Uncategorized « coffee with Julie

Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

August 28th, 2011

A trip to Achray Campground in Algonquin Park, Ontario

I suspect that many camping families get themselves in a bit of a rut now and then. I think we find a magical campsite and then just keep going back and back. Sure, there’s nothing wrong with returning to the tried and true. Let’s a lot of advantages actually: kids often feel happy when they’re in familiar surroundings and mothers often feel happy when they now how to navigate themselves through the forest to the toilets in the middle of the night.

For us, we like Acray Campground in Algonquin Park. So here’s the deal: I will tell you about our magical place, and you tell me about yours! That way we can both branch out one day and try new campsites. You game? Okay, here goes …

*******

I am now freshly showered, red wine glass in hand after a gorgeous couple of days in the woods. Getting away to a forest really does make a person feel like they’ve had a vacation (not just a weekend at home doing errands and getting laundry done!). The natural outdoors-person already knows this; it’s in their blood. But for me, I can’t help but equate outdoors with the nuisance of mosquito bites and terrible toilets (or, sometimes none at all). Sorry, it’s just the way it is.

However, the rest of my clan is all crazy about camping. And they really want me to experience the whole thing with them too. We have made a compromise on this front. One which, without a doubt, lowers our “camping cool” factor by several notches. And that’s the pop-up camper trailer. This little beauty gives us a comfortable sleep and an escape when bad weather hits.

Also, the fall season is cool. This makes the bugs bearable in my world. So bearable, in fact, that I declared we should make sure to get some more camping in this season (Hubby admirably tried to hide the fact that he was choking in shock).

Reading, eating & canoeing: Camping really isn’t so bad, afterall

Okay, so what is there to do at this campsite? Well, quite a lot if you’d like, or as little as you’d like as well.

There is a small store at the campground, housed in a gorgeous old stone building. Here, you can pick up firewood, a few bits of memorabilia, or even an ice cream treat. I can’t say we really ever use this store, but since it’s back-to-school season and since Stella is not fond of the selections in the malls, we picked out two great t-shirts.

The campsites offer quite a bit of room between each other, so it feels much more “rustic” that other places we’ve been. The privacy is much appreciated, especially when another family (or mine!) has a toddler going through a melt-down over some unknown, or bizarre, cause.

Naturally, you can spend endless amounts of time searching out and admiring nature. My favourite creatures are the chipmunks, but we also saw some cool wood bugs, caterpillars, moths and this frog who still had the end of his tail from his tadpole stage:

The most beautiful feature though is definitely the beach. It is beautiful, sandy and the water is crystal clear. Hubby described it as “tea-coloured,” which I think it perfect. The reflection from the sand does make the water seem like a gorgeous ice tea.

At the beach, you can do the usual beach-y things. Like pull up a camp chair and read a book while the kids make sandcastles. Or you can take off for a canoe trip. We have our own, but you can also rent a canoe.

Although we will never give up the traditional camp treat of s’mores, we don’t do hotdogs or baked beans. After a day outside, a yummy meal tastes even yummier. As example, we ate chicken curry with rice on Saturday night. The curry is pre-made in a tin, and the chicken and rice are cooked separately on a Coleman style cook-top.

No, of course we didn’t forget the Naan bread!

Special attractions: The Jack Pine and the Barron Canyon trails

Right from the Achray Campground, you can take an easy trail called “The Jack Pine Trail.” I won’t go into much details, because I’ve already written about it before here. But suffice it to say, it’s a special time in Canadian art history, so it feels special just to be in that spot.

This trip, we did the “Barron Canyon Trail.” I say “we,” but Stella and Hubby have already done this one before. Like the Jack Pine Trail, you do not need to be fit to pull off this trail. It’s an easy route that you can take at your own pace. However, there is an uphill that most toddlers would easily tire on. Here you can see our toddler Max on Hubby’s shoulders:

Once you get up to the canyon, it’s all easy-walking from there. But that doesn’t mean you can let that toddler out of your arms — or at least your very tightly gripped hand!

Just in case this descriptive illustration does nothing for you, here is a picture from an edge:

And here is a picture of the magnificent view:

But even better than this view are the memories that I now have locked away in my heart. With Stella, it was taking the time to just sit still, listen to her stories, and stare at her beautiful freckled-cheeked face. With Max, it was the time we had on an early morning walk together in our PJs so the others could have a sleep-in, as well as the absolute look of delight when a chipmunk scampered all the way up my leg! And with Hubby, it was sitting quietly with the crackling campfire reflecting on his face while we sipped some red wine under the stars.

Follow your bliss: So, those were my moments of bliss from this past weekend and I’ll be looking for you to share your best camping tips in the comments so I can follow yours too! I’m also going to enter this post into the #GGBliss contest that the travel website Go Girlfriend is hosting for a ticket to Blissdom Canada.

Want more camping bliss? Easy! Here is my archive of posts that include the word “camping” in them and here are adventure travel posts from the Go Girlfriend site.

12 Comments »

July 20th, 2011

A Visit to The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in Toronto

For our family, a museum visit is often a highlight when we’re travelling. In fact, I think Hubby and I have taken in at least one museum in every large city we’ve ever visited. And last weekend we were in Toronto to farewell our out-of-town guests before they hopped on a cross-Canada train trip.

So before driving home on Sunday, we decided to squeeze in a tour of The Royal Ontario Museum, or “the ROM.” We debated whether we should bother or not because we could only spare a couple of hours (since we had to drive back to Ottawa that day) and also because we had two vehicles to park. But in the end, I knew how much Hubby wanted to see it, so we decided to go for it.

