Digging Back Where it All Began

 (To be fleshed out in a few days... return)

My archaeology friends joined me for a public dig at The College of New Jersey.

Highlights:

I'm a rock start since i was one of the original 1990s diggers.

George said we'll figure out a way to have me audit his class.

Mark, Martha, and Dan dug with me. We were much more productive than the students. We work together as a great team. 

I had the shortest drive, for once.

Much fun!

Photos to be added.

Wednesday: Procrastinating the Drive

 (To be fleshed out in a few days... return)

On our last day the weather was simply stunning, so we procrastinated the drive home with a stop in Carleton Place, another town used for filming Hallmark movies.

Art cooperative. Curious about artist Steve with his paintings of famous sites including an orange VW bug. We met Pam and another artist, both excited to share their artwork. They have over a 100 artists in the coop. If they want to show off their art they have to volunteer in the shop.

I bought supplies for Indigenous art students to help them with their studies.

Lunch on the front porch of a breakfast place highly recommended by the artists.

Walked around town.

German Bakery. Charming. Bought a German donut for ride home.

Sadly time to start the drive. GPS said 10 1/2 hours -- which was odd because the trip up was only 7 1/2 hours. It routed us through Montreal to Route 87 instead of through Syracuse and Route 81 (double check). So glad I looked!

Drive home uneventful. Stopped at Rustic Rooster in King__, PA. Charming. Right off the highway. Cheap. Homemade foods. The German Chocolate cake was outstanding. Even better than what the ice cream shop selling Perry's ice cream looked.

Home about 10:30 pm.

It was nice not hearing politics for the week. I felt very relaxed.

Hoping to return in the fall.

Tuesday: Public Dig at Lac Phillippe

 (To be fleshed out in a few days... return)

While at Col By Day we learned about a public dig taking place the next day at Lac Phillippe in Gatineau Park. As our plans had called for hiking in Gatineau Park, we shifted so I could dig while Don went hiking. I then coerced him into hiking with me to find the cave.

Monica and Bob are the only two archaeologists working for the NCC in Canada. They run public archaeology digs in August. Their more exciting one is the following week at Lake Leamy, really close to our hotel. This was a 40 minute drive from Gatineau, even though it is in Gatineau.

I mostly dug with Alain, a retired government official. He told me the group digs regularly throughout the year. When it is too cold to dig they wash artifacts. They even have an annual holiday party. 

Yes, I wanted to join the group! I hope to return next summer for the Lake Leamy portion.

This site was lovely. We were steps away from a brand new shelter with bathrooms and ice cold water fountains, and a porch overlooking the lake. The lake provided a nice gentle breeze. 

Monica and Bob kept setting up tents to keep us shaded. Though it was 75 degrees with a beautiful blue sky and no humidity, they deemed it hot and stopped early. Though the afternoon shift did not start until 1, and i thought it was to go until 4:30, but 3:50 they took our screens and told us to start cleaning up. 

Insert frown.

We used tiny buckets, and small screens.

I was told they never find nails, yet I found one. It seemed like a new nail. I wonder if it came from the new shelter.

We were told to keep quartz -- which is the opposite of what I am normally told. It is a sign of Indigenous people.

We dug in one meter squares. The soil was mottled. They do not do Monsell, which Dan later told me is common in international sites. Measured in centimeters. 

I was interviewed by Canadian TV. Ashley watched it. She was surprised just how much they interviewed me and included me in the story. I knew the mission -- be the charming international digger and make the day look like fun. As a former journalist who has been on the other side of the interview, I knew the mission and did it. Cecilia, the newscaster, hovered taking footage of me digging. It was a bit much.

I had a fabulous time! Shared the link with my archaeology friends. 

Impressed we found a way to make up for the Azores, which we hope to reschedule. Trip insurance came through.

Afterwards we hiked 5 km to the cave. Most was on a road. Last kilometer was up a hill with built in stairs. Saw someone who warned us of a wasps' nest that was exposed when a tree fell right after the walked next to it. Saw a family tending to their youngest with scraped knees who was clearly tired of hiking.

Saw another family fishing in the lake, and one taking kayaks out.

Most of the group was staying on the camp grounds, which had running water, showers, and laundry facilities. I was happy to return to a real bed. Don is up for trying camping there next year.

We returned to M&M for dinner, and had ice cream around the corner at La Cigale, a place recommended by Monica. Only outdoor eating area. They have a booth where you order your treat, and then you walk over to pick it up from the counter. Many of the tables had games built into them. Lights strung. Garden atmosphere. A sign announcing when they are closed due to bad weather. Wish they also had an indoor dining area so we could go there year-round.

Monday: Part 2 at the Nordic Spa

 (To be fleshed out in a few days... return)

When our trip to the Azores was cancelled due to storms, Don worked hard to find a way to enjoy the highlights of what we would have done. He really wanted to find hot springs within driving distance of home. He found the Nordic Spa in Chelsea. 

No idea how we didn't know about it since everyone else we spoke to did, and because we ate dinner around the corner from it the summer before. It is only a fifteen minute drive from Parliament Hill.

Spent 7 1/2 hours at the spa.

$99 plus tax, timed entrance but can stay as long as you want. We wanted to stay past dark to see the stars. Includes locker, towel, and bathrobe.

No cell phones, hence no pictures.

Similar to one in Melbourne, but not as varied. Melbourne had hot rocks and seemed to have a greater variety of temperatures and felt more natural.

Someone described this as a "garden spa," a phrase we will have to search on in the future. We wanted a geothermal spa.

Many saunas of different types.

