Vacation Recap

So vacations #3 and #4 are officially over and I am slowly working my way through the photos. As per usual, my summer collection of photos has grown at a much faster rate than I can edit. As a result I will likely be dealing with a great deal of summer photos through the Fall and Winter seasons (well more like the Winter as I tend to take a lot of photos in the Fall as well).
Despite the fact that I don't really have any photos to show you, the trips to Toronto and Quebec City were great. I have realized that Quebec City is awesome and far superior to Montreal, in my opinion and I am sure Dave and I will be going back again.
As previously mentioned, both of these trips revolved around Cirque du Soleil shows. They were both good shows but Totem has definitely won the title of favourite Cirque show so far. We absolutely loved it! Not only were the performers great, but the clowns had actual acts and the stage was amazing (especially when you consider that this is a travelling show)! Totally worth the money and I highly recommend seeing this one if it comes even remotely close to you. I am sure I will post more about the trips but for now, hopefully that answers some questions about how they went.
As usual, the end of a vacation has made me start planning the next one - not entirely sure what it will be though Dave is interested in going camping at Bon Echo and we both still want to go to Vegas sometime soon. I will of course keep you all updated on what we do next.

Cirque Vacations

You may have noticed, that with the exception of our two weeklong vacation to Florida, Dave and I tend to take long weekend vacations rather than weeklong ones. I find this to be a more effective use of our vacation time and also allows for us to go to several different places, albeit for less time at each place.
We are currently planning Vacation 2010 #3 and #4, Toronto and Quebec City respectively and as a great deal of our trips do, these both started out because of Cirque du Soleil shows.
The Toronto trip will be mixed with a trip to see Dave’s parents and his mom’s side of the family. We will be spending July 2 at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) and then seeing Cirque’s show Alegria at the Air Canada Centre. Then we will spend the 3rd in Peterborough and then head to Guelph for the family reunion on the 4th. We plan on taking the 5th off from work as well to drive home and relax from all the visiting. It should be a nice semi-vacation.
The Quebec City trip is based around Cirque’s newest show TOTEM. It is currently showing in Montreal and is then moving to Quebec City for a month (as all new Cirque touring shows do). I don’t really know what else we will do as I just thought of doing this and also just bought the Cirque tickets, but we still have plenty of time to get everything else set up.
We were also planning a Vegas trip (also based around Cirque shows) but due to all the other smaller trips, and the rest of the events we are doing in the Ottawa area, I think we will push this to further in the year. It would also be nicer to go to such a hot location when it is cold here at home.

Zhe Yan

Yan turns 27 today!!

Yan was a roommate of Dave's for 4 years and mine for 2 years. We lived with him at Dynes and it was good times. He is now living in Montreal and working at Bombardier. The photo of him is from Chris, Jerrica and Lyndsey's Hallowe'en party when he came down for the weekend.
Happy Birthday Yan!

Botanical Gardens

So I have been saving one of the best locations for last. I partially saved it for last because it is the place where I took the most photographs and therefore had the greatest amount of editing to be done.The Botanical Gardens was absolutely gorgeous. It was a slightly rainy day, but that didn't hinder the photography or the experience at all. The foliage within the greenhouses were vibrant and beautiful and despite the fact that you are not allowed tripods within the greenhouses (for space reasons) I was still able to get some nice shots. Dave and I were also able to set the camera up on rocks and take some semi-long exposure shots. There weren't very many people there, so that helped with the longer shots as well.I think one of the more interesting greenhouses was the ones with the bonsai and the Chinese equivalent, penjing. There was a little robin in the one area that I thought was fake. I stared at the little guy and moved my camera near him and he did not move. We walked on and when we did walk back, he had moved to a new location and was wandering around the little trees. It was very spooky, but he was adorable so I forgave him for it.We eventually found our way out of the greenhouses and walked around the exterior gardens. They were just as nice and they were in extreme humidity so both Dave and I were able to stop sweating so much and my camera was able to stop fogging up every ten minutes or so. We walked around the 'normal' gardens and found our way over to the Chinese exterior gardens. They were simply breathtaking in their beauty. Dave asked me to take as many shots as possible of the architecture around the gardens and I did not object. I'm not entirely sure what my favourite shot is from that garden, but I am putting these ones on this blog and I am sure the rest will eventually make their way on to my photography blog in the near future.We then walked over to the Insectarium which is located on the garden grounds. It is a small little pavilion similar to those at the Toronto Zoo, and is absolutely stuffed with one man's collection which he donated to the gardens. They have since added to it and are displaying live insects as well, but the majority of it apparently all belonged to one man whose name I forget right now. There were some really neat looking bugs on display, both alive and dead, and some absolutely massive ones! It was pretty neat, though I hope I never run into the vast majority of that collection in the wild.