Established in 1912, the ROM describes itself as “among the world’s leading museums of natural history, and of world cultures.” I’d agree. This museum is world-class in terms of the facilities, collections, and special exhibitions.

One of four massive totem poles

Similar to the challenge that faced the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa — how does one elegantly modify a historic stone architecture? — the ROM has recently undergone a partial transformation. It chose, via an international competition, to build what is called ” The Crystal,” with canted walls that do not touch the sides of the existing heritage buildings, save for where pedestrian crossing occurs and to close the envelope between the new form and the existing walls.

When it was opened in 2007, there were many who did not like the look of The Crystal (to say the least!), with one Globe & Mail writer referring to it as oppressive, angsty and hellish. What can I say? … I thought it looked spectacular. (And frankly, if it hadn’t been for the controversy over The Crystal’s architecture, I probably wouldn’t have even taken an interest in this museum at all.) Granted, if I had 270 million dollars to spend on something, I’m sure I could stretch it further than one museum reno. But perhaps that is why it’s so expensive to visit this museum (more on that later).

Here is a photo of The Crystal that I took from the street:

Once you enter the museum, you are inside The Crystal and its three-story atrium. And it was there that I nearly choked. On the entrance fees, that is.

For two adults and one child, we paid $81.50. (The general admission fee for an adult is is $24 and to also see the special exhibition, the fee is $31.) Let’s see … adult entry for The Louvre in Paris is $8, and children are under $3; adult entry into the Museum of Modern Art in NYC is $20, and children under 16 are free; and the Uffizi Gallery in Italy is under $15 for an adult. Not sure how the ROM came up with its pricing, but I can’t recommend it as a family-friendly destination when it charges such a high entry fee for children over 4 years of age ($16 general admission, $19.50 with special exhibit entry) and does not offer a family group rate.

Okay, enough about the fees … we sucked it up because we had already trucked the whole family there, so we might as well see the place! And what a place it was! Enormous. In fact, in the three hours we spent there, we didn’t even see everything on the first floor! The first floor alone houses the following collections: Japan, Asian Special Exhibitions, China, Korea, Canadian Special Exhibitions, Canada, First People special Exhibitions, and First Peoples. Of those, we managed to see Japan, Asian Special Exhibitions, China, and Canada.

But my most memorable takeaway from our visit was the chance to see Edward Burtynsky’s work. I’d seen Burtynsky’s work in a documentary and it had left an impression on Hubby, Stella and I. This Canadian artist does large format (extremely large!) photography of industrial landscapes. On exhibit at the ROM was “Oil,” as described by the museum’s website as:

“Edward Burtynsky: Oil features fifty-three beautiful and provocative large-format photographs by internationally renowned Canadian artist Edward Burtynsky. His images explore the hotly-debated effects of oil extraction, our international dependency on the substance, and with an unflinching eye, Burtynsky presents us with the reality of oil production as its role in our civilization undergoes massive transformation.”

His massive photographs are so detailed and almost surreal that they don’t really register in your mind as photographs. And then when your mind does register that these images are real, and this is how we really live here on earth, you feel dirty, or at the very least, ridiculous in your slavish pursuit for oil. Burtynsky describes the overriding theme of his work as “nature transformed through industry,” and I would recommend checking out his work in person whenever you might get a chance. (Until then, you can check out his website which includes video clips and images.)

So that, my friends, was our visit to the ROM. (Oh, and then after paying the hefty fee to get in, the day got more expensive because both vehicles had parking tickets under the windsheilds when we returned to them. Awesome-sauce.)

Did I provide enough info for you to decide if you’d like to visit next time you’re in Toronto? Let me know if there is anything specific I can share.

5 Comments »

June 22nd, 2011

Attention soon-to-be authors!

When I wrote a post about the new world of book publishing, a number of Coffee with Julie readers told me that they hoped to author their own books one day. I know some of these peeps in real life, and some only from my blog. But regardless of how I know them, I hope they all manage to make their dreams come true. And if I can help push them along — heck, I will!

So, here is what I want to share with you my dear soon-to-be author friends: a self-published author has just broken into the ranks of the Kindle Million Club! To date, only 8 authors have achieved this milestone and they include heavy hitters like Stieg Larsson, James Patterson, and Nora Roberts. So this is a huge deal.

The author’s name is John Locke. In an interview on a blog called A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing, he says that Kindle Direct Publishing allowed him to “receive the keys to the [publishing] kingdom.” With this Kindle model, an eBook can sell for as little as $0.99, with the author receiving a $0.35 profit per book sold. As of June 19th, Locke had sold 1,010,370 Kindle books. And with a quick touch on the calculator, I can tell you that this leaves Locke with a sum of $353,630. And apparently, all in a five-month time period.

I think that’s great work if you can get it, but others call into question his choice to sell novels at only $0.99 a piece. But regardless of where you stand on the pricing issue, one thing is certain: indie authors are hitting the mainstream. And fast!

3 Comments »

May 11th, 2011

Winner of the Mark’s gift certificate!

I’m happy to announce the winner of my Spring-Pick-Me-Up Giveaway now!

I just used random.org and the winner is comment #5. And comment #5 is Finola. CONGRATS Finola! And how perfect since you were just chatting about needing spring clothes on twitter! I know you will enjoy shopping at Mark’s! It’s a no-pressure, easy shopping experience.

As for the rest of you lovely commenters … I’m sorry I couldn’t give you ALL gift certificates so that I could see you in your new spring gear! (p.s. My fave out of the look book is that white and red checkered blouse with jeans … super cute.)