4:45pm on Wednesday night when the sky went an eery black. The day hadn't been bad, in fact both Carl and I had walked to work without umbrella's. It started out sunny and humid but by 4:45pm the wind was ripping through Kingston, it was dark as night (almost) and rain dumped from the sky. The lights in my office began to flicker and a roll of thunder shook the building. It was perfect timing, both Carl and I are done work at 5pm, right when the down pour really began to pelt down! I was lucky enough to catch a ride with my friend Julie, Carl on the other hand had to face the elements without an umbrella...Not that that would have really helped with the wind. The thunder clapped and the lightening streaked across the dark sky. As Carl walked home he made sure to stay close to tall trees as the lightening was striking a little to close for comfort. There was no use in trying to stay dry, he was already soaked to his underwear. As the storm pushed on, Carl was faced with a dilemma...His walk home took him straight through an open field - Should he walk through it and risk being struck by lightening or take the long way around? The thunder roared and with that Carl opened his mouth wide and ran as fast as his legs would carry him across the field, hoping to be faster than the speed of lightening so as not to be struck by it! VICTORY! He made it! He later told me about his brush with death, telling me that he had never been that scared in a storm, the lightening was striking right above his head. He had heard that if you are struck with lightening, it is better to have your mouth open to avoid pressure (or something) which is why he ran across the field with his mouth wide open! That storm knocked out power for hundreds of people for a couple days and we later heard that a tornado actually touched down in the Hamilton area! But we survived :)

Later that night, after the storm had cleared and the sun was once again shining, we met some visitors for dinner! My parents friends, Frank and Bonnie Bucholtz from church back at home had come to Kingston for their sons graduation from Queens! While in town, they thought they would pay us a visit. It was nice to once again see some familiar faces!

On Friday night, we took off right after work to Bon Echo Provincial Park. It's about 2 hours north of Kingston and known for the 1.5-kilometre sheer rock face that rises 100 metres above Mazinaw Lake, one of the deepest lakes in Ontario, and features over 260 native pictographs - the largest visible collection in Canada.

We set up Friday night and on Saturday a few of our friends from church came by to spend the day with us! Below is Carl, Keri, Andy, Jen and Wendy!

We decided to do one of my favorite things - rent canoes and go paddling!

We paddled right beside the massive rock and looked for the native pictographs, of which we found a few!

Then we pulled over to do a short hike to a look out point!

That night we tried something we had never tried before!

We made chicken over the campfire!

My dad always used to do this so we thought we'd give it a try! Carl is getting used to the phrase "but my dad does it this way" when camping :) It turned out delicious (but mom I want to know what BBQ sauce you used!)

Overall, we had another great week and an awesome weekend away!

What a Week!

Well, out of all of our weeks here in Kingston so far, I might say that this has been our busiest and I could probably go as far saying maybe our most fun week in Kingston yet!

We started the week with Monday (as most people do) and spent the evening preparing for our long awaited guests.

On Tuesday, we could hardly wait for the day to be done because we knew that that night, our first visitors from home would be arriving! Carl's cousin Andrea and her husband Nick arrived after a flight from home and a long journey through Toronto rush hour! We picked them up from the bus depot and headed downtown for dinner and a bit of catching up! It was so nice to see familiar faces from home!

On Wednesday, I took a "personal day" to tour Nick and Andrea around town! We decided to do a boat cruise around the 1000 Islands! We drove in to Gananoque (ask Nick to pronounce it!) which is about 30 minutes from here and hopped on our boat! In and around the area of Lake Ontario and the St Lawrence River which crosses over into New York, there are about 1805 islands! Some are man made and they all vary in sizes as you can see from the pictures below...

Wouldn't it be nice to have your own private island?

This one is a bit small for me...

And this one...Where is the island?!

The tour took us into New York where the well known Boldt Castle resides!

The castle was built by some rich guy for his wife (sorry, I don't remember names). But during the process of it being built, the rich man's wife died! He was so upset that he left the castle and never returned. It sat vacant for years until it became a tourist attraction! If you're on the right cruise, you can hop off and explore the island and the castle!

After the cruise, Nick, Andrea and I explored Gananoque a bit and had lunch at a little diner where everyone knew everyone (except us)! From there we headed back to Kingston to explore the downtown area and the local Penitentiary Museum! Since we do have about eight jails in the surrounding area, its kind of a must see! It was actually ended up being quite interesting! From there, it was time to meet Carl for dinner!

From dinner, we headed to Fanatics, the local sports bar to watch the Canucks win their first game against Boston!

Thursday was a sad day - our guests came for a quick stay and today was the day we had to say farewell. Carl and I both had to work which gave Nick and Andrea some time to explore on their own...Although I think they decided to just sleep in! At noon, I left work, picked up Nick and Andrea, we drove to Carl's work, picked up Carl and were able to have a quick lunch together before dropping our guests off at the bus station so they could head to their next destination, Montreal!

Carl and I knew it would be a rough night, being alone again so we made sure we had plans for the evening! We met up with our friends Matt and Andy and went for a long bike ride! We stole the idea from Aunt Jane and Uncle Chuck to go for a long ride and then have spaghetti at the end...A spaghetti ride! Which is exactly what we did!

On Friday, we got home from work, made a quick dinner and decided to rush out and see a movie! We saw the movie Bridesmaids - it was hilarious but slightly crude, so beware!

Saturday morning, we had no plans...So we made some! We ended up driving to Frontenac Provincial Park, about 40minutes away where we did a 3 hours/12km hike!

We discovered that hiking in Ontario is like going for a long walk in the woods! There isn't much uphill and not to many scenic views! But it was still enjoyable!

That night, it was off to our friend Andy's, for her birthday! We headed downtown for a roof top party at her boyfriends apartment! We of course, went in style, being that it was the night of game 2!

Here are some views of Kingston from the apartment!

Little did we know at this point that we'd be on that little red boat to the far left, the next day!

Yup, Sunday after church we headed out on Matt's sailboat for 6 hours, enjoying Lake Ontario! It was my first time ever on a sail boat!

It was a lot fun!

Overall, we had a very busy week but it was a good one! Looking ahead at our summer, it is also starting to look quite busy but we can't wait for all the adventures to come!