Minor tweaks to latest Canada posts

canada-2017/_posts/2017-04-09-bouncing-atlantic.md

@@ -31,6 +31,10 @@ enough this didn't seem to bother him, he just grabbed someone else and carried
 on!
 {% flickr_image 33846533781 alignright %}
-It was really nice, if a little hectic, to see my cousins again, and their families and to meet Rick's kids and their families too. Just a bit of a shame Rob, Chelsea and their tribe couldn't make it. Hopefully we'll get to catch up with them before we move on to the Toronto leg of our holiday on Saturday. 
-Time for bed now and maybe I'll get this posted before the end of the week :smiley:
+It was really nice, if a little hectic, to see my cousins again, and their
+families and to meet Rick's kids and their families too. Just a bit of a shame
+Rob, Chelsea and their tribe couldn't make it. Hopefully we'll get to catch up
+with them before we move on to the Toronto leg of our holiday on Saturday. 
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+Time for bed now and maybe I'll get this posted before the end of the week
+:smiley:
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canada-2017/_posts/2017-04-12-lazy.md

@@ -8,18 +8,50 @@ locations:
   - Ottawa
 ---
-Yesterday, for a number of reasons, we had a proper lazy day. We stayed at Jacqui and Rick's house all day and didn't really do a lot of anything other than play Lego, watch films and drink tea/coffee :smiley:. It was brilliant! I think George and I really needed the break. So today we had to get out and do something. We arranged with Becky to take a trip to Merrickville to see a different kind of quaint local town, so she arrived at 10 to pick us up.
+Yesterday, for a number of reasons, we had a proper lazy day. We stayed at
+Jacqui and Rick's house all day and didn't really do a lot of anything other
+than play Lego, watch films and drink tea/coffee :smiley:. It was brilliant! I
+think George and I really needed the break. So today we had to get out and do
+something. We arranged with Becky to take a trip to Merrickville to see a
+different kind of quaint local town, so she arrived at 10 to pick us up.
 {% flickr_image 33288144144 alignright %}
-First stop was a Tim Horton's drive through, and Rosie had only been commenting a few hours earlier that we hadn't done that yet! I can't get over how cheap it is, we had 2 coffees and a tea and it was only just over $5, and it was reasonable coffee, amazing! We then made our way out to Merrickville. The first thing that struck us was the amount of open space everywhere. Given it's only just turning to spring, there isn't much green around, but I imagine that once the land recovers from the snow it must be beautiful. The whole area is incredibly flat so we could see for miles in every direction and mainly all we could see was trees and grassland, with the occasional house thrown in for good measure. And the houses were massive by our standards (_actually many of them were massive by Canadian standards too_), it was definitely great to see the countryside :smiley:.
+First stop was a Tim Horton's drive through, and Rosie had only been commenting
+a few hours earlier that we hadn't done that yet! I can't get over how cheap it
+is, we had 2 coffees and a tea and it was only just over $5, and it was
+reasonable coffee, amazing! We then made our way out to Merrickville. The first
+thing that struck us was the amount of open space everywhere. Given it's only
+just turning to spring, there isn't much green around, but I imagine that once
+the land recovers from the snow it must be beautiful. The whole area is
+incredibly flat so we could see for miles in every direction and mainly all we
+could see was trees and grassland, with the occasional house thrown in for good
+measure. And the houses were massive by our standards (_actually many of them
+were massive by Canadian standards too_), it was definitely great to see the
+countryside :smiley:.
 {% flickr_image 33884201082 %}
-Merrickville is a tiny little town somewhere relatively close to Carleton Place. It is basically a single street with not a lot going on. However, it is a nice little town to visit for us foreigners. On arrival in the town we crossed a raging torrent of a river that was incredibly impressive, and then a few minutes later, my cousin Jon (Becky's brother) passed us in his work truck, how's that for an amazing coincidence! He stopped by to say hello, and somehow scared George because he didn't recognise the coat! Strange child! We continued our stroll through the town and watched some glass blowing before deciding it was time for lunch. 
+Merrickville is a tiny little town somewhere relatively close to Carleton Place.
+It is basically a single street with not a lot going on. However, it is a nice
+little town to visit for us foreigners. On arrival in the town we crossed a
+raging torrent of a river that was incredibly impressive, and then a few minutes
+later, my cousin Jon (Becky's brother) passed us in his work truck, how's that
+for an amazing coincidence! He stopped by to say hello, and somehow scared
+George because he didn't recognise the coat! Strange child! We continued our
+stroll through the town and watched some glass blowing before deciding it was
+time for lunch. 
 {% flickr_image 33884203732 alignright %}
-This was a more difficult decision that we had anticipated. There was a chip truck in the town, and Rosie wasn't sure about 'cheating' on Rick at another chip truck. Then we weren't sure about having poutine for the first time from someone other than Rick. In the end, Rosie had a pulled pork poutine and I had a chilli dog so that we could have 'proper' poutine for the first time from Rick :smiley:.
-On the way back we drove through some more quaint little towns and over some surprisingly narrow and rickety bridges for the more 'authentic' Canadian experience. We then lazed around for the rest of the day, playing Lego, Go Jetters and other random games made up by George.
+This was a more difficult decision that we had anticipated. There was a chip
+truck in the town, and Rosie wasn't sure about 'cheating' on Rick at another
+chip truck. Then we weren't sure about having poutine for the first time from
+someone other than Rick. In the end, Rosie had a pulled pork poutine and I had a
+chilli dog so that we could have 'proper' poutine for the first time from Rick
+:smiley:.
+On the way back we drove through some more quaint little towns and over some
+surprisingly narrow and rickety bridges for the more 'authentic' Canadian
+experience. We then lazed around for the rest of the day, playing Lego, Go
+Jetters and other random games made up by George.
 Tomorrow we are heading into Ottawa, which should be a great day :smiley:

