My friend Leah (not to be confused with my sister Leah) picked us up from the train station in London and we headed to her house for a pre drink before going to Cowboys, our favourite country bar, where a few of us rode the bull!

On Saturday we had promised Katelyn that we would babysit Hails and Brianna while she cleaned and got ready for the baptism the next day.  Babysitting may have turned into playing then all of us taking a nap, but we then went to the mall with Hailey in tow to meet Erica and Denis.

Check back for more pictures and an exciting story from our weekend away from school!

Our Aunt’s friend set up a camper to watch the Stampede parade in Calgary. It was during the royal visit, and they were in the parade! We actually only saw them for about 1.5 seconds, because they drove quickly by in a closed car, but we did have cowboy hats, tiaras, and gloves to wear!

The most exciting part of our trip (except for the wedding I mean…I swear!)- we met a reader! She was working at a souvenir stand at the Stampede, and recognized us as we walked by looking for Stampede onsies. So HI!!

These are all of the girl cousins on our dads side. Minus Micaela and Kate who didn’t come to Calgary. From left- Me (Lauren), Kim, Leah, Angel, Rachel, Erica and Emily.

The cute baby bump in Denver, Colorado. It varies in sizes, although I think it’s at it’s biggest in this picture.

Denver has these awesome bikes that you can rent, and there are stations all over the city. We fell in love on our last day in the city. Well I did at least.

As a result of these trips Erica and I got to be pros at travelling together with our parents. It was awesome!

I finally made the trip and got to Ottawa. It’s the farthest Hailey has ever been from home. We’re having fun staying with Lauren (other then the dog waking Hailey up from her sleep) and touring around with my aunts who we drove up here with. The weather has been perfect, we even had a picnic on the beach in Ottawa yesterday, mind you we were definitely not in swim suits. Today I’m hoping to meet up with a university friend, visit the parliament buildings, maybe do a hike, go for dinner and then head back to Toronto and then tomorrow all the way home.

This is a pretty short post because Hailey is feeling a bit grumpy this morning so we are going to get a move on. Happy Saturday!

So now that I let that all out (insert big sigh here) I will talk about something I have learned since becoming a full-time transit user.

There are two types of people that take public transit: The kind you wouldn’t mind getting stuck sitting beside, and the kind you avoid sitting beside.

Today, friends, I am going to teach you the very basic and easy ways to become the former and avoid the latter.

1.) First and foremost, SHOWER. And when you shower, use soap. This one is very basic, yet unfortunately people seem to be confused about it.

2.) Wear clean clothes. If you are taking public transit the chances of being in very close proximity to another person are extremely high. If your shirt smells and you think no one will notice, they will. I promise.

3.) Deodorant is your friend. Probably your best friend (even though you may not know). Perfume, on the other hand, is NOT your friend. Don’t choke those around you with your cloud of stench.

4.) iPods are excellent companions on public transit. But not everyone around you favours the same genre of music as you, so turn down to volume to a reasonable level.

5.)Don’t talk to the person next to you. People take public transit to get places, not to make friends.

6.) Don’t talk loudly on your phone. A short, quiet phone call I can understand. But please, if you are going to yell and swear and rant or laugh and exclaim, take it outside. You are disturbing those around you.

7.) Don’t give yourself a manicure on the train. While being productive on the bus/train can be helpful, I don’t want your dirty nail filings flying all over my lap.

8.) If a senior citizen, handicapped person, or somebody with a child comes on the train, offer them your seat. Don’t think about it, don’t count on somebody else doing it, just do it. It’s the courteous thing to do.

9.) Don’t stare at other people on the bus/train. I don’t care if you think that girl is hotter than Heidi Klum or perhaps she has a giant wart on her forehead – staring is rude and that person does notice.

This is by all means not an exhaustive list, so what would you add? What irks you about your public transit neighbours?

*This has been a public service announcement from Leah.

It was a great little getaway and Kent and I are definitely planning to return once grapes and all of the other fruit are in season. Fresh peaches… mmm!

Wayne Gretzky Estates Winery – A serious hockey fan (Kent) can’t just drive past without going in to see if Wayne’s in town. This is the man who said he was going to meet Dog the Bounty Hunter in Hawaii – and then did. But Wayne wasn’t there, sadly.

Niagara-on-the-Lake

A few shots of some of our fancy schmancy food.

