March is meant to be an awful month since the warm weather starts to come in, which means the snow melts and the rain starts. Everthing is dirty and mushy. So far we haven’t really noticed this, the rain did come and wash away all the snow but then we had a real cold snap. We try to get out for a walk each Sunday, even though it is below zero. As you can see, the snow is all but gone now, but the water in the park froze. Liam practised his skating on the playground. He ran, pushed and slid, now he just has to do it with skates instead.
Rosie has wanted to go into Mississauga and Toronto and we managed both this week. Bruce needed to enrol in OHIP, which we did Monday night before going for dinner at Square One. On Saturday, we drove to the Kipling Subway Station and parked for free. We then bought a family all day ticket for $9, which is the best value we have seen anywhere. This allowed to catch the subway into Toronto where we visited the Bata Shoe Museum. This was very interesting strangely enough and Liam enjoyed himself.
After the Shoe Museum we caught the subway to the Royal Ontario Museum so see the dinosaur exhibition. Again Liam thoroughly enjoyed this and made sure that we visited every exhibition. The number of hands on activities for children was excellent which broke up the day between viewing and playing. We were there for 3 hours which meant that we didn’t get to do the rest of our agenda. The day was very pleasant and we will get back to Toronto over the next few weeks to see the other attractions that Rosie planned.
Liam went skating at the ice rink just before the March break and had a wonderful time, he had so much success that he now wants to go skating with his Dad. Strangely Dad’s advice about pushing and sliding actually worked.
March break went from 13th – 22nd and we decided to go skiing. Initially we planned on Mont Tremblant in Quebec (Natasha Richardson, actress, had her skiing accident there on the Monday and died), but were too late to book so decided on Killington in Vermont instead. We left Friday night, staying in Kingston, before going on to Montreal.
It was so funny when we crossed the border between the provinces, the road deteriated noticeably and suddenly everything was in French, making Rosie’s navigating very difficult. We got to Montreal around lunchtime so we were able to spend the afternoon looking around Old Montreal. As can be seen in the photos of the harbour, it was still very cold but the cobblestone roads and quaint buildings made this a very enjoyable place to stroll around.
Notre Dame Cathedral was very impressive and the horse and carriege rides gave the place a very cosmopolitan feel to it. We could have done so much more, but Liam is a bit young to appreciate this so we had to curtail our look around after 3 hours.
On Sunday we drove down to Vermont. In typical French fashion, the road condition detiorated and signage disappeared as we approached the border. It took just a couple of minutes to cross the border into the USA and then we started to drive through some of the most beautiful scenery we had seen so far.
The mountains of Vermont were very impressive and the views down into the valleys and the lakes and rivers were just amazing. We stopped on entering Vermont at a traditional little cafe full of locals and had a great breakfast with a lot of activity around us, all local people going about their usual Sunday morning routine.
After a pleasant few hours driving through the mountains we arrived in Killington only to find our accommodation unavailable until 5:30pm (we did know this but hoped they would be earlier). Liam was a bit traumatic as we tried to fill in time but when we got into our condo it was well worth it. The one-bedroom condo had everything you could need to enjoy our week including a TV in our bedroom so Liam and Bruce were both happy. Bruce had been to Killington in 2004, but was too early in the season so only the home trails were open. This time the full mountain was open and it looked very inviting.
On Monday morning we quickly picked up our equipment and started out at the beginner slopes (blue) next to Snow Shed, we then went down the the Sky Express Gondola (heated) before cruising down to K-1 Lodge. A few runs up and Down the Express Quad filled in most of the morning, through to a late lunch.
We skiied solidly for four hours and had covered less than one third of the resort. Rosie was starting to get sore keeping up with Bruce and Laim, while Liam was just getting stronger. After a late lunch we went up the K-1Gondola and started down the really long Great Northern home trail.
This is a beautiful blue run with long steep sections and big sweeping bends which takes you over most of the mountain and all the way down the Snow Shed if you wanted to. We only managed a couple more runs before needing to take a rest for the day.
The next day saw beautiful sunny skies again and warm weather. We started out on the same runs but after an hour they got a bit slushy so we moved over to K-1 again to spend most of the day on the top runs Rime, Reason and Double Dipper. These stayed perfect all week and provided the best skiing in the afternoons. Rosie absolutely loved Rime, but was having trouble keeping up.
