Our Mini Vacation

We started our mini-vacation on Wednesday - almost as early as Ken had planned! Our first stop was Whitby to do two last moving-related errands and then we were back on the road to Gananoque. We had planned to visit with Sonia and Ben and Ben had graciously offered to take us out on his parent's boat. We did end up having a lovely visit with Sonia, Ben and Ben's Mom Winona, however the boating was not to be. A creature - possibly a river otter, or a mink decided to use the Elliot's boat as his personal fish gutting area, and bathroom - can you say STINKY!








Mink














River Otter


From Gananoque we continued east along the 1000-Islands Parkway to Brockville. We stayed at the Days Inn which isn't really worth mentioned except that it was connected to a restaurant, a restaurant named RePete's. I thought about devoting an entire blog entry to a discussion of appropriate names for restaurants but then I decided not to.















On Thursday morning we continued east to Upper Canada Village. We spent five hours visiting every single building on the site and asking question upon question to all of the costumed guides. It really is an amazing pioneer village. I'm not sure what I would consider the most interesting thing that I learned about life in the 1860's. Perhaps that sarsaparilla is essentially rootbeer. Or perhaps that there was a shortage of horses in Upper Canad in the 1860's because of the Civil War in the United States.














A view of the church and the canal.















Ken and I in Cook's Tavern enjoying Ginger Beer and Sarsaparilla.















A fortepiano found in the parlour of the Loucks Farm house - an example of a prosperous farm.















Also at Loucks Farm, a Dutch Style barn that Ken really liked.

After spending a long day at Upper Canada Village we hopped back on the 401 and headed west to Kingston. On Sonia's reccommendation we went to dinner at Curry Original. The food was so good, really so very good. We walked around the Kingston downtown a bit after dinner. The downtown/waterfront area is so fun and lively. There was a wonderful mix of people: students, families, couples, seniors, all enjoying a lovely summer evening.

Friday morning we awoke to rain and slight history overload. We decided that instead of going to Fort Henry or any other museums we would meander our way home. We drove along the Bath road to the Glenora Ferry and continued on through Picton.















The ferries pass each other - one on the way to Adolphustown the other on the way to Glenora.

Our next stop was the village of Stirling. Ken wanted to visit a cheese factory to buy some fresh cheese curd. We made a stop at the local library and found directions online to the Empire Cheese factory in Campbellford. We bought some lovely cheese curd and squeaked away to our hearts content.















Next we meandered over to Warkworth to try and buy bread, but they were all sold out at the Lionheart baking studio. We continued onto Cobourg, had some dinner and sat by the water and then traveled the rest of the way home.

It is really lovely to be able to enjoy a mini-vacation in your own backyard. There are so many amazing things to see and do in Ontario.

Done and Done!

Ken has begun the transition from full-time student to tax-paying citizen! On Thursday all of the students in his program had an open house at Fleming College in Lindsay. The open house provided them the opportunity to showcase their work on their co-op projects. This year's open house was the best attended open house in several years.

For Ken's project his team designed a notification system, to let industry and Aboriginal groups know when industry projects may effect Native land use areas. A company may submit information about a project to find out if it may potentially effect sensitive Aboriginal areas. If a conflict exists both parties are provided with information to begin a negotiation process before any large commitment of resources is made by the company. This also benefits the Aboriginal communities because they now better equipped to be proactive in managing their lands. The present area that employs this system is the Foothills west of Edmonton, but it may soon effect the entire Foothills region of Alberta. Ken's group's part of the process is facilitating data collection from industry partners (via a website designed by Ken) and the automated process of determining potential conflicts and the generation of reports for industry and Aboriginal participants. Doing this process manually would require too many resources on an ongoing basis for it to work in the long term. Because the process is sped up from more than half an hour to five minutes and simplified greatly for the user, the office will be able to handle up to 100 requests per day, with only one full-time employee running the program.

When I listened to Ken explain his project I was touched by his explanation of the potential benefits. Imagine if such a system was in place in many areas in Canada and beyond. Most native groups have no access to this level of technical ability, and by the time they are made aware of impending threats to their way of life, the stakes have already been raised by extensive investment in a plot of land. Until native peoples are involved in the planning stages of resource management, conflicts will continue to arise.















Kei, Ken, and Chia - KYM Group! The hats were from the "Foothills Research Institute", the group they did the work for.















Their posterboard display.















Ken giving an overview of their project - a non-technical one that I could understand!

More pictures...

I forgot to mention that the rest of the pictures from the trip are on my picasa album site.

New Hampshire Fun!

I returned home Friday evening after spending almost two weeks in Nashua, New Hampshire hanging out with my sister, playing with my nephews, and cuddling Anna. My sister and her husband really have a sweet family - lively and rambunctious but filled with so much love. It's sweet to see how much Isaac, Joseph, and Thomas love their little sister. Anna is a little angel. She is such a good baby, I miss her already.

Here are a few of my favourite pictures!














This picture was taken on the ferry from Portland, Maine to Peaks Island. Suzanne and I (and the kids of course) went on an overnight trip the first week I was there. Portland is a cute little city with a number of fun things to do.
















If you're ever in Mason, New Hampshire you must eat lunch at Pickity Place. It is a wonderful little restaurant. It serves the same menu for a month and is a five-course fixed price affair.
















Matthew teaching his boys the finer points of football.





















How awesome is it when babies learn to smile?





















Princess Anna - don't you just love the wand?!





















Thomas standing in front of his house.
















Thomas, Isaac and Joseph - in front of their house.