Day: August 15, 2007

So, I don’t know how Vaughan, Ontario is pronounced ‘Vauhn’ (like Agent Vauhn in Alias!) but it is. I would think it would be something like Vohan or something like that.

Vero’s friend Emilie moved to Vaughan along with her boyfriend Ryan so we dropped by on our way back from London. Turns out that it was a packed house that night as her parents were also visiting! We managed to find the house easily and then we sat and talked for awhile before heading out to a winery in the area. Nothing too special to be seen at this winery tour…we got to see the manufacturing area and then the basement where the kegs of wine sat to be aged. Pretty neat. We then had a taste test of a few wines (which Vero hated by the second wine).

We then headed home where we met up with Ryan who got off of work. After picking up some beer and touring around Vaughan, we sat down to enjoy a few brewskis and had some excellent dinner.

Ryan also introduced me to the fact that snowmobiles can travel over water if you get up to a good speed. I couldn’t believe this when he was telling me. I was just sitting there going “Uh huh, uh huh.” when I clued into him actually saying he was going across the water in the summer! He showed me some videos on the Internet and I couldn’t believe my eyes! Has anyone witnessed this? I also can’t believe that this was happening all over Hearst but I had never heard about it in Kapuskasing.

Considering some people had to work in the morning, we called it a night (after having some sausages and herring…mmm…herring) and we witnessed the fastest blowing up of an air mattress ever! I couldn’t believe the power in this little rechargeable blower-upper tool. Emilie and I had a good laugh at how fast it blew up. We are talking 15 seconds here! Unfortunately we discovered that the mattress had a leak so I had to bail onto the couch during the middle of the night and then also nabbed a bed when Emilie’s parents left in the morning.

The morning after we had some great pancakes and headed to Emilie’s new school to check out her classroom. Vero and I then decided to hit the road and take us where the wind took us. Destination – Quebec City. After stopping in Brockville for a grocery and camping run (new air mattress and a sweet LED lamp) we realized that the sun was setting fairly soon so it may be in our best interest to find a campground. Let me tell you that my road atlas isn’t the best thing money has bought in terms of finding camping areas. We found on on the 416 and having thinking about it, we decided to camp there even though it was only 45 minutes more of a drive to our actual houses in Ottawa! Hey, we’re on vacation, let’s make it a vacation. In the end, we found a KOA campground (which wasn’t listed in the Road Atlas…boo…hiss!), set up our tent, went for a swim and then retired for the night while playing some games on my computer like Connect-4, and Marsala. Vero thinks she kicked my ass in these games but she was seriously mistaken.

Trip Tip #1: Check more carefully at the road atlas that you bought for $20 to make sure it lists A LOT of the campgrounds along your route and not just the Provincial Parks.

It was nice to see more of Emilie and Ryan as I had only met them a few times. Excellent friends to have!

iplaying: Waiting All Day – Silverchair (Young Modern)

Once again, taken from The Palmer Project as I am lazy from writing up all these past days of the East Coast Trip.
http://the-palmer-project.blogspot.com/2007/08/house-guests.html

The house had another Palmer in it, as cousin Ryan and his girlfriend Vero stayed with us for a few days on their vacation. After the great concert and late night the day before, we started our day late. A tour of the city was in order to show them around as they had never been to London before. We stopped by T.J. Baxters for lunch and sat on the roof while we ate. (London is actually a beautiful city and it seems really wealthy (although this may be biased judging from our tour in the better parts of the area. Western University was amazing campus.)

Next we introduced the couple to our favorite outdoor game Texas Horseshoes (aka Ring Toss). It didn’t take them long to get the hang of it. We played in teams with the guys against the girls. I’m happy to say the male team of Palmer & Palmer dominated every game against the women. They received a down home ass whooping!!!! (Let us also point out that we were not impressed when Vero decided to cut off our heads in a picture of the two champions! Let us also point out that Troy managed to sack himself with his chair when it hit the fence on his way out. The man was in pain while I was in stitches.)

We worked up an appetite so we headed down to Chaucers Pub for some fine grub and beer. The sausage platter is one of my favorites, and Ryan really enjoyed his. Three sausages, sauerkraut, cabbage, and potatoes. We were stuffed at the end. The ladies on the other hand enjoyed mushroom stuffed chicken. Chaucers offers approximately 90 plus different beers from around the world, so Ryan and I took a look at the “Beer Bible” to decide on our beverage of choice. After a few beers and a great dinner it was back to “Casa Palmer” where Ryan and I broke out the guitars and sang a bunch of tunes while recording the session. (The sausage platter is still on my mind to this day and I want to go back. They had this amazing mustard concoction. The Beer Bible is comparable to the one at Pub Italia in Ottawa. Very nice descpriptions. I’m glad that I introduced Troy to some excellent beers such as Paulaner. He introduced me to a Scottish beer which was aged in oak barrels. I must admit the first two sips had me wondering but after that I really enjoyed it and actually wanted another. Reminded of scotch. Speaking of scotch, I consider Troy my mentor in scotch as I haven’t had much experience drinking it outside of with him and Rick. I must admit that I’m still at the novice stage of drinking it and have to learn to appreciate the taste. After my second drink I was at that stage.)

The following day we had some breakfast then Connie and Vero sat outside reading and enjoying the weather. (Excellent breakfast at the Little Beaver!) It was a good opportunity for Ryan and I to head into the music room and record a song. Ryan brought out an original that he wrote, and before too long we had bass, guitar, and vocal tracks recorded. We spent the next hour trying to come up with an appropriate drum track for the song. (This was the infamous recording session of ‘The Stomper’, coming to a CD player near you soon! I was impressed with Troy’s recording outfit and am jealous that his system has built in drum effects. I’m actually thinking of selling my Fostex off to get a system comparable to his. I was having a good laugh at Troy trying to nail the harmonies at the beginning but then he found the right voicing and let ‘er wail.) The ladies were getting fed up with hearing it over and over again, so the timing was right when we stopped to get ready for more friends coming over for a BBQ.

Our friends, Shannon, Jay & Heather joined us for an afternoon of intense Texas Horseshoe games. After kicking some ass with Ryan as my partner I fired up the BBQ and fed the hungry gamers. We finished off the evening by watching the DVD “The Life & Hard Times of Guy Terrifico”. I thought Ryan and Vero were going to piss their pants a few times as they were laughing so hard during the movie!! (Always good to see Shannon, Jay & Heather as they are good times. Guy Terrifico is the must see movie of the year. It reminded me HEAVILY of the FUBAR style of film. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s by the same director.)

It was great to have our two house guests join us for a few days. I guess it’s our turn now to head to Ottawa to visit them.

(Vero and I send out a heartfelt thanks for putting up with us for a few days. Very nice of the two of you and we give you guys 5 stars! Well, Vero wanted to give you 5 stars but I was more on the 3.5 star side as chocolate isn’t really my thing, you know?)