We're Baaaacccck!

We've been absentee bloggers for quite awhile now. We unplugged totally on our two week road trip into Canada (well, except for the night I caught Greg catching up with Reality Steve on his ipod touch....hee hee). I've decided to make a slideshow of some photos from our trip (thanks for the idea Jackie!) and will post it in a day or two. For now, here is a photo of the Canadian contingent of the Fennell family (yes, Kai does double duty!) in front of the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. Despite being in the nation's capital we were unable to pick up Kai's citizenship card. Who would have guessed that they only process those (for foreign born Canucks like the Kaister) in Sydney, Nova Scotia! Now that is bureaucracy for ya! 

We had a great time and Kai travelled well. We were even able to re-institute the elusive nap for our little man. The key - late nights! We spent a relaxing few days with Elaine and Emily in Morrisburg, Ontario where Kai was in heaven with their huge yard for running around and even tried his first bouncy castle. Emily and Kai became fast friends and Kai learned his first 3 syllable word "Em - i - wee." He was a little bit terrified of Daisy, Elaine and Emily's wonderful, patient, and obedient husky. But he was spied several times peering around corners from a safe distance and saying "Hi Daisy!" By the end of the week, they were friends. 

Then we spent a few gorgeous sunny days in Ottawa, the nation's capital and home of my (er...drunken) youth. It was fun to be a tourist there and take some photos of incredible monuments and buildings that I only staggered by at 1 am back in the day. Grandma and Mike joined us there and we all enjoyed the canal, the gelato, the crepes and the hot weather. Too bad we missed out on beavertails but we'll be back! 

Next adventure - Wakefield, Quebec. Greg discovered to his relief that many Quebeckers do speak anglais and he was able to get a drink of water and a bite to eat without too much chagrin. We fell in love with Wakefield: a beautiful river, gorgeous scenery, mountain bike trails, lakes, cafes upon cafes serving montreal-style bagels, smoothies and almost everywhere we dined was equipped with a playroom!!!! And I haven't even mentioned Wakefield's status as a Fair Trade Village. The place was too cool. Diane and Sean are building an absolutely stunning cordwood home in Wakefield (with a little help from Team Elder Gribbin), that will be off the grid and be built almost entirely from recycled materials. In fact, their labour of love is worth an entire separate blog post....so stay tuned. Elaine has a wonderful cottage just outside of Wakefield where we enjoyed 5 restful days and we almost got to try camping - sleeping in the "bunky." It was Greg's first introduction to "cottaging" and he is a definite fan. We held a bit of family reunion there on Saturday that carried on into the night and over to the cabin that Karen and Mac rented. Stay tuned for the photos. 

We were a bit sad to leave the peace, beauty and family of Wakefield, but we ventured off on a rainy Wednesday to our last stop - Montreal. While it is a beautiful city with a truly European feeling we were entirely unimpressed by the lack of high chairs in restaurants and the rush that everyone seemed to be in. I guess our priorities have changed and we weren't there to experience what Montreal is best known for - the nightlife. But a complete stranger did offer to give us his umbrella and several french ladies oo'ed and ahhh'ed over Kai. Two ladies weren't even convinced he was a boy! Our drive home through the Green Mountains of Vermont and the White Mountains of New Hampshire was extremely beautiful and actually quite peaceful as the littlest traveller uncharacteristically took a 2 hour car nap. Stay tuned for a slideshow of some photos and now that Greg is homework-free for awhile he might have a few gems to share.