Life Section

On our way home from Mont-Tremblant, Neil, Benissa and I stopped in Ottawa and went skating on the Rideau Canal! One fun fact is that the Rideau Canal is the world’s largest skating rink and is 7.8km long! It was a beautiful one degree outside but thankfully the canal was still open! First we went to one end of the skateway called Dow’s Lake because Neil thought there would be Winterlude festivities happening there. We found out that the Dow’s lake section was cut off from the rest of the skateway, however the lake is huge and wasn’t very busy and so we enjoyed skating that section. At one side of the lake there was a giant inflated beaver and a beaver mascot where we couldn’t help but to play tourist and take a picture! Since it was the first day of Winterlude there was nothing else happening there, so we went back to the car and drove closer to the downtown so we could skate the other, longer section of the canal. This part of the canal is awesome because you get to skate under bridges towards the downtown, where eventually you get a glimpse of the parliament buildings! The canal was alive with people and there were food stalls right on the ice! When we turned around and were on our way back to the car, we ran into Sally-Jane and John-Paul. It was funny how we met them because Neil was taking a picture and then John-Paul skated into the scene! It was such a memorable day and I’m glad I can finally say I have skated on the Rideau Canal!

At the end of January I went on a two-day ski trip to Mont-Tremblant with a group of friends from my church. One of my friends has a wonderful cottage in the village and invites a group to join her every year. I had never been to Mont-Tremblant; the last time I was in Quebec was when I went with the Explore program to Trois-Pistoles in 2007! I enjoyed every part of the trip. The conditions on the mountain were excellent, the cottage was the most gezellig place I had been in a while, and I was in great company! Here are some fond memories that I have from the trip:

• The day before I left I went to my Wednesday evening small group gathering. We had just finished talking about the importance of communal worship, and as a joke Howard asked the group who was not coming to church on Sunday. JP and I hesitantly lifted up our hands and explained we would be going skiing. When Kathy and Derek discovered I didn’t have skis, they generously lent me one of their own pairs!
• I carpooled up with Neil, Benissa and Soojeen and we had some great discussions that made the time fly by!
• It was obvious that I don’t ski often because the morning we went to the hill I forgot my poles in John-Paul’s car. My first journey down the hill was without poles as I navigated my way back down to the car! Luckily Sally-Jane and John-Paul were able to give me clear directions and there was a stand-up gondola that brought me pretty close to the car.
• For the first morning I skied on my own, but then in the afternoon I joined the group. It was great because they first convinced me to go on a black diamond that they said was more of a dark blue, then a simple black diamond, and finally I was skiing black diamonds like a pro!
• It was often foggy on the mountain. Near the top the fog freezes to the trees and makes you feel like you are in Narnia. I loved enjoying the view from the lift! Often times we took the singles line and ended up on the lift with strangers, but one time we got on all together and I decided to take a photo of the others. I found out later that I had captured my reflection in Becky’s goggles! 

• I enjoyed skiing through the fog even though visibility wasn’t great. It made me feel like I was moving faster than I actually was or like I was a character in a video game! Most of all I love skiing because it makes you feel like you are flying. I tracked my speed one time and I reached 45km/hour!
• We enjoyed three wonderful evenings at the cottage. We shared two delicious meals and played a lot of games. We played a game similar to charades but the one where for the first round you have to describe the word, the second round you act it out, and the third you pick a single word to describe it. At the end we tried an “act it out under a blanket” version that Alexa and Eric tried out, and then Neil and I tried the version where you are only allowed to make sounds. I think the under the blanket version was the funniest to watch!
• On the Sunday morning I woke up early and went for a lovely walk on my own on a trail in the woods behind the cottage. It was so peaceful and beautiful! We didn’t get much snow in Toronto this year and so it was nice to be surrounded by white!
• I carpooled home with Neil and Benissa and we stopped in Ottawa to go skating on the Rideau Canal! But that is for the next post…. :)