Saturday, July 31, 2010

In the days that have past we have been to a number of places. We are not in NFLD yet like we had planned, because of the Ferry being booked till this week. It gave us a chance to visit friends in Nova Scotia and hang out in New Brunswick.

In New Brunswick we stopped into Edmunston for the first night. This is where we started staying in Hotels for a few nights. It was raining for about 4 days straight. Next we drove past Fredericton to get to Moncton, where we stayed for 3 nights. We took a little trip down to Alma which is a little town on the Bay of Fundy. On the way we drove down a very nice road that goes along the water front. The cool thing about the water along this area is that it's tide rises and lowers by about 16 feet every 6 hours, which is the most anywhere in the world. When we were in Moncton we spent the night in a nice hotel then a normal one. Spent some time downtown where there was a festival going on. We got to visit some of Tara's family that live there. The other thing we got to do was train with a Ninjitsu group. It was alot of fun and the guys were really great. We were outside rolling around in the wet grass. It is quite a bit different from the Wing Chun in alot