We are the Gummi Bears!

"Dashing and daring,
Courageous and caring,
Faithful and friendly,
With stories to share.
All through the forest,
They sing out in chorus,
Marching along,
As their song fills the air.

Gummi Bears!!
Bouncing here and there and everywhere.
High adventure that's beyond compare.
They are the Gummi Bears."

June has been a month of adventure and fun, with trips all over the Eastern Canada region. We've been to Quebec City (just my family), Niagara Falls, Mont Tremblant, and right now Tim & Char are in NYC. Next weekend is the F1, and we'll be going to the Tam Tams as well.

This past weekend, Tim, Char & I drove up to Mont Tremblant for a short camping trip. On Friday night, as we talked of their upcoming trip to NYC, I had this idea that we should all go camping for a night. So we made the reservation, packed up some camping supplies, picked up some food along the way, and rented a car. We left on Saturday afternoon and arrived at Mont Tremblant shortly after 6pm. It was hot and humid at the campsite, also known as Le Diable, and full of bugs.

You have to purchase wood for fires, so we bought a bag of wood thinking this would be sufficient (not really thinking that a bag with only eight or nine pieces would clearly not hold a fire through the night). We tried desperately to start a fire and keep it going, using paper, twigs and small brush, but it was a long time in coming. When we finally got it started, with the help of constant fanning, we realized how little wood we actually had. So Char and I drove back up to the supplies shop and bought another bag of wood and a firestarter block (basically highly compressed and very dense wood chips). When we got back to the campsite, Tim still had the fire going so we added the firestarter and some more wood and voila! a proper fire was born!

We set up the tent, unpacked our supplies and began cooking hot dogs over the fire. After the hot dogs, we opened up the bag of marshmallows and started on those too. It wasn't long until we were so full we couldn't do much but sit and hope the bugs didn't bite too much. Slowly, the sky dimmed and soon we were plunged into absolute darkness. I plugged in my iPod, opened the car window and set us up with some music (Savage Garden since we all knew the lyrics to all the songs). We sat on the hood of the car and looked up at the stars, which were in full view without the distracting lights of a city. The Big Dipper hung directly above us, and as it moved across the sky, we could see other constellations as well.

Fortunately, the washrooms were just a few meters away from our campsite (but still far enough to be sure), so we washed up and climbed into the tent. It was a tight fit between the inflated queen-sized mattress and my little single air mattress, but we made it work. It soon became very clear that it was too hot for the blankets we had brought along, but we made do.

Sometime after we'd gone to bed, Char noticed some flickering lights on the tent walls. I poked my head out of the door and found that not only was the fire not out, but it had re-ignited on its own! A log, which we were pretty sure had been put out, had somehow found enough energy to start burning again. So stomped around in the fire pit, poured some water on the ashes, and then went back to bed. It was such a strange situation that we didn't really know what to think...

Anyways, in the morning we woke up to discover that our tent had been besieged by mosquitoes as they all sat on the outside walls of our tent waiting for us to emerge. Once we did, we were immediately attacked by hordes of them and spent breakfast swatting at our hair. We packed quickly and hopped into the relative safety of the car to escape the buzzing masses.

A short drive North from our campsite was Les Chutes du Diable. I parked the car and we hiked 800m to the falls which were cool but also kind of gross. The water, for some reason or another, was brownish in colour and when it passed over the falls looked a lot like urine. We also stopped at the beach near the lake where we were staying so Char could take some photos.

As soon as we were done taking photos and had had enough of the great Canadian outdoors, we drove back into Montreal, unloaded the car, and returned it to Avis. The walk back to our respective homes was grueling as the temperature had soared to as high as 32C (39C with humidity)! But eventually we made it, had some long clean cold showers, and resumed our city lives.

And that is the story of our camping trip to Mont Tremblant. More to come after the F1...

Road Trip to Niagara Falls

Get an idea. Make a plan. Organize. Execute.


That's how we did our trip to Niagara Falls. One day we figured we should go, and a week and half later we did. We did the research, we planned it out, and then we went and did it. It's amazing how difficult putting together a trip can seem, but in actuality it's very easy to do. You just need to have the right frame of mind to do it.

Tim, Char and I left for Niagara Falls on Thursday afternoon after my class. I did the driving since I'm the only one with a legal driving license. We made a few stops along the way to rest and stretch our legs, picking up coffee and snacks at several service stops. Around 10pm, we rolled through Toronto, which I hope I never have to do at night ever again on account of the massive highways with over 6 lanes of traffic!! There was a near-miss as we did a lane-change at almost the same time as someone else, but I managed to evade enough to keep us safe.