Arbour Treatment: sage and peppermint reminded us of the Native American smudging ceremonies.

There was also a towel dance. Danced to Billy Joel's Vienna and something calmer. Thought of Aimee.

Some areas were deemed silent, others social. The panoramic area with views of nearby Ottawa were social. 

Didn't see as many stars as expected.

Some rave about going in the winter. Then they are more on top of swapping robes and towels so you don't freeze to yours. The water has steam coming off of it in the cold weather.

Many places to simply relax. E-readers allowed. Many brought books. I'll bring a book next time, but maybe not a library book.

Some international people.

Adults only. 

Mostly white. A couple of Black people. A few Asians. Variety of ages.

Odd eating dinner in our bathing suit and robe. Restaurant not overpriced. 

Don had an underwater camera with him, but we forgot to use it.

Biggest question asked: why Ottawa?

Monday: Part 1 in Ottawa

(To be fleshed out in a few days... return)

Highlights:

House of Commons Tour in French -- that's what we get for not booking a tour in advance

Col. By Day with Sarah teaching us about Black history, and likely getting a little exasperated with our lack of Black Canadian History including Viola Desmond who was an early Rosa Parks.

She offers tours through blackhistoryottawa.org on Wednesdays (for free) and Saturdays (for a fee).

Got to chatting with archaeologists Monica and Bob and learned August in Archaeology Month, which they celebrate by hosting public digs. The next one will be ... tomorrow in Gatineau Park, where Don and I had planned to go hiking.

Lunch at the Bytown Market, same place we ate at last year. The owner is a flirt and made an infused iced tea just for me, even though his wife was correcting him on the right way to do so. He also gave me a lemon. We communicated in a combination of French and English.

Looked at the website for the Nordic Spa, noted they had a gap between 3:45 and 5 pm entries so we made a mad dash for them arriving around 3:20 pm.

Sunday: Escape from Ottawa

After driving around road closures for the Ottawa Ironman, we finally made it to Knox Presbyterian Church only about 15 minutes late. Founded in 1844 when Ottawa was still a small lumber outpost called Bytown, the 1932 structure is a classic Presbyterian church we have walked by on other visits. We wondered what the inside looked like. Up at the altar is a classic series of stained glass windows. The sanctuary has carved oaken benches. Locals know to grab a pad from the back before sitting down. We did not realize that, but as we were late, it didn't really matter. Others came after us, likely also tied up in traffic.

That week they had a visiting preacher, a retired woman who was thrilled to tell us all about Jacob, classic biblical stories that appear in the summer lectionary when she used to take vacations instead of filling in for pastors who are now on vacation. We both left uninspired.

Driving was proving to be a growing problem, and our parking space was only good for an hour, so we headed to the town of Almonte. Almonte's tagline is a "gem of a town." It was described to us as where Christmas movies are filmed, which made me wonder what time of year they do the filming.

We were advised to dine at Joe's Italian Kitchen, which people referred to as Joey's Pizza. I'm not a huge fan of American greasy pizza, but I do love European pizza. I went with the Joe Theisman pizza because of the zucchini and goat cheese. Don chose the Aloha Joe, an Hawaiian pizza. We ended up eating half of each other's pies.

The former woolen mill town is located on a river. I want to say the Mississippi River, because other towns were on that river. No, not THE Mississippi River, just a river with the same name as the more famous United States river. They have recently built a Riverwalk to capitalize on the river, but it was too rainy to explore it for very long. 

We did grab some ice cream from a booth before the rain, and ducked inside the mall across the street to enjoy it as we watched the downpour. Cute ice cream names certainly influence me. 

After admiring how cute the town is, and studying the art painted on the shop windows, we popped in and out of thrift stores. Unlike in Smiths Falls, we left empty handed.

The rain was putting a damper on the day, so we drove back to the hotel where I read and Don relaxed in the outdoor spa. He said it was much more crowded than the night before leaving him with the impression others had the same solution to avoiding the rain and the road closures in Ottawa. I was happy to relax in the room reading a book. I even managed to stay awake, which surprised both of us.

We finished our evening with dinner at Meech & Munch in Old Chelsea, a restaurant we enjoyed dining at last summer.

After dinner we returned to Ottawa, 
which was quieter since the Ironman was nearly finished, and had ice cream at Stella Luna, related to the shop we visited in Merrickville, Ontario last summer. If they had not closed their ice cream shop, I suspect we would have added them to our list of cute Ontario towns.

Saturday: Carp, home to a Cold War Museum

I've decided to shift my travel stories to a new blog, PillsburyTravels.blogspot.com. It is a site I feel more comfortable sharing our travel adventures with so I can keep PillsPress.blogspot.com more personal.

That said, visit PillsburyTravels.blogspot.com for my write up about the Diefenbunker Cold War Museum in Carp, Ontario.

On our way to the museum we stopped at the local Farmers Market and bought
some maple syrup vinaigrette. I love the Trenton Farmers Market, especially because it is open five days a week. The one in Carp is only open on Saturday mornings, but it seems to have a greater variety of foods, including shops specializing in local maple syrup.   

After the museum we dined at the Cheshire Cat Pub, a local hangout. The place was happening! We had as much fun watching the staff efficiently run the floor as we did eating our delicious dinner. Knowing that between the storms in the forecast, and road closures for the Ironman Ottawa would be difficult to navigate the next day we asked a patron for suggestions. She came up with the town of Altmonte, a town so cute it is used as backdrop for Hallmark Christmas movies.

It seems our trip is shaping up to be a tour of small towns in Ontario.