This summer has been all about adventures for our family.  We have not had a specific plan, but wake each day, look outside and figure out where to go and what to do.  It’s way outside of my comfort zone as a list maker and planner, but it’s been great.  The lils have really gotten into the spirit, and more often than not, our breakfast conversations start with a “where is our adventure today?” from one of them. 

There are a few things that we have planned out, things that need some arrangements made in advance.  One of these things is our trip to Montreal tomorrow.  I happened upon a great sale from VIA Rail earlier this summer, and booked tickets for the family to and explore a wee bit.  The lils have been asking for years to travel on the train, but this was the first sale that made it possible for the whole family to go.  The catch is that we haven’t told them yet that we are going by train.

Given that I am the world’s worst secret keeper, I have not spoken to the lils very much about the arrangements for this trip. It’s getting harder and harder as we get closer to departure, and today was filled with a multitude of mines that I narrowly avoided.  We can’t bring all of your pillows and blankets because it is only for one night and we are trying to bring fewer bags.  We need more room in the back of the car because we might buy some stuff! We plan on only using the metro while in the city because it is FUN (well that part is true.) They have, for the most part, accepted these reasons without question.

The one story that I thought would be the hardest sell was the really early departure, a necessary evil given the 6:00AM departure of the train.  I built it up and convinced them that leaving early gives us a really full day in Montreal, that it would be loads of fun, that we would beat the traffic… and they bought it.  All was well until I looked at our tickets and saw that the train for this trip leaves at 9:30; it’s our next trip that leaves at the crack of dawn.  I tried to backpedal and come up with reasons why we were now leaving at a civilized time, but Woo wanted to hear nothing of it.  I can’t spoil the surprise, so I cross my fingers and hope that he sleeps in just a bit.  Of course when I last checked in on him, he was trying to set the alarm in his room for 4:30.  I hope that early bird makes the coffee.

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Today was one of those days where we had a million things on the go.  Most of them were fun things, but there were a few chores sprinkled in; not major tasks, but I had the lils with me, so I knew that their willingness to cooperate would shape how the day went.  We started off early, when they were fed and happy, thinking that it was best to be fast and then have fun at leisure.

This was how we found ourselves standing in the parking lot outside the liquor store at 9:55 this am. Thankfully we weren’t the first ones in line, but I did feel a little bit awkward, especially since this was the second time that we found ourselves in this position this month! The staff opened the doors, and I stepped aside to let the man who had been waiting in. He was first in line after all. I headed directly to the wine, as I knew exactly the bottle that I wanted, a favourite white for a friend who was doing me a favour today.  While I was grabbing it, I noticed that a female customer had arrived and was talking animatedly to an employee at the beer cooler.

We ended up walking the main aisle together, and the woman noticed the lils.  “Oh children, I love you!” she said, which caused me to walk a little faster and chant “please don’t let he pick my line, please don’t pick my line” in my head. She hesitated behind us, but veered toward the entrance instead.  I sighed in relief, and watched as one of the employees called to her and offered to take her purchase. Oddly, she kept on walking, right out the door, saying “I told you that I wasn’t going to pay for this, and with God as my witness, I am not!”

The staff, few customers and I were all dumbfounded.  We all stood looking out the window watching her walk away with her stolen six-pack on her hip. We’d look at each in disbelief, then turn to the window to see her get farther away.  All of us; four staff, the gentleman who’d entered with me, even the lils and I couldn’t believe what we’d seen.  Woo and Goose were shocked, asking again and again why she had stolen.  Many thoughts raced through my mind, and for the briefest second, I was tempted to grab my wine off the counter, say “with God as my witness!”, and walk to the door just to see what would happen…

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I took the lils to the locks this morning to see if we could catch some boats going up or down the last series of locks where the canal meets the Ottawa River.  The entire process through these seven or eight locks takes a little over an hour, and there is lots to see and do around the canal if they get bored waiting during some of the slow parts of the process. It’s the perfect FREE entertainment for a sunny summer morning. We arrived a few minutes before our friends, so we waited at the top of the locks.  A group of ducks had arrived shortly after we did so they kept us entertained.  The water level in the canal was even with the water in the first lock, so they were able to walk across the lock and swim around in the water that was trapped in the lock.

After a while they decided to see what was happening in the next lock, so they swam to the edge and, because the water level is lower in each adjacent lock, flew down to continue their swim. The lils thought this was neat, and started to chase, but our friends arrived so we left the ducks behind, and moved down to the river, where boats were starting to come up the locks.

We followed five boats for the better part of an hour, and happily met up with our duck friends as we neared the top.  Three of them were swimming in a lower lock, and one was on the edge above, set to fly down.  When they had seen this earlier, the lils had been greatly amused by the fact that the ducks flew into the lower locks, so I called their attention to this duck. We all looked to see her fly into the lock, but she didn’t fly.  She jumped, as if she was doing a cannonball.  Sadly, this lock had a ledge at the bottom, a ledge that was all shiny and wet and likely looked like it was deep water, but in reality, that water was a centimetre deep at most.

note the ledge of death at the bottom

This duck had just done a cannonball from twelve feet up and landed with a thud. I had encouraged my children to watch it, and now the duck had fallen onto her side and was twitching. We all watched horrified, thinking that she was going to die, and knowing that there was nothing we could do about it.  Woo was standing right in front of her, so I tried to get him to look away and come closer to me but he kept watching in shock.  I walked towards him as I mentally calculated the therapy bills. It’s not every day that your mom invites you to watch a cute little duck leap to its death, right? As I got closer, I looked down to check on her.  She was quiet and not really moving.  I felt terrible.

All of a sudden there was a flurry of activity as one of her friends hopped up and started quacking at her and pushing her around.  This seemed to wake her from her stupor, but they still couldn’t right her.  I thought about how lucky she was to have a friend come to try and save her, and what a comfort it must have been. Then the friend­-duck started to push her toward the edge of the platform, to the deep water. We all  kept watching, but feared that this was more likely to drown her and put her out of her misery than anything else.  She went over, and amazingly managed to flip over.  She swam away from the lock (in a straight line no less), gave everything a good shake, and was fine.  I am quite amazed at how she survived that fall and recovered so quickly.

The lils and I have two lessons from the day. Never, ever jump into a body of water without first checking what is under the water; you don’t know what lurks beneath, or just how shallow that water is.  Keep your good friends close to you, as you may need them to slap you around and push you over the edge to save your life!

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