Fireworks

Our original plans for the Montreal trip did not include fireworks but when Yan brought up the international competition happening Saturday evenings. We walked the somewhat dodgy path down to the harbour to watch the fireworks. Due to heavy foot traffic we were a little late and were still walking to a good shooting location when they started.Dave and I set up my tripod and I got the remote hooked up. It took a few practice shots, but eventually I got the hang of it and just had to wait for the right type of fireworks to shoot up into the sky. As previously mentioned, we then spent a little while taking night shots of the architecture around Vieux Port and then walked back to the hotel and drove Yan home.
The trip that should have taken 15-20 minutes took over an hour and a half! The ride consisted of downtown Montreal on a Saturday evening - yes it was an incredibly bad idea, I know. Anyway, we eventually make it through the horrible driver and mean Quebecers cursing our Ontario, personalized plates and got Yan back to his car. The drive back wasn't nearly as long and we made it back to the hotel at about 1:00 or 1:30 in the morning, which made getting up early the next day particularly difficult.

Notre Dame Basilica of Montreal

When planning the trip to Montreal the first place to see on my list was Notre Dame Basilica. It is noted to be 'one of the crown jewels of Montreal' and was absolutely a place I had to see.
When we went to the fireworks and I took all the nights shots, I thought of going to Notre Dame Basilica to see what it was like at night. I did not, however, know where I was and didn't really want to make Dave and Yan walk around downtown so late when I had already made them wait for me while I was taking shots down at the harbour. Turns out, they have a light show most nights and it would have been pretty neat, but the night was still great and I am rather pleased with the shots I was able to get during the day on Sunday when we travelled there.
Of course going on a Sunday wasn't the greatest idea as there was obviously church in session when we went. We stepped inside and as expected, no photographs were allowed. It was beautiful though - breathtaking really.Dave and I then spent about 30 minutes taking photos of the exterior of the church as well as the fountain nearby the church. In fact, I took more photos of the fountain than of the church itself. It was a really nice fountain, and with the help of my tripod, I was able to practice my moving water shots.

Parc du Mont Royal

After checking in at our hotel, Dave and I headed to Parc du Mont Royal. The drive there was very pleasant and a nice change from the hectic traffic ridden drive into the city. It was all uphill and had spectacular views of the city. There were some pro-level bikers using the hill as training ground and I found them to be very impressive. Once we parked and figured out where in the massive park we were, we started wandering aimlessly around. There were rock statues situated throughout the park which would have made for some great shots if the sky had been a little nicer. I did however, manage to take a few shots of some of the more ornate and natural looking ones, like the above picture. I am not entirely sure what this one was supposed to be, and doubt anyone can help me since this is a very close-up shot, as most of my shots tend to be, but I found it to be very interesting looking.We then walked around the park and into the Mont Royal Cemetery which is nearby. I know this seems weird, visiting a cemetery on your vacation, but I find them to be very beautiful and this one was no exception.The place was packed of tombstones and mausoleums but didn't have very many living people when we were there, though it is very large and it would be easy to walk through it and never see anyone, despite them also being there with you.
It was a very nice walk, but by the end I was utterly exhausted and we ended up spending the rest of the night in our hotel room watching cable TV and eating lasagna I made us in our microwave, which was delicious.

Cirque du Soleil - Ovo

Though Dave and I had been planning on going to Montreal 'sometime' it was the purchase of our Cirque du Soleil tickets for Ovo that decided the actual date and made the trip a reality. The show was amazing, like I knew it would be, and I strongly recommend going if you are even the least bit able to. As previously mentioned, it is a show about insects and the world they live in. It was adorable and breathtaking to say the least. The acts were spectacular and at times, kept you on the edge of your seat. It was however, the show during which Dave and I learned that there are 'not good' seats. We sat in what turned out to be the wrong seats and were unable to see a small portion of the stage. When we moved we learned that the focus of the seating selection should not be getting as close to the stage as possible but rather to get in middle rows whenever possible. Unfortunately, there was a lighting post that blocked part of the back wall and took away from the trampoline act slightly.All the acts revolved around a different insect. One I was most looking forward to was the one dealing with ants (above image from here). They did amazing things with kiwi fruit and mini corncobs. The tossed each other around and were flawless throughout their entire performance. Their costumes were also the cutest as the rest of the female costumes were sexier than they were cute. I think this was likely my favourite act. Dave's favourite act, as I knew it would be, was the trampoline act. Unfortunately, as previously mentioned, this was the act that was partially blocked, but it was still really great.I took the above photograph after watching the fireworks at le Vieux Port. The last few minutes of the fireworks all I could think of was which buildings I was going to photograph since the lighting on the really old buildings down there was fantastic and I couldn't resist them. I am really happy with not only the shot, but the fact that I finally was able to photograph the big top. Every time Dave and I have gone to Cirque shows in the past I have left my camera at home, since you are not able to use them within the big top and I never wanted to risk losing it or getting it stolen. I am also glad I took this shot as the next day when we were walking around Vieux Port, the clouds were not friendly and would have provided a massively overexposed skyline.

