Bonjour

I couldn't have picked a better doggie daycare at random from the phone book. It was actually just a pet supply store and groomer, and the owner took in doggie daycare dogs. Romeo and Izzy were his only daycare clients that day. We were worried, because Romeo can be an absolute jerk to other dogs. However, he's breedist - the only dogs he's accepted right away without incident have been cocker spaniels. His favorite are blondes. The owner, a pleasant Russian man and former veterinarian, breeds cocker spaniels and had his nice blonde male in today along with his assistant's (wife's?) two cockers, a blonde and a red. The kids seem to have had a great four hours there and were fed good organic food and Russian sausage all day.

We, on the other hand, got lost in downtown Ottawa and ended up going 7 storeys down in a parking garage with no elevator. The attendent made us pay anyway when we left. We finally found parking right across the street from where we were going, Scott's Museum of Civilization. It was nice, but not as cool as he remembered. A good half of it was dedicated to Aboriginal culture and artifacts, with a huge collections of West Coast native stuff, like totems. We were like... been there, done that. UBC's Museum of Anthropology and Victoria's Royal BC Museum cover it extensively, and we also couldn't help but think it was just stolen culture. We did see the ancient canoe that was recently discovered in the rafters of some Scottish museum and returned to Canada for restoration. Mary liked the Children's Museum (I'm sure she'll remember it for the rest of her life). Otherwise we were glad tickets were only $10 each.

After we collected the dogs we headed east to Quebec. We stopped at the tourist bureau just across the border and a very helpful woman named Andreanne helped us book the cheapest hotel we could find that took dogs without charging a huge dog fee. We're in the Best Western in Laval. After we took our stuff in, we ventured into downtown Montreal to find a restaurant. Instead we got lost and frustrated and came back to the hotel after an hour and a half. I discovered my purse was missing and Scott went to search for it (I found it under the bed, grr!) and came back with Subway. So we're in one of the most beautiful cities in the world that's reputed for its excellent restaurants, and we're eating Subway subs for dinner.

Part of what got us lost is Scott forgetting the French directional words. "I don't know what Quest is." "It's not Quest, it's Ouest! West! Go West!"

Ticked off

I found a tick on me this morning after my shower. A TICK! I freaked out and Scott pulled it out. It hadn't embedded itself yet.

The pups are booked into doggie daycare for the day. We haven't told them that Romeo can be a jerk.

Mary learns to crawl...

... on the floor of the Comfort Inn in Ottawa, Ontario. It was pretty cool. She spotted what she wanted, moved forward, and got it.

We left Sault Ste Marie around 10am and arrived around 7pm in Ottawa. Yet another hotel, but we weren't expecting cheap since it's a big city. Scott scored us a free room upgrade unintentionally, too. We have a fridge and microwave!

After we unloaded our stuff we took our first trip downtown to walk around. I caught some cool nightshots of Parliament. We certainly are in BilingualLand now. Scott's having a bit of a hard time. We've argued that, yes, there IS a difference between Laurier and Laurent, and they are two completely different streets. He also reads both the French and English on signs and ends up with something like "the Pont Bridge." A pont IS a bridge, so that's not going to help when asking for directions either.

Kid fell asleep in the car on the way back, so she then woke up when being taken out, and she's doing the same thing as last night. It'll either be the all-night boobfest or a lot of being awake and screaming. Scott doesn't understand that both these scenarios stress the crap out of me and thinks it's just fun to keep her up playing.

I might try to get some photos up tonight, but I've got a LOT to organize now and Scott needs to work on a project for his advocacy course (it doesn't really count as "working on it" to open a Word document and save it with nothing more than the question copied and pasted at the top).

Tomorrow we're doing the Museum of Civilization and more wandering about downtown. We're unsure where we'll end up last night. It depends on how much time we spend in Ottawa. We'd like to camp, since the weather will be warm.

Sleep-deprived

I don't know if Mary's teething, had bad gas, or is just over-tired, but that was the worst night ever. She wouldn't fall asleep despite me nursing for well over an hour. When she eventually did (with Scott, just passed out exhausted) it didn't last long, and I spent most of the rest of the night nursing with both of us asleep. I woke up to pee and she woke up screaming, too.

There's black-out curtains in these rooms, so she and I have no idea that it's a bright sunny day out. Scott wants to just go, but I'm reluctant to wake the girl up because she so desperately needs some sleep and I'm finally not breastfeeding for the first time in 8 or 9 hours.

In other news, I just caught Scott shaving his back?

Apparently the "children" I heard running and stomping on the floor above us last night was a girl's soccer team from the States. In Winnipeg we had an American boy's hockey team. I hope this isn't a pattern. And when we drive through the States, will it be rowdy Canadian teams keeping us awake?

Izzy got her chocolate fix

Found out why Izzy was so hyper for the last few hours of the drive... she stole Scott's M&Ms and ate them under his seat.

