McLaurin Bay

by Annie

Last summer, the kids and I stopped briefly at the the playground at Parc Martin Larouche in Gatineau (rue Notre Dame at rue Joseph Roy). Julian was 5 and Emma was 2. We didn’t stay for very long because it really was a “big kids” park and Emma wasn’t able to climb up to go down the slides. We noticed that there was a nature trail starting at the playground, but there were too many mosquitoes to venture into the marshy woods at that time of year.

With all of the rain we’ve been getting lately, we were anxious to get out and enjoy the outdoors this weekend. Since Emma is a year older and the mosquito season is over, we thought it would be fun to check out this park and trail again. So we packed a picnic lunch and headed out.

When we arrived, the kids checked out the playground. There are large rock climbing walls that you have to scale to get to the top to access the big windy slides. There are also lots of things to hang from (like monkey bars) and balance on, making it a great park for kids to test their abilities. There are a few swings too (two baby swings, two regular swings), but the highlight really is the play structure.

Once the kids had played for a while, we decided to check out the trail. The trail is 1.6km one-way or 3.2km round trip. It starts from the playground and goes through the woods and across wetlands of McLaurin Bay (Baie McLaurin) before coming out at the Ottawa River. At the start of the trail, there is a sign indicating the number of different species of flora and fauna that can be found along the trail. There are hundreds of different species of birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, insects and plants. As I read off the statistics to the kids, they became a little bit anxious that we might run into lots of scary animals along the trail.

The first part of the trail winds through the woods and the colours were brilliant. The next segment is a bridge across the marsh at the edge of McLaurin Bay. The bridge is a series of floating docks with railings held together by a cable, so the bridge moves up and down in the water as you step from one piece of the bridge onto the next. The next part of the trail goes by several lookouts. One of them is a deck overlooking an area populated by beavers (no lodges/dams to be seen today) and the other is a tower with a view of the whole bay. The final segment goes through the woods again and comes out between a few homes in a residential area by the Ottawa River.

I had briefly considered taking our picnic lunch with us on the trail and eating it when we got to the Ottawa River. I’m glad we didn’t though, because the end of the trail at the Ottawa River is all private property except for the very narrow exit of the trail onto the river-side road (Boul. Hurtubise), so there isn’t really anywhere to sit and have a picnic.

All along the trail there is signage indicating the types of birds, fish, trees, and other things that you can find in the nature reserve. The kids enjoyed looking at the pictures and also pointing out the things they spotted along the trail, including different types of squirrels, a dead mouse, a fuzzy caterpillar, interesting mushrooms growing in a tree and plenty of red “Canada” leaves.

Once we got back to the playground, we took out our picnic lunch and ate at one of the picnic tables right next to the play structure. The kids came and went from the table, taking a few bites and then heading off to go down the slide again, and then coming back for more.

The one downside, and perhaps the reason we didn’t stay any longer, is that there are no washrooms at the park. So when nature called, we went on our way…

Annie is an Ottawa-area mom of 2 kids. She blogs about the art and science of parenting at the PhD in Parenting blog.

Sunday October 17th 10am- 3pm
The Glebe Community Center
175 Third Ave @ Lyon St in The Glebe

Miller’s Farm

by Deborah

A couple of weekends ago we spent the afternoon with our three grandsons at Miller’s Farm in Manotick (6158 Rideau Valley Drive north). This is a family friendly venue where kids are encouraged to be kids.

There is a lot to see and do. For a small fee we took a wagon ride to the pumpkin field where the kids picked out their own pumpkins. 

We then headed off for a walk through the corn maze. 

The farm includes a market where there are fall mums, decorative gourds and corn, and a beautiful gift shop with seasonal products for Thanksgiving and Halloween. We stocked up on fresh produce; apples for lunches and squash for soup.

Our youngest grandson enjoyed jumping among the haystacks and poking his head through the cut outs to have his picture taken.

We closed out the day with candy apple treats for all. Bring your camera as there are many great photo ops.
 
Deborah is the grandmother to three boys ages 13, 10 and 4.

Adventures at Mud Lake

by Krista

I am a city girl that was raised with a cottage, so I appreciate the beauty of leaving the city and heading to the lake/woods. I have not been able to go to my family cottage that much this year, and have been really missing the peace and quiet that comes with being away from it all. It was only when I found myself at loose ends with my almost two-year-old this weekend that I remembered that there is a wonderful spot close by that brings me to the lake, without having to leave the city – MUD LAKE. Located in the Britannia Conservation Area, it is a small wooded lake surrounded by a hiking trail.

