My plans to blog during our trip to North America really fell through. It wasn’t probably for lack of options, but there simply was no time with the rather insane schedule we set for ourselves.
Ok, so we didn’t blog. But we had an amazing time, and that’s all that really matters.
We landed in Philadelphia, and went right to a camera store to pick up a really cool new toy. The Olympus Stylus 770 SW is a really cool camera that perfectly suits my hobbies. It’s waterproof to 10m without a dive housing, so in addition to paddling & rafting trips, I can even take it on shallow dives. Ana wanted a camera for the trip, so that was taken care of. From there, we continued on to the King of Prussia mall. I wanted Ana to understand what a real mall is, and regardless of whether their claim of “biggest” is right or not, they are big. It worked. She loved it.
Over the next few days we hit the usual Phili tourist sites, as well as a few meet-ups with friends. We finished off the tourist stuff with a visit to the Valley Forge National Park on Saturday, June 2. This was special since it was the NPS National Trails Day. I was hoping to see a few interesting booths, but my big surprise came to find that by sheer coincidence, the NOLS bus was there. We got to have a look at the engine, talk to the guys, and pick up a brochure for the WEMT program I’d like to do at some point down the road.
The reason of course we went to Phili was to attend the wedding of a very old friend of mine. After finishing up at Valley Forge, we wrapped up the tourism and drove down to Wilmington, DE for the wedding. I don’t want to put too much detail, but suffice to say that it was a great feeling to be there.
We spent the next 3-4 days up in Manhattan, running around like idiots all of the time. We bit off more than we could fit into the time we were there, but since we had to be back by a certain date, there was nothing we could do about it. We hit a few museums, a Broadway show and a couple of nice restaurants, including The Palm and Rosa Mexicano (highly recommend both).
Our next stop was up in Soviet Canuckistan (aka: Canada). Time was short, and even though we had a week, there was lots to do. We spent 2 days in Ottawa, where Ana really fell in love with the Byward Market. We did the usual other touristy stuff…the Parliament Buildings, Rideau Canal, etc. I wanted to go to the Museum of Civilization, but time prevented us.
It was time to show her what North American gear shops were like compared to the paltry excuse we see here in Israel. Perhaps we overdid it, but we stopped at Trailhead in Kingston on the way, and then in Ottawa at MEC, Bushtaka and Trailhead (no connection). Here it became a bit amusing. Whereas I recall the early days when Ana couldn’t stand my going into a gear shop, the huge selection of clothing for women at all these shops had her trying on everything she could find. I began to get bored waiting for her, but so happy at the turnaround I sure as hell didn’t complain. At Trailhead, I almost won a North Face tent. They gave away a 4-season convertible tent to the person who had the fastest time assembling it. I came in at 2:10, which only one guy was able to beat at about 1:55. Oh well.
We couldn’t go to the area without a day of rafting on the Ottawa River. I chose Esprit Rafting, partly because of good things I’d heard about them, and partly because of their support for Adventure Racing. They didn’t disappoint. I wanted to then take a bit of a relaxed pace, but still to show Ana some real Canadian uniqueness. The solution was 2 nights at the luxurious Chateau Montebello. A 250-room hotel, it is also the word’s largest log cabin, built from 10,000 cedar logs (see the history).
Near the hotel is Parc Omega. It’s a wildlife “safari”, featuring native North American animals. I didn’t know whether the highlight in Montebello would be the park or the hotel. In the end, it’s such a tight finish, I still don’t know. Parc Omega’s concept is that you drive in your car through most of the park, and have the animals walk right up to your car. They have deer, moose, bison & pigs freely walking around. Other than the bison, you can feed all of them carrots which are available at the park entrance (bring your own – cheaper). In enclosed areas that you drive past, you can see timber wolves, arctic wolves, foxes & black bears. I’m sure I’m missing some. There are even areas where you can get out of your car and walk around, with deer coming right up to you. We saw a baby deer that was barely able to stand on its legs from only about 3 meters away. The bison…it reminded me of being a few meters away from a rhino in Africa. They’re HUGE. Feeding the deer led to some really cute and funny pictures, but I had more fun with the wolves. Near the gate of the park is an enclosed area for timber wolves, which you walk through on a raised walkway. They came right up to the base of the walkway, and started playing around. If I ran back and forth, they would follow. The pictures are amazing.
So that’s about it. We had a day in Toronto into which we crammed a walk around my old neighborhood of Yorkville, and a visit to Holt Renfrew. For the evening, we had a sumptuous dinner at George (get the 6 course taster), followed by We Will Rock You. With the little energy left, we went to check out some jazz clubs.
For two and a half weeks, we did a lot. Too much perhaps, but it had to be done. We had a great time, and Ana really loved her first experience of North America.
Perhaps I’ll post later the rather not so nice incident that occurred on the way back.
