NYC

Construction at the World Trade Centre Site.

Times Square, Broadway and 7th Ave.

NYC Public Library. Say what you wanna, I'm here to stay 'Cause I'm a mean ol' Lion. (Lions Anthem, The Wiz)

Hot dog vendor.

Staton Island ferry (free) passing Liberty Island.

Grand Central Terminal.

Empire view Downtown.

Downtown Manhattan from Brooklyn Bridge.

Chrysler Buidling from Washington Square, behind the Library.

What's New York without staying in some flea bitten hotel room just off Times Square?

Brooklyn Bridge.

Brooklyn Bridge.

Winterlude Ottawa 2008, Part 2

Skating on the canal - well, Dow's Lake technically - did not go as gracefully as my imagination had played out. No misadventures, but I don't think I'll make the hockey team this year....Man it was cold though. I couldn't stay on the ice for longer than an hour, and that's with the warming characteristics of hot chocolate and Beaver Tails. (I was too scared to stand by the fire blazing away on top of the ice - but for how long....)


Snow sculptures in Gatineau (just over the Ottawa River), pretty amazing.

Oh, and Beaver Tails are not literally beaver tails in this case. They're deep fried pastry similar to a long flat beaver tail shape, covered in cinnamon and sugar. Awefully naughty, but with the cold it could have been life and death...

Winterlude, Ottawa 2008

Ah, the challenge of photographing Ice... Well, the camera and I did our best, and with a little help from PhotoShop, it would seem that you can vaguely make out some of these shapes. Unfortunately I could not quite do justice to the amazing pieces of art that are alas, with us in this world for such brief a moment as the snow dast fall.



There were artists from all over the world, displaying cultural pieces that were simply astounding. I can't help but admore these people that can create something so unbelievable, knowing that they will inevitably melt away in such a short time. It's started getting warmer here (well, from -19degC to -4degC roughly) so no longer do the swords hold their terrifyingly sharp edge, and the horses, frozen in place, will no longer hope to break into motion on their melted limbs...



I think my favourite has to be this T-Rex skeleton. Even without the 'flesh' it was still a little threatening, and the detail astounding, depite the softening as the edges dripped away.



I still can't work out why the Ottawan's are celebrating winter in such a way, they have nice summers, and there's plenty of skiing to be done, obviously. Ice hockey. Curling. But to celebrate being outdoors during this time is...confusing. The canal is now open from as close to the locks as you can basically get, to Dows Lake. Its about 7km of skating. Once you get to the lake you can reward yourself with a sleigh ride. Whether or not Santa is driving is so far unconfirmed.

Niagara Falls

I had sensibly taken several factors into consideration in order to arrange my trip to Niagara Falls:

1) Coops was going to Germany for work, so I could keep myself occupied with new scenery.
2) The weather forecast predicted that the drive there would be in lovely sunshine with a temperature just above freezing.
3) The day I would have there may possibly snow, but would still be in the positive area of the barometer.
4) The drive back would be in sunshine also, allowing for an uneventful trip back though New York state just for something different.

Unfortunately Coops' trip was moved back, so I effectively wasted valuable entertainment activity, then the weather closed in with a nice display of freezing rain (um kinda like hail, but tinyer and more annoying, not to mention slippery and dangerous) mixed with snow = 70km p/h on the freeway. The day I had at the falls turned on snow, freezing rain (or maybe just frozen waterfall mist) and 40km p/h winds. Then the drive back began amazingly well (oh, except the scrutiny from US Immigration about driving a car that I had no legal claim to over the border - appropriate use of resources people!) until I ran into a freak instant but brief snow fall directly west of Lake Ontario.

However, I was blown away by the falls. Not literally, despite the winds, but I can't help compare it to Victoria Falls, although there's something in me that just can't rate a North American wonder over an African one.

