Aylmer Express "MoHo" Extravaganza 2006

Yesterday’s words:

Ides \YDZ\, plural noun:
In the ancient Roman calendar the fifteenth day of March, May, July, and October, and the thirteenth day of the other months.

gastronome \GAS-truh-nohm\, noun:
A connoisseur of good food and drink.

Today was another hot, sunny affair with the temperature reaching 37 C (99 F) with the humidex. I started by getting up early and taking advantage of our unauthorized internet access and updating the blog. Once the rest of the family came to life we had breakfast and came to an agreement on where we should go for the day. The final selections were the Western Canada Aviation Museum and then on to Fort Gibraltar.

We put the GPS to work again this morning to get us over to the Aviation museum. It did such a good job we got there 15 minutes before it opened. If you have ever wondered what kids do when they have to wait for 15 minutes to do something, check out the video section to which there is a link on the left of this page (it should be available by July 20). Once inside we found an interesting display of aircraft and fascinating stories and highlights about aircraft much of which was focused primarily on Canada. The coolest things for me personally were:




1) The Bristol Freighter 31M, a post-WWII cargo plane with clamshell-type nose for loading cargo






2) Bensen Gyroglider, and ultralight-type aircraft with rotors that are powered by the air passing over them rather than an engine (bad photo, look for the red frame and "tail fin")






3) Canadair CL-84, a tilt-wing plane that could act as either a plane or a helicopter depending on whether the wings and props where facing forward or upward





4) Canadian designed Avrocar, literally a flying saucer-type aircraft that never got a chance to make to production … too bad! It would have made a great commuter vehicle.




And, of course, there were the fun things for the kids too. It was a fun visit but according to our two resident experts on fun, Morgan and André-Paul, the Ottawa Aviation museum is better. So I’ll have to be sure to go back to the Ottawa Aviation Museum again and, now that the kids are older, actually stop and read some of the information about the displays.

Next stop, Fort Gilbraltar! After pressing the GPS into service once again, we found ourselves outside the gate of an authentic re-creation of an early 1800’s fort used by Voyagers and Fur Traders passing through the area and engaging in fur trading with the natives. There were people “in character” who would interact with you in a somewhat histrionic fashion and explain how things work by answering the questions you had about what you were seeing. It was a very fun, interesting and educational visit. I found the blacksmith discussion most enthralling. For instance, did you know that each blacksmith had his own anvil? And that this anvil was typically the most valuable item in the entire fort? And that the first building built in a village was always the blacksmith’s forge because you cannot build anything else without the help of tools crafted by the blacksmith? And that Oxen will fall down if you lift one of their legs so they had to hoist them up from the rafters to put “shoes” on them? And that the blacksmith’s building was typically the hottest in the summer yet also the coldest in the winter? And that being a blacksmith often resulted in severely impaired hearing, eyesight and breathing? Kind of makes you appreciate your own job a little more, eh? There were other cool things throughout the fort as well. Did you know that natives created very precise wooden poles to make their teepees and held on to them forever? And that although they did not use glass or plastic, they did have sunglasses … made out of wood! And I added in an extra photo of the framing of the roof of the turret for the benefit of Grant in Ottawa and Peter & Isabelle in South Australia since one owns a timber frame house and the other two build them for a living. I couldn’t help but think of them when I saw this structure from inside. (like any of the photos on the blog, just click on them to get a better look) Anyway, I’ll stop there so I don’t ruin it all for you, just in case you might drop by yourself.

Then we had to rush back to our so-called campsite to leave. The people running it gave us a late check out and it was now pushing 5:00. We packed up quickly and headed off to Birds Hill Provincial Park which we were told was very nice. We weren’t disappointed. It is a lovely park from what we have seen with plenty of hiking trails and nature but perhaps most enticing to us were the bike trails and a swimming area! Then later in the evening we ended up spotting some very large birds pecking around the unused sites. I didn’t know what they were called but I rather liked the name Morgan gave to them … Chicken-Ostriches! Well, take a look … what would you call them?