(Our B&B)

]]> http://fiveblondes.com/travel/weekend-in-wine-country/feed/ 9 http://fiveblondes.com/calgary/because-everybodys-good-at-something/ http://fiveblondes.com/calgary/because-everybodys-good-at-something/#comments Thu, 11 Mar 2010 02:18:27 +0000 Leah http://fiveblondes.com/?p=3859 I spent two days in Toronto last week driving around to random locations to mail things, or meet people for lunch and I didn’t get lost once. I even directed Micaela around, and she has lived in TO for almost a year (she would be lost without me, friends). When I was driving around (and not getting lost) I mentally high-fived myself and called Micaela to exclaim how awesome I was – because I had never even driven around Toronto alone before. It was like Google implanted Google maps into my brain as a magical prototype of human built-in GPS. Well, Google, thank you – being great at navigation really helped me a lot last week.

You want to know what else I am really good at? (No? Shocking. I’m going to tell you anyway). SLEEPING. I love sleeping. I am also really good at it – give me a pillow and a blanket and a hardwood floor and I am golden. Give me a pillow and a blanket and the floor of the busiest dance club in town on a Saturday night and I will snore away.

Since navigation and sleeping are my two best skills, that can only lead to one thing – I should become a professional traveler. A citizen of the world. I will navigate my way around any city or countryside and will sleep on any train, horse-drawn wagon or even the basket of my bicycle.

First up?

Paris. The girls and I went to Paris with our Mom about 10 years ago and I Paris, well, I loved all of France. I would live there in a heartbeat.

Me and the Eiffel tower are like two peas in the pod.

But why would I stop at Earth? I could definitely sleep in a space shuttle, even during take-off.

Me in space.

That is all, my apologies for wasting your time but I drive around a lot for work and these are actually the things I think about while on the road driving from client to client. Sometimes I forget to turn on the radio and then my imagination gets a little weird. And when you are a blogger, you just have to write these things down. You just do.

First thing, this movie is for Aley. Puppy vs. Cat We were talking about what I should write about, and her suggestions were something along the lines of “me, puppies, me, kittens, procrastination, me”, so there you go Al. I also have to post this video, because Nicole Kraumanis is my amazing cheerleading idol. Nicole Team Canada Audition

Second, my car died yesterday. It was a sad day spent at home, not being able to go to school without scrounging up $3 to take the bus there, and probably $3 back.  I hardly got any studying done there, because T-Mo distracts me at every chance she gets…so does the lure of my comfy bed.  I called CAA this morning to go to school, and they told me it would be about 4 hours. Thank goodness it only took about 1.5 hours.  So I drove around Ottawa for about 20 minutes because the CAA man told me to, and I would have done whatever he said to make my car okay again.  During my drive I realized that Ottawa is an awesome city in any season.  Most cities are only fun to walk around in in the summer, and dreadful during the winter months (if they do have cold, snowy winter months), but Ottawa is just so nice.  In my opinion there are 3 things that make Ottawa so beautiful during the winter.

1) Parliament.

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If you can find something in your city that looks as amazing as this during the winter send ‘er over.  Otherwise this wins the prize. Here’s a better picture of the lights on Parliament:

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2) Rideau Canal.  For those of you who don’t know, Ottawa has the world’s largest skating rink (Winnipeg has the longest, but I guess it’s skinnier),  measuring 7.8km (4.8 miles) long.  Along the way they have Beaver Tails, hot chocolate, skate rentals, and it’s the focus of  the Winterlude festival.

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Me and my friend Andrena skating last year.

3) The Byward Market.

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To be honest I don’t know a lot about the Market.  I know that most of the good bars are there, there are some super cute shops, and they have cute vendors on the sidewalk.  Oh, and my favourite restaurant- Lonestar!  It’s a nice place to take a walk, which is what Kaylee and I do a lot there.

Anyways, this post just justified my love for Ottawa.  I do love it a lot, but I will love going home on Monday even more I think! Especially once my exams are all over and done with!

The weather turned out way better than I could have ever hoped for, amazing for a summer famous for nonstop rain (the chance of rain for the day all week was 0%! I didn’t even look out the window right when I woke up because I was that sure that it would be perfect.) The tent looked beautiful, the farmer left the wheat in the field which bordered all sides of the yard, and the night ended with a crazy fun and wild dance party, just me and Kent’s style! Our dj was wonderful and stayed for longer than we’d booked him for. It pays to hire friends of friends to do these types of things for you!

Buuuut, since I don’t have my pictures back quite yet, I’ll stop talking about the wedding and start talking about the honeymoon! We  spent our first day and night in Los Angeles, then spent twelve days in the Hawaiian islands of Kauai and Maui. It was a completely amazing vacation and I still miss it every day!

Here are a few pictures and a few highlights!

We didn’t have time for much in LA except a quick tour of Hollywood boulevard, Rodeo Drive, and the beach. We rented bikes and biked from Santa Monica Pier to Venice Beach, because, well, we didn’t have time to walk it! Kent made fun of me because the bike I rented was SO squeaky which he thought was a pretty typical thing to happen to me. Whatever, it was the only one with a basket!

