Lake Placid

Near the end of September, we had this great idea to head 3hrs south to the Adirondaks in New York, and take in the changing leaves.





The view from our hotel on Mirror lake, situated in the town of Lake Placid. It's an historic little resort town, made famous through hosting the 1932, and 1980 Winter Olympics.

Heavy cloud cover obscured most of the highest mountain tops during our 3 days, so we opted not to do the drive up Whiteface. It looked like an epic snowboarding location though, and I've made a mental note to come back.

Rest stop at the side of the road.









Burning off some energy before bedtime.



Driving back from Heart Lake.

The Mush Chronicles

Ethan has been demonstrating all the signs of being ready to eat solids for a while already, and we figured the extra calories may help to push him through the night. Our first attempt was with rice cereal while we were in Winnipeg, however, the entire trip seemed to throw his groove off, and so we abandoned it until returning to Ottawa. Since then, he's tried all sorts of foods, going through phases where he liked to sit in his chair, liked to sit on our laps, preferred a spoon, and sometimes preferred for us to hand feed him.

Ethan is still occasionally a bit cautious about the whole process, and may be asking " What is this strange-textured stuff? There's no way I'm eating any more of this crap until I see papa take a spoonful as well". At one stage, he abandoned the solid foods entirely, and went on a brief two week hunger strike. On reflection, we figure it was likely just due to a cold. After that cleared up, he seemed ok again with the prunes, sweet pototoes, wax beans, pears, blueberries and the full-fat yoghurt. It's shocking though how many clothes he is plowing through now, even with the bibs. The cloth ones turned out to be useless, and we opted for the wipeable plastic ones instead.

A Dissappearing Summer

Even though the daylight hours start diminishing in June, I usually only start to get shocked, and dismayed by the lack of sunlight come August. I'm definitely not ready for winter yet, and am already dreading those upcoming months where I'll leave for work in the dark, and come home in the dark. The fact that hockey is starting again offers little consolation, especially given the fact that Ottawa came up as the bridesmaid last season.

All of these feelings led to an urgency to get in some last minute outdoor activities: Here they are:

Left - We scrambled up the 400m Eardley escarpment in Luskville, Quebec on a steaming +30C afternoon. The backwards facing baby carrier was the ticket - Ethan giggled the whole way up watching Sophie follow my tracks.

Looking down on the Ottawa valley from a lookout point close to the top. This is one of those vertical hikes, where you think the reward will come on the way back down, yet the trek down was actually way harder, and I blew out my knees for a good 48 hours afterwards.

Sophie trying out the baby carrier on the front during an evening walk along a path below Rockcliffe park.

Chillin and illin (literally) on the floor - I had to clean it up.

Sophie standing at the entrance to the lobby of the world's largest log cabin - the Chateau Montebello. This hotel made of red cedar logs, has also gained familiarity through recently hosting the US, Mexican, and Canadian Tri-lateral meetings. As we approached the grounds through a beautiful nature trail in the woods, it was hard to believe the place had only recently taken on another life as an impenetrable fortress.

Contemplating the sweet things in life whilst waiting for Poutine, and beer made from Spruce trees at a diner in the Laurentians. (actually - I decided to pass on the Spruce beer, and picked up a king can of cheapass Molson Export for the campsite later that night)

Watching the sun set from the quay in Oka.




I would have been thoroughly dissapointed had we let summer pass, and not attempted camping at least once with Ethan. We figured we'd test the waters first, doing some simple car camping in Oka national park, only 2 hours from home.

Sophie and Ethan showing the tell-tale signs of getting wicked "eye-ers" from the smoke all morning long. I think bub is exhibiting a bit of tent-face as well. We had a blast though, and I have to say our first try at camping worked out very well, even if it was car-camping. I'm always surprised at how quickly I forget about the fact that there are no mosquitoes - it's one of those things we've started to take for granted already.

Wakey, Wakey, eggs and bakey. Actually, no bakey for us. I think we had yoghurt and granola bars. (note the dead king can on the table though! I had to stoke the fire with a few all-nighter logs to finish that one off. I'm so lame.