canada-2017/_posts/2017-04-13-ottawa.md

@@ -9,24 +9,73 @@ locations:
 ---
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-Another day begins bright and early thanks to our insistent, ever reliable alarm clock, George. As normal we were up to see Jacqui off to work, but this morning was a little different. Not only was George happy walking past the Wiener's, he actually petted them :hushed:! He then told us that their ears were "as soft as socks", much to everyone's amusement :joy:. So it seems that George can get used to most dogs given enough time.
+Another day begins bright and early thanks to our insistent, ever reliable alarm
+clock, George. As normal we were up to see Jacqui off to work, but this morning
+was a little different. Not only was George happy walking past the Wiener's, he
+actually petted them :hushed:! He then told us that their ears were "as soft as
+socks", much to everyone's amusement :joy:. So it seems that George can get used
+to most dogs given enough time.
 {% flickr_image 34090192016 %}
-The plan for today was to drive into Ottawa with Rick just after rush hour to see what there is to see. When we got there we had the usual issue you have in any city, finding somewhere to park! After about 20 minutes we parked in the Natural History Museum car park which made the decision of where to go first really simple. Given we wanted to see as much of what Ottawa had to offer in one day, we didn't have long so George was given the map and we were off to see the dinosaurs! We zoomed around them before discovering that what he was actually looking for was the weird jellyfish like thing that was hanging in the giant glass box above the entrance :flushed:. Nevermind, that at least brought us to a brilliant exhibit about the geology of the earth. It's not something I would normally seek out, but it was fascinating and really well done for kids so George loved it. If it hadn't been for our time constraints, I think George would have stayed there all day!
+The plan for today was to drive into Ottawa with Rick just after rush hour to
+see what there is to see. When we got there we had the usual issue you have in
+any city, finding somewhere to park! After about 20 minutes we parked in the
+Natural History Museum car park which made the decision of where to go first
+really simple. Given we wanted to see as much of what Ottawa had to offer in one
+day, we didn't have long so George was given the map and we were off to see the
+dinosaurs! We zoomed around them before discovering that what he was actually
+looking for was the weird jellyfish like thing that was hanging in the giant
+glass box above the entrance :flushed:. Nevermind, that at least brought us to a
+brilliant exhibit about the geology of the earth. It's not something I would
+normally seek out, but it was fascinating and really well done for kids so
+George loved it. If it hadn't been for our time constraints, I think George
+would have stayed there all day!
 {% flickr_image 34008972726 alignright %}
-Our next experience was a local diner for lunch. Now I've seen them on TV where the waiter/waitress refills your coffee cup before it's empty, but I never realised that was actually how things work over here! I was mildly disappointed with the size of the cup having asked for a large, but then it was filled up repeatedly without us having to ask and it was only $2! It was amazing! This is a lesson we really need to learn back home!!!
-With our bellies filled, we continued on to our planned first stop of the day, the ticket place for access to the Peace Tower in the Canadian Parliament building. It seems that today was not to be our day. Apparently all the tickets had been given out within an hour of the place opening, so about 30 minutes before we even arrived in Ottawa! Ah well, maybe next time. We instead spent the afternoon seeing the sites, like the Parliament building, the Rideau Canal, the bizarre mixture of architecture that wouldn't be allowed in the UK (_there doesn't seem to be any draconian planning rules in force here_) and we even managed to have a mini snowball fight, it was ace! 
+Our next experience was a local diner for lunch. Now I've seen them on TV where
+the waiter/waitress refills your coffee cup before it's empty, but I never
+realised that was actually how things work over here! I was mildly disappointed
+with the size of the cup having asked for a large, but then it was filled up