We parked on Cassels Street, where the opening to the path is pretty obvious when you are looking for it. Goose was pretty excited by the nature show that she was given, stepping out of the car to see some neat looking caterpillars, fuzzy and multicoloured, nothing like the boring brown and green ones we have at home. We headed down the path and checked out the first little lookout on the water’s edge. We had been there all of three seconds when a duck swam up and walked right up to where we were crouched.

Goose was beyond excited. After many squeals (which somehow did not scare the duck away) I managed to get her back on the path, where we wandered to the next little lookout and saw a couple more ducks and a chipmunk, also a hit. As we continued deeper into the woods, the path wound away from the water. I feared that this might be our undoing, as the lake was the big attraction, but nature won out. There were plenty of bugs, plants, neat looking trees, and birds to keep us both in awe.

After about ten more minutes of walking, we hit a fork in the path. After a little bit of indecision

we headed left and found ourselves on one of several wooden viewing platforms. We were lucky, as there was a Great Blue Heron in the water in front of us. We watched for about ten minutes. We got to see him catch a fish, which delighted Goose, who squealed and startled him.

After he flew away, we turned around and headed home, happy with all we had seen.

Throughout our walk we bumped into a fair number of people, mostly runners, birders or photographers, but it was not at all crowded, even though it was a weekend. A few of the more serious nature lovers were dislodged by the noisy toddler, but they were all good-natured about it. Before we set out I couldn’t recall if the trail was safe for toddlers or suitable for strollers. I decided to chance it and leave the stroller at home and am glad we walked. The trail is certainly suitable for strollers. It is crushed gravel, fairly well packed, and about three feet wide in most sections.

We were there for about one hour, but did not walk the entire trail. It is over 3KM long, too long for the little legs. A cautionary note – there are no fences on the trail, nor at any of the lookouts. I did not feel that it was dangerous, but you do have to keep a close eye on your little ones if they tend to be “adventurous” like mine.

Krista is married to Willy and mom to a 3 year old son, Woo, and 1.5 year old daughter Goose. You can find her at Life in the Hutch or on Twitter @kgraydonald

The Richmond Fair: Fall Fair Series Part 2

By Shawna

 Last weekend saw your intrepid heroine at the Spencerville Fair.  I made it just in time for the last round of the greased pig contest, then met up with a friend and we took my kids through the Small Animal and Poultry Barn before checking out a couple of the horse competitions.  We were contemplating hitting the midway when my husband arrived with his friend (such a social day!), and they ferried the kids off to go on a few rides and play a few games, though my youngest eventually ended up at the tractor pull and my daughter got to ride the kiddie roller coaster and cajole her uncle Bob into pretty much anything she wanted.  Since both my friend Raceytay and I are into the photo thing, this freed us up to wander around and take some pics.  In addition to the de rigeur shots of my kids on the carousel, we both ended up with, among others, shots of candied apples; mine were caramel while hers were the classic red sugar.

 

Other highlights: the classic fair food (pogos, Beavertails, fries ‘n hotdogs, soda, GIANT multicoloured lollipop), a high-diving show, watching my husband hit a sensor with a giant sledgehammer to win inflatable aliens for my kids, and trying to shoot the star out of a piece of paper with a BB gun (I can never resist trying at least once).

 This weekend we’ll be hitting the Richmond Fair.  If it runs true to form, there will be a petting zoo, a show by Little Ray’s Reptiles, an activity centre for the kids (last year, in addition to the usual music and drawing, they could try to identify full-sized plastic horse’s bones based on comparing them to a skeleton model), and a good display of antique tractors.  Though we no longer need it, it’s nice to know they have a space for both baby-changing and breastfeeding too.

 Maybe we’ll see you there!

 Shawna is mom to 4-year-old Sage and 2-year-old Harris.  She has  been writing online since 2003, and her latest project is a fledgling photography blog.  She loves fall fair season as much as her kids.

Goin’ On A Treasure Hunt

by Erin

Ever heard of geocaching?? Yah, me neither until about a week ago. I came across it while surfing blog land. It sounded interesting so I had to learn more.

From Wikipedia:

Geocaching is an outdoor activity in which the participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers, called “geocaches” or “caches”, anywhere in the world. A typical cache is a small waterproof container containing a logbook. Larger containers such as plastic storage containers (Tupperware or similar) or ammo boxes can also contain items for trading, usually toys or trinkets of little value. Geocaching is most often described as a “game of high-tech hide and seek,”…

Interesting, I thought, but surely there would not be any geocaches near me, and certainly not any in areas that I could go exploring with my 2 1/2 year old.

