It's pancake day!! Well, it's the day we're going to have pancakes at the maple farm anyway :smiley:. [Wheelers Pancake House, Sugar Camp & Museums][wm] was a bit of a drive from the house so we got the opportunity to admire the countryside and the houses again. It's still incredible to me how much open space there is and how big the houses are. There were some beautiful places on the way so there was no danger of being bored on the drive :smiley:.
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On the approach, we got our first glimpse of the system used to extract the sap from the maple trees ready for converting to maple syrup. The network of pipes leading back to the 'sugar camp’ was definitely something to behold. It seems we picked a great day to visit. When we arrived, we were told it was the last day of production for the year. Apparently, the sap from the trees makes the best maple syrup when the temperature is above 5°C during the day and below -5°C overnight so they’re just boiling up the last of the sap since the weather turned.
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As we got out of the car, the sweet smell of maple syrup hit us. It was fantastic! Thankfully, our first stop was breakfast :smiley:. The choice for breakfast was surprisingly large given it's a pancake house. There were various combinations of pancakes, french toast and maple sausages (_yes, I said maple sausages and they are amazing!!_). Ok so that isn't really a huge choice, but there were lots of different combinations :wink:. The pancakes were enormous and they brought us 2 big bottles of maple syrup between the 8 of us. There was a stupid amount of sugar in the breakfast, but it was nicely tempered with a constant flow of black coffee :smiley:.
Given that it was Easter weekend, the Sugar Camp were hosting an Easter Egg hunt around the maple trees. I'm not entirely sure who was more excited about it, George, Jacqui or Becky (_George being the only child of the three_). Walking through the camp was quite peaceful. We came across some kind of a snake, that unfortunately scared George a little, but I think we managed to find all the Easter Eggs :smiley:.
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To make the day complete, Rick decided it was time to introduce us to proper poutine (_the national dish of Canada_). We had some at the chip truck in Merrickville, but he was adamant that we hadn't had proper poutine. Given he runs an extremely popular chip truck in town (_[The Potato King][pk]_) for 6/7 months of the year, I figure he knows what he's talking about :wink:. We were not disappointed! The blend of curds and mozzarella with the homemade gravy made for a significantly better poutine that was a real taste explosion! If you are ever in Carleton Place, then I highly recommend you visit [The Potato King][pk].
It was a nice, relaxing way to finish off the first part of our trip to Canada.
