So, fast forward 3 years…Brandon is ready to graduate Grade 8 and guess who brings up the road trip idea? Like any good father I live up to my word and we haul out the maps in search of Brandon. Naturally we quickly decide on Brandon Manitoba…but after careful consideration and numerous route variations it was decided that a round trip of 6000kms was just too far to travel in 9 days.

Luckily we found another option….Brandon, Vermont. Much closer and it still fit within the guidelines of our trip. After many months of anticipation…and a few weeks of planning the day finally arrived for Brandon and I to embark on our journey…to Brandon.

Day 1 – Saturday, July 10

Kemptville, ON to Brandon, VT

Distance – 370km

10:40am – The truck is all packed and we’re ready to head out and hit the open road. Next stop…Brandon, Vermont.

We easily crossed the border at Ogdensburg and stopped for some supplies and a bite to eat for lunch. We then headed south into the Adirondack mountains.

3:30pm – We made our way along Hwy 30 and made a stop at Hoss’s in Long Lake for an ice cream.

We decided on a couple of milkshakes, and after watching the guy make them we knew we were in for a treat. Eight scoops of chocolate ice cream went into the mixer along with a healthy portion of 2% milk.

It’s been a long time since I’ve had an honest to goodness decent milkshake (RIP – Burger Shack of Kemptville) and Hoss’s sure didn’t disappoint. It took us 30 minutes to finish them off and roughly 8 hours before we were hungry again. I think we ended up skipping supper that night due to a belly full of dairy products. I feel sorry for any sufferers of lactose intolerance that stumble upon this place and order up one of these milkshakes. May the dairy gods have mercy on your bowels.

While touring through the mountains we happened upon this little critter wandering the highway. He appeared to have been recently struck by a vehicle and seemed to be a little dazed. The gentleman in the car ahead of us referred to it as a ‘Coy Dog’. I interpreted this to mean coyote but after some additional research (thank you Google) I see that Coy Dogs are common in NY State as well as parts of Pennsylvania. A Coy Dog is the offspring of a male coyote and a typical female household dog.

This guy wandered around the truck for a few seconds and seemed quite tame, and I have to admit I was tempted to have Brandon get out and pose with the pooch but he rambled on about something to do with ‘wild animals’ and ‘unpredictable tendencies’. Blah blah blah.

5:00pm – Within an hour we were at the New York/Vermont border. A quick river crossing on the ferry at Ticonderoga was a well deserved break to stop and stretch our legs.

Once we rolled off the ferry we instantly knew we were heading in the right direction.

6:00pm – As we crested yet another rolling hill of the Vermont countryside we were greeted by a quaint little town nestled amongst the hills. Could this be the Shangri-La that we were searching for? A quick scan of the area failed to result in an obvious ‘Welcome to Brandon’ sign, but the good people of this sleepy town obviously heard about our trip and wanted to pay special tribute. Being the friendly town that it is they decided to craft some special signage for our arrival. We were pleasantly surprised at the accuracy of these signs. The local sign maker sure hit the nail on the head when he came up with this simple yet effective welcome sign! Brandon was in awe of the attention to detail.

Naturally, when visiting Brandon one must stay at The Brandon Inn.

To be honest, we tried every other place in town but due to the ongoing bluegrass festival the entire town was booked solid for the weekend. One might think it strange that The Brandon Inn had rooms available, but at three times the price of the local motel I can understand why most festival folks chose the cheaper accommodations.

Built in 1786 this is a classic old hotel. It boasted a grand ballroom, a manual elevator (circa 1901) and large, stately rooms. After checking in for the night the clerk informed us that there was only us an another couple in the hotel for the night. That’s right, of the 65 rooms only 2 of them were booked.

She then proceeded to tell us that there was no night staff to speak of and if we needed assistance we could reach the innkeeper by dialing their home number, clearly labeled on the phone in our room.

This didn’t fully sink in until approximately 12:30am when I was reading in bed and we were feeling a bit peckish. Should we wander down to the kitchen and see what leftovers the chef had hiding in the fridge? Hey, why not? We practically had the place at our disposal!

Although quite tempting we decided we would call it a night and wait until breakfast.

DAY 2 – Sunday, July 11

Brandon, VT to Salem, NH

Distance – 336km

10:00am – We wandered around town for awhile and check out the local sites. The weather was beautiful, as was the local fauna.

We decided we had seen enough and gassed up the truck and headed for Monadnock Mountain. At an elevation of 2,280ft we thought this would be a good chance to get in a quick hike while en route to the New Hampshire/Massachusetts border.