Now in Kauai! (It always takes me at least three tries to spell that, even after being there.) The guidebooks told us to try shave ice at Jo Jo’s. It’s an amazing Hawaiian dessert made by shaving a huge rotating chunk of ice and then flavouring it with whatever you choose. I loved it and had it many times during the trip!

On our last day in Kauai we treated ourselves to a helicopter ride! I love Kent’s hair in this shot.

Before take off! We both got really motion sick on the helicopter and Kent even had his “Aloha bag” out (which is forever what I will call barf bags and you should too!) but thankfully for the rest of the passengers on board, didn’t have to use it. After the flight we just collapsed on the ground for a while then had to go for recovery drinks, although we had “happy hour” drinks every day, come to think of it. You Americans love your happy hour! Kent says it’s just as popular here, but I don’t believe him. If every bar/restaurant here had amazing drink deals every afternoon I’m sure I’d do a lot more afternoon drinking!

The Napali cliffs… nothing more beautiful than a helicopter ride in Kauai. I learned on this ride about a group of waterfalls called the “Five Sisters Waterfalls.” So neat!

Kent fell in love with snorkelling. It was like being inside an aquarium, way cooler than I expected!

Ohh, just a new friend we shared a plane ride with! Kent told everyone back home that he was going to Hawaii to meet Dog the Bounty Hunter so it could not have been more hilarious that he actually did meet him! Dog’s response to Kent asking for a picture? “Okay, ready, shoot.” He was no-nonsense! But it was really great of him to pose for pictures with a bunch of people while trying to get to his luggage.

We took a boat ride to Molokini crater and another Hawaiian island, Lanai, for some amazing snorkelling. The boat was awesome, they served us breakfast and lunch, the crew was so fun, and it had an open bar! We went with the Pacific Whale Foundation, which I definitely recommend.

Kent’s sister and her husband bought us a bike trip down the crater in Maui as a wedding gift! We were driven to the top of the crater on a bus and then we biked down. It was really cool and a bit scary with all of the hairpin turns. I loved the views from this spot, with the sheep in the field and the ocean in the background.

Of course we had to go to a luau! The food was amazing, especially this pig which was cooked underground. We ate with a cute newlywed couple across the table from us who were from Utah.

We went all out on the last night since we cooked/picnicked almost all of our meals on the trip and went to the nicest restaurant we could find. It was SO worth it, one look at this picture can probably tell you why. I love that Kent is a chef and trips to nice restaurants always feel a bit like research.

That’s it for the pictures, although I have many more that you can see if you have me on facebook. Here’s a few side stories that the pictures don’t tell, for the people who have seen all of these already:

1. Kent bought a speargun our first day in Maui from a super great local guy at a surf shop. He gave Kent a flier with the best places to spearfish which quickly became our bible. We found that the fish in Maui weren’t quite as plentiful as in Kauai and they were smarter, so he never did catch one but man did he love going out with that spear. He has always loved fishing but has definitely caught the fishing bug since returning from Hawaii.

2. On the flight from LA to Hawaii, there was a contest to figure out exactly when we’d hit the halfway point, keeping in mind wind speed and all this other stuff that went right over my head. Guess what? Kent won! Luck was on our side this entire honeymoon. When they announced his name on the plane I laughed so hard… and I was the only one that clapped, along with maybe two other people. The prize was a Hawaiian cd which became our soundtrack for the trip every time we drove (which was a lot.) After a few days this song was basically on repeat the whole time. Listening to it brings me right back! 

3. I’d never heard this before the trip, but in Hawaii people kept asking me why I had a Hawaiian name (Micaela). After thinking about it, we realized that Hawaiian words are full of vowels, and m, c (and k), and l are common consonants. That’s probably why I loved all the Hawaiian words so much and our drives often consisted of us repeating our favourite Hawaiian words over and over again. (“Lahaina!” “Haleakala!”)

I’m glad we had such an awesome honeymoon even if it means that our trips for the next year or two will be nonexistent (well, they should be anyways!) Posts to come on the wedding and on married life, which is pretty great. Last night Kent surprised me by picking me up on my walk home from work and had a picnic packed and we had dinner by the lake! Really though, nothing has changed since we still live in the same apartment together, except that we laugh every time we say “husband” or “wife.”

Here’s a little photo recap.

We took our friends dog, Eve out for a walk:

Coolest house on the block:

On Easter Sunday we toured the parliament. Lauren and I love the parliamentary library so much that we almost bought library shaped earrings at the gift shop.

