Two lesser known waterfalls of Ottawa - Princess Louise and Wateridge

The lovely Manon has been very indulgent with my affection for waterfalls and has been willing to accompany me to Hog's Back Falls, the Chaudière Falls and even the Rideau Falls.

And this past month, she agreed to visit two waterfalls that I only learned of very recently.

I must be clear that neither of these falls appear on lists with titles like Canada’s Most Breathtaking Waterfalls or The 14 Most Amazing Waterfalls in the World. However, the first one I will mention does appear on both the 15+ Waterfalls to Visit in and Around Ottawa and 8 Breathtaking Waterfalls You Need to See near Ottawa.

The Princess Louise Falls

The Princess Louise Falls might not actually be breathtaking, but they are pretty and are conveniently right next to St. Joseph Boulevard in Orleans. 

What to do there: You can get really close to the falls to enjoy them. It is a nice spot to go to have a snack or to do some thinking. There's also a path through the woods that would likely reward a little hiking. 

Parking: We parked on Taylor Creek Drive and walked about 400 metres to get to the base of the falls, but it looks like you could park across the street at the Ottawa Uyghur Center and basically be right there.

More information: 

• Lots of history from Linda Seccaspina at The Mysterious Princess Louise Falls
• Google Maps 

Wateridge Waterfall

The Wateridge Waterfall (also known as the Aviation Museum Waterfall) is across the Promenade Sir-George-Étienne-Cartier from the Aviation Museum.

It might be a dramatic waterfall in the spring, but it is definitely not dramatic in the middle of July. Especially because there is a big fence that prevents you from getting close.

I'm having trouble finding historical details about this waterfall, but it looks like it's part of municipal drainage from about a hundred years ago.  

What to do there: There are some unshaded benches along the pathway to the waterfall, so I suppose you could sit on one and read your new Louise Penny novel or jot your thoughts in your diary. 

Otherwise, it's take in the local wildlife (which in mid-July included lots of wild flowers, dragonflies and pretty yellow birds) and verify that water really is trickling down. 

Also you can pat yourself on the back for having seen Ottawa's fifth and most obscure waterfall.

Parking: The nearest unpaid and legal parking requires you to walk a kilometre each way. It is on C.H. Airport Marina Road by the entrance to a path that appears to be popular with dogs. The walk is probably very pleasant when you are not taking it in the middle of a heat wave.

The paid parking at the museum is about 300 metres closer but you have to walk next to the Promenade to get to the falls.

Google Maps 

It also looks like you can stop on the Promenade at the blocked off pathway entrance so you only have a short walk, but it might not be legal parking and doesn't look safe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hipster Travel Kit 2.0

Remember the Hipster Travel Kit? Zander is about to be off on a big trip, so I thought I should put one together for him. But Zander will want to travel light and I'm sure he's already got a bandana or two. So I came up with a new trimmed down model.

The Hipster Travel Kit 2.0 Contents:

• Large pill bottle with water proof and child proof cap;
• 2m of Gorrilla brand duct tape wrapped around the bottle;
• Loop of elastic cord: clothesline, fastener;
• Tea candle and half a match book;
• Earphones with convertible plug for airplanes and regular use;
• Ear plugs: for sleeping in noisy places and protecting your hearing in clubs and at concerts; and

External to kit:

• Binder clips; and
• A microfiber towel (did you know that many European hotels do not have washcloths in their bathrooms?)

Princess and the Tiger

A couple of weeks ago, Keane, Kaye and I went on a voyage of exploration and trade to the easterly reaches of Ottawa.

First stop: Princess Auto - an almost mythical hardware store - cheap power tools, gadgets, weird tools and all sorts of items to make a boy's heart beat faster.

On the way there, Kaye told us about the project she wanted to find supplies for. It would be a microphone enclosure  We very quickly figured out how to build one with supplies that we already had. So, Kaye would have nothing to spend mony on, right? Wrong.

She founa an empty pressure tank for compressed air along with fittings and rubber tubing. Why? Blood sprays mostly.

Next stop: Surplus Warehouse - fun to walk around - old desks and other office furniture, but ridiculously high prices. Don't go there unless you are at Gervais Electronics next door and you want to kill a few minutes. We plan on making our next east-end trip on a Saturday morning so we can to Gervais instead.

Final Stop: Giant Tiger - great prices. We all bought stuff. Kaye was most excited to find playing cards for her magic show that were half the price charged at Walmart.

She's dedicated to her craft. I dropped her off later that afternoon and asked her mom for a glass of water. By the time I finished the water, she had attached her bicycle pump to the tank and pumped it up to 5psi. Later that night she sent a video of the first blood spray test. I didn't mind it too much because you could see the hose and the blood was so purple it looked more like coloured syrup. Which in fact it was.

Her more recent test with Mike in the shower is substantially more realistic. You can see it in this Trailer. [Warning: This video contains violence, nudity and coarse language. Viewer discretion is advised.]

Blood, Guts, Gore and Friendship II Trailer

Meanwhile, some of my Princess Auto and Giant Tiger purchases are still in the shopping bags.