The ranger at the park booth described the trail as an ‘easy-to-moderate hike’ which was 3 miles in length round trip. Piece o’ cake. That might take us an hour we thought as we tossed on our hiking shoes and backpacks. Within 500 yards of the parking lot our trail consisted of this…

….and it continued in this fashion most of the way up the mountain. Now apparently ‘easy to moderate’ means something different in New Hampshire, as I would personally classify this trail as ‘moderately insane’ but that’s just me. Regardless of the inaccurate classification of this trail it was a spectacular hike and one we would gladly do again. If you are ever in the the area be sure to check it out…just make sure you have proper footwear and plenty of water with you. From start to finish it took us 2.5 hours to complete.

We then trucked onto Salem, where we found a Red Roof Inn with cheap rates for the night.

A note for all you travelers out there…the Red Roof Inn is very reasonable from Sunday-Thursday ($50/night for double occupancy) and the rooms are clean. I would recommend them to anyone looking for accommodations on a budget!

After our hike earlier in the day a comfy bed and hot shower was well received.

Day 3 – Monday, July 12

Salem, NH – York Beach, ME

Distance – 209km

11:00am – We slept in a little longer than planned (we blame it on that ‘easy’ hike from the day before) but managed to hit the highway and arrived downtown Boston @ 11:30am.

Our first stop was the Naval Shipyard to check out the USS Constitution. As it turns out the USS Constitution is closed on Monday but we were still able to tour another of the retired Navy ships.

While at the shipyard the weather took a turn for the worst and the skies opened up with a mighty downpour of rain for what seemed to last for an eternity. We attempted to wait out the storm but there didn’t seem to be any end it sight so we decided to make a mad dash for our nearby vehicle.

As the streets flooded over their curbs (literally!) we made it back to the truck, a tad on the damp side but no worse for wear.

As we sat in the truck we wondered what the rest of the day would hold for us in lovely Boston.

We decided to head uptown and check out the shopping district since it seemed to be indoors. After circling the downtown area for an hour and a half (no exaggeration!) we finally came across a parking lot with an empty space. I quickly realized why it was empty, since the rate for parking was $14 per hour…with NO HOURLY LIMIT! Who in their right mind parks here?! Apparently I do, since we were sick of driving around and needed to get some food in our stomachs.

So, while in Boston….where does one find a place to eat?

Naturally we trekked a couple of blocks to the most famous bar in televisionland…Cheers!

While the outside was nearly identical to what we saw on television in the 80′s, the inside of this establishment was a little smaller than what I remember watching on tv.

Plus….not ONE single person knew our names. Shocking, to say the least.

We still managed to down some good pub fare and take in the very cool memorabilia that adorned the walls.

Of course we had to get a shot with Tecumseh, the famous wooden indian who was always stationed at the front door.

The weather cleared while we were eating so after a couple of shots with the infamous sign we headed off through Boston Commons Park and back to the truck.

It was nearing 5:00pm and we didn’t have a place to stay for the night so we decided to get out of the city and search for a local campsite. It took us much longer than expected to get out of Boston as our GPS kept turning us in circles due to the numerous construction projects going on in the downtown core. They must get their infrastructure budget from the enormous profits that are raked in at their downtown parking lots.

We finally managed to get out of the city and onto the extremely scenic Hwy#1 which takes you along the Atlantic coast through New Hampshire and up into Maine.

This was by far the most scenic highway I have ever driven. On your right is the ocean and on your left are countless multimillion dollar home overlooking the ocean. I would hazard a guess that 90% of the homes along this highway are between 5,000 and 10,000 square feet. Simply stunning places, with what I can only imagine to be significantly hefty price tags.

We came across a handful of beachfront towns that I’m sure Stephen King has written about in any one of his novels.

One of these towns, York Beach, happened to have a campsite available for the night. A small private campground that seemed secluded enough from the busy downtown area.

While checking in the woman was showing us the map of the campground and stated ‘…now if you hear the lion roar in the night not to worry, they will feed it and it will go back to sleep. And, if you hear a woman screaming not to worry, it’s just the peacock.’

I’m almost certain she noticed the puzzled (and somewhat concerned) look on my face as she then proceeded to point out the local zoo on the map which coincidentally backed onto the campground. And lucky for us…the lion cages were closest to our site! OH GOODY!

We took a tour of the downtown area and had some ‘Wicked Good’ ice cream while strolling the streets. We found the zoo/amusement park and wandered through the midway before heading back to camp for the night.

