Pre-Festival Fun

"Home again, home again, jiggidy-jig", my dad use to always say as we pulled into our driveway.

We've had a fun couple of weeks, attending three very different festivals - but it sure feels nice to be home again (home again, jiggidy-jig.) Even though the kid playing piano scales in the apartment below us is driving us a little nutso. (Learn a new song! For the love of god, please, just learn A song! ANY song!) *ahem* 

Because I have a shwack of photos on our camera, I thought I might start with a little pre-festival fun and share some of these with you before I get into all the festival deets. 

So, two weeks ago on Sept. 12th, Jim n' I celebrated our third anniversary at the top of Vancouver revolving restaurant. Even though I love roller coasters, my knees turned to jelly as we rode the glass elevator up n' up n' up. Over the course of two full rotations (about 90 minutes each), we watched the sunset from above our beautiful city. 

The next morning I flew out to Ottawa. (Jim would meet me in Sudbury a few days later.) A brief, but fierce storm caused my flight to swirl around in a holding pattern before having to refuel in Toronto. By the time I arrived in Ottawa, two hours late, the weather had cleared. My friend Heather n' I grabbed some yummy shwarma (hold the rice - extra garlic potatoes) and then we spent a lazy evening chilling at her place. 

The next day, Heather n' I got pedicures, a little sorbet treat, and then she gave me the three dollar tour 'round the city, which included passing a beach full of these amazing balancing rocks. Super neat.

That evening we made our way to Renfrew - the half-way point between Ottawa and Pembroke - where we met up with some of our crew for all you can eat sushi. I have to admit that I've become a total sushi snob since moving to Vancouver, but that Ottawa Valley sushi tasted pretty good to me. I especially enjoyed the Renfrew Roll, something I'll never find in B.C. ;)

So here we are, bellies full of Renfrew sushi. I love how Jeff n' I are leaning in this picture, as if we might be cut out of frame.

I spent my first night in Pembroke at Jodie n' Jeff's, and then met up with my family the next afternoon. My mom's friend Kathy took us out to her lot on the Quebec side, where we roasted weenies n' ate beans from a can. It was about as close as I got to camping all year. None of the pics from the lot are worth showing, except this one of Kathy's cute dog. 

When we returned to my parent's place, we hooked up with my sister's family. Here is my niece Josie and nephew David, who is grabbing for my camera.  

David seems to be an aspiring photographer and took many blurry, finger-obstructed photos.

Finally, mom gave him her old camera to use and we took a few photos of each other. He got the BIGGEST kick out of this. He'd click...

Review (not the best photo - as he was moving around all-excited like)...

Laugh n' jump around....

Then want to do it again.

I was supposed to return to Jodie's that evening, but my sister n' her husband twisted my arm, so I ended up spending the night at their place instead. As suspected, the kids (and dogs) woke me up bright n' early after a whopping 4 hours sleep. I was barely awake when Josie asked to take my picture. I'm only showing this photo because I'm a good sport. Ha. ;) 

Shortly after, I headed back to Jode's so we could get fancied up at the spa. Since I had jumped the pedi-gun in Ottawa, this time I got a manicure while Jode got a pedicure. Next we did a little grocery shopping at Walmart where I saw three blasts from the past - none of whom recognized me. (At least I don't think they did.) Then finally, I got my poutine, fried pickles and cream soda fix at Colburn's chip shack, because that's how I like to roll when visiting Pemmytown! 

Jode n' I spent the remainder of the afternoon prepping for her open house, which was attended by a bunch of our friends n' family. 

So here we are - the two cousin'ds...

At the get-together, I spent some time learning all about mammograms and transgender children from these three lovely ladies: Steph (who is an office manager at a psychiatric hospital in T.O.), Aissa (who performs mammograms in Ottawa), and Amanda (who's a steno/clerk in diagnostic imaging in Pembroke). 

Did you know that transgender men can actually grow D cups (!) through hormone therapy alone, and that they require mammograms? True story. 

The next morning, the convoy (separated by about two hours) headed out bright n' (in some cases not-so) early to Sudbury, where we would eventually meet up with Jim and another friend of mine, Miriam. Together, the gang of us toured around downtown Sudbury and had some fun with bike racks...

And hurricane machines.

We crashed relatively early. And the next day after breakfast, we headed to Science North for some sciency fun! Science North is super cool. Dare I say, I enjoyed it even more than Vancouver's Science World. 

Here I am holding a sweaty spider. (Actually, I think they sprayed him with water - but we preferred to say he was sweaty.) Just before this pic, I held a HUGE cockroach. That was much scarier, IMHO. I pulled my hand away three times before the gal could pass it to me. We don't have a pic of that though, because I don't think I held him long enough to take one. ;)

Here's Jim n' a stick bug.

This was taken in the steamy butterfly room.

Then we all took turns holding an albino snake. I quite liked this snake. I'd want one of my own if I didn't have to feed it live mice. :( 

We got to pet Rosie the Skunk. 

But we didn't get to pet the porcupine. 

Nor could we pet the beaver - but the staff are working him towards being petable. BTW, I believe these animals are all rescues. For instance, this little beaver was a loner and didn't mix well with other beavers. He also lost part of his tail due to frostbite, and therefore might've not survived too long in the wild. But just look at that sweet face. He seems pretty content, doesn't he?

Besides all the animals, there were tons of other nifty activities at Science North, like this bed of nails. I have no idea why I kept my eyes closed. I guess I somehow felt safer as they slowly raised up beneath me. 

Aaaand... it looks like that's all I have for our pre-festival pics. In my next post I'll finally get to all the festival scoops. I just wanted to upload some of these first. :)