Oh Canada!

   So I realize I haven't talked much about the day-to-day around here and primarily focus on the weekend adventures. Well, that's because they are ADVENTURES! The day to day is pretty typical, work 9-5, bus to and from, no air conditioning at home or work, lots of people to feed, many schedules to consult, community time in the evenings, and then bed to do it again the next day. I know it sounds silly but I do enjoy it (not the no AC part) and the sentimental side of me is certainly kicking in because I have to keep telling people that I leave in just one month!

    So I focus on the adventures and 2 weekends ago four of my community members and I went to CANADA! We drove to Wellesley Island (still in NY) on a Friday after work and stayed at a super great campsite on the St. Lawrence River. It was beautiful! We pitched the tents (oh, minor heart attack before we left we realized the tent we had borrowed from someone didn't have any poles so we made a pit stop at another person's house and picked up a tent, complete with poles this time!) and made a fire. The four girls slept in one tent and our male counterpart enjoyed the luxury of his own space. (He deserved it, 5 people in a 5 person car for a lot of hours can be tough.) Our diet over the weekend consisted of hot dogs, chips, carrots, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, dry cereal, s'mores, and white trash mix (click for a linked recipe and thanks for Jacqueline's family for introducing this to us!). We realized quickly that bugs were the enemy, specifically mosquitoes, because within the first five minutes of being out of the car we each had over 3 bites so bug spray was a must!

Katrina enjoying nature out the window.

Campsite on Wellesley Island.

     On that Saturday morning we made our way into Canada to explore Ottawa for the day. We had a bit of a mishap and our little group got split but each half seemed to enjoy the time just exploring (and I of course took way to many photos). We hung out mostly downtown-ish and even watched a bit of one of the World Cup games on a screen that faced out into the street. Since Ottawa is in Ontario there is almost equal English and French signage around which was a great precursor to our journey into Quebec because the signage is only in French there. (And yes, I used some of my french skills!)

Locks in Ottawa.

    Saturday evening we drove to our campsite near Montreal, pitched the tents again, cooked more hot dogs and then drove a bit closer to the city to watch a fireworks display. (If that is a representation of the way Canada does fireworks then the US definitely has them beat.) We remembered the bug spray and pretty much went to bed as soon as we got back to the campsite so we could have a full day in Montreal well rested.

Campsite near Montreal.

    Sunday was spent exploring Old Montreal and the Olympic stadium of 1976. So many people were out and about just walking around and enjoying the beautiful sunshine! We toured the Olympic stadium after walking around it for about 30 minutes trying to find the entrance since it is under construction right now. The drive back to Syracuse took us about 5 hours and it is crazy for me to think that we were able to drive somewhere in such a short amount of time that was so different than what I experience each day. And then Monday...work.

In Old Montreal.

Olympic Stadium.

In the stadium.