And the sun was shinning! We were looking forward to three days of just family hanging out time together and enjoyed them to the fullest! We went for a long walk with the dogs and Sid with her bike in the
Larose forest. It was great to be out of the heat and in the shady forest. We didn't see any animals but picked wild blackberries and found an accidental
Geocache!
Here is the
pavilion beside the parking lot where we stopped at the end of our walk for some lunch. I was taking pictures of the architecture because Ken wants to build a shed using cedar posts, when Ken said hey look up in the rafters, I think that is a cache! And it was. Our first
Geocache without any directions or our GPS.
TNLN (took nothing, left nothing)
STL (signed the log)
TFTC (thanks for the cache!) Can you see that little dark box second rafter across near the left side?
This weekend was also the Buskers Fest in downtown Ottawa. There was free parking at the World Exchange Plaza so we headed into town for the afternoon. It was very..... interesting. We saw a sword swallower
who then hammered a bolt into his nose...
ewwww. We saw a freaky violin playing woman with a guy who would balance stuff on his head (like an ax for example). Then we saw a juggler who rode a 10ft unicycle. This peaked Sid's interest especially since she really, really wants a unicycle!
Juggling unicycle guy was good but was no
competition for the bouncy castle and slide that Sid would have gone on over and over again if she had a chance.
We ended the day heading for the south end to run some errands and accidentally stopped in the Folklore Center (music shop !!!!) and bought a
ukulele. I am learning to play and love this silly little instrument. It travels so well in the car, yard, campfires
any were and Ken has a really great
Hawiian riff thing going on. We are having a lot of fun with it, especially since we just picked up a mandolin from
Freecycle and Sid just got herself a 3/4 violin. Strings, strings everywhere!
Ottawa has had incredible storms this week. Flooding,
torrential rain, hail, 90 kph winds. Just weird weather. Today was questionable with the threat of more rain but Magda, Isabella and Sid and I decided to go to
Mer Bleue and do the boardwalk. It was
awesome. The girls really enjoy each others company and Magda and I never seem to run out of things to talk about. Really, it was just a perfect day!
Having been re-inspired to
geocache, I loaded up my
Garmin Xterra gps before we left to try an attempt my first Multi-cache. A normal cache if found by following the coordinates to the designated spot and then retrieving a container of some type which is the cache. With a multi, the first
coordinates lead you to a clue which will then lead you to the cache. This multi was a very easy (once I figured out my GPS!!!) The second coordinates were printed on a copper plate
attached to the back of a bench. Once I figured out how to program the new coordinates into the
gps I was thrilled to find out we had stopped for a quick break at the exact location we needed to go to in order to find the cache!
Follow the path girls, we are searching for treasure!
Found it!!!
Signed the log. Our team name (Sid, Ken, Groovy and Maggie and I) is the Groovy Gang so we signed it Groovy Gang and friends. And Isabella took a Rhino beetle and Sid picked a rubber ball from the treasures. We left a compass and a travel bug I forgot I had (
oooops) from last summer!
The girls replacing the cache and making sure no one can see it.
After all this activity it was time to stop for lunch. By luck we picked a corner of the picnic area away from the
pavilion and the girls created a whole world in the forest. The had a forest house with storage, bathrooms, bedrooms a pool and so much more. The girls also treated us to a circus show with an acrobatic snake.
We even found a lean to in the clearing. Good times.....
Back at home after a bath then a swim (yup, we did that one backwards!) Sid saw Dad on the
dirt bike and had to go for a ride. She was having so much fun she yelled "I could do this
alllll day!"
Two thumbs up :0)
All tuckered out and all smiles. It was indeed a good day and a very good week so far.
Ottawa has had incredible storms this week. Flooding, torrential rain, hail, 90 kph winds. Just weird weather. Today was questionable with the threat of more rain but Magda, Isabella and Sid and I decided to go to Mer Bleue and do the boardwalk. It was awesome. The girls really enjoy each others company and Magda and I never seem to run out of things to talk about. Really, it was just a perfect day!
Having been re-inspired to geocache, I loaded up my Garmin Xterra gps before we left to try an attempt my first Multi-cache. A normal cache if found by following the coordinates to the designated spot and then retrieving a container of some type which is the cache. With a multi, the first coordinates lead you to a clue which will then lead you to the cache. This multi was a very easy (once I figured out my GPS!!!) The second coordinates were printed on a copper plate attached to the back of a bench. Once I figured out how to program the new coordinates into the gps I was thrilled to find out we had stopped for a quick break at the exact location we needed to go to in order to find the cache!
Follow the path girls, we are searching for treasure!
Found it!!!
Signed the log. Our team name (Sid, Ken, Groovy and Maggie and I) is the Groovy Gang so we signed it Groovy Gang and friends. And Isabella took a Rhino beetle and Sid picked a rubber ball from the treasures. We left a compass and a travel bug I forgot I had (oooops) from last summer!
The girls replacing the cache and making sure no one can see it.
After all this activity it was time to stop for lunch. By luck we picked a corner of the picnic area away from the pavilion and the girls created a whole world in the forest. The had a forest house with storage, bathrooms, bedrooms a pool and so much more. The girls also treated us to a circus show with an acrobatic snake.
Back at home after a bath then a swim (yup, we did that one backwards!) Sid saw Dad on the dirt bike and had to go for a ride. She was having so much fun she yelled "I could do this alllll day!"
Two thumbs up :0)
All tuckered out and all smiles. It was indeed a good day and a very good week so far.