Thanksgiving 2019 - Day 1 and 2

Thanksgiving 2019 - Ottawa Canada

For this years Thanksgiving trip we decided to head north again to Canada - This time to the Ottawa region.

Day 1 - Millis - Syracuse

We left on the Sunday before Thanksgiving and headed directly out the Pike.  It was one of those typical New England days where you get all 4 seasons in one day.  When we left it was bucketing down with rain.  Halfway along the pike, the rain turned to snow - great big fat flakes.

At least they didn't stick to anything, and by the time we arrived in Syracuse the sun was out...

We stopped very briefly at the Lee Premium Outlets for lunch.  I was looking for a Subway and I didn't realise that that one was in a outlet mall.  Thankfully there weren't too many people around and we were able to get a park and a table without any problems.

We stayed overnight at a SpringHill Suites out by the airport.  Nothing exciting - a very small pool for a quick dip then dinner at the nearby Ruby Tuesdays.

Day 2 - Syracuse - Kingston Ontario 

We had breakfast in our hotel then were on the road.  The first stop was Downtown Syracuse.  I was a bit worried that it was going to be rush hour but the downtown was pretty deserted.  Some nice old buildings though

Especially the Art Deco Niagara Mohawk building.

Then we turned north towards Canada.  The first part of the trip we sped straight up 81 to Watertown.

It wouldn't be a Ryerson road trip without a Josh asleep in the car picture!

At Watertown we missed a turnoff and had a bit of a tour of some not so salubrious back streets, but finally found our way back onto the 12 heading for the Saint Lawrence river. At Clayton we stopped in at a Distillery for a break.  We were lucky enough to catch one of the workers just coming in so even though they weren't meant to be open she let us in anyway.  Had a nice little tasting and bought some really nice gin and moonshine.  Another stop at the Thousand Islands Winery and we were ready for lunch.  I had found a really cute looking little place that I wanted to try for lunch so we headed over to Wellesley Island to visit Thought Island Park.

It was a beautiful drive along the St Lawrence river.



But when we got there we found that the whole town was closed for the winter.  The pub and stores - closed down.  The houses wen't just closed, they were wrapped up....I wonder what winter storms must look like in this place.

So no lunch here....next stop was Canada.  We crossed the border at the 1000 Islands border crossing and headed down the Thousand Island Parkway towards Gananoque.  We had stayed here 15 years ago on our Honeymoon but I would never have been able to tell.  Nothing was at all familiar.  There was no reconciling my memories with what it looks like now.  And it's not just that it's grown up - a lot of the buildings are way older than 15 years but we must not have spent much time in that part of town - we must have been on the outskirts and that's been totally built up now.

We just wanted something simple for lunch so decided to stop at Maccas then the last drive for the day was down route 2 to Kingston.

Another beautiful old town.  We drove around downtown then headed for our hotel.  The Ambassador.  We chose this hotel as it has a pool with a slide, unfortunately the slide didn't open till 6pm so we relaxed in our room till 5:30, then headed down for some fun.

A late dinner tonight - we headed back to downtown to the Kingston Brewing Company and had a great shared meal of Poutine, Bacon and Cheese Dip, Wings in Ghetto sauce and a salad.

Thanksgiving 2019 - Day 3 and 4

Day 3 - Kingston Ontario - Ottawa Ontario

Today was a slow drive up through the lakes and rivers of the Rideau Canal.

We drove north on the Route 10 out through Inverary, Perth Road, Buck Lake and Westport.  This whole area is just lake after lake after river.  It was a really nice drive with great scenery on all sides, though it would have been better with some sunshine.  I can image that this area would be really busy in Summertime.  We arrived at the little town on Perth just before lunch and after a quick stop at the local distillery headed into town.  One of the first things we saw in town was a Cheese shop so we had to stop and have a taste, at which point we decided that a picnic lunch featuring cheeses was our way to go. This then resulted in a browse up and down the main street collecting bread, salami etc to complete our meal.

It was a beautiful old town with some fantastic buildings, and thankfully also a really nice park in which to picnic.

It was rather cold out so it was a quite short picnic, but it was fun!

Back on the road following the Rideau River, through Smiths Falls, Merrickville

And Kemptville, then right beside the river and into Ottawa.  It was a beautiful drive, the houses beside the river just kept getting bigger and fancier the closer we got and river kept getting tamer and tamer with more evidence of the canal coming though.

We went right through the center of Ottawa, past the Chateau Laurier.

The rather magnificent Angence Revenu Canada,

And out to a much seedier side of town to our Home for the night - the Holiday Inn Downtown Ottawa East.  It was a nice hotel, but the surroundings left a lot to be desired.  A homeless shelter across the road and run down townhouses all around.

Rather than try and walk to dinner we decided to head out to the Clocktown Brew Pub across the river in Kingsview Park.  A much nicer place to walk around after dark.

Day 4 - Around Ottawa

It was raining again this morning which wasn't great - I had planned to walk around Ottawa today seeing all the sights.  Instead we decided to take a drive out to the Rideau Falls where the Rideau River meets the Ottawa river.

From there we headed along the river.

To the home of the RCMP.  The Royal Canadian Mounted Police - The Mounties.  We were really hoping to see some of the horses but unfortunately none of them were around this morning so we spent an hour or so browsing the museum before heading back into town.  We decided we may as well try booking into our room even though it was still early.  We are staying at the Fairmont Chateau Laurier tonight.