Liam and Bruce started to do three runs while Rosie did two, which gave her a rest every now and again. Unfortunately, by the end of the day, Rosie was having a bit of trouble with her knee and trying to keep up with the lunatic Liam (takes after his dad at last) was taking its toll.
As much as she loved the big long Great Northern run it put too much stress on your body so she broke away in the afternoon and stayed around the Snow Shed runs while the boys skied the Great Northern, where Liam could bounce his way through the trees and the boys could also do the fast runs at the top. Two solid days and we still had only done two thirds of the mountain.
Wednesday was a bit damp but we still skied most of the day. The lower slopes were getting very slushy with the warm weather but the top slopes remained perfect. Everyone was a bit tired by now so we stopped early and freshened up before out last day.
It snowed during the night so there was a bit of powder and bright sunshine for Thursday. We all finally skied Snowden Mountain and Ramshead Mountain, which were good but slushy. Rime was definitely the best of the runs as was the Ridge Run, which Liam and Bruce found on Thursday. Rosie spent the day on Ramshead and we all met up for lunch before taking a few final runs.
As it turned out, we were lucky to be here since everyone we spoke to told us it was much better than Quebec. There were at least five possible starting points to get up the mountain, all at different locations and with so many entry points there were never long queues in the morning or during the day. You could always find a quiet chair lift with no queue at all and they were often on the best parts of the mountain. This is by far the best place Bruce has skied in terms of what he was able to do and the diversity of the runs.
On Friday we packed and then took a leasurely drive through Vermont on the way to Up State, New York. This area is very historic in terms of the American war of Independence. We stopped at Bennington to view the museum and find out a bit more about the areas history and will most probably return during summer when everything is open. We planned our trip so that we would do a large circle around Lake Ontario but part of the plan was also to drop in and visit Chris and Fritz Becker (Ross McKillop’s parent in-laws) in Stamford NY.
We were fortunate that Val was visiting her parents so the trip worked out much better than we could have hoped. We stayed Friday in Oneonta NY and Val and Chris dropped in just after we arrived. Chris was really pleased to meet Rosie and Liam since she had heard a lot about them when Bruce came over for Ross and Val’s wedding. Chris is in treatment at the moment, which is very draining, so she was only able to visit for a short time before Val took her home. Val then came back and we all went to Brook’s for a traditional family restaurant.
Brooks is famous for cooking everything over a smoking BBQ, which imparts a lot of flavour. Bruce had chicken and ribs which was more than he had eaten in any meal since arriving in North America. All the locals were here and the meal was very good, though very high in cholesterol. Liam finished off with a hot fudge sunday, which had 10cm of cream on top. Most people walked out with doggy bags.
Now that Spring is here, the Maple Syrup has started to run and the whole New England area is having celebrations. We were lucky enough to be able to attend a large pancake breakfast at Shaver Hill Farm, owned by the parents of one of Chris’s students.
We got to taste Maple Syrup, Maple butter, Maple coated peanuts, Maple sugar coated donuts, mustards and several other interesting uses of Maple Syrup. The Maple Syrup dripped over snow was very tasty. We got to see the distilling of the Maple Syrup and learnt about the whole production method. Rosie had a good chat with the current New York State Maple Queen to find out how she got this title, always a good thing to know. When we were ready we sat down to a really good pancake and sausage breakfast, along with most of the community from the surrounding 40 miles. Fritz seemed to know everyone, which is important since he is an elected Judge.
Chris’s teaching partner was helping out with the waitressing, which meant we got second servings, always a good thing when you are trying to lose weight.
After brunch we went back to the Becker family home for a coffee and chat before we set off for the long trip home. A great visit and hopefully we will return during the year, but definitely at Christmas for a traditional country celebration.
The drive home through Up State New York was nearly as pretty as Vermont. We quietly wound our way through mountains and small villages, with flags out the front of most houses. Some of the houses dated back to the 1800’s and were just beautiful. We deliberately avoided the major highways and hence saw an America that you never see on modern television.
Unfortunately we picked the wrong crossing to get back into Canada, and were stuck at the border for 90 minutes, Liam was not impressed and was very tired. Once we did cross back into Canada we drove the entire hour and a half surrounded by concrete. Strangely for the whole journey in Canada we were surrounded by concrete and the entire trip in the US we were surrounded by stunning scenery. This is definitely not what you would have suspected.