WRONG!

I signed up for a free account at http://www.geocaching.com/, and was excited to learn there were several geocaches within 10 minutes walking distance from my house. Now this was getting exciting!!

In order to find caches near me I had to plug in my postal code. This provided me with a list of caches near me sorted by distance. The caches are also rated for difficulty and terrain. Because I had no idea what to expect, we chose a very basic one. There is also a place to log your visit to the cache on the website. It was helpful to read through the posts because it gave me some hints on what to look for as well as some insight into the difficulty.

Since Miss K has a serious obsession with a certain cartoon “explorer”, I thought this would be right up her alley. She drew her own map and everything!

In addition to our GPS we brought some stickers and a magnet (for trading), a pen (to sign the log book) and a camera (to document the find). Since we weren’t venturing far from home I didn’t bother to bring drinks or snacks, but I will in future if we decide to go farther. Also, I highly recommend wearing closed footwear. Miss K wore Crocs and I wore flip flips – not the best choices when searching a wooded area.

I plugged in the coordinates provided by the website and away we went. It didn’t take long for me to realize that something just wasn’t right with the GPS. After some fiddling with the settings I realized that the unit should have been set to “pedestrian” and “off road”. Once I had everything fixed up we were back on track.

Miss K and I followed the “pink path” until we reached the general area of our treasure. On the website it describes what the cache will look like. We were looking for a medium size food storage container covered in black duct tape.

It took a little playing with the GPS unit to figure out how to find such a specific point, but finally the unit told us we were within 0.8 meters of the coordinate we had entered. A quick peek behind a tree revealed our prize:

We were very excited to say the least. I fished the container out of the tree and we opened it up. Inside there was a log book and pen sealed inside a zipper storage bag along with a variety of other items. I let Miss K trade swap some stickers and I signed the log book. We sealed the container up again and placed it back in its spot.

This was a really fun activity. Miss K is motivated because there was “treasure” and she got some new stickers. We are planning on going again soon – Daddy wants to come next time because he thinks that he will be able to find a more difficult cache with his superb orienteering skills (we will see). I think we will also create a cache of our own to hide on one of our favorite dog walking paths.

Erin is mom to 2 (almost 3) year old “Miss K” and 6 month old “Mister J”. You can read her blog at My Suburban Adventure

Alcatel – Lucent Sunday Bikedays

by Jay

I love living in Ottawa. I love that this city provides so many opportunities for us to get out and enjoy our city and the great outdoors.

I know there’s only 1 more Sunday left of the family bike days but if you can make it I highly recommend it.

What are Sunday Bike Days? Every Sunday from the end of May until the Sunday before Labour Day the City of Ottawa shuts down our parkways to motor vehicles. People can go on the roads without worrying about cars and trucks.

Today we took out our bikes. We have Trail-A-Bikes for the kids that easily attach to our normal bikes. It allows the kids to ride safely behind us yet we all still get the benefits of pedaling at a decent speed.

We’ve also taken our inline skates while the kids have ridden their own bikes.  You don’t need a bike or inline skates to enjoy Sunday bike days though. There are tons of people out walking, running, pushing a stroller, even on scooters (feet powered scooters).

Today we went on Colonel By Drive and biked all the way from Hogs Back to Downtown and back again. In all it was likely about an hour, biking at a decent pace. You can turn around whenever you want and the adventure can be what you make of it. We parked our car at Hogs Back Falls and were easily able to access Colonel By Drive from there crossing 1 road at the lights.

Volunteers are at many of the blocked off streets if you have questions. Today we biked by 2 entrepreneur spirits selling Lemonade, but I highly recommend bringing a lot of water and a snack to have ½ way. There are loads of places to stop along the way and rest in the shade if you start at Hogs Back.  Shaded resting spots Do become few and far between once you’ve passed Bronson all the way to just before the University of Ottawa Campus.

If you do decide to park at Hogs Back Falls, once you have your bikes packed away there are some great trees for the kids to climb in the shade before climbing in the car again.

It’s not just Colonel By Drive but also the Ottawa River Parkway, Rockliffe Parkway  (all closed to traffic between 9am – 1pm) and Gatineau Park Pathways (closed to traffic between 6am – 1pm).

