Australian Swim tour of Canada in winter

While many people thought that we were just travelling west across Canada from Thunder Bay, what they were unaware of was our true motives - to swim half the breadth of the continent...IN WINTER!

Let me explain.

It has become a prerequisite for any new hotel booking that we check to see if it has a pool, before going ahead and actually booking. The result is that we have been swimming in Kenora, Regina, Medicine Hat, Calgary and Canmore. The added bonus of waterslides at Kenora, Regina and Canmore have added to the fun even more.



Megan and Ash!?.....don't ask.









Happy winter swimmer.



Paige; our water baby.





Winnipeg to Regina - a days travel

Prairies outside of Winnipeg

Trucking can be a dirty business!

Who can travel without this!?

Go West Jenkinsons

One of the small towns on the way.

Oops! This was a picture of a fox....over there ------->

We had thought to stop overnight in Moosamin - but the computer said NO.

Somewhere along the track there was a wind farm.



Town called Sintaluta - made Jill think of a scintilating tarantula!



Ian's send off

On Thursday night before the last day of school, I was spoilt rotten by a great bunch of people that I knew as colleagues at Sir Winston Churchill. They did something that Canadians do better than anyone else - show unbridled hospitality!

I was whisked away to the "The Keg" for drinks with what I thought were the small crew that I had worked with at SWC. Turns out they had orchestrated a school wide invite and a few more turned up. What made it particularly exciting for me was the way in which my drink of Gin and tonic magically refilled whenever I emptied it. It even grew in size at one point.

To top it off, Matty P (the Canadian drinking machine) ended my evening by buying me Dirty martinis, that even after a few G&T's still tasted like licking the inside of a fish!!

I went home a little later than I expected 9nearly 3 hours later) with the help of my understanding wife - crawl, grovel.

The result of all this fun and frivolity? See for yourself .....

The result of a happy night at the keg.

Dreaming of the magic gin glass.



Thanks to Sandy, Paul, Meghan, Sarah, Matt, John, Corey, Leanne, Erna and so many others that I have to stop now because otherwise it will be ANOTHER blog all of its own. You guys are the greatest.

Day one of the Odyssey

Yes the oddyssey (NOT a misspelling) has begun. We have survived two days of travelling at the time of writing this, but I am only going to recount the first day.
The weather decided to send us off with a memorable -37C for the start of the day. Thankfully we had packed most of the gear the day before so that Jill and I only needed to expose ourselves to the cold for less than an hour - which seemed an hour too much.
The mini-van finally packed we hit the road at 10.13am waving madly to Christine - our send off party.

However, after 300 metres we were forced to pull over because the packing in the back was collapsing on Ash.

A small distance and oops Ash has even less room.

After adjusting the load around Ash, we were off again and driving along some snow blown roads. The snow raced across in wisps just above the road in all manner of mesmerizing patterns.

Windy, snowy roads on the way to Kenora.

Just before we reached Upsala, we spotted a moose waist deep in the snow and chewing on grasses that were long enough to poke above the snow. It was a wonderful and rare sight - unfortunately we couldn't get organized to get a picture in time.

It reminded me of how hardy these animals are; while in the car we sat, wrapped in our coats, hats and gloves, the heater on full and still feeling cold, this big beast was standing in snow to it's belly casually eating cold grass.

We were far more alert for the possibility of ANY animals from then on, but with no luck.

What we didn't expect is what we saw later in the trip.

Ice and speed - not a good combination.

This car had overtaken us not long before, we later realized. Thankfully all the people in the car were uninjured and able to walk away. It served as a vivid reminder of the dangers of these roads at this time of the year. The last 30 kilometres into Kenora were the longest of the trip.

Thankfully the hotel at Kenora was worth the long and eventful trip. We had a room near the swimming pool and a great water slide to boot. This was just what we needed.

 



Mum and Paige splashdown!







A bit of winter in videos and pics

January. The last days of our stay in Thunder Bay.

Highway 11 (Trans-Canadian Highway) intersection



Final skiing day in Thunder Bay



Loch Lomond beginner ski runs




The end of the skiing day (4pm)



As usual - Jill and Ash are the last off the hills



Ash demonstrates his snowboarding skills in -27C weather

Our Limo ride

A wonderful friend at school organized a surprise event for us. She wouldn't give ANYTHING away, so we had no idea about what was to happen - just that we had to "be ready" at 6.30pm to be collected. Mysterious.
At a little before 6.30pm Jill was upstairs getting things for the kids when she began shouting, "Ian! Look out the window!"

When I did - this is what I saw.



Ash holding our goodies basket alongside our limousine.

 Not only did we get a limousine ride, but it was pink too! For an hour we were driven around Thunder Bay - in a state of excited luxury. The kids couldn't contain themselves and climbed everywhere including Paige going upside down in the back window for a while. They just couldn't believe it. Jill and I enjoyed the sights and the excitement of the kids.