Its a 6hr trip, give or take, from Ottawa to Niagara Falls, so I arrived late in the afternoon and couldn't help but head pretty well straight down to The Falls. I drove past the American and Bridal Veil Falls first, then realised that the hugely impressive Horseshoe Falls were just around the corner when I had to hit the wiper blades, despite the distance from the water fall to the road.

They light up both the American Falls and Horseshoe falls from 7pm until 10pm, so I headed down to catch the display:

American Falls on the left and the more narrow Bridal Veil Falls on the right by night.

Horseshoe Falls by night.

There's all these facts about the falls that I can't really be bothered to type, so hopefully the diagrams below will actually be worth the '1000 words' they claim to be:

Although not the biggest falls by any stretch of the imagination, they are up there with the largest volume of water over falls anywhere, which has resulted in significant erosion.

This diagram depicts the rate at which the falls have been receding, although the rate has slowed now that the power of the falls are being harnessed for good (hydro-electricity) and not bad (er...bluescreens for early Superman movies).

Horseshoe Falls at sunrise this morning.

Oh, by the way, if you hadn't worked it out by now, if you click on the images they'll open bigger, and possibly even better....go Super Pictures - up, up and away!

Have you ever seen...?

I think I mentioned the plummeting temperatures, followed by an unseasonably warm spell last time. +10degC apparently thaws ice relatively quickly, however it was still pretty frozen the following weekend when Coops and I got out into the countryside of southern Ontario on our way to Kingston. At this time of year its quite pretty anywhere where the snow is thick and still pristine. Unfortunately that's mostly on the lakes and rivers in these parts.

Kingston sits at the mouth of the Lawrence River from Lake Ontario. Its an old fort town, no doubt trying to keep those pesky Americans on their own side of the lake. I find it interesting that the national and provincial borders here split the lakes and rivers in two, as opposed to say, New South Wales claiming the entire width of the Murray River for itself. I guess it makes things easier to own a boat in your home country, rather than harbouring it internationally... Following the river east from Lake Ontario is a 35km stretch, give or take, of what's known as Thousand Islands, however the figure is closer to 2,000 islands, that dot the Lawrence River. The islands vary in size from a rock or two poking out of the water, to a land mass big enough to sustain half a dozen summer cottages for those who can afford Canadian lifestyles of the rich and famous. Not a fancy boat in sight however, as they have all been taken out of the water and shrink wrapped ready for next summer, rather than suffering the horrible of being crushed by the expanding ice. We noticed even some jetties had been pulled up to escape the ice.

We stopped at Land O' Lakes on the way to put cracks on the frozen shore.

Although pretty, I didn't find Kingston all that entertaining or warm. One thing it did highlight to me however is that you can not get an individual meat pie anywhere in Canada. Don't let the Bakery sign fool you - there will be no pie in a warming display within, and it should bloody well be painted underneath the store signs! "Bakery of Sweet things. Maybe some interesting type breads, but not likely, but definitely no meat pies, beef or otherwise." Its very disheartening to an Aussie on a Sunday drive.

Skiing, again. My apologies to anyone who is violently opposed to the sport, but its my latest craze. And, not feeling like I have to defend its validity at all, but I guess it is up there with Rock climbing and Diving in terms of the awesome things you can do to get you out to see the most amazing spots on the planet; if you're hard core, or just happen to be living in the general area for a bit that is. Our weekends generally start with a complete disregard for what most of you will know as a sleep in. I used to enjoy those... So the start of the day usually heralds an open road and a big sky something like this:



We often head for Mont Saint Marie, which is about an hour and a half from Ottawa, and we always pass this field of rolled up hay, which I think is just darn cool, really.

Weekend before last we headed up to Mont Tremblant which is the premier ski hill for Quebec, if not all of Eastern Canada, without heading down into the States. To give you an idea, Tremblant was developed by the same crowd as Whistler, so its big, crazy and expensive. A little world unto its own, where you can't sit and have a hot chocolate without being pitched to about the benefits of owning Timeshare (which is why Whistler is better cause its now too big to canvas for new suckers, er I mean investors). But bless them for thinking we look rich...