If you can’t make it out next Sunday, be sure to mark your calendars for Sundays next year. Or take advantage of all the wonderful bike paths in the city and go on a family bike ride anyways. My kids each gave this adventure 2 thumbs up and so did the parents!

Jay is the Mom to 6.5yr old Sydney and 4.5yr old Carter and has a blog for her business, Loopy 4 Ewe.

Fear and Loathing at Calypso

by Allison

We’ve been sticking close to Ottawa this summer due to my son playing competitive (read: constant) baseball.  My husband had the week off this week, so we planned a couple of activities with the kids, including going here. This would be our grand family adventure, our glorious summer pilgrimage. We would arrive early, we would leave late. We would laugh mockingly as we defied  gravity and tighten our sphincters in the face of danger. It was going to be epic.

Did I mention that my kids are totally lame?

Okay, that’s unfair. They’re not daredevils, they’ve never been daredevils, I have no grounds for expecting them to be daredevils. The distinctly un-epic nature of this adventure was a combination of the unknowable and the unfortunate. I thought the park might have some slides that fell somewhere between zebra-striped four-foot-long kiddy rides and scream-til-your-throat-bleeds gut-wrenchers. But it really didn’t. Unless your seven and ten year old are adrenaline-junkie thrill-seekers (which I realize a good number of them are), there just isn’t a lot for them there. I have a policy where once a year or so I push the kids to do something that scares them because I know how great it feels once you do it. This policy went horribly wrong in the Midway-Octopus-Ride Incident of ’07, (and don’t think Eve failed to bring that up today), but usually it works out splendidly. So there we were in the lineup for the Canyon Rafting ride, because we could all go together and hey, four family members in a raft, what could go wrong? Okay, it was a little embarrassing standing there with Eve sobbing in terror while I patted her back saying ‘it’ll be fine, it’ll be fine’, and then Angus said ‘my stomach feels a little sick’ which is not-terribly-sophisticated code for ‘actually I just realized I’m scared crapless’, but we persevered! We stuck it out! We stooped to the ignominious level of telling them how much it cost to get us all in here and chucking them in the raft and hoping they’d be too scared to complain on the way down.

It was… okay. It was less of a fiasco than the Octopus Ride Incident. However, Eve was most emphatically done after that. We  spent a bit of time in the wave pool and had our picnic.  We went down the Jungle Run a few times, which was lovely. Then Angus said he would go down the Fast Track with me. Halfway up the stairs I realized he had really just said it to make me happy and was wearing his ‘I’m approaching the steps to the guillotine’ expression, so I told him I had already pushed him to do one thing today and I wasn’t going to do it again, but I really hoped he would do it because I knew he’d enjoy it and feel great after. So of course he gritted his teeth and conquered his fear and loved me for it, right? Oh hell no, I went down that sucker ALL BY MYSELF.

Also, note to self? Don’t use Neutrogena sunscreen next time. We got home and Eve looked at me and said “you got sunburned, Sister. I mean… Mother.”

Oh well. It was an adventure. Of sorts. I did eventually apologize for tossing around the word ‘wussy’ a little extravagantly (“How can you call me that? You’re my mother!” “I know. I’m the mother of a couple of WUSSIES.”) Truthfully, I wouldn’t have done any of that stuff when I was their age either. Thankfully, it never would have occurred to my parents to spend that unholy amount of money in order to give me that opportunity. It’s not my kids’ fault we clearly have too much disposable income.

A few people told me they have heard nothing but negative reviews of Calypso.  I don’t know — the weather was great when we went and it wasn’t too crowded.  If my kids had actually been willing to go on any slides, it would have been a great day, nearly worth the admittedly high price.  I would advise buying tickets online to skip the ticket line-up, remembering to bring cash for the parking (which I agree with everyone is stupid), and packing a cooler which you can leave by the wave pool, since on-site food is naturally overpriced.  And only bring your kids if they’re the kind who laugh in the face of danger.  My kids tend to prefer to paint pink hearts on the face of danger and invite it home to watch Vacation With Derek.

Tomorrow? They can play with the hose in the front yard. Safe, unthreatening and free.

Allison occasionally looks up from her book to parent her two children.  She blogs over at Bibliomama.

Going to the fair

by Lara

For years I have noticed the small fairs that pop up around the city in the summers…  the traveling fairs with the midway rides. And I admit, I wondered who went to them.  I’m sure it stems from the fact that rides nauseate me so I have no personal interest in them.

Last year, when Kiernan was almost 3 we decided to check one out though – and he loved it! He didn’t stop talking about it for months in fact! So this year, when one popped up near our house we headed out again, and at almost 4 it was a blast!

