Winterlude - Saturday afternoon

After the snow park, we took the bus back to the hotel.  The hotel rooms were actually suites with kitchens, so we brought lunch to eat there at the hotel.  We had some lunch, took quick snoozes and then headed out for a skate on the canal.  Cameron was very excited, although a little nervous because we wouldn't let him bring his stick.  We assured him that he would be able to skate just as well without his stick.  We were right - he ended up skating at least 5 km down the canal and all the way back, with a few stops in between.  He was a skating machine!

We started out at the bridge near Chateau Laurier.  I walked and pulled Leah in the sled while everyone else skated.  The ice is so choppy, I didn't want to take the chance of falling.

Cameron took off - we had to keep a good eye on him to make sure he didn't get lost in the crowd.

Gina, Matt, Leah, me, Poppa and Nana

Cam taking a break for a ride in the sled, with Poppa pulling.

And he's back out again (he got sick of being in the sled pretty quickly this year) - this time skating with Nana.

Uncle Matt doing some fancy sled-pulling

Our cute little skater!

Cam wanted a turn pulling Leah.  It took him a few pulls to get moving but once he did, they were off!

Trying to do some fancy turns

Showing off his backwards skating while pulling the sled

He LOVED it but Leah got a little heavy after a while.

Daddy's turn to pull - he whipped them around in circles, which they loved.

Leah decided she wanted to put her skates on.  Given the fact that she hadn't napped or slept particularly well the night before, we didn't have very high hopes that she would last for long.  When she asked to get her skates on, we went as quickly as we could to get them on and take advantage of the moment!

Annnnddd, she's up!

Skating to Daddy

And skating with Daddy and Poppa

She isn't too sure of this

 Yep, this is one unhappy girl!

Done with skating, back in the sled.

Cam, on the other hand, was ready to keep going

Daddy with a worn out Leah

Nana, Poppa, Cameron and Uncle Matt

At one point, Cameron went off with Uncle Matt and Aunt Gina.  They skated way ahead of everyone else, who was slowed down by one person walking and one person being pulled in a sled.  Cameron, Matt and Gina went down one of the little side canals to look for a geocache.

Cute picture of Uncle Matt and Cam!  And they found the geocache, by the way.

They kept skating quite a ways down the canal to an island that was in the middle of the canal.  Last year we had looked for a geocache here and couldn't find it.  This year we had a more accurate GPS and better clues to where it might be.  Uncle Matt climbed up the little island in his skates.

And found it - woohoo!

After that, it was time for snacks.  What else would we have when skating on the canal than BeaverTails?  Uncle Matt is trying a maple butter BeaverTail.

Feeding Leah some yummy Beavertail

Cam wants a few bites too!

At this point in the canal, probably 4 km from the start, I was getting pretty worn out.  Luckily, right near the snack shacks, there were stairs off of the canal and a bus stop right there.  I took Leah with me because she was freezing, and off we went.  It was very easy to get the (free!) SnoBus and take it right back to near the hotel.  Everyone else skated back to the start and then joined us at the hotel.

I love this picture of Cam - tiny little guy on the BIG canal.

Cam with his skating buddies, Aunt Gina and Uncle Matt

Another very cute picture!

We went to a Thai restaurant for dinner and then back to the hotel.  It was past bedtime at this point, especially for one little girl who hadn't napped at all and one little boy who had skated 5+ miles that day!  We stayed in while Nana, Poppa, Uncle Matt and Aunt Gina went back over to look at the ice sculptures at night.

There was a neat tunnel of Chinese lanterns - very pretty!

Part of an ice sculpture

Ice sculpture in progress.