Touring with the Boys

For a person who never seems to make it farther than the grocery store several times a week I have been out and about quite a bit lately. First there was the trip to Prince Edward County, Montreal and the Eastern Townships in Quebec with the girls from the Cheese Gallery and then it was a marathon journey to the end of the continent with my boys. Actually we left the continent and drove three quarters of the way up the Island of Cape Breton to deliver a boat. Now anyone who knows anything about the Maritime provinces would understand that taking a row boat to Nova Scotia is like taking coals to Newcastle but in this wired (or wireless) world of ours a man from Alberta ordered a boat from Ontario and had it delivered to his cottage in Nova Scotia.

Originally my Other Half and I had planned to make the journey on our own, a little birthday get-away for me paired with some business to cover the costs. We did the trip last summer and had a fine time although it is a long drive - two days straight. It would be quite a bit faster if the state of Maine didn't jut so far north causing Canadians to have to drive up and around it. There are very few roads in northern Maine other than private ones cut by logging companies so even if we didn't mind the hassle of crossing the border it would still mean driving out of our way to get through. It took about 18 hours to get to Fredericton, New Brunswick where we stopped for the first night. The boys were great, happily playing hockey on the Playstation in the back of the truck. We slept for six hours and then pushed on to Nova Scotia.

Crossing the border into Nova Scotia

Just a small part of Lac Bras D'or - the salt water lake in the centre of Cape Breton Island which two of our rowboats now call home

After delivering the boat we turned around and headed back to Moncton, NB where we had noticed a hotel with a two story water slide just off the highway. This was a huge hit with the boys who were, after two days stuck in the car, ready to let loose. We found a fun BBQ place to eat dinner but the boys were disappointed when they weren't allowed into the arcade. Turns out the video games they spied from outside were actually high tech one-armed bandits or VLTs. The next morning we promised that if they came with us for a walk they could spend the rest of the morning in the pool so off we went to see the famous Bay of Fundy Flower Pot Rocks at low tide.

What we didn't realize until we got to the park that it was closed for the winter. Now I have a fundamental problem with anyone closing a natural phenomenon so my Other Half and I decided that this was the time to introduce the boys to the art of trespassing.

After a great adventure exploring the tidal flats of the Bay we piled back in the car and headed west towards Quebec City where I had booked us into the stately Chateau Frontenac to celebrate my entry into middle age.

Sons Numbers Two and Three quickly embraced Chateau living

They loved exploring the cobblestone streets of the old city

The Boys' Motto - Why walk when you can run?

Our home away from home

View of the St Lawrence River

What's not to like about a city ringed by real canons?

A 16th century home

Celebrating my birthday

Saying goodbye to the Suite Life

A final stop in my old stomping grounds - Montreal
and a visit to the infamous St Viateur Bagel Factory

The trip was a success if you don't count the fact that every fuse in the car was blown when the boys plugged in the Playstation, a DS and my MacBook at the same time. Luckily the DVD player still worked and we found a dying Blockbuster in Montreal where we stocked up on $4 movies including the entire National Lampoon's Vacation collection plus The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Random Tuesday

I am so sick of the non-starter spring we have been having this year. Cold, wet and miserable sums it up. We had one nice day on the weekend and I got outside to clean up the garden. The daffodils all opened and the tulips sprung out the of the earth but then the temperature dropped and the tulips are firmly closed. Our sailboat is scheduled to go in the water on Sunday and I am hoping for warmth and sun. I can't wait to get out for after school sails and cocktail cruises.

The boys and I got up at 5am to watch the Royal Wedding. Number Two Son had set his alarm for 4:30am but his clockwas ahead by an hour so that we (meaning me) were woken up at 3:30am. Finally got back to sleep just in time to hear my alarm go off followed by the phone ringing. It was my sister standing outside my door wondering why it was still locked. We all celebrated with OJ and Prosecco, fresh croissants and strawberries. The boys were all incredibly into it and insisted watching to the very end. After Wills and Kate drove around in Charles's Aston Martin I told them they had to get ready for school where, thankfully, they weren't the only ones who were late.

The celebrations continued with as I spent the morning making scones and crustless sandwiches for The Cheese Gallery's Royal High Tea. We all dressed up in hats, the odd tiara and I even dug out my grandmother's white gloves.

The marathon wrapped up in the wee hours of Saturday morning at Jazzmania, the adult pub crawl our little town holds every April. My Other Half and I hosted the second annual Grilled Cheese pre-party which was by all accounts a great success. In fact, I couldn't get people to leave. The bands begin playing downtown at 8pm and at 9pm I had to turn out the lights and tell everyone to move along. Some suggested that next year we just book a band and become a venue ourselves so that no one would have to leave. The rain held off and we had fun listening to some great music and generally acting like university kids drifting from pub to restaurant to bar. As I have said before our little town has a very high concentration of fine drinking and dining establishments.

Yesterday Number One Son and I went to clean out our lockers at the ski hill (they finally closed the club the weekend before Easter) he insisted that we could still have skied but I, for one, am quite happy to say goodbye to the snow. The boys did get out on the golf course on Saturday and soccer starts next week so that should keep them busy and out of trouble or so I thought.

