One of the things that has been on our 'bucket list' for quite a while now is canoeing through the Barron Canyon, in Algonquin Park. We have hiked this trail a few times and seen it from above, but only Colin has had the pleasure of seeing it from below, in a canoe. (He went on a guys-only-camping-trip in the Fall, about 10 years ago, and they did this trip together.)
So we loaded up the vehicle. It's a 2-3 hour drive from where we live and because of that, we decided to stay at a relatively local hotel in Pembroke. We thought about camping, which would have been beautiful, however, I'd already camped with the girls the previous week, so I'd kinda had enough of camping, if you get my gist! We put our canoe in at Squirrel Rapids and went upstream from there, it was about 16kms long (round trip), with one portage (each way) of about 420 meters. The girls were pretty excited at the start, but it didn't take long before Phebe was fast asleep! The canyon was incredible, no words do it justice. The majestic beauty of God's creation just takes my breath away.
We stopped in for a little picnic on our canoe back down river. We had a swim in a Barron River, did some fishing. Such a beautiful relaxing day... well, not for my muscles. But it was well worth the aching muscles! I took these photos with my point and shoot camera - I would have loved to bring my big camera, but alas, two wiggly girls in a canoe, I had nightmares of my camera being submerged in the Barron River!
The girls and I had the time of our lives this past week, camping with SeedSowers.
The campsite, (Domaine de l'Ange-Gardien), is in Quebec, just about 20 miles outside Ottawa. There were approximately 100 people there, families, many many young Christians, all eager to spread the Gospel to homes in Ottawa.
The girls had such a wonderful time, they LOVED camping in a tent, did I mention they loved camping in a tent? Oh they were on such a high sleeping outdoors! And they loved hanging with other little people all day long, not to mention catching frogs and playing in a muddy pond, swimming in the muddy pond and sitting around the campfire listening to testimonies and how peoples lives were changed by their Faith in the Lord.
I feel so thankful to have been part of this. To enjoy other Christians company. To feel uplifted. I'm just so thankful for the gift of Faith filled friends and that my girls get to grow up, surrounded by Christian love.
I didn't take many pictures, just a few to document our time there.
I have a lot of catching up to do at the moment!
Papie & Nono (my parents) were here, from N.Ireland, for almost three weeks and we had plenty of fun times together. And of course, I have a lot of pictures to prove it! I'll be backdating all my posts to the appropriate dates.
In the meantime, a shout out to Nono (my Mum), since it's her birthday today - Happy Birthday Mum! We miss you.
On a whim, since it was an extra long weekend and all that, we decided to head to Montreal and visit the much talked about Biodome & Botanical Gardens.
It did not disappoint. In fact, the history of the biodome is rather interesting too. The building was originally constructed for the 1976 Olympic Games. The biodome part was excellent... you walk through replicas of four ecosystems found in America. There were penguins, puffins, mammals from the ocean, beavers, lynx, etc. The biodome was fun, but I don't think it even remotely compared to the most amazing botanical gardens. And as chance would have it, there are Chinese gardens within the Botanical Gardens. It was absolutely beautiful. Stunning really.
I will let my pictures do the talking, since I was fortunate to capture some of the beauty.
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[ the flickr set is here ]
