White Water Rafting

During our stay in Piedmont, my friend Anne organized a white water rafting trip with a bunch of people from work and ourselves. Anne, Yves, Kathryn and myself should all be recognizable to you after the intro to everyone, and the two fellows sitting behind Kathryn and I were Paul (left) and Ben (right) who are also Winnipeggers by origin who also happened to be out where the work was. The other people in the boat were a pair of sisters we had never met before and our guide who was very nice and got us all through intact.
The rapids we went over were Class 3 and 4 out of a potential 6 classes, so they were choppy without being dangerous. At one point we hit one funny and everyone on the left side of the boat went over the edge while everyone on the right was tossed across into their recently vacated seats. Even hurtling into churning waters unexpectedly, Kathryn is having the time of her life. The rafting company is very prepared with people throwing lines to anyone that falls in and rounding up gear so theres no danger in a tumble.
You likely all noticed that those pictures were clearly taken from shore by a photographer as both of us are in them, but I did also have my pocket waterproof camera with me just for fun and got a few pictures of people in the water at the end of things along with a little video.
The water was actually quite nice and warm once you were in it, but it was a slightly overcast and chilly day, so we were certainly glad we took Annes advice and rented half wetsuits from the company. So to anyone out there thinking of giving this nonsense a shot I would strongly recommend doing the same to stay a little warmer and enjoy yourself more .

Eastern Buddies

We had time to visit a great group of people out east this summer. Anne and Yves were co-workers of mine in Winnipeg back in the Frantic Films days and they lived just up the highway from us in Piedmont. It was Anne that hooked me up with my gig out there and it was great fun seeing them both. They also have awesome cats. Swarms of awesome cats.
Natasha and Jason were kind enough to put a roof over our head in Ottawa. Jason is another ex-Frantic employee and he's been doing quite well at a game/database design company out there. They were real troopers about showing us around town and helping us get oriented for all our museum/landmark/transit needs, going above and beyond the call for putting up with people on Canada Day.
Carrie and Eugene are living in Montreal now but were also down for Canada Day with us. Eugene continued the theme of ex-Frantic employees on the trip and he's now cranking out excellent 3d models for Ubisoft.
Alex, Beatrice and Susan broke the ex-Frantic Films connection for the trip. Alex is an old friend who once ran the gaming group that Kathryn and I originally met through so he's certainly a big part of our history. Having a baby, we didn't get as much of his and Susan's time as some of our other friends, but we fit in time for a really nice visit and breakfast.All in all it was awesome to catch up with old friends and see them all doing so well in their own walks of life out east.

The Royal War Goat

Quick Quiz: Which country in the world has a Royal War Goat that lives in a castle?
Before heading out to Quebec City I would have likely said Bulgaria or Kazakhstan or some weird far flung country other than my own. I would have been grievously wrong.
The Citadel in Quebec City has an elaborate changing of the guard ceremony every day in the summer involving dozens of highly trained military men marching up and down the square to a brass band. And a goat. The goats name is Batisse and it is apparently the offspring of the original royal goat given to the 22nd Regiment as a mascot by the Queen. Because when you have everything in the world you go a bit weird and start handing out ungulates to the territories.
The changing of the guard ceremony itself is pretty full-on with lots of marching and checking weapons. The guard group that has been defending the citadel is inspected and then the group replacing them are examined equally thoroughly. All under the scrutiny of the goat.

Piedmont/Saint Sauveur

The majority of our trip out east was spent in the two neighboring towns of Piedmont and Saint Sauveur which flow together closely enough that you can walk between them. Of the two, Saint Sauveur is larger with an off-season population of 10000 or so while Piedmont has around 2000 year round inhabitants. Below is a picture of the restaurant district of Saint Sauveur.
The Catholic church had a strong influence in Quebec for a long time and though its popularity is waining these days it still has a large presence and nearly every tiny town boasts an enormous church of some sort. The picture below shows the main church of Saint Sauveur which you can see poking out of the top of the picture above as well.
Rounding out this entry, this is the little condo that the company put us up in. Our room was at the very right end in the middle and the lower left of the picture shows our blue rental car. This was house and home to us for a month or so and made for a very nice getaway spot.
We were there in the off season as these condos are typically rented out for skiers in the winter so we didn't find occassion to use the fireplace inside.

Blue Bloods

It wasn't a huge part of our plans, but yes, we did see the Royals while they were in town for Canada Day, so I'll share that bit of the trip right away for those of you that are into that sort of thing. The crowd on parliament hill is typically 100,000 to 150,000 on Canada Day but with those two in town it was estimated to be well over 300,000. Luckily we were persistent and able to worm our way quite close to the stage. Their seats were by the pillar on the right of the shot below.
They were also lucky to have a bit of shade, so while the rest of us sweated in the sun they were under a dias, though they did have to wear suits and be gawked at by thousands of people. This picture (from left to right) shows the Minister of Culture, the Governor General and his wife, the royal couple, and Mr & Mrs Darth Harper.
After all the concerts and speeches, everyone came out to gladhand each other for the media and we were able to get a few slightly better pictures.
I think William could sense that there was a lovelier Kathryn in the crowd and passed along a congratulatory wave to me as he came to terms with coming in second place in at least one thing in life ;)

Busy Spring

As anyone who has tried to check this blog in the last 5 weeks or so has been well aware, Kathryn and I have had a very busy spring with very few updates. The day after I finished OT work on my last Vancouver film project, my parents arrived in town and we all went up to the Sunshine Coast of BC which is accessibly only by ferry. We had a very pleasant week up there relaxing by the sea and taking walks in the forest.
A few days later we flew to Saint Sauveur which is a small town in the Laurentians where I had a short term work contract. While the money was a bonus, the real reason to take the job was to have a chance to explore Quebec and catch up with some friends. We lived in the countryside for about a month with the occassional day trip to Montreal and then spent a week going up the coast to Quebec City and Tadoussac afterwards.
Finally, since Canada Day is one of our favorite holidays and we have wanted to spend it in Ottawa for some time, we tacked on a quick visit out there to see some friends and take in the festivities. The royal newlyweds were in town as well which didn't really interest us, but certainly ratcheted up the crowds and craziness to make for a very memorable trip.
There will be lots more pictures and rambling about all three of these destinations in the coming months, but this at least offers a quick explanation for our overlong absence and gives you all an idea of what we have to share in the coming weeks.