Fort William historical park

Another wonderful day in Canada. This one was spent at the Fort William historical park and was made all the better for the daylong snowfall.
There were plenty of things to do there and it was topped off with a fireworks display that rivalled the fireworks we have seen from the Brighton beach on New Years Eve. Very different weather though.

Tubing was the first activity of the day and it would have been the ONLY activity we didn't drag the kids away to see other things! Paige absolutely loved it when she rode down on mum or dad's lap.

After numerous 'last one' rides we managed to explore other parts of the park and discovered all manner of interesting things to do and see.

The snow maze was a different take on mazes being made completely of snow and ice - very clever - just like Ash who worked out how to get through well before his father!

As we looked for more things to do and see we were entertained by some great live music from the band on a stage nearby. It was interesting to see that the bands were being kept warm by large blow heaters running off to the sides of the stage and pushing warm air into their faces via long tubes mounted directly in front of them. The sort of big commercial blowers that you might see when a building floor needs to be dried. Looked like a good gig to me as I stood in the falling snow. We headed over to the dog sledding area to try that, only to find out they had been sold out in less than an hour after opening! You could tell what was popular as this was one of the very few activities that cost extra. We were disappointed but hope to get a ride later through 'contacts'.

Megan our snow shoe model is proudly posing for the next activity that we did for the day. Ash took off in his determined to be the first to do whatever it was we could do in them - which was to join a group and be lead around a course - but we missed that in our impatience to get going. I struggled with the snow shoes as my boots are more like boats, but eventually I settled for half on snow shoes and followed Paige through some soft snow areas. A lot of fun and yes they really do look like tennis racquet's on your feet when you look at them!

Doing this lead us to our next adventure for the day - a sleigh ride drawn by 2 draft horses. Very neat indeed.

These sleighs were running since 12 noon and the poor horses looked very sweaty. Apparently this is the sort of work the horses do all year round with sleighs and trailers depending upon the weather. They certainly hauled a lot of weight each time as the rides filled VERY quickly. It was a magical ride through falling snow to an Indian settlement complete with wigwams!

The Aboriginal lady sitting in the wigwam explained the names that sometimes get used for the different Indian shelters. The wigwam is a mispronounced Indian word that became the general term. It refers to shelters made from birch bark which carries an Indian name that sounded similar to 'wigwam' to early settlers learning the language. Jill asked if they used animal skins for their shelters and was told those were only made by groups further to the west and were known as tepees. The warmth inside the wigwam was surprising from one small fire and not very smoky at all. We tried a type of deep fried damper so delicious the kids took thirds!

At this point Ash decided that following the food trail was the best option and became fixated with getting to the sugar mill for some sugar thingy. Unfortunately we didn't make that in time and despite his disappointment, he was good about it.

We were delayed by a visit to Fort William proper and all that could be found within it. It is an original structure that has been conserved. It was like stepping into a wild west film production set. The tall wooden walls surrounding buildings of quite European design inside and spikes poking out of the walls to deter unwanted intruders.

We had to run to catch one of the last sleigh rides back to the rest of the historical area where the bulk of the activities were taking place. Catch the sleigh or walk for 20 minutes through the forest - with near exhausted children and more snow falling there wasn't much choice.

The sleigh ride was much appreciated and lifted all our spirits when we returned and were allowed to see the horses up close.

With so much fresh snow having fallen through the day there were plenty of chances to make snow angels and soon our children were falling into the snow at every opportunity to make them!

For anyone wondering how Jill is surviving this cold weather - take a look for yourself.

Thanks to the wonders of down and goretex she has been quite comfortable thank you very much. Today she ventured forth with Kelly's Sorrell snow boots and some ski pants - no cold for this girl.

What about the grumpy ol' man? I hear you ask (out of politeness) - well I wasn't quite so well prepared but I didn't notice the cold until the end of the day when the sun dropped. Oh and I got a bit of snow down my neck - ooooh.