Front of La Grange. Rooms are on the main floor, the owners' residence is on the second floor, and the third floor is a yoga studio. Total square footage is 8600 sq ft!!
In the evenings we would put the kids down to sleep, plug in the baby monitor and then hang out in the back yard with glasses of wine and a piece of pie from the local bakery. Yum!
Here comes the train!! It was very loud, and when it rumbled by our patio, the floorboards were vibrating!
Steam train rolling by during lunch. Chance was in awe. Karin was trying not to panic!
Delicious food! Clam and potato soup and salads of all sorts: artichoke, chickpea, broccoli, green, curried cauliflower.After our wonderful lunch, we jumped in the car in search of the beach at nearby Lac Phillipe in Gatineau Park to cool off. It was 35° C and very very humid. The beach wasn't too hard to find, and en route we stopped at a produce stand and purchased carrots, apples, raspberries and peaches, all local. The folks selling the fruit and veggies did not speak English so I got to make use of my French...I was just glad they didn't laugh at my accent! $8 spent on yummy snacks. They offered us all the flowers we could take with us, as they were clearing out their potted basket inventory - lots of nice flowers, but of course we couldn't take them with us, too bad!! After a few more kilometres of driving and crossing a covered bridge, we made it to the beach, paid $10 to park and found a picnic table in the shade. It was gorgeous, a busy beach but not too crowded, just lots of kids for Chance to play with. He quickly befriended a little boy named Sam who was the same age. Sam was bilingual and so was a bit confusing for Chance to talk to -- he kept saying things like "here, put the poisson dans cette bucket" while they were trying to catch minnows and Chance would stop and look to me for a translation. We stayed at the beach all day, and it was only the rumbling of our tummies that made us eventually get up and go.
We spent so much time in the lake our fingers were like prunes when we came out. So amazing to wallow like hippos in the clear, cool water!
Chance asked to borrow some sand toys from a family - they were nice enough to share. I watched him play in the sand for about an hour!
Lovely beach - lots of sand and picnic tables under tall trees in the shade.
The next day we woke up and had breakfast at La Grange. The owner, Adam, made us a delicious breakfast of asparagus quiche (I think he grew the asparagus in his own garden) and toast and fruit. Chance was very impressed by the private breakfast being served to us...he commented "Wow, look it's just for us". Then we drove to Hull, and boarded the HCW (Hull Chelsea Wakefield) Steam Train. The beginning of the train ride was pretty good (when these photos were taken), but quickly deteriorated due to lack of naps and lack of interaction with other children (there were some other kids in the same car and Chance wanted to play with them SO badly, but they were loud noisy kids and we didn't want him to be creating a ruckus like they were, such a difficult situation especially because their grandparents were there and not doing a darn thing about it). Karin was hitting the 5th day of no real naps and so she was a bit fussy and when we arrived back in Wakefield an hour and a half later it was not a moment too soon. Had lunch and then rode back to Hull, the way back wasn't as bad as the way up, however those noisy kids had purchased a key chain that played electronic train noises at the gift shop and they used it the whole way back.
Little gummer. Her teeth really popped up during this vacation, must have been sore. 
Chugging through the trees.
Nice views! Every now and then we would pass a road crossing and we would wave to the people in their cars, or more often than not, waiting outside their cars and waving to us.
Daddy walking Karin through the streets of Wakefield and stopping to check out the geology. You can take the geologist out of the field, but you can't take the field out of the geologist.
H.C.W. Steam Train. The fellow talking with Cam and Chance was very entertaining and when the kids started getting worked up on the way back he came by and started doing paper folding tricks (making hats, boats, etc.) to calm them down - much appreciated by the other passengers, as well as us.
After the train ride was done, it was about 3 PM and the kids fell asleep in their car seats within 10 minutes...so we just went for a drive. After a little while, Chance woke up and we pulled over and bought coffees for the grown ups and hot chocolate for him, but continued to drive as it was pretty nice. It was drizzling rain and the sky and trees seemed like they were looming over us....I joked to Cam that it seemed like at any moment a wolf would jump out in front of us -- then we passed a sign that said "Lac Des Loups" -- "Wolves Lake". Haha (nervous laughter).
Just when we thought the trees were going to close in on us, we broke out into this little field cut-away, with corn on one side and hay bales on the other. It had stopped raining, so we got out of the car and Chance got to see corn growing up close and personal. As we were driving away, it seemed to click in exactly how much corn was in the field, because he kept peeping from the back seat "That's a LOT of corn. Daddy, that's a LOTTA corn!"
Cam's dad always says corn should be knee high in July. These corn plants were as tall as Chance in July!
Our random road trip. Pretty!
I think Chance is telling Cam to smile here...whatever he said, it was making Cam crack up.
Scenic field. Loved the old worn down fence.
It was so hot and muggy, it was almost surreal. You can see the mist rising off the bush in the background.
No comments:
Post a Comment