Last night I got a phone call from our neighbour and friend who wanted to know if I had heard about one of my boys daring her son to eat a worm (there are lots around thanks to all the rain)? I had, in fact, as Number Two came to ask me for his bank card so he could go and take $10 out of his account. I explained to him (and the Mum) that I really couldn't condone paying someone to eat a worm but since he did it then I supposed Number Two had better make good on the dare. Apparently it didn't taste too bad.

Did a bit of a spring clean yesterday since it wasn't warm enough to get outside in the garden and took four boxes and two garbage bags to our local charity shop. Said goodbye to at least 75 stuffed animals the boys haven't touched in over a year, all my old pregnancy books (so long What to Expect) and at least twenty old puzzles and board games. I wasn't organized enough to cull through everything and take some of it to sell at the consignment shop Reinspired Home which opened recently and is my new favourite haunt but at least it's out of the house and there'll always be more to purge.

Of course last night was another late one as we stayed up to see what direction our country was heading and it was a bit of a shocker. It wasn't that I didn't expect Harper's Conservatives to be re-elected but I don't think anyone predicted the decimation of the Liberals and Bloq Quebecois. The NDP's orange wave quickly turned into a crush as they wiped out the Quebec Separatists in their own backyard. In the past the socialist NDP has held a maximum of 43 seats, last night they won 102, including one candidate who spent part of the campaign in Las Vegas. What does this all mean for Canada? It seems we are becoming more polarized with a right wing (by Canadian standards) majority government in office for the next four years and a left wing official opposition. It means that Prime Minister Harper can push through just about any legislation he chooses and that is a worry. While minority governments do result in elections more often they also tend to force the government to work with the other parties and when you have a leader like Harper who doesn't play well with others that's not necessarily a bad thing. What's next? I have no idea.

I Need Help!

It seems that we have to paint the house and I need help choosing a colour or colours as we have to do the siding, trim, shutters, doors and garage doors. My first inclination is grey with white trim, red front and side doors and black garage doors. It's classic and simple. I have been looking at photos of New England style houses and there are so many choices. I don't want green or beige, it seems every new house built around here are those colours and we painted the house we built 15 years ago green with beige trim. I don't like yellow but have been toying with blue. My favourite look is the classic weather grey cedar shakes with blue trim. We will have to redo the roof soon and although we can't afford real cedar shakes I have looked at Enviroshakes which look like cedar and are that lovely silver grey.

So, what do you think? Please give me any suggestions and links to sites that feature colourful houses. I'll let you know what we decide and when we actually get around to painting it.

Cheese Tour 2011

So when my employers asked me if I wanted to accompany them on a little Cheese Tour of Prince Edward County, Ontario and then on to Montreal, Quebec I felt I might jeopardize my job my saying no so I reluctantly said goodbye to my family and hopped in the car with Casey & Wendy to do what had to be done.

First stop - Fifth Town in Picton, Ontario. A state-of-the-art cheese making facility in the heart of Prince Edward County. Ontario's newest wine region and foodie destination. Fifth Town is LEED certified and operates with solar and wind power, collects milk fresh from local dairies and runs education programmes and tours year round.

Checking if the curds are ready

The bosses enjoying maple syrup-soaked and maple-sugar dipped Quark on a stick

Transferring the cheese to the moulds. Today's batch was Cape Vessey,

a washed rind goat's cheese and one of my favourites.

Squeezing it into the moulds by hand

Just some of the goat, sheep and cow's milk cheeses made at Fifth Town

Great name for an antique shop

Meeting Gilles at the Atwater Fromagerie in Montreal's famous Atwater Market

Just a portion of the cheese counter

In the beer cooler surrounded by local brews

After Atwater we headed out of the city to the Eastern Townships and L'Abbaye St Benoit du Lac. Unfortunately I wasn't able to take any photos of the Abbey or their cheese making operation which has been run by the Benedictine Monks since the 1940's. Their Bleu Benedictin cheese is one of my favourite blues.

We returned to Montreal to visit Dependances, an importer and distributor of European cheese. Here we are in the massive refrigerated rooms where the cheeses are unpacked from containers and then repackaged to be shipped across the country.

Casey helping to unload the container

A huge pallet of the "Better Than Sex Cheese" aka Chateau de Bourgogne

The trip was a huge success if you don't count Casey getting food poisoning from some bad escargot and we met some wonderful people. After meeting Stephanie, the Master Cheese maker at Fifth Town, Lucy from Dependances, Alain "the godfather" of Quebec cheese and the monk who ran the Abbey fromagerie, I decided that cheese people are happy people because they get to spend their time making and selling something that brings people together the world over - good food made from fresh ingredients and love.

