Boston here we come

After dropping Chris at the airport we drive north out of town heading for our first stop for on the way to Boston, to cut the trip in half we decided to stay in Burlington Vermont, now the fastest way there was to take the boarder crossing at Cornwall, but this is closed at the moment because of issues with the boarder guards and the Mohawk Indians, so we figured we would drive further north into Quebec and Cross the river at the next crossing and then head across until we came to a crossing into the States, which in theory was fine except we managed to find the smallest crossing of the entire US/Canada boarder and the only one had could not issue us with the visas we needed..... Figures, we had to go though the process and then after about 45 minutes drove back into Canada and about 12 km down the road to the next boarder crossing where we got every things sorted.
The drive into Vermont were really nice there is just forests with the odd town.
We arrived into Burlington and found somewhere to stay and also discovered that they were having there 4Th July celebration on the 3rd so we went and jointed in, now we thought that the fire works in Ottawa was good, in Burlington we got 45 minutes of fire works.
The next day we got up early and on our way to Boston, so not to waste the afternoon.

We arrived into Boston and checked into the hotel and then decided to head into town for the rest of the afternoon and evening for the 4Th of July fire works.
First we decided to go to the visitor information centre which was also the parks head quarters.
From there we walked around the city looking at the old granary burial site and also into Boston common, and over to Cheers, well at least where the out side picture you see was shot.
We then went to where the fire works was going to be seen from and was amazed by the amount of people already sitting waiting for it to start in about 7 hours, we later found out that some families spend the whole day there and have a big picnic and even go back to the same spots every year. We were not that keen so walked around a bit more then got something to eat and headed back to found a spot for us to sit and wait, we ended up with a pretty good spot and crashed on the ground and did nothing until the fire works started at 10.30pm, and as you may guess we sat down about 5pm.
Well was it worth it, yes it was. the first fireworks was about 9.30 and was done to the 1812 overcher with the help of real cannons from the US army. Finally we got the really fireworks and it was good and got bigger and bigger as it went on.
I guess the worst thing about the 4Th for us was having to walk all the way back to the hotel at the end of the night.

The next day we got ticket to the hop on hop off bus, and got a tour of the city with the first stop being the Charlestown naval yards and the home of the oldest floating commissioned battle ship in the world the US Constitution, the tour of the ship was really good with real us naval personnel taking the tour, but of cause we had to go through security checks first and then line up for about 45minutes.
From the naval yards we walked up to the Bunker Hill monument, the place where the first battle between the British and the minute men took place. We made the mistake of walking the 275 steps to the top of the monument.....
From here we got back on the bus and continued around the rest of the tour back to the aquarium and were just in time for the harbour cruise so off we went on the boat, at least we got to sit down for a bit, the ruise went down the harbour and talked about things like the Boston tea party and also the different things that have happened to the harbour over the years. Once back at the wharf we walked over to the Quincy markets and looked around and got dinner before walking back to the motel.

The next day we again got on the bus and this time headed for Harvard university and the free tour that is taken by real students from the university. The tour was good and we got to see lots but we took a detour and went to look at the Cambridge Fire dept hall that was in the middle of the uni and try get a t-shirt off them. We then managed to catch back up with the tour group before the end of the tour. We then got back on the bus and headed for the North end, and went and looked at the house of Paul Revere, it is also one of the oldest wooden building in the city, we then walked to the old North church where the lanterns were hung to tell of the British coming.
Again we then opted for the bus and did the whole tour all the way back to the aquarium, before again headed to the markets for dinner, this time we decided to go to the Cheers Bar for dinner, before once again taking the slow walk back to the hotel.

We wake to rain on our third day in Boston so decided to head for the underground and get day passes and head for the prudential centre, a big shopping centre that would be out of the rain, after figuring out the trains and catching three different trains to get to the prudential centre we spend time wondering around and looking at shops.
The rain finaly eased off so we figured we would go outside and look around, we ended up in front ofthe Christain Science church and decided to do a tour of the building since it was free, the building was huge and the tour was good, we got to look in the old church and the new one. By the time we had finished it was raining again so we went back under ground and made our way back to south station and had something to eat before catching the bus back tothe hotel a much better idea than walking.
By the time we got back to the hotel the weather was improving and we had seen some of thh tall ships had started to arrive for the tall ship festival the next week.
We got back to the hotel got on some warmer clothes and took the cameras and went and took lots of pictures of the ships already there and some of the others that were arriving still.

The next day we got up early and started on our way home via lake placid.
The country side was realy nice and it was good to be off the interstate and back on the normal roads, but would have been better if the rain had stayed away, we checked out lake placid and had lunch but with the weather not the best we did not hang around to long. After a stop at the duty free shop we crossed over the boarder back into canada and drive the same boring bit of highway home.

Chris Smith

Well with Chris coming to visit we figured we would do things different then for mum and dad, and with Chris only here for a few dads it as going to be busy.
For a start we got a phone call from Chris in Vancouver saying he had missed his flight but was on the next one to arrive in Ottawa the next day now, so we got up first thing in the morning to go get him.
Chris was a bit tired so we let him have a sleep before heading into town for a bit of a walk.
The next day we headed to Montreal but not to look at the old city this time we were heading for La Ronde the amusement park on the river, we arrived about 12 and started with what we all thought was the worst ride to start with called the boomerang, from there not sure if things got better or worse really. We headed for most of the big rides and if your are wondering why people scream on these rides it's because they really are scary.
We ended up having a couple of goes on all the rides we liked so it was a really worthwhile day, and we all agreed that the best ride was the Goliath, the areas way to explain it was it was like driving over the bridges in kawakawa but 1000 times worse.
We ended the day by running back to the car to avoid the rain that had held off all day.

The next day was July 1st or Canada day, so we all headed into Ottawa to join in the celebration, first we all went to Parliament for the start of the day and then checked out the rest of the things happening around town. It was a hot day so we ended up sitting under a tree before deciding to head home for a couple of hours and then come back into town.
That night we all sat on the banks of the river with lots of people for the fire works that went off for 20 minutes with some very big booms.

We all slept in the next day as i think we all deserved it, we then drove around town and showed Chris Ottawa and also the Gatineau park, Chris was amazed how close it was to were we lived, we then figured since we were out that way we would go and find Mike and Kathy's new house, which we did and almost got hit by one of the concrete truck. We then all headed of for dinner before heading back home.
The Friday was Chris's last day with us but the start of another trip for us as Sarah and i Still had 6 days off.

RCMP Musical ride

In between Mum and dad visiting and Chris arriving the RCMP put on a number of free show if they musical horse rides, being cheap we figured it would be a good thing to see, as it is also very Canadian.
The show started at 7pm so we figured we would get there early, along with the rest of Ottawa it seemed, Luckily there was still sitting areas as we did not have chairs so we got a spot in front of the rope and waited for the show to start.
The entire show was 2 hours long and started with horse riding skills from the rider using pistols to shoot balloons and also spears. This is a competition so was marks for the best rider.
After that the was the Yellow Knights the US army ski diving team, and they all landed right on the mark, they even showed what happens when a shoot collapses and you drop it and go to reserve.
Although there was some other stuff as well everyone had really come to see the Horses and we were not disappointed the musical ride was 45 minutes and the horses and rides doing different moves to music.
Al thought i think it took as long to get out of the car park as the show was it was still a very worthwhile night.