Biodome de Montreal

As part of our trip to Montreal, Dave and I went to the Biodome de Montreal. We went on a Saturday afternoon and apparently that is an incredibly bad idea. The lineup to get in wrapped halfway around the Biodome. It took somewhere from 30-45 minutes to get in, but we didn't have to wait around any longer than that as we already had tickets since we had bought a package deal at the Botanical Gardens which we visited earlier in the day.
There was just a ridiculous amount of people and Dave and I didn't spend as long in the Biodome as I had thought we would. We skipped a few of the less popular displays in an attempt to bypass the crowds, but to no avail. We elbowed our way up to the popular displays so I could try to get some shots, but weren't that successful. I got lots of shots, but none are really that great as the lighting was low and we weren't able to get the tripod out due to the afforementioned crowds.
The lemurs were probably my favourite display. The keeper was talking to the crowds but in french so I only caught parts of it as I had to concentrate of my photography. Despite the crowds and lack of really great photos, I enjoyed the Biodome. Next time though, we will make a point of going in the morning.

Vacation #2 - Montreal

Dave and I went to Montreal as our second vacation of the summer. It was a really great trip and one I would make again. It did, however, start off a little badly in that the traffic was so wretched on the way in that it really discouraged Dave and I. Once we got to our first actual destination (after checking in at the hotel and getting some lunch), we both realized how great the weekend was going to be.
We went to Parc du Mont Royal and the Cemetery therein on Friday and then to the Botanical Gardens, Biodome and Olympique Parc on Saturday. That evening we met up with our friend Yan, and went to dinner at Milso, a Brazilian restaurant that was really entertaining and then to Vieux Port where we watched Fireworks as part of an international competition. Sunday we walked around Vieux Port until our Cirque du Soleil show started in the afternoon. We then went to the St. Joseph Oratory before heading back to Ottawa.
I plan on blogging about each individual part of our trip in separate posts as the trip was so enjoyable, that one post would not do it justice. I can almost guarantee they will not, however, be in chronological order as I took all of the photos during this trip in Raw format which means I will need more time to complete the post-production. I will also be posting additional photos from the trip on my photography blog.

Whale Watching Raincheck

As I have previously mentioned (multiple times now), Dave and I had planned a trip to the East Coast this summer, but this has since been canceled in lieu of a 'new' car and an extended trip to Montreal and Chris' cottage. This makes me a little sad as I very much wanted to go whale watching. I have always wanted to capture an image like the one below, and though I know it is very rare, it would have been amazing.

(image from: here)

Our trip will be postponed and I will take a raincheck on whale watching until next year when hopefully there are less unforeseen, money-guzzling circumstances.
Chris was able to go whale watching on the west coast this summer and had the 'pleasure' of witnessing an pod of Orcas (killer whales) hunting sea lions. A truly spectucalur, yet dismal display of the natural world.

Vacation #2 and #3

Vacation #2 - Montreal and Cirque du Soleil.
I ordered tickets for Cirque's new show Ovo just now. It is a show about the world of insects and I am very excited about seeing another Cirque show - and in their hometown no less! The show is on a Sunday and we plan on going to Montreal Saturday and spending the day at the Biodome and Botanical Gardens, likely with our friend and old roommate Yan. We are going to take both the day before and the day after the trip off from work to be able to really enjoy it.

Vacation #3 - Cottage on lake Erie.
For the past two years Dave and I have gone to Chris' cottage on Lake Erie. Usually we spend the August long weekend there and are home in time to go to work on the Tuesday. This year we have decided to make the trip longer and stay until the Wednesday, returning to work on Thursday. I can't wait and even the idea of the longer stay makes me very happy. With the addition of Jerrica last year and Justin (possibly) this year, the trip keeps getting better!