We laid in bed listening for the rustling of leaves while the lions stalked our tent, but I guess those lions were well fed that night since we didn’t hear a peep out of them the entire night.

Nonetheless, Brandon had his phone ready to dial 911 in case of an attack.

Day 4 – Tuesday, July 13

York Beach, ME to North Conway, NH

Distance – 212km

9:00am – We got up early and packed up camp. The camp manager told us we had to check out a place called Perkins Cove while in the area so we ventured off a few miles down the road to see what all the fuss was about.

Perkins Cove contains boat tours, local shops, restaurants and a 1-mile scenic trail that snakes along the rocky cliffs of the Atlantic.

Things were pretty quiet around the cove and we were told that sea lions were known to frequent the cove and could sometimes be seen from the trail, so we decided hike out and see if we could see the local wildlife. Unfortunately there were no sea lions in the area that day, but we still took in some great views of the ocean.

All morning we could see the local fisherman hauling in their traps so we stuck around and had lunch in one of the local eateries.

The view from our table was spectacular.

As were the scallops!

After lunch we hopped in the truck and continued along the coast to Kennebunkport where we saw the Presidential cottages that dotted the shoreline.

We decided we had better hit a local beach so that we can take our mandatory swim in the ocean. We decided on Cresent Beach State Park, just south of Portland. We threw on our swim trunks and headed for the water. I personally managed it get in up to my waist before my right testicle retracted and hid in fear, just slightly north of my belly button. Brandon waded in all the way up to his ankles but wasn’t impressed with the water temperature.

After talking to the park ranger we were told that the water was a balmy 62 degrees. That would explain why it took 3 hours for my testicle to come out of hiding.

We dried off and kept heading north to Portland. We made a short stop for fuel and then continued on into New Hampshire for the night. We found a campsite in North Conway at the foot of the White Mountain State Park. No lions to speak of at this campground, but we did manage to get our hands on a riverfront campsite. Nice place…aside from all the rain.

Brandon and I toured the campground for a couple hours while it rained and then decided to call it an early night. It continued to rain throughout the night, but our MEC tent did a great job of keeping us dry.

Day 5 – Wednesday, July 14

North Conway, NH to Kemptville, ON

Distance – 568km

7:30am – It rained all night and with no end in sight we packed up camp and headed out early.

We had plans of getting in some hiking in the White Mountains but the weather was still very wet and we didn’t get much sleep due to the pounding rain all night so we decided to take in the mountain scenery from the truck instead. Brandon napped through most of the mountains so it’s a good thing we didn’t stop since I was not prepared to carry him up any of the ‘easy-to-moderate’ trails.

We trucked it through New Hampshire and into Vermont where we made a stop in Burlington to get some food and catch the ferry into New York State.

While searching for food we came across this fine establishment. With a name like that, it must be good!

We took a look around the local shops and ended up missing the early ferry, so we decided to drive a little farther south to Charlotte and catch the ferry there.

After crossing into NY we carried on to Lake Placid and checked out some of the Olympic Village.

We stopped to try our hand at bobsledding but the track was closed for the day. Instead we had to try some Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream before heading for home.

6:00pm – We arrived back in Kemptville. We were a day or two earlier than we were expecting but we managed to see all the sites we had planned and even a few we hadn’t.

We had some good food, good sites and good conversation.

Overall, a great trip with a great kid.

Total distance – 1695kms

Can’t wait to do it again!

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The warmer weather has finally cleared the remaining ice and snow from our driveway and allowed the kids to hop on their Christmas gifts for the first time. They were even lucky enough to find a mud puddle or two.

Click below to read more!

We looked outside after the storm and thought that someone had stolen our van. Turns out it was still there…just not quite as visible as the day before.

The entire family suited up and headed outdoors to partake in the fresh piles of snow.

Joshua REALLY likes to go headlong into his work.

Alana and I staying warm.

Evan, Josh and myself.

Alyssa testing out the new snow slide.

Turns out the snow wasn’t quite deep enough. We were still able to dig Brandon out.

Alana and Alyssa

BANZAAAAAAAIIIIIIII

Some random shots from the day….

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Christmas 2007 brought both sides of the family to Kville which was a nice change for us, not having to travel with the kids and being able to enjoy some downtime at our place.

Christmas Eve was spent prepping the gifts and loading the tree.

Christmas morning came, to our surprise,  a little later than usual. The last of the kids rolled out of bed around 8:00am with grandma and grandpa Doyle close behind. However, the late start didn’t stop the kids from making up for lost time.

