Galena, Ohio-Berkshire Lakes Campground

September 11-23,2017

Our next stop was Galena, Ohio where we met up with our friends Tara and Kevin and two of their children Colton and Asher.  We had so much fun hanging out with them and while we already knew Jacob and Asher got along well, they became two peas in a pod.  I loved watching Jacob have sooooo much fun.  (Not sure what happened with my pics.  So many are blurry!)

Our big outing together was to Cuyahoga Valley National Park.  In the town of Peninsula, we hopped aboard a train and rode about 45 minutes to our north to the Rockside station.  

(Jacob doesn't look happy here but he totally is.  These two talked to each other non-stop!)

From there, we rode our bicycles the 13.1 miles along the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail back to Peninsula.  So proud of the kids!

The Ohio canal opened in 1832 and one could travel from Cleveland to Cincinnati in 80 hours rather than weeks.  And somehow I missed this in my youth, but did you know that they used mules alongside the canal to pull the boats?! (totally makes sense now considering the year).  And as the canal brought growth, Ohio became the third most populous state by 1850.

There are a series of locks along the canals that are all in poor shape now that the canal is no longer used.  We stopped to check out a couple and found a few snakes!

We made several stops along the path, one of them being the Canal Exploration Center.  There we watched how thread was made, check out many of the exhibits indoors and had lunch.

(It was so cute watching them.  Jordan found some clothes to dress up in and was helping Asher with his attire)

On another day, our family went to downtown Columbus, where we stumbled into a small business festival and then checked out the splash pad area.

The rest of the days, we just enjoyed the company of our friends as much as we could.  The boys even had a couple of sleepovers.

And I saved the worst for last.....

The kids found three baby mice and decided they needed to try and raise them.  Bleck!!!  I was not in favor of this one bit, but they were determined.  In the end, I don't think they lasted even 48 hours (felt like weeks to me), but we learned quite a bit about trying to raise mice, like their development stages, what to feed them, how to feed them and that even those who try often rarely succeed.  They were sad when the mice were gone but they made a very good effort.

(There are two of them in the top left.  One is licking milk off of a paintbrush)

Our two weeks here flew by.  We were all sad to leave, especially the two boys but one day we will catch up with them again!

Mattawa, Ontario-Sid Turcotte Park

September 2-11, 2017

Our next adventure took us further north into Canada for the first-ever International Fulltime Family Rally!

(Our "Canadian" costumes for the rally party)

But before arriving at the rally in Mattawa, we wanted to check out a few other locations. 

We approached the Canadian border a little wary because only an hour before we pulled out of our campground in Vermont, we realized that Greg's passport had expired just 3 days prior! We thought it was still worth a go at it since we had his birth certificate and really the biggest problem might be a delay in reentering the US. And guess what?! It was no problem at all! The Canadian border patrol didn't even want to see his birth certificate and was super nice. AND upon returning to the US (which was on September 11!), the border patrol didn't even hesitate. In fact, it was probably the easiest crossing we have ever had!

On to what we did while in Canada...

We took three days to explore Ottawa and Montreal before heading to the rally location. The weather was not real cooperative but we were able to sneak a few things in between rain showers.

In Ottawa, Ontario we visited:

the Canadian Museum of History

Parliament Hill

(view from the bell tower)

and took a ride down the Rideau Canal.

In Montreal, Quebec we visited:

the beautiful Notre Dame Basilica

a cool Pirate Ship play area

and Mount Royal.

And then it was on to the rally! This was our second rally and we had as much fun as the first one. There was only one family there that we had ever met before so we made many new connections, which is what the rallies are all about.

Jordan had a blast making MANY new friends and danced the night away at the closing party.

There weren't as many boys but Jacob still made a few connections with kids his age. What he loved most was that all of the teens and tweens played a game called Mafia. Basically, some kids were chosen to be “mafia” and they had to sneak around a kill off the villagers (they had to put a piece of red duct tape on them). If they were accused of being Mafia, they would go to trial. So then they had to work together with a prosecutor and defender to present the case with real legal procedure and jargon. I was a juror in one of the cases. It was a fun and great experience for them all.

Another really fun thing at the rally was the Kids' Marketplace. The kids had an opportunity to sell their wares, whether it was homemade or not. I saw several art booths, sock animals, hiking sticks, friendship bracelets, baked goods, tissue holders, old toys and henna tattoos. We didn't have much time to prepare so my kids sold dirt pudding snacks (pudding, oreos and gummi worms) and bookmarks made from buttons and paperclips. It was an interesting learning experience as we looked at our costs and profits.

Here's a few more pictures of our rally hangout:

(glow party)