A short while later we pulled into Niagara Falls proper. Wasn't much to see until we got onto Clifton Hill, the big flashy street that leads to the Falls. It's like Vegas, but worse (and I've never even been to Las Vegas!). There's an MGM studio attraction/ride, a Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum and ride, a Lego attraction, mini-golf, several arcades, plenty of fast-food joints, and a huge ferris wheel. After we checked into our room (which had a teeny-tiny view of the Falls), and put our stuff down, we took a short stroll down Clifton Hill to the promenade that runs along the Falls. The sheer power of the water cascading over the rock face was overpowering.

Following a late start on Friday morning, we prepared for a day of walking and being tourists. We checked the weather, had a look out the window (it was cloudy, but with sunlight breaking through here and there) and then headed out the door. Disappointment sank in as we watched helplessly from the hotel as rain turned the parking lot into a lake of its own. The rain was coming down so fast and hard that we would have been soaked just running over to the car to get the umbrellas! So we walked back to the room completely disappointed that our little vacation was ruined by so much rain.


Half an hour later, the rain lightened up enough for us to walk around and we began taking photos of everything. I have some choice photos posted on my Flickr page (search People and my alias, DMChewie) for y'all to see. Eventually the sun came out and made all the rain seem like a bad dream. After filling our memory cards to near capacity, we purchased tickets for the Maid of the Mist and boarded the boat. Adorned in our hideous blue parkas, we marveled at the power and force of Nature that is the Niagara Falls. From the bottom of the river, both sets of falls are amazing! Even the American Falls were impressive to witness. As we approached the interior of the Horseshoe Falls, the wind from the water pouring over the ledge whipped our parkas around with such ferocity that it's a wonder we all managed to keep them on.

Once we were safely back on land, we did a little more walking around and tried some of the more eccentric treats. Char bought some Mini-Melts, which are basically small balls of ice cream. Tim bought a Bear's Paw, which is like a Beaver's Tail but worse. And I got a cup of frozen yogurt from Yogen Fruz. A quick shower, and some time in front of the TV later, we headed over to TGI Friday's for dinner. Most meals were reasonably expensive until you had a look at the steak menu. Steaks were priced at around $35 a piece, so we settled on fish & chips.


Soon thereafter, we headed down the Tram to the promenade to catch the fireworks show over the Falls. We managed to get some more pictures of the lights on the water (which is hard to do because exposure time must be significantly increased), and then the show started. After the fireworks, we sauntered back over to Clifton Hill and entered one of the arcades. We watched a pair of guys (very un-stereotypical guys, ie: white, non-geeky types) do some cool routines on Dance Dance Revolution and then bought tickets to play some mini-golf since Char had never played before. Final score was 57 for Char (pretty good for a first time), 52 for Tim, and 51 for me (yay). Then it was back to the hotel room for some snacks and bedtime.


Saturday morning we packed up our stuff and drove over to Niagara-On-The-Lake, with a stop at the Niagara Whirlpool and Aero Car. The Niagara Whirlpool is a giant eddy on the Niagara river over which the Aero Car is suspended (just a cable car that travels over the whirlpool in the center). Along the road were vineyards and orchards aplenty. At Niagara-On-The-Lake, we parked and walked over to the lakeside (past a pair of guys arguing like there was no tomorrow).


Caught some photos of the lake and the smashing waves, then walked back up to the main road. We stopped in an Ice-Wine store where Tim & Char tried some of their finer ice wines. The main road is very quaint, with storefronts that look like older buildings.


And then we were back on the road again, this time with the sun shining and the heat melting the car. We drove through Toronto again (this time without incident) and then continued along our way. Driving in the middle of the afternoon is hard, and even harder when it's hot so Tim did his best to keep the conversation moving and to stay awake. As we approached the Ontario-Quebec border, rain clouds covered up the sky and the rain began. Light at first, and then upon entering Montreal, they became torrential. I feared for our lives since the windshield wipers couldn't wipe fast enough and I couldn't see a damned thing (most of the lane line-markings are faded to the point of invisibility). Splashing through puddles (small lakes on the road, actually) we arrived in downtown where traffic was lighter and I was able to guide our car over to Chinatown for a light dinner at Keung Kee.

This morning we did a fast trip to Ikea before returning the car to Avis, and then returning to our normal pedestrian lives. All-in-all, an excellent trip with minimal costs (average per person was $189 before all extraneous meals, so that includes hotel car and gas), and no accidents.

We picked up some souvenirs, a handful of photos, and some wicked memories to boot. Thanks to Tim and Char for being such great travel buddies, I only wish we had more time (and money) to do another trip...

Quick Update

Just a little update for now since I'm not really in writing kind of mood. Got back from Niagara Falls last night, and have uploaded a series of images on Flickr. Next step will be to finish putting some videos on YouTube. You can search both sites for my alias, DMChewie, to see the results.

Not much else to say right now. Got a mid-term on Thursday and plenty of readings to do this week so gonna be pretty busy doing those. I'll do a more in-depth entry on our trip either later tonight or tomorrow.

Cheers.