Road Trip: Hartland, New Brunswick

No time for driving through the bridge

If you are driving from Ottawa to Halifax straight, or from Lepreau to Ottawa straight, you don't have time to see many attractions and you don't have time to find quaint restaurants. So you stop at places like Tim Horton's and Subway. At 538 and 542 Main Street in Hartland, New Brunswick, just off the Trans Canada, you'll find one of each of those franchises next door to each other. Not only do they have exactly what you'd expect, they have an excellent view of the world's longest covered bridge. There is also an imposing sculpture with a base you can sit on while you eat your 6" veggie on whole wheat sub. I believe the sculpture is intended to display friendship between indigenous News Brunswickers and settlers from Europe, but the woman looks frightened to me.

Fun with Panoramas

You know how it is extremely difficult to do anything new on your computer? Especially with images? I made an animated GIF on Sunday. It took me about 5 hours to figure out how to do it, and I had to use three different software packages.

Today I thought I'd try pasting together separate images from my trip into larger images. To do this, I downloaded autostitch, a package recommended by Lifehacker.

Holy Cow! All you do is "open" the pictures you want stitched together and it creates a panorama from them. The only flexibility seems to be on things like output size and image quality. This means that if it decides to blur someone's face, you can't change it, but for results this easy, I say, let it blur the face and call it an artistic effect!

2017 update: The 2007 link to autostitch had died, but Peter Selmeczy helpfully let me know and pointed to a page he's made with a long list of free utilities that has a valid link for autostitch. I already use a number of the utilities and plan to look at all of them.

Photos of the Riggs' Family Reunion

Quilted Lighthouse by Winston and Cathy Newbury

This summer I attended a Riggs' Family Reunion in Newfoundland.

The Riggs' Family came from Stones Cove. Stones Cove is a harbour on Newfoundland's Burin Peninsula that at its peak housed 60 families.

We did not have the reunion in Stones Cove because it was abandoned in the 1950s and is only accessible by boat. All that is left of the community are the foundations of buildings that had foundations and rusted pieces of old wood stoves.

My mother's mother was Frances ("Fanny") Riggs. Her brother, Willoughby ("Bee") Riggs, was the engineer on the schooner Mabel Dorothy when it was lost at sea in 1955.

The catalyst for our reunion this summer was the unveiling of the Mariners' Memorial in Grand Bank. Willoughby Riggs is one of the names recorded on the memorial (along with at least two other names in my family tree).

As a group, we had several dinners together, an excursion to Stones Cove, and attended the unveiling. There are many pictures.

• Pictures taken by me and Manon
• Graham's pictures

I will add links to other pictures as I get them.

If you would like to upload photos, I have found the free versions of both Webshots and Flickr to be easy to work with.

For the free accounts, Webshots allows you to upload 2000 photos. The free Flickr is "unlimited" and has features that make me like it more than Webshots, but you can't see the earlier photos when you have more than 200 and limits how much you can upload per month. But if you are a Rogers.com user, FlickrPro is now free and it is unlimited.

If you email me photos, I will upload them to my account and make them available here.

Other Links:

• A picture of the Mabel Dorothy
• Map of abandoned communities in Fortune Bay and Belle Bay
• 1921 Census of Stones Cove (my grandmother shows up twice with two different birthdays; Willoughby has his name spelled wrong.)
• Mariners' Memorial website

Where is Stones Cove? [Click on "Hyb" and the "-" sign]
View Larger Map

Moo Moo's Ice Cream in St. John's, NF

Moo Moo's Interior; photo: M. Blouin

If you are in St. John's in the summer time. You will almost certainly go for ice cream at Moo Moo's. They have an excellent selection of flavours to please all tastes.

Abigail and Jessica enjoying their selection; photo: M. Blouin

I understand that when available "Moon Mist" is not a flavour that pleases all tastes. For example, while my young friend Jessica enjoys it, her mother has a long list of unpleasant things she would rather do than eat Moon Mist ice cream.

If you are particularly gluttonous, you may decide after eating your ice cream cone to have a second cone, but to make it a soft cone.

Dave making a mistake so you won't have to; photo: M. Blouin

Based on my one experience, I would advise against this. If you must have more, stick with the "hard" ice cream. Unless you enjoy something that resembles frozen milk more than the soft ice cream you are used to.

Moo Moo's Ice Cream Inc Address : 88 Kings Road, A1C6L7, St. John's, NL Telephone : 709-753-0999

Road Trip Game - Cow Counting

If you are going to drive from Ottawa to Halifax in one day, you might want to play Manon's cow counting game while you are going through New Brunswick. Here is how it works:

Count Cows: When you see cows on your side of the car, count them. If there are too many for you to count, you can go "three, six, twelve, thirty." (I questioned the accuracy of this method, but was told it is valid to count a certain number and then determine that there are more twice that many.)

When you pass more cows on your side, add them to your total.

Whoever has the higher count is winning, but...

Cemetery: If you pass a graveyard on your side of the car, you may "bury" as many of the other person's cows as the graveyard has headstones (again estimates are allowed); and

Water: If you pass a body of water on your side of the car, you may "drown" as many of the other person's cows as the body of water could reasonably absorb.

If you snooze, you lose: You are under no obligation to alert your opponent to cows, graves or bodies of water on their side of the car.

You may gain additional style points by pointing out features of the landscape on your side to your opponent, for example:

While passing a lumber yard: "Hey, Manon, do you see what they've got there? It's wood to build the coffins I'll be burying your cows in!"

While passing a bulldozer and excavator clearing brush: "Hey Manon, do you know what they're doing over there? Digging the graves for your cows!"