+repeatedly without us having to ask and it was only $2! It was amazing! This is
+a lesson we really need to learn back home!!!
+With our bellies filled, we continued on to our planned first stop of the day,
+the ticket place for access to the Peace Tower in the Canadian Parliament
+building. It seems that today was not to be our day. Apparently all the tickets
+had been given out within an hour of the place opening, so about 30 minutes
+before we even arrived in Ottawa! Ah well, maybe next time. We instead spent the
+afternoon seeing the sites, like the Parliament building, the Rideau Canal, the
+bizarre mixture of architecture that wouldn't be allowed in the UK (_there
+doesn't seem to be any draconian planning rules in force here_) and we even
+managed to have a mini snowball fight, it was ace! 
 {% flickr_image 33206972514 %}
-During our wanderings we were introduced to the most amazing sweet snack ever, Beaver Tails. They are simply a dough flattened out to the shape of a beaver tail and deep fried with a topping added. There were loads of options, but they were mainly sweet toppings and Rick recommended the maple butter. It was incredible and I cannot recommend them highly enough, you just have to try them! I admit that the volume of sugar consumed in such a short period of time can be a little overwhelming, but its nothing a strong cup of coffee won't fix :wink:.
+During our wanderings we were introduced to the most amazing sweet snack ever,
+Beaver Tails. They are simply a dough flattened out to the shape of a beaver
+tail and deep fried with a topping added. There were loads of options, but they
+were mainly sweet toppings and Rick recommended the maple butter. It was
+incredible and I cannot recommend them highly enough, you just have to try them!
+I admit that the volume of sugar consumed in such a short period of time can be
+a little overwhelming, but its nothing a strong cup of coffee won't fix :wink:.
 {% flickr_image 33206968534 alignright %}
-We picked Jacqui up from work which was possibly the bit George was excited about most of all. She works on the 15/16th floor of her building so she invited us up to the 16th floor to get a view most tourists don't get. We looked out over the city at the Peace Tower so it turns out it wasn't such a bad thing that we missed out earlier :smiley:. The plan then was to take Jacqui and Rick out for dinner, but given Rosie and I don't know the area, we said they should choose. Again, things didn't work out how we would have liked. The restaurant couldn't seat us for another 3 hours and George was snoring away in the back seat so we instead made the decision to have Chinese takeaway and go home.
-George must have been exhausted because he didn't wake when we got the Chinese, he didn't wake when we got him out of the car, and he didn't wake when we tried to wake him for food. Instead, we put him straight to bed and had a quiet evening meal just the four of us.
-Tomorrow is possibly going to be the best day of the first half of our holiday because we are going to the maple syrup place. I'm not sure who is most excited about it, but I have a funny feeling it may actually be me :blush:.
+We picked Jacqui up from work which was possibly the bit George was excited
+about most of all. She works on the 15/16th floor of her building so she invited
+us up to the 16th floor to get a view most tourists don't get. We looked out
+over the city at the Peace Tower so it turns out it wasn't such a bad thing that
+we missed out earlier :smiley:. The plan then was to take Jacqui and Rick out
+for dinner, but given Rosie and I don't know the area, we said they should
+choose. Again, things didn't work out how we would have liked. The restaurant
+couldn't seat us for another 3 hours and George was snoring away in the back
+seat so we instead made the decision to have Chinese takeaway and go home.
+George must have been exhausted because he didn't wake when we got the Chinese,
+he didn't wake when we got him out of the car, and he didn't wake when we tried
+to wake him for food. Instead, we put him straight to bed and had a quiet
+evening meal just the four of us.
+Tomorrow is possibly going to be the best day of the first half of our holiday
+because we are going to the maple syrup place. I'm not sure who is most excited
+about it, but I have a funny feeling it may actually be me :blush:.
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