Smith's Falls and the Chocolate Factory

We took a day trip down to Smith's Falls in late August. It's a historic little town of around 10000 people, made famous by its numerous locks on the Rideau Canal, and for the Hershey Chocolate Factory. We felt an urgency to visit the town, as Hershey has announced that they are closing the chocolate factory in 2008, and moving operations down to Mexico.




Left - we began the day with what we thought would be a quick lunch at a local Pizza restaraunt. It started out well enough, with orders being taken right away, and a generally busy diner atmosphere to keep us entertained. Bub was happy, and the country music playing over the sound system seemed fitting for the hard-done-by town. However, when you hear the one waitress, arguing with the one cook, about why the kitchen lost the order, and why so-and-so ain't showing up again, you have to brace yourself. Nothing will test your patience, like waiting an hour and a half for a rubber omellete, all the while dealing with a baby who doesn't think hanging out at the table is the coolest thing anymore. Needless to say, when the next song coming through the speakers was "tequila makes her clothes fall off" - I was ready to leave.



When I heard about the chocolate shop, and the free self-guided tour around the chocolate factory, I had imagined the whole thing may be a bit overblown...a tourist trap perhaps. But when we pulled around the bend, and were within a block of the company, the overwhelming smell of chocolate filled the air. We parked and entered the chocolate shop, which could only be described as a chocaholics madhouse. The place was packed, and people were lined up 5 deep trying to get at the bulk bins. I've never seen the like.


The shop sells almost the entire line of Hershey products at close to "at cost" value, and so the binging was monumental. After we left, it was easy to see how the local town is fighting so hard to keep at least the shop open for business.


Amongst the throws of people wandering around frantically, we partially succumbed to the insanity, and left with WAY more than we needed to.

The Exersaucer of Madness

Ethan REALLY LOVES the exersaucer that his cousin Keelin has leant him. Unfortunately, his mom has to take the blue sucky thing right off of his console lest it drive him (and her!) completely nutso!

Otherwise, it's a great play station for him. He spins all around and manages his world from there. For a little while, anyways. (Hey, I don't even have that long of an attention-span!) Greg calls it Ethan's "control centre", as he spins around frantically pushing buttons and generally throwing stuff.

Winnipeg summer '07

Soph's post - Grandma P had lots of fun giving Ethan rides on her chair. He was pretty keen and especially enjoyed being outside on the back porch - then he could at least hear the cars going by on Corydon!

Other advantages to being on the popular strip, is going for pints with friends. Dylan thought he'd show Ethan how good a pint of Keith's can taste. Hmm hmm good!

Ethan enjoyed watching the traffic go by on Corydon while sitting on the back of the couch at Grandma Ps house. He also got to spend a good amount of time in the van, which he had a love-hate relationship with (it all depends on how bumpy the ride was).

We spent an afternoon and evening in St.Lupicin with the family during the last weekend in July, when they were putting on a music festival to raise money for the church. Cousin Eric drove the shuttle truck from the parking lot to the festival site (you can tell he really hated that job!)

We got to swim in the pool at St.Lu, but Ethan thought it was a bit cold that day. He did have a fantastic swim at Marj and Jim's pool a few days earlier, where the water was as warm as a bath. The weather hovered around 36 deg C for most of the time we were in Manitoba, so we either hunkered down indoors in the a/c, or hung out in other people's pools. Thanks for that!

Ethan and Jane at Safeway in Osborne Village....It was fun to finally be able to 'introduce' Ethan to friends and family who had yet to meet him. Everyone who has known Greg for the longest say Ethan looks like him, and everyone who's known me the longest say he looks like me. Hmm. I guess there's a good mix in there, eh?

There was a show on at Imax about sharks, and we got to see the display for it at the Forks. Ethan thought it was pretty exciting... We enjoyed walking around the Forks and sort of being tourists in our hometown.

Ethan and I survived the flight to Winnipeg and back to Ottawa, although it would have been nice to fly with papa. Good thing it's such a short trip....