Snoeshoeing

Amelia and I went snowshoeing with Serge and Martine today. I just posted some photos that I took. We went snowshoeing in some woods just outside Saint-Lin-Laurentides, the town where Serge grew up. It was Amelia’s first time snowshoeing. Though she described it as ‘walking like you’re 8 monthes pregnant’, she seemed to enjoy it as much as everyone else.

Landing in Montreal

We arrived in Montreal on Sunday night.  Serge and Martine greeted us at the train station, and later brought us to the apartment near the airport that we’re subletting for the next two months.  We’ve been doing different errands this week to get ourselves set up here.

Now that I’m posting the pictures from our trip, I feel like we only scratched the surface (or maybe the snow, in this case) in seeing Canada.  We only passed through Saskatchewan during the night and never made it to any of the maritime provinces. I guess we’ve left ourselves something for future trips.  Let us know if you’re interested in joining us.

Our next step though is to find a job here, preferably one that doesn’t require us to speak French right away.  We’ll see how that goes.

Hope all are well despite the mudslides and storms.

Manitoba Minutes

We’re here in Churchill now on Hudson’s Bay.  We took the train up from Winnipeg.  The trees got steadily shorter as we went North and now on the coast of the bay there’s just barren tundra.  We were able to see the northern lights from the train as well as an arctic fox, I think. 

It’s now officially quite cold (-33 C, -29 F)–have to bundle up from head to toe (including two facemasks) to be able go out, even then you don’t last long.  Have some great pictures though of the town and the life here.  Unfortunately we’ve missed the polar bear season–when they pass right by the town.

Edmonton Notes

We’re in Edmonton now, it’s  -12 F (-24 C) out.  We actually walked around downtown yesterday–we alternated between very cool outside and very hot inside, with all our long underwear and such on.   Amelia’s not to keen on the place and the weather, but it’s actually a nice small city if you layer yourself enough.  We did some errands in the interconnected malls yesterday when it got too cold outside to walk around.  We’re back on the train to tonight and on to Winnipeg.

The Alberta Report

We left Toronto Thursday morning on the 9am train–It was snowing.   
After seeing endless amounts of suburban Toronto, we finally saw some of

the rural farming areas north of Toronto–fields with cows or horses in
the center huddling together for warmth with snow on their backs.  As we

passed Lake Huron and Georgian Bay to the East we entered the so-called
‘Canadian Shield’–interminable pine woods–apparently sitting just
above lots of rocks.

We spent Thursday night in the woods passing above Lake Superior.  On
Friday we awoke passing through remote clearings with a few
buildings–allegedly towns–still above Lake Superior. We spent most of
the day still looking at snowy pine trees finally making it to Winnipeg
around dinner time.

Saturday morning we woke up already in Alberta near Edmonton having
slept through the rest of Manitoba and Saskatchewan.  The part of
Alberta around Edmonton turned out not to look as industrial as I’d
thought.  Lots of snow covered farms with small outcroppings of trees
and the occasional grouping of houses–I’ve seen just one iron donkey
pumping oil.

We made it in to Jasper last night.  Today we walked around town and
then went for a short hike around one of the lakes here.  Quite cold but

great views of the mountains from all different angles.

Yes, we have heard people saying "eh" but they all seem to be from
Saskatchewan–so go figure.

The Toronto Report

Amelia and I have been in the Toronto area for five days now–the first
two days in downtown Toronto and the last three in Oakville with
Amelia’s college friend.

Toronto is–in a way–a weird place.  The grey snow banks, the leftover
ice from trampled snow, the green and yellow matted down grass wet from
melted snow remind me of Detroit and it’s suburbs.  But then you see
the streetcars, the subway, the mix of townhouses, middle-class
apartment complexes and office buildings and you think how you’re in
alternate future Detroit.  One that had kept investing in public
transportation and done whatever else you need for a thriving mixed use
city.

It’s actually been warmer than Boston was, so we’ve had a good chance
to walk around and see Toronto and Oakville.  Slowly we’re getting used
to the cold.

We’re off tomorrow on our train trip exploring the western plains of
Canada.  Assuming Amelia survives the long train rides without her
daily shower, we’ll soon have more interesting stories to tell.