It didn’t take Alyssa very long to find one of many dolls that she had asked Santa for.

Josh and Evan lucked into some cool new hoodies, as did Brandon.

The boys also got their gifts of Lego from grandma and grandpa.

Oh the chaos has begun.

Brandon asked for a picture of his favourite pro skater….HIMSELF!

Brandon appeared a wee bit confused when he open up his new motocross helmet, especially since he already had one that was a couple years old. The story goes like this…..the boys have always wanted dirtbikes, BUT the agreement I made with them from the beginning was that they needed to have proper safety gear BEFORE getting any sort of  motorized fun. We decided to get all the boys their gear for Christmas. Little did they know what else awaited them. Muwwhaahaahaahaa….

We led the kids out to the garage with the story that there was a big gift for their uncle Mitchell out there. When the garage door opened they finally found the gifts that we had been hiding in a friends garage since October.

The next couple hours were spent testing out the new gear and the new bikes.

Josh and his PW80

Brandon and his RT100

Evan and his 80cc quad

Alyssa and her slime green Kawasaki Ninja ATV

Christmas 2007 was a roaring success. I don’t know who was more excited about getting dirtbikes…the kids, or ME. As most of you know I’m an avid motorcycle rider, so getting the opportunity to teach the kids the joys of motorized sports is something that I’ve wanted to do for a LOOOOOOOONG time. I remember growing up as a kid on 3wheelers and ATVs and they’re some of the best memories that I have. I hope that they have as much fun with the sport as I have.

Stay tuned for PT.2 of Christmas 2007 

Wondering who the certain celeb is? Click and find out!

So I was wandering around the dog show checking out the various dogs, and you’ll never guess who I just happened to bump into…

HOLY CRAP… IT’S RICK MERCER!!!

Rick has been an icon in Canadian comedy over the past few years. He’s famous for his skits that make fun of Americans and their ignorance regarding their neighbours to the North. If you have no idea who I’m talking about make sure you check out his website at http://www.rickmercer.com/ and tune in to The Mercer Report on CBC Tuesday night at 8pm.

Turns out Rick was at the dog show filming his show for next week. (Be sure to watch…you may be able to see me in the background taking hundreds of pictures!)

While I snapped away I watched Rick go through his monologue and introduce the various dogs and their handlers. It appears that Devlin the Dacshund will be the star of the show.

Devlin

Devlins’ handler was showing Rick the proper steps involved in grooming a champion show dog. A couple of well place doggie-style jokes by Rick rounded out the set.

 No good television host is complete without his purple grooming apron.

Like any good groomer, Rick tests for the appropriate temperature setting before he primps the dog.

This awesome Landseer Newf doesn’t look overly impressed with Rick’s technique.

Devlin looks a little nervous as well.

I spent 30 mins taking pictures and watching the taping of his show. Once they were finished taping his segment I schmoozed my way over to the director and asked if Rick would mind a picture. The director grabbed my camera and asked Rick if he’d mind a quick pic. After exchanging a handshake and a cheezy “Your show is the GREATEST” comment with my best nervous schoolgirl voice we took a couple pics and Rick was on his way to interview yet another canine.

There ya go…my brush with Canadian greatness. What a great way to spend a Sunday morning!

Thanks to you Rick, for keeping Canada laughing.

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We carved out all the pumpkins and set them up outside with a big bowl of candy…just incase some kids showed up at our doorstep while we were away Trick-Or-Treating. The kids did a great job on their pumpkins this year. I guess the years of practice is really starting to pay off!

Brandon

Josh

Evan

Alyssa

We stopped off at Chris and Lori’s house so the kids could have a chance to scare them. Turns out Chris had setup a dummy on the front step to keep the pesky little children away for the night. It seemed to work well on Brandon since he refused to walk up to the front door when we arrived. The others didn’t seem to mind one bit.

Turns out the dummy was actually Chris in costume. How appropriate!

I guess the spooky little man was correct in thinking something wasn’t quite right with that dummy. Brandon stayed at the edge of the step the entire visit. Chris was just too ugly to look at.

Luckily, he had Batgirl to protect him.

Brandon met up with his friends in town while the rest of us wandered around the neighbourhood collecting sugar.

Looks like the sugar is starting to kick in….time to go home!

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 The trees were just hitting their peak brilliance, so it was a great drive down to Cobourg. The country backroads yielded the best colours of orange, reds and yellows.

Our visit coincided with Joshua’s birthday, so mom had his gifts waiting for his arrival. I didn’t realize you could stuff so many things into a gift bag.