We bought him the $20 bracelet that gave him unlimited access to the rides, something that never would have occurred to me if my friend hadn’t done it first.  After that, the kids were off.  Round and round the mirror/glass house and the climbing slide house (those are the technical terms, I’m sure! 🙂

The operators of the rides were really nice about letting parents go in to help the kids if things were difficult without any extra cost (even getting to ride the bumper cars!) – although I’m not sure that’s true of every fair.

I don’t have a schedule of traveling fairs of course, but if you were like me and weren’t sure whether they were worth taking young kids to – they are!  Keep your eyes open, or hit the bigger fairs (Navan, Gloucester, the Ex, Victoria day, etc)  Maybe I’ll see you there!

Lara is mom to 3.5 year old Kiernan and 1 year old twins Quinn and Juliette. You can read her blog at Gliding Through Motherhood.

Summer of Awesome – Saunders Farm

by Lynn

Saunders Farm was, in a word, AWESOME.

In the past I’ve thought of Saunders Farm as a Halloween destination, and they are certainly known for that. In October, you’ll find truly scary hayrides and haunted houses on the farm, funny shows, and yummy winter treats. It’s a fun night out for teens and young adults.

In the past few years they’ve worked hard to turn Saunders Farm into a year-round attraction. This was the first year we’ve been as a family, and it was really just so cool. Mazes! Splash pad! Huge, unique climbing structures! Giant slides! Shows! Wagon rides! Whew! The kids loved it – even more than Cosmic Adventures. It’s winning the Summer of Awesome so far.

When you get there, the first thing you’ll see after paying is this:

Actual tree houses! Houses in trees! This is just a small section of the various climbing structures and little houses they have scattered in the entrance area. There’s dozens of places to explore, several slides, sand and sand toys, and even a hay stack to jump in. My kids’ jaws hit the floor when they saw this and quite frankly, they would have been more than happy to spend 3 to 4 hours just playing here. There’s even a Kids Discovery Barn here with little interactive displays and other fun stuff. It’s a great place to spend the first 30 to 60 minutes at the farm – or longer, if you can’t convince your kids to move along.

After the climbers, a snack, and a puppet show, we hopped on a wagon ride.

Unlike the Halloween Hayrides, the wagon ride was not scary, just a fun ride through the forest with a few big dips for excitement and the thrill of almost getting “trapped” in a small pond.

The wagon ride was my seven-year-old son’s favourite part of the day. He really enjoyed questioning whether or not the driver actually had a license to drive.

Then, it was time to hit the mazes. Saunders Farm has the most mazes of any location in North America – these are full sized mazes that adults can walk through. Some are really tough, some are easy, but they’re all really fun.

I was really looking forward to exploring the mazes and the farm did not disappoint. Most of them have some sort of treasure hunt component – something to search for in the mazes, or maybe a cool tower in the centre. At the very least, each maze has a stamp at the end so you can stamp your sheet and confirm your accomplishment (be sure to pick up a sheet for everyone in the gift shop on your way in).

We weren’t able to do all the mazes, but we managed to get through six or seven of them. I had wanted to try geocaching with the kids this summer, but I decided they were just too young. The mazes were a great alternative – the kids got really excited finding their way through and looking for clues, then getting their stamp at the end.

The kids especially loved the Cedar Maze and the Colour Maze. I loved them all but would warn against the Mile Maze, which is TOUGH and also literally a mile long. Do NOT save that one for the end of the day or you will wind up lost with three cranky children on your hands, contemplating an air lift rescue.

We ate our picnic lunch at a nice table (we brought our own food, but they do have a snack bar that sells hot dogs and fries and the like, as well as a drinks-and-ice-cream bar), and then it was time to get wet. There’s a splash pad there, along with change rooms, and my kids were crazy in love with it.

Oh, and I can’t believe I forgot to mention this custom made pirate ship which is right next to the splash pad, which my kids want to live in forever and ever. It has a crow’s nest and a pirate’s wheel and a plank for walking and a rope swing and a few cannons and even a mermaid on the front. Amazing!

And right beside that is this giant slide (warning: don’t slide down lying down on your back, it’s a bumpy one):

And in the middle of all this action, there are some lovely cottage chairs for parents to kick back with a good book, like the mom sitting next to me.

AWESOME.

