Winterlude

Daniel, Joaquin and I traveled to Daniel's hometown of Ottawa, Canada. Ottawa is the little known capital of Canadia. Also little known is that Ottawa has the world's largest ice skating rink. The Rideau canal tranforms in the frozen winter into a 5 mile (8K) long skating surface. For two weeks in February, Ottawa hosts Winterlude. The canal is at its finest with fresh ice surfaces and little wooden houses on the ice that serve hot cocoa and coffee along with Canadian specialties.

We planned our trip especially to coincide with Winterlude as one of my favorite things to do in Ottawa is ice skate. Skating is such a treat for a California girl like me. Balancing on a thin metal blade and gliding at high speeds across a frozen surface is downright magical. Plus the canal skating special treats include eating poutine on ice skates, beavertails, and maple taffy which is way better than it sounds. I had to be talked into the maple taffy and I am so glad I was. This treat looks like a lollipop but is really thickened maple syrup poured directly onto snow where it freezes into a perfect consistancy between solid and chewy. Yum.

We arrived on Thursday morning after a night flight. Baby J was a great traveler- he slept as much as possible with our three connection jaunt. By Friday we were out on the canal skating with Daniel's father, David Sherwood. Joaquin, who suffers from strolleritis, loved being towed along in a little sled.

Joaquin was chillin'.

Daniel, Joaquin and I stayed most of the week with Daniel's brother Erik and his family. Joaquin definitely was entertained by the antics of his nine and three year-old cousins.

Daniel's family was so welcoming. I felt a new kinship of fellow parenthood with Erik and his wife Caroline as take my own babysteps into mamahood.

I am adding a bunch of Sherwood family photos with the baby to the flicker slideshow in the right hand side bar.
After a week in Canada, we were wishing we had planned a longer stay but we were scheduled to take the train from Montreal to New York to visit my family in New York and Connecticut. More news to come.