I can't say I loved Tremblant. I don't know, maybe it was the 5am start, or the ungroomed, lumpy as all hell black run that I misguidedly thought I could navigate on my 2nd run of the day while my legs were still fresh but by the end of it felt like they'd been skiing for 3 days straight, I just don't know. The intermediate runs were either crowded (the sheer volume of skiers and boarders had scraped patches of ice everywhere, so that if you could manage to hold through it, you'd get to an accumulation of snow the other side that you now had to navigate) or ran through the board park (so you had to watch for skiers or boarders left and right as well as above). I can usually handle that stuff, but maybe I was just having an off day. Oddly the quieter green runs had the nicest snow coverage.

Photo courtesy of Coops.

It snowed most of the day at Tremblant, which was really quite nice, particularly when you were on the chair lift, and it was quiet, and the snow would just drift around you. Towards the end of the day the snow cleared and the clouds lifted just a bit to see down towards the frozen river.


Photo courtesy of Coops.

We've discovered that one of the more local mountains (30 minutes) has a great midweek night skiing deal and its still not too busy. After 6pm its only $11 for a lift ticket, which run until 10pm. The only downfall is that they have snow making at that time, so you'll often ski through a cloud of snow which will then stick to your goggles for the rest of the night. It also creates patches of granular snow about the size of golf balls which isn't that much fun either. But its a pretty good deal, so we've been getting our fix regularly.

Yesterday we headed back up to Mont Ste-Marie, and the snow was great. It was probably the warmest it has been while we've been skiing, so much so that my hands were little balls of sweat inside my new gloves - the extreme opposite of my old gloves, which were children's gloves, and in which my fingers would ache with cold. It was a great day for skiing. There was little wind, and the mountain wasn't all the busy which is always good if and when if happens. I was feeling good and the snow was near perfect so I decided to try my hand, or feet as it were, at a black run. Now this is the black run that I should have gone down rather than the double black that I did go down a few weeks back. Subsequently I was nervous, but I'd not fallen over in a while, and some of the blue runs were getting a little ho-hum, so I was keen for something new. Besides, the section we passed over the lift didn't look that bad.....

At the top the run wasn't all that steep, however it was mostly ice. You had to ski from small patch of snow to small patch of snow, which amazingly, and enjoyably I managed to do. After a few corners it got steeper and steeper, but thankfully there was more and more snow on the run the further we got down. By the time we were at the half way point I had decided that if my time happened to be up on this run, it would be the funnest thing I could die doing. There was a series of three huge steps down that as I watched, the 'experts' would fly over with huge air. You could not even see the landing below, but if all else failed I'll get to the bottom somehow. When I took off, I started with a slow sliding turn, then pretty much straightened up, lent further down the mountain and felt the snow flick up from the front of my skis into my face. It was awesome. I didn't even come a gutser! By the second run I barely even paused at the steps. We ran that black 4 or 5 times, and maybe it was beginners luck that I stuck it every time, but I think its the most fun I've had on a run to date! It was just unfortunate that I had a massive stack not long afterwards that put about 20m between me and one of my skis. Subsequently I spent quite a while icing my knee last night so that I can get back out there later this week. Hey, it was a black section also, so I don't feel so bad about it.

On the way home we could not believe how many deer we were spotting along the roads. I guess the sun was getting down and they were all out for dinner or something. Here, instead of road signs for kangaroos for the next 10km, its deer. They are probably the size of a big roo, and have equal ability to get enough height in a bound to clear your grill and come straight through your windscreen. Basically the same theory applies - avoid wherever safer to do so. I guess we spotted at least a dozen, thankfully none at close range.