The kids had so much fun here, they did not want to go home. I thought we’d spend maybe three or four hours at the farm, but we were there for more than six hours and even then, I had to drag the kids away. They were pretty mad that we didn’t get a chance to go on every single thing there — there’s still several mazes we didn’t get through and we visited less than half of the various play structures. There is SO much here, it’s just so easy to fill a whole day.

And I had a good time, too – I loved the mazes, and their little onsite shop is just so cute.

Did I mention that everyone went to bed a half hour early that night? And that they slept like logs? SWEET.

The one real drawback of Saunders Farm is that it’s pretty far out. It’s in Munster, which is about a 20 minute drive west of Kanata, so people in central Ottawa or in the East end will find it to be quite the hike. I think it’s worth it, though. You can get full directions on their website. The farm is open every day from 10am to 5pm.

Some things you’ll need to know:

• It’s a day in the sun, so bring hats, sunscreen, and lots of water. You know the drill.
• You’ll all get wristbands, so you’re free to go out to your car as often as you need to. So go ahead and leave the cooler full of lunch and your swim stuff in the trunk – a lighter load will serve you well in the mazes.
• Parking is free and plentiful.
• I really debated about bringing a stroller, and now that we’ve been, I’m still not sure what the right answer is. There are some paved sections of path, but other areas are grassy and not super stroller friendly, and there’s no way you should even think of taking a stroller into the mazes. Plus, no strollers are allowed on the wagon ride (you can leave yours by the pickup/dropoff spot, though). In the end we didn’t take ours and I was happy to have the freedom to run around after my kids, and to go through the mazes without having to constantly worry about where to park the thing. But there’s no question it was a lot of walking for my three-year-old and she was completely wiped out by the end of the day. I think next time I would again leave the stroller at home, but for kids under 3 you’ll probably want one.
• Footwear is a tough call. Some of the mazes have needle-filled pathways and the prickles can worm their way into sandals, flip-flops, or crocs and give your kids’ toes a bit of a pinch. On the other hand, the concrete floor of the splash pad was cold and my kids preferred having their crocs on while playing there – running shoes would not have been suitable. So again, I don’t know what to tell you here, except maybe bring both? Next time I would do crocs again but caution the kids to walk carefully, and allow extra time in the mazes for stopping to dump stuff from shoes.
• The Spruce Maze involves taking rubbings at various stations along the way, and the rubbings come together to make a complete picture. Unfortunately you need a crayon to take the rubbings and they were all gone when we were there – so do your kids a favour and bring a few crayons with you.
• The cost is $50 for a family of four, which seemed like a lot to me at the time, but now I think was totally worth it. Plus we brought in all our own food, so we spent nothing other than our entrance fee.

Obviously, I’ll be giving Saunders Farm a Summer of Awesome Must Do.

Lynn is mom to three tombliboos aged 7, 5, and 3, and blogs over at Turtlehead.

A ride on the Rideau Canal

by Anna

We decided to have a ‘tourist in our own city’ day and took a ride on Paul’s Boatlines Cruise, of the Rideau Canal. I have lived here (almost) my whole life and I have not been since the mid ’80s. Hubby has lived here his whole life and never taken the tour. So that was settled.

We headed downtown to find the ticket booth, which was located right in front of the Conference Center across from the Chateau Laurier. We were happy to see that they took interac as well as most major credit cards because we completely forgot to stop at a bank machine before heading downtown. We thought we picked a perfectly cool day and even brought sweaters for the kids, but Mother Nature has been playing havoc on us this summer and we were melting before we left the docks. After purchasing our tickets we followed the signs that directed us to where the boats are docked beside the Conference Center.

 

We travel Colonel By Drive all the time, but for this ride we got to see it from the water, so lovely and so green this year.

Our tour guide was funny and resourceful and we met some very nice folks from New York, so it really was like being a tourist in our own city. We passed this beautiful walking bridge and J yelled, “Hey that is where we skate in the Winter!” to which we replied, “we skate down this whole canal.” J was so amused and thought it was pretty cool that we were now boating on the same place that we usually only skate.

The cruise down the canal took just over an hour and we were hot and hungry so we had a lovely brunch on the Market.

If you are running out of fun things to do this summer, we recommend taking a cruise, you get to see our wonderful city from a whole different angle.

Anna is a proud stepmom (18yrs) and mom (7 & 3 yrs) and blogs her quest to get to the Beach every year as well as everything in between at Life is Good…At the Beach.  Anna is also a photographer, her portfolio can be viewed at Anna Epp Photography, and is often spotted around town with her trusty Nikon by her side.