Alyssa was very excited for the trip. She hadn’t been down to Cobourg for a few months and she always looks forward to seeing her grandparents.

Plus, she finally had the chance to test out her new backpack. Yep, it works!

The boys and I spent the night in the new RV. It was a little chilly that night, but the 17 blankets seemed to help!

The next morning we took a trip down to the neighbours place to see their new calf. The kids always get a kick out of going down to visit their dog Sparky, and now they can go visit Bubba as well.

Bubba

Of course a trip to Cobourg isn’t complete without the mandatory ATV ride. This time around Brandon and I headed out into the forest for awhile to check out the trails. Naturally, he had to drive.

Should be able to get some decent radio reception with all these towers around here?!

Until next time!!

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Joshua had a birthday celebration last month with a few of his friends. As always the cake was eagerly anticipated by all in attendance.

Finally…..CAKE!!

The only thing better than cake…..GIFTS!!!

Gramma and Grampa Doyle gave Josh his first watch. He’s been asking for one of these  for awhile now. As you can see by his expression he was quite surprised to finally get his wish!

It’s official now…he’s a hockey player.

A crowd gathers around to check out the rest of the gifts.

The final gift of the day was a brand new bike. Josh has been getting his older brothers hand-me-down bikes over the past few years so it was finally time for him to get his very own. There’s nothing better than that “new bike smell”.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUDDY!

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We picked a perfect day weather wise to take some pictures, so we met up with Steve and checked out a few locations that he wanted to shoot.

Steve was gracious enough to let me bring my camera along to document the day and to get a couple of shots of my own. I was careful not to encroach on his turf or steal any of his “visions”…which I admit, was more difficult than I had anticipated. Anyone who knows me, knows that I have a camera with me 99% of the time. NOT taking a picture is something I have never contemplated before!

Steve took us to one of his usual spots. WICKED architecture in this building. Made for a great backdrop.

Photographers must just hate it when hacks like me keep getting in the way of their carefully composed shots.

One of the sexy models…

Apparently the model sucked, so he was put to better use holding the reflector.

I got bored with the reflector so I grabbed my camera and wandered around. Dave suggested that I try this shot. Nice suggestion buddy!

The intense sunlight was a pain to deal with so we decided to pack up and head to another spot where we might find some shade.

Steve snapping off a few at the harbour.

Dave finally had his turn holding the reflector. He’s so easily amused by shiny things.

 I managed to get a few decent shots of the 675 while Dave was distracted with the shiny reflector.

Dave snapped this one of his Daytona. Not too shabby for a rookie!

Ya ya..you’re cool Dave. Blah Blah Blah.

The sun was starting to get lower so we ventured off to another spot to see if we could get some sunset pics. Steve lead us through the streets of Gatineau and we wound up at a park that looks out towards Parliament Hill.

This was my last shot of an awesome day. Big thanks to Steve for taking us out!

These are a couple of Steve’s finished shots that he has allowed me to post.

If you want to check out more of his pics, check out his Flickr site. He’s got some awesome stuff.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ice_ix/

Thanks again Steve!

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We make the annual trip to our local apple orchard for a bushel of Ontario’s finest MacIntosh apples.

Mountain Orchards is located just outside of Kemptville in Mountain Ontario, and was voted “The Best Orchard in the Ottawa Valley” in 2006. Based on the amount of vehicles and people in attendance this year, that little award has definately paid off for them. We’ve never seen them so busy!

We started off with a wagon ride out to the orchards. The kids always enjoy the bumpy trail. I managed to get a couple of pics between bumps and potholes.

Once we made our way out into the orchard it was time to fill the bags with some MacIntosh goodness.

The kids have a blast climbing the ladders and trees hunting for the perfect apples.

Can you spot the rotten apple?

Alyssa found the perfect one!

…although she seemed to have more fun EATING the apples rather than picking them.

Old apple trees make perfect climbers.

Once the bags were full we headed off to the corn maze. After about 20 minutes we gave up and made our own path out of the field. Hey, it was a BIG field!

Ok, apples were picked and the maze was conquered….sort of. Time for my FAVOURITE part of this annual trip….

I’m not a huge fan of donuts and pastry. BUT, these particular donuts are second to none. These things could put Tim Horton’s out of business.

Here’s where the magic happens…the bakery. Baked fresh right in front of your eyes! The donuts are litterally dropping off into their bags, still hot to the touch, while you’re placing your order. It’s a thing of beauty.

My stomach ALWAYS overrules my brain while I’m standing in this line, so I always order more than I should. This is why we only go ONCE per year.