The only problem was trying to get into this place.  Now normally you would just drive up to the front entrance, but the entrance was blocked off with a whole bunch of construction - we drive around that place 4 times before finally finding the tiny little sliver of opening that allowed you to drive in....

Thankfully we were able to get straight in.  Our room for the night.

And even better our view

We took ourselves on a tour of the hotel.  Its beautiful, but also quite old.

Hallway to our room.

Elevators in the lobby.

Main Lobby

Main Lobby

Mezzanine Level

Original Pool from 1912

Its a beautiful Hotel.  But I wanted to see some more of the city too - Thankfully it had stopped raining so we  went out for a walk.

First order of business was lunch.  We walked down into the main shopping district and found a little place that did build your own pizzas (or Subway for Pizza as we nicknamed them).  We then headed back past the Chateau

And to the locks on the Rideau Canal.

It was so strange to see them without any water in them.  They had been totally drained for the winter.

We walked down to check them out up close.

 And then up to and around the Parliment Buildings.

They are such stunning buildings - unfortunately they are under reconstruction at the moment so a lot of them was covered in scaffolding.

We walked back through the downtown area but it was getting cold so we headed back to the hotel.

 For a dip in that beautiful pool.  Andy and I then went down and had a drink in the lounge area downstairs - Yikes $40 for two drinks!

For dinner we walked back into the downtown area and went to DÁrcy McGees Irish pub.  Again shared a bunch of Apps. Then since we could we walked back down to Byward Market and got a beaver tail each for dessert - Yum!

And OK I know I've gone overboard with the Chateau Photos but this is the last one I promise.

Thanksgiving 2019 - Days 5, 6 and 7

Day 5 - Ottawa Ontario - Montebello Quebec

We only had a short drive today and a late check out so we had a sleep in.  We walked back into downtown and found a Tim Hortons for breakfast.  A nutelly filled Croissant and Candy Cane Hot chocolate.  Then we packed up and headed out -  across the river this morning and into Quebec.  Back in the land of French first, English second.

We drove alongside the Ottawa river to the little town of Montebello.  By the time we got there it was lunch time so again we stopped into the local Fromaggerie (Cheese shop) and bought some cheese, salami and bread.  Unfortunately it was much colder today and our picnic wasn't quite so pleasant.

A quick shoveling in of food and back into the car.  Back in Perth the lady in the cheese shop had told us about a park her in Montebello that we should really check out.  Parc Omega.  The valet this morning had also mentioned it so we drove up there after lunch to see what it was all about.  We almost balked at the $100 price tag, but we're so glad we didn't.  It was probably the best part of our entire trip.

Parc Omega is a wildlife sanctuary full of Canadian Wildlife.



 Deer, elk, bison, fox, coyote, boar, bear.  You name it and it lives here and the best part is that a lot of them are just roaming free and you can buy bags of carrots and feed them.  Well we learnt pretty quickly that the deer and boar especially know whats going on, they will mob your car to get to your carrots.

 Some of them were too shy to come and get carrots

 But others would follow you from stop to stop.

 You cannot put your window down all the way or you will end up with an entire deer head in your car.  This guy really wanted his carrot.

 Some of these guys were really big.

Whilst the Elk and deer were roaming free other animals were more enclosed, but that was OK it just meant we actually got to see them since we weren't allowed to feed these guys.

arctic fox

caribou

Bison

 About halfway through the park we had run out of carrots - thankfully the parc had predicted this and had another place to buy carrots....I've never seen two kids more excited about a bag of carrots.

This guy gave up his hay to take some of our carrots - did no one ever tell him its not polite to bring half your first meal to your second.

This guy was one large deer - his back was taller than the top of the car.

And just so you understand what it's like to be mobbed by a bunch of deer.....

The car definitely needs a wash now - there is deer drool over all the windows.

We had so much fun driving around this park.  I would definitely recommend it to anyone in the area.

Once we had done a full circuit - Plus perused the souvenir store we headed back to Montebello to our next nights accommodation.  Another of the Canadian Railroad Hotels - Chateau Montebello.  This place is designated as the largest log cabin and it is an extremely cool place.

But also very hard to Photograph. Its 6 wings like this off a central foyer.

We got a room in the Champlain wing - basic but nice.

It's the foyer however that is the star of this hotel.  A huge 6 sided fireplace makes up the centerpiece.

 And with all the Christmas Decorations it looked so magical.

Of course we had to check out the pool

Best part was the fact that they had no age limit on the Sauna so the kids got to experience their first sauna.

We drove into Montebello for dinner - the local pub again.

Then we repaired to the foyer for some after dinner drinks.

Day 6 - Montebello Quebec to Burlington Vermont

We started our day with a walk around the hotel.  Its a beautiful place.  I wish we had some more time to spend exploring it.

 

Then it was back in the car.

We crossed back across the Ottawa river into Ontario at Hawksbury, then down through Alexandria to Cornwall where we crossed back into the US.  We then drove right across the top of New york state to Champlain then across Lake Champlain to Burlington.

Overnight at the Fairfield Inn Williston Burlington and Dinner at the Vermont Tap house.

Day 7 - Burlington VT - Home

A simple drive down the freeways through White River Junction and Brattleboro - Lunch at Holyoak then home along the Pike.