I did however spot a strange ball of something up in a tree. Quickly having a guess - as illogical as it seemed, I got Coops to swing the car around and head back for a closer look. It wasn't all that unlike one of those balls of spitfires you'd come across as a kid, and then poke with a stick to see if they really would spit fire at you. (Spitfires are black, furry caterpillars about an inch and a bit long and about as thick as a pencil for those who didn't have the pleasure.) As we drove back past it, here in this three, hanging underneath the branch was a porcupine. I was astounded firstly, because I hadn't seen a porcupine in the wild yet, and secondly that it was in a tree which I just didn't realise they did at all! We were obviously disturbing its nap, so it crawled around to the top of the branch and just sat there checking us out, probably in the same way we were checking it out. It was amazing. It really did look deceptively cute and cuddly. Thrilled with out unexpected wildlife spotting for the day we headed home.


Photos courtesy of Coops.


The Rideau Canal is now partially open for skating. I've not been yet, so action shots to come, but its now every day you get to see a tractor driving on top of a frozen river.

I guess one good thing about the crisp cold winter is that light you get as the sun goes down, right before you really freeze your butt off. This sculpture of a spider (Debs, avert your eyes) stands out the front of the National Gallery here in Ottawa, complete with 26 white eggs visible in its abdomen. Its a freaky kind of thing, reminds me of Dr Who a little bit, or maybe Lord of the Rings The Two Towers - kind of fascinating to look at, but would still think twice about standing underneath for some reason...

Double Black

Even though I'm not back at work, for Coops' sake, short working weeks are great. Three days of work (for Coops, he hee) and we were back on the slopes at Mont Ste-Marie, just over an hour north of Ottawa. We had skied here early in the season, while I was still renting crappy skis with no edges, so I was keen to get back and measure my progress.

It was a little overcast, but a nice day for skiing - a little warmer than it had been despite Ottawa temperatures getting down to -32degC on Wednesday and Thursday. The forecast suggested that temperatures would soar to 10degC Monday and Tuesday with rain to melt the snow, so the slopes were packed with people making the most of the good snow and their last weekend before they were to once again to endure the routine of everyday.

We were 2nd in line when the lifts opened late at 8.45am, but first down the run that I refused to ski last time when the day's skiers had exposed huge sheets of ice which my rental skis just could not handle. This time - no problem at all. It was kind of exciting. I was gearing myself up for a perfect day where I would not fall over once. On about my 4th run I came to a quick halt and ended up on my elbow. I was prepared to discount this small incident, as it wasn't technically a ski-related fall, just me being inept at moving at such a reduced speed, something close to walking. However my spirits were buoyed later when my ski-guru boyfriend did exactly the same thing, although being much taller, he looked even more amusing.

After an early lunch Coops and I decided to head over to the other side of the mountains where we'd not yet skied. There were a few blue runs (intermediate), a green (easy) run to get back to the other side of the mountain (which was actually quite hard cause some of it went up hill) and several black runs for the crazy unbreakable people. In terms of signage for runs, I think Mont Ste Marie is quite bad. Some of the runs merge, but change difficulty level, but these are not indicated at the merge point. You need to have memorised the trail map, and then still interpret the arrows correctly at the top of the runs. Subsequently Coops led me down to a black cluster of runs, and then selected a double black as the easiest route off the hill to which I responded with a stare implying something like "have you taken leave of all faculties" to which he inevitably responded "Trust me".

With a terrible thought of having to walking off this hill - if it was to still be possible - in the back of my mind, we set off slowly. Coops still looking like an annoying little floating leaf on snow, and me looking like a sprinkler alarm had gone off in the top of my hood. "OK, this is OK" I'm thinking, not looking too far ahead, knowing that I think I can see the bottom of the run. About half way down, and still standing, I realise there seems to be a gap between the run at my feet, and the bottom of the run - there was no consistent continuance of solid snow that I could see. The run has just gone from steep to 'does this dip directly into Hell?!?'. Not only that, the angle of the slope meant that large patches of ice were being cleared by the skiers who actually had a right to be on that run, and I was to depend completely on the 2-3mm edges of metal on my skis to get my unskilled feet to safety.

