.:shy:.

one more craving

yesterday, i listed off some current cravings. i would like to replace the entire list with one very big craving i am having right now...

to drop everything, get the next flight out to vienna and meet my friend who had been stuck in cairo. we would celebrate over some schnizels and very good beer.

how tempting it is...

hiking at crawford lake – bruce trail

we figured that today might be the last fall day we have time for a good hike - plus we wanted to take advantage of the dry mornng/afternoon as rain has already started to fall here in the evening. this was also part of the bruce trail. and i chose it because of two things: 1) it's part of an iroquois, historical land where archaeological digs came up with an old indian village - they resurected it in order to create a time-piece museum; 2) the end of the trail loops around a small lake that is of an interesting phenomenon - according to the bruce trail site:

It is a unique geological time capsule where a curious phenomenon occurs. The lake is meromictic, so deep for its surface area that the lower levels of water are never disturbed by wind or temperature changes. Without an annual turnover of water, there is little oxygen present in its depths, and therefore minimal bacterial breakdown. Layers of sediment build up and provide an accurate record of the human and natural history that has surrounded the lake since it formed. Corn pollen discovered in the sediments on the bottom of the lake made researchers aware of a fifteenth-century Indian village buried under the ploughed field to the north of the lake.

our hike lasted about 2 hrs - a bit longer then we had planned. but we could not move too quickly becuase chaeli is still getting use to trekking along rocky paths, which basically encompassed the first half of our hike.

we brought hobbes because he matches the colour of the leaves

amazing caves along the way

here is the small, but beautiful crawford lake

traditional longhouse of the iroquois indian village

chaeli examining a deer skin

chaeli all pooped on the way home

chaeli wasn't the only one tired - hobbes was totally out!

full album found here: crawford lake - bruce trail

another hiking adventure - this time out east in the city next to us. this trail was discovered when we found the unleashed, doggie park a week ago. great find! the weather, again, was perfect. and i'm hoping it will stay nice for next weekend when we explore another trail.  

rest of photo album here: seaton trail

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day 4 - happy thanksgiving, anniversary and lazy movies day

oh man - i woke up and just knew this is about to be a very unproductive day.

i just called doug to see how his workday was going - he started at 5am - and he said that it was slow. they have been more on stand-by time and only just got a call to pick-up a patient from the hospital.

i'm hoping they send him home soon. as great as it is to be making time and a half on a holiday, it's also nice to have him home with us.

chaeli is finishing her cereal (we both treated ourselves to reeses chocolate and peanut butter puffs - totally unhealthy but i'm not in the mood to care right now) and have decided to watch 'father of the bride' once she's done.

i did empty out the dishwasher, though. but only because i needed a clean bowl and spoon for my cereal. :p

day 2 - hockley valley

and so this is hockley valley: 

   

and this is hobbes on the way to our hike:

we're now just chilling out befor making our wedding anniversary dinner - steaks, potatos, brussell sprouts with thick bacon cubes and of course, red wine. afterwards, it's red wine and dvd's. here's

the rest of the photos from today:  hockley valley 2010 photo set

rouge valley - changing of colour

last weekend, we went back to the rouge valley. i think it's becoming our 'go-to place' whenever we want a quick-fix hike. it's just 10 minutes away and the types of trails are both beautiful and different from one another.

the trail - the whole distance to and back was about 1.5 hrs.

just a touch of autumn colours started to appear.

interesting leaning tree overhanging the valley.

next weekend is our canadian thanksgiving weekend. chaeli is staying over at my parents' place for a sleep over so doug and i can celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary with a streneous hike along hockley valley (part of the bruce trail). i'll pack a picnic so we can munch and enjoy the view on top.

i'm hoping the weather will be good enough for us to go. it's not something i want to do in the rain because some of the rocky climbs can be slippery and dangerous in wet weather. it's also a perfect opportunity for us to go alone without chaeli. not because i don't want her there but it's too advanced for a young kid. hopefully, when she's older, though, she'll join us.

i haven't done the hockley valley trail in over ten years but i remember it being quite a tough hike. it was porbably on my top three tough hikes ever (first being up a mountain in thailand through a rain forest; 2nd is a tie with hockley valley - the trails from point lobos state park of northern california... but i don't know if it was that hard or if it was because i was hiking while recovering from a respiratory bug).

anyway - with all the working out i've been doing, i'm really curious as to see how i'll fair with hockley.

here we go again

it's that time of year again - facing the daily grind after labour day weekend.

while i'm ready for a change of season, i'm slightly saddened to see summer end.

having said that, i have plans for the fall. or more to the point, the fall weekends. we have a very short autumn season here. the leaves change into beautiful shades of red, orange, and yellow. but... with a blink of an eye, theses colours seem to go as fast as they come. so, for about five to six weeks, it's important to plan our weekends well.

i do plan on a couple of hiking trips. we always seem to get one in - this year, we're aiming for two. with a possible 2-night stay over the weekend up in the northern penensula of bruce trail. another hike will probably be close to the niagara area. and of course, here is always some local trails nearby.

as usual, we'll head out to the green belt to visit a farm (usually to pick a pumpkin for halloween). this will normally be our last fall adventure.

to start, we've got chaeli's first week in grade one this week, followed by a smoked meat bbq party we'll be hosting this saturday.

i'm sure, before we know it, christmas will be just around the bend.

half vacation – half staycation

we planned our camping trip to only take part for half of the week on purpose – it allowed us to have somewhat of a staycation. of course, when it comes to camping, you do need a day or two to unpack, re-store equipment, do loads of laundry… there’s somewhat more work.

still – in between all the work, it’s been nice to go at a slower pace and to not have a routine for a couple of days.

in fact, i regret not doing a staycation earlier this summer – just a week where we can do just this. it’s somewhat surreal for me but also extremely relaxing. i would say that it’s even more relaxing then any vacation because no planning and organizing is involved.

i’ve got a 3 more days before going back to work. aside from a house warming party with good friends, we don’t have anything planned this weekend.

so… i’ll get to do a bodypump class. and some yoga and/or a bodyflow class.

and watch some movies on dvd.

reading… definitely some reading as well.

ah summer. you’ve been good to us. it’s definitely hard to let you go so soon.

a rite of passage

well, we made it back from killbear provincial park in one piece. and i say one piece because, while it was a great camping trip, we did find ourselves in some exciting situations (i.e. a black bear decided to roam through our campsite in the middle of the night – hobbes barked and growled to warn us and in return, it helped move the bear along down to the next campsite).

to sum up our trip in a nutshell, i’ll cut to the chase here:

forget that we almost had an unfortunate encounter with a bear… forget that a few bats flew above our heads… nevermind that i caught a frog for chaeli… then a toad… or that we saw, while swimming, a water snake… let alone the other snake that slid across our hiking path just inches away from my toes… forget that we were in meters away from a male deer… and of course, nevermind how gorgeous the scenery was throughout the entire park. no… lets discount all those awesome things.

because when we asked our dear daughter what the coolest thing about this trip was, all she had to say was, “i got to pee in the lake.”

doug was proud.

i… was not.

that alone sums up the difference in our parenting styles.

killbear 2010 photo album