How to Enter Middle Age - The Chateau Frontenac

Life Lessons: letting them learn on their own

This week has already been a long one and it's only Wednesday. Everyone is looking forward to Spring Break next week although the weather doesn't look like it's going to give us much in the way of spring-like temperatures. My Other Half returned home after 15 long days on the road. He battled a snowstorm on the NY Thruway, a screw up at the border which resulted in having to wait two hours before he was allowed back into his own country with boats clearly labelled "Made in Canada." And he returned to the crushing news that Number One Son did not make it to the Provincial Ski Racing competition. This past season has not been B's year, he has battled anxiety and fear of crashing and despite his unbelievable ability to do well in training it did not translate into results and he didn't earn enough points to take him to the finals. Unfortunately most of the boys on his team will be going up north over the break to race. To add to it all Numbers Two and Three won three medals each in the Club Championships on Sunday and balancing their excitement with being sensitive to Number One's disappointment in his own performance was difficult to say the least. We've been through this before and it never gets any easier.

It is so hard to not try and make everything all better for your children. I am not, or at least I try not, to be one of those parents who fixes everything. I knew there was a good chance he wouldn't make it and I could have badgered the coaches to try and get another spot for him and they might have been able to but I don't believe that everyone should get a prize whether they have earned it or not. One of my issues with ski racing is that it has, at this level anyways, become a "pay to play" sport. As long as the parents are willing to pay for their kids to compete the coaches will take them. There are no try outs or cuts. Everyone makes the team. That is until the end when it really comes down to how you did in the races over the course of the season and unfortunately our son didn't do well enough to make it. It is a bitter lesson but a good one, one that we all have to learn at some point in our lives. He is an incredible athlete and his hockey team is still in the playoffs thanks, in large part, to B's incredible goal tending skills. It will be a tough weekend as he is back on the hill with the boys who are leaving next Tuesday for the Provincials but I am already so proud of him and how he is handling it. I just hope his friends are sensitive without being patronizing at their team party on Saturday as everyone knows who made it and who didn't. We won't make excuses for him and I know he has learned the first in a life-long series of lessons, one that I wouldn't try to shield him from no matter how much I feel his pain.

I've fallen in love all over again

The Old Married Couple

My IRL friend Kelly is battling cancer and has a great blog called Kicking Cancer Ass in which she chronicles the ups and downs of her treatment, wigs and even a kitchen renovation. Her last post included these words and really puts things in perspective for me as I get overwhelmed by kids, work and stuff.

This new cancer club that I have joined reluctantly has had its pros and cons;

You know the cons, I'll try and focus on some of the pros.... Once you are in, it is very difficult to get out.

The members are really supportive. "Seize the Day" and "Live for the moment" take on a whole new meaning.
You look at your friends and family in a whole new light; They are truly amazing.

And finally, I've fallen in love with my husband all over again - I'm not sure how I could have got through this without him...he's awesome

My Other Half and I have been together since I was 16, give or take a few interludes during the university years and after all that time I try very hard not to take this wonderful man I was smart enough to marry for granted. But even after all these years he can still surprise me. He has been on the road for the last two weeks so last Monday I flew down to Boston to spend three days helping him out at the Boat Show. If anyone has worked a trade show you know how unbelievably boring it is to stand around a booth for 8 to 10 hours a day trying to make eye contact with passers by so that you will have someone to talk to thus making the time go by faster. But when you do reel in a potential customer they might turn out to be one of those "Looky Loos" who have no intention whatsoever of buying a boat, they just want to tell you all about the one they are building in their garage and which cost them half of your custom-made, professionally-built boats.

But back to surprises. Now despite the fact that my Other Half is not exactly technologically savvy he has embrace the art of texting and it is kind of fun getting late night and early morning "thinking of you texts." And while they weren't technically "sexts" they did have me wondering what he was up to. Well, Monday I went straight from the airport to the show and endured six hours of boredom while trying to steal a quick hug and kiss despite his aversion to any form of PDA. After the show closed at 8 o'clock we had dinner downtown at Scollary Square before heading back to his bachelor pad in a suburban all suites hotel. There, he had stocked the fridge with Prosecco, my favourite triple cream cheese and homemade chocolate dipped strawberries! Yes, he had bought Hershey's kisses, melted them and dipped the strawberries himself. Unfortunately after the delicious lobster mashed potatoes and steak at the restaurant I couldn't eat another bite but we were able to continue on with the rest of his romantic plans. He had asked me to bring our travel Scrabble game and we ended up laughing ourselves silly trying to make up erotic words. Probably not what the writers of whatever blog or website where he found the idea intended but for an "old married couple" it was a wonderful evening on all counts.

The next day we hit the Convention Centre floor again and decided instead of going out to dinner that night we would take home some sushi and dip into the Prosecco and strawberries. We watched a couple of Sex in the City reruns (he likes chick flicks too) and then enjoyed the privacy of a hotel room with no chance of being interrupted by either a dog or child. Bliss.

Young, Footloose and Fancy Free Couple

Now it's back to reality with children, homework, hockey games and ski races. But only two more sleeps until he's back so I might have to do a little exploration myself of websites for Old Married Couples, although I'll try to avoid the ones that suggest greeting your spouse at the door encased in plastic wrap.