February was a busy month!

Hi everyone!

It's been a while since we posted, but we have had a lot going on. February was a good month for us, what with Valentine's, a trip to Ottawa with friends, and experiencing a unique cultural festival! I'll start with Valentine's Day. The Friday before, David was sweet and surprised me at work with a lovely bouquet he picked out himself. On Saturday, we went together to a little "Cabane a Sucre," one of these little cabins that pop up all over the region to sell maple-themed products. After the first thaw of the season, the maple starts flowing from the trees, and all the syrup producers start going crazy. It's the best time to get super fresh maple products, and these little cabins sell lots of it. Things like maple syrup (obviously), maple candies, maple pastries and pies and desserts, and a special dessert that roughly translates to maple taffy. It's called "Tire d'erable," and you make it by wrapping an ice cream stick around thick hot maple syrup that is spread out on a board of fresh snow. We paid $2 each at the little Cabane we visited to try it. It was a bit too sweet for us, plus it didn't seem to cool quickly enough so it was sticky and drippy, but it was fun to try! (As always, I have more pics on Picasa!)





The weekend after that, Feb. 21, we went in a rented car with Jim and Mikaela for a long weekend trip to Ottawa. This was a very winter sport-y weekend, as we took part in some type of winter activity every day! On Saturday we went to Winterlude (or Bal de Neige), and ice skated on the Rideau Canal, which runs through the entire city. We skated 9 kilometers in a couple of hours, and enjoyed seeing the various attractions we could skate up to, that were set up right on the ice.



We went early in the morning, and it was much more crowded when we left than when we started! I think skating is much easier when you don't have a thousand other people around you... Anyway, after skating we walked through Winterlude and saw some amazing ice sculptures created by professionals from around the world. Some were a little melted, but most were very impressive nonetheless.





On Sunday morning, we embarked on a 4 hour cross-country ski trip. I think I speak for David too when I say, "Ok, I tried it, now I'm done with it"... It's like jogging in that it is very athletic and mostly just feels like a lot of work, but a little worse because you can't easily look around and watch all the things you are traveling past. When we stopped on the trail there were definitely some beautiful vistas, and they made for some nice pictures at least.









Did I mention that much of the trail was pretty steep? We stopped at this point, where it started looking a lot like the pig trail (except covered in snow)...



We stopped and ate a picnic lunch, sitting on David's coat on top of the snow, and then got up shivering and made our way back! Jim swears we all made great time getting back to the car, and while he might attribute it to improved technique, I think it was more like desperation for warmth... Once we got back into the main part of the city, we headed to the Byward Market to try a Beavertail, another local snack. Imagine funnel cake dough, but fried into a flat, long oval shape. Then, while it's still hot, put butter and sugar on it, and add toppings of choice... For me, it was Nutella, and for David it was apple cinnamon. They were seriously DELICIOUS! I don't have any pictures because we ate them so quickly... Then after our snack, and since Ottawa is kind of like Canada's D.C., we headed up to Parliament to see the government buildings. We were able to see the inside of the House of Commons, the Appointed Senate, and the Library of Parliament.







On Monday we went downhill skiing at Gray Rocks, a mountain that's a couple hours north of Montreal. David loved it; I liked it better than cross country, despite taking a few hard falls. I'd like to try again sometime, though! Unfortunately my camera took a roll in the snow during one of my falls, but I managed to get this pic before that, on our first ride up the bunny hill...



All in all we really enjoyed our trip to Ottawa, and it was a nice reminder that if we rent a car there are lots of places that aren't really that far away. It was also one of those trips that was pretty exhausting, and it was kind of a relief to be back in our apartment afterward!

Last weekend, Montreal hosted it's sixth all-nighter festival, called "Nuit Blanche," or sometimes "White Night," "The High Lights Festival," or "Montreal en Lumiere"! In short, it's a winter festival that culminates on a Saturday night, when many attractions throughout the city (like art museums, galleries, cultural centers, music performances, etc.) stay open all night and offer free or very cheap admission. We went to the Old Port area, where there was a huge ferris wheel, a big crowd dancing to a good DJ, lots of food and fire in barrels and all kinds of wintry things.





It was really, really cold, so we didn't stay outside for too long before heading in to see the Science Centre. There is just something cool about being allowed in for free and staying past midnight! It was goofy but we had a fun time in there, especially with this music table that let us mix our own songs using a touch interface and lots of things we could tweak. After we chased a 7 year old away, we stayed in there for quite a while. And then we learned about pulleys and gravity...





After the Science Centre, we headed to a big square (I've forgotten the name) where a couple hundred foot long ice slide was set up, and we watched people careen down it at high speeds. We stood back and enjoyed hot cider and hot milk+maple+chocolate (both delightful), and we walked around the square peeking at art exhibitions. There were tons of things to see, but with it being so cold it was hard to wait in the long lines to see every attraction, so we finally headed back home. By the time we got back to our apartment later that morning, it was March! It's hard to believe we are already three months into the year, especially since it doesn't feel anything like spring here yet! Mostly it is still cold, cold, cold - although I've heard rumors that it will warm up above freezing in the next week. We are definitely looking forward to that!

<3 Shannon