Coops managed to lead me through a trail of slightly snow covered ice, but I was beginning to get shaky. When I was close enough to the bottom to just face down hill and slide like a bullet I tried to turn with gravity and lost in completely. I ended up sliding to the bottom on my belly like a home made sled, unable to stop on that gradient even if I wanted to. I was torn as to what to do with my emotions; I initially wanted to accuse Coops of trying to kill me and devise an appropriate and proportionate punishment, but it had just been so much damn fun sliding down that double black. Eventually I decided that my revenge would best be served cold... Sleep tight Coops, sleep tight.

New Year in Montreal

By the time we got from Jay to Montreal, Coops and I were desperate for a good coffee and an opportunity for a bit of French Taunting. Quebec is a funny place. There is no provincial requirement to post English anywhere other than Interstate signage, whereas most of Canada will post the French alongside English, even if the only difference in spelling is an accent on one of the letters, otherwise identical to the English, at the cost of goodness knows what. Quebec still want independence from Canada - perhaps they should ask to join the EU?

We found the apartment we had rented much closer to Downtown and the Latin Quarter than we had expected, so we headed out for some food and coffee immediately. A couple of double lattes later and the best grilled veggie sarnie I've ever had later and we were ready for anything.

Not surprisingly it had been snowing in Montreal also, and there were entertaining patches of ice all over the footpaths, causing impromptu dancing in the streets. But it was overcast and just a bit chilly when we arrived. The streets were as busy as you'd expect the week during the Boxing Day sales, so we wandered aimlessly though the throngs before heading back to the apartment to meet Coops' sister and her husband who were arriving that evening.

New Years eve day we woke up to a fresh new blanket of the white stuff which continued to thicken all day. We headed for the old town to wander the cobbled streets, but we kept finding ourselves being drawn to the cafes for hot chocolates and varying other warming beverages. It was very pretty, but we were driven underground, like the moles who apparently built the underground maze that Montreal is well know for. We didn't get very far before we were quite disorientated, so we surfaced once again and headed to the supermarkets for supplies before potential revellers sucked them dry. Interestingly, alcohol is cheaper in Quebec than Ontario. Which is a little annoying - who'd have thought the capital state would be so strict - I'm sure it would be the other way around in Canberra...

We headed out to our bar of choice, a small brewpub at about 4pm just to make sure we gt a seat. Unfortunately they were not staying open until the wee hours we'd hoped for, but were to close at 10pm, so we sampled their wares and wandered back to the apartment, stopping only for merriment and the more than occasional snow angel when a clean patch of snow was discovered - front fences or not...


Coops and I, Les 3 Brasseurs, New Years Eve.

The good cheer continued on until about 12.20pm, when I was the first to hit the hay. The fireworks down at the pier, partially visible from our 11th floor window were disappointing. It seems that Quebec's firework supply was predominantly usurped by Quebec City where they were celebrating their 400th anniversary. Oh well. Happy 2008!

There were few sore heads greeting us on the first day of 2008. Unfortunately this was still overshadowed by the imminent conclusion of the season's holidays. We were to drive back to Ottawa, but the snow was still falling heavily. As we headed out of town the snow increased and the wind picked up as our speed reduced. Visibility was bad. In some places it was a wild guess where the Interstate was, let alone any of the 3 lanes painted on it. The snow flew by in quite a horizontal manner as we inched our way along, hoping to catch a snowplough to follow and they way before us became clear. Despite the conditions there were relatively few cars that had lost control in the conditions.

We arrived back safely in Ottawa in about double the time it should have taken, but it was kind of exciting to have driven through such wild weather. I don't know that Coops would agree with me after having to drive it, but still... Even though the holiday has ended, the poor, poor French accents continue to amuse us as we reminisce about New Years in Montreal.