The Jenkinsons in their first family limo ride.

 We even had our own paparazzi in the form of Eileen - our neighbours daughter who was pre-warned to take photographs of our reaction when the limousine arrived. She was easy to convince to come along for the ride too.



Eileen - our very own paparazzi



The last word belongs to Ash: " This is the best night of my life!!"

Fun at school

The classes that I have been "teaching" allow for a certain amount of levity. One example was moustache week, where I started wearing a different fake moustache each day. Part of the fun was in the names that each 'tash' had (the bruiser, the hollywood, the weasel) but mostly I enjoyed the fact that one of my students, Dean, got involved.

Dean and I model the days moustaches. The grandpa on Dean and  I have The Bruiser.

Trust me Dean - it's a good look.

Christmas Holidays in Thunder Bay

For the first time since we arrived, we stayed in Thunder Bay for the holidays. And I for one am so thankful that we did. Over the past 2 weeks we have indulged in some wonderful socializing with neighbours and friends, enjoyed winter activities and perfected the art of couch potatoing!

Megan and Paige in holiday mode.



The holidays began one week before Christmas Day, so of course we had to get the tree ready. Jill decided that being in Canada meant that we HAD to have a real living tree, and so we did. What she hadn't quite reckoned on was the mess that setting it up would entail. The first mistake was thinking that it could go in a large flower pot that had been sitting outside all year. Unfortunately the soil in the pot was frozen and despite the best efforts of the girls, could not be persuaded to have a tree planted in it. The vacuum cleaner certainly got a workout after that little fiasco. But undeterred, Jill rallied the troops and got a tree and a wreath made, which to their credit - looked great.

The 2010 Christmas Tree.

The weather for this time of the year was gorgeous, with days of only -4C. Perfect for outdoor snow and ice activities. Skating was more popular with some of the Jenkinson family than others. Paige just wanted mum to hold her while she skated, and dad just wasn't that good at skating!

Later in the week, the weather improved even more and we went for a day of downhill skiing at Mt Baldy.
The kids took to the slopes with the nonchalance of youth but had me worried when both Ash and Megan decided to tackle the biggest hill after 10 minutes on the slopes.


Megan (in pink) sails away up the chairlift to the top of a BIG hill.



Perfect weather at Mt. Baldy.

Thankfully, both the kids made it down safely, but my heart was in my mouth until I saw them again. Ash provided some great snow action shots as he snowboarded down the slope, but Megan was simply too fast to get clear shots. She doesn't traverse the slopes - she just points straight down and GOES!!


Ash in snowboarding action - [NB the board is off the snow]



Oops. Snowboarding is not as easy as it looks.



Jill's day of skiing was spread across going down the slopes with the kids and helping to get Paige used to skiing - not an easy task.


Paige learning to ski?

We also spent time be sociable with our neighbours Christine and Michael and their kids Seamus and Eileen.(Whose names I have likely misspelled.) We enjoyed a fun night on Christmas Eve and then an even funner night having dinner at their place on Boxing Day - fun times.


The Foosball competitions were fierce



The Heaney's and the Jenkinsons

We also managed to catch up with the Bradford's to see what Father Christmas had brought for them. It was great to see them in summer clothes while here it was anything but summery.



Those Bradford's on skype

 Christmas Day arrived with plenty of presents and Santa didn't disappoint. He brought Nintendo DS's for Ash and Megan and a portable DVD player for Paige. He also brought sleds for all the kids, so in the best traditions of Christmas we went and played with the new toys.



Megan with her new sled at Centennial Park



 





For Christmas night we visited the Schuberts  for another fantastic turkey dinner. Man can they cook! The kids were all tired though, ours because they had been up since 4am and theirs since 2am!! The excitement of Christmas for children was beginning to wear thin at 9pm in the night.





Eva, Ash and Emma on Xmas night

On Boxing Day we returned to Centennial Park for more sledding and found "The Chutes". This has become our favourite sledding spot and you don't even need a sled!!

Jill took an amazing video of her trip with Paige and despite the ending - Paige still loves riding the chutes.

After that I went cross country skiing for the first time in 15 years and was reminded of THAT fact for several days after. My dream of skiing a few times during the holidays were grounded by my sore muscles. But we managed to sled most days.

The last of the social events came at the Oades residence. A night of eating, drinking, skating (of course) and wonderful company.

Since then, we have spent a lot of time perfecting the art of being sloths. Pokemon has become a new interest for Ash and myself as we learn the strategies and characters. The girls have watched dozens of videos and Jill and I have read copious books - so all in all the holidays have been all that they should be - holidays!

We finished our two weeks off by going 5 and 10 pin bowling.