This morning we went to find my dad's childhood home in Thunder Bay. Either Grandpa remembered the address wrong or they changed the street numbers, but 344 Richard St. Doesn't exist. I called my dad (caught him in the bathroom this time... luckily he has a phone in there) and he described the house. I think we found it. Then, just a kilometer away, we stopped at the Terry Fox Monument. We come from Terry's hometown, and now this is where he was forced to end his epic run. It's an amazing statue with an amazing view of Lake Superior and Thunder Bay. Definitely appropriate. I met an older couple there who were driving to BC as well as a man who'd just travelled all the way to BC and was now making the trip the other way. Apparently Terry makes for a great stop for long-haul travellers.


Mary slept awesome in the car this time, including one 3+ hour nap, so we made good time from Thunder Bay. We expected to get in around 8 but instead rolled into town around 6. I get after Scott for driving 140, passing on double yellows, and making quick maneuvres around the big rigs, but hey... we got here earlier than the other stops, didn't we?

We're in another hotel. The prices in the BCAA guide really aren't at all accurate. Super 8 was roughly the same as the crappy motels, and it's newer, has high speed internet, free continental breakfast, and the front desk dude waived the pet fee. Izzy was going insane with pent up energy so after we ate dinner (at Lonestar, spending too much) we took her to find a park so she could run. We didn't bring the map the desk attendent gave us, so we ended up on some residential street. Scott pulled over to ask an older couple for directions.

"Hey there, I'm from BC and I'm looking for an elementary school." Remember, this is around 7:30 at night at this point. "So my daughter can play on the swings."

The man looked at him like his was some creep looking to case out the place before the kids arrived. He told us, though, and we let Izzy chase a water bottle (couldn't find a ball). She's getting really good at tracking things when she doesn't see them fall. Scott also took Mary on the slide and almost got stuck like Pooh in the honey tree. He says it was his height. Teehee.

It's a long haul stretch to Ottawa tomorrow, I think our longest distance so far. We're really pushing our luck dodging the Ontario Provincial Police. Given how quickly we've started blowing the budget, we're reconsidering our plans for accomodation. Scott wanted to stay in a nice hotel in Ottawa, but perhaps we'll return to the original plan of staying in a crappy motel outside the city. We still have to put the pups into doggie daycare while we sightsee.

Aging biker has no thunder in Thunder Bay

We slept well. Mary only woke up once, and I brought her into bed with us. This morning I took the dogs out and Izzy decided she couldn't wait for grass. Instead, she took her big poo right in the middle of the taxi lane smack in front of the hotel's main doors. Thanks, Izzy. Two old bikers and a taxi driver all saw her do it. I couldn't clean it up right away because I had no bags. Romeo hadn't done anything at all yet, so I waited for him to pee, and ran inside to get bags. Had to carry Izzy so she wouldn't decide that the lobby would be an even better place to pee. They finished their business outside and I picked up all their little presents. Then this biker came up to me.

"I was gonna yell at you when I saw you leave that. Thanks for coming back to pick it up."

I'm waiting for someone to say something before I can pick it up. Like, what am I supposed to do? Pick it up with my bare hands?

We escaped the Kenora vortex

So much for the plan to leave on time in the morning. We left Winnipeg around 11:30 after sleeping in at the hotel, visiting Louis Riel's house (very nice and knowledgeable interpreter in costume) and driving by his grave.


Driving through Manitoba was fine, but as soon as we entered Ontario it was like we were cursed. It was not a good first introduction to the province. The roads were terrible and we must have hit at least six different construction sites. We decided to go into Kenora, the first biggest town, for lunch and ended up getting sucked in for over an hour. It was a vortex. We only drove 2.5 hours from Winnipeg and got out of Kenora at 3pm. Then it took till 4pm just get past the next exit to Kenora due to all the godforsaken road construction. And the speed limit in Ontario is 90km/h, and they're sure to remind you by posting a bit sign detailing the ticket prices as you enter the province.

We pressed on after stopping for lunch/diaper/boob/pee on a pull-out on Dogtooth Lake, very appropriate. Ate some leftovers from the night before.

It was a long, tough haul and there were no shacks to look at. There were few towns but lots of cottages and foreign license plates to see. We got into Thunder Bay at 8:30 and are paying $90 plus the $10 dog fee plus tax for a room at the Victoria Inn. It has a pool, though, and high speed internet. I think Scott went and "accidentally" billed the room $7 for the privilege of playing some video games. He was playing around with the service, which he never used, and thinks it might have happened. Grr.

Tomorrow it's a stop at 344 Richard St. to see if my dad's childhood home is still standing, the onward to Sault Ste. Marie. We may try camping tomorrow night, weather depending. The KOA campground offers tent sites with wifi access. Weird, but okay!