Kent in front of the parliament:

Erica in the parliament’s Peace Tower (highest building in Ottawa):

We slept over at Lauren’s place. I’m sure you’ll recognize it even in this small picture as a typical student house. This is where we had sleepovers and watched way too much of My Super Sweet Sixteen.
Funny story: Lauren and I had the tv on Mean Girls when we left with mom to go shopping. Our dad was staying behind and when I asked if he wanted me to remote to switch the channel he said, “No, actually can you turn the volume up?” Despite spending a large portion of his life living with six girly-girls, my dad has managed to remain surprisingly manly, but even the manliest dad has his weak moments, apparently.

After Erica, Denis, and Kent left us on Sunday we visited the Nature Museum. Lauren and I had so much fun with all the interactive games where we got to tape ourselves making chimp calls and bird sounds.

Our not-so-blonde momma (don’t tell her that though):

Me, hanging out in a tree:

The photo ops really were endless:

After the museum we had some snacks at a market/bakery where apparently Obama had recently enjoyed some a cookie. Poor Obama probably felt like he had to order a Canada cookie to show his pride, even though the cookies looked pretty unappetizing and everything else there looked soooo good! At least he’s a good sport. Now they’re milking these cookies for every penny:

Thanks for being so much fun, Lauren! I LOVE Ottawa and will definitely be visiting you next year when I’m living only four hours away instead of nine.

That was our nontraditional Easter weekend, a far cry from our usual which always includes a 9am Catholic mass and way too many Easter dinners and easter egg hunts. I did make Kent an Easter basket though. I couldn’t help myself. I “apparently” didn’t warn him (ie. he didn’t remember me warning him!) I didn’t care though, I love giving him holiday gifts even if I don’t get any in return. My parents have always made us Easter baskets (and gave the three of us plus the two boys one to share this year) and later Kent was very apologetic and decided that he liked the basket idea so much that it will be a tradition from now on. Starting new holiday traditions is my favourite.

Check out the rest of our trip on my flickr!

Finally Saturday arrived (Valentines Day), our first day of sightseeing!  We had a great breakfast at the hotel (mmm waffles and breakfast sandwiches, every morning.) and went walking to the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory.  The museum itself was under construction, which was fine with me because I don’t really care that much about the history.  We got to take a tour of the factory and got a free mini bat after the tour.  And took an obligatory jumping photo in front of the World’s Biggest Baseball Bat.

After that we walked back to the hotel, and took a few pictures along the way…

Then we drove to Churchill Downs! We paid for a tour and to be able to see the museum and it we both agreed that it was the best part of the trip.  There are currently no races going on because of winter, but it was still great to get to see the grounds, and hear a bit more about the history.  The museum was also really cool with lots of interesting facts, I would definitely suggest going if you are in the area.

We then went in search of a mall, and finally got there after a few wrong turns.  It was crazy busy there, the roads were backed up the highway. That’s the mall where we bought our candles and shirts.  Then we ate at the Outback for a Valentines meal.

Sunday we checked out of the hotel and drove to the Lexington area to find horse farms that Scott was dreaming about, which he found in his horse book.  We took the Old Frankfort Pike road, which was the scenic road that goes parallel to the highway.  We found lots of the farms Scott wanted to see, however most had gates to stop visitors from coming in.  We stopped at one beautiful farm and asked for a tour but they only gave tours by appointment and on certain days, and were basically very unwelcoming.  We got to see Big Brown at the farm though.  Big Brown was the 2008 winner of the Kentucky Derby, I think that was the closest I will ever get to a celebrity.  I did feel for the people at the farms a bit though, they probably get people like us all the time, trying to see the horses, but you would think they would try and accommodate a bit more.  We stopped a bunch of times to take photos on the side of the road, and to satisfy Scott’s horse fetish.

^ What I would look like with one leg.

After our driving around we went to Keeneland racetrack and to the Kentucky Horse Park.  Nothing was happening at the race track  and we weren’t overly impressed by the Kentucky Horse Park.  A lot of it was under construction, which I guess is what happens when you travel in the off season.

We decided it would be best to drive up to Michigan and stay overnight there so we would have a shorter drive home. Monday we went shopping at the outlets at Birch Run, we didn’t get anything exciting, but did go to the WORLD’S LARGEST CHRISTMAS STORE.  It was very exciting, I love Christmas and it made me excited for Christmas, even though I know it’s still a long way off.  So I took a jumping photo in front of the Nativity and we headed for home.

We stupidly missed the duty free going back into Canada, and Scott was really mad about that.  The border was really busy so we had a slow drive across the bridge to Sarnia, but it allowed me a photo I would not normally get to take… Welcome home!  So to all you American’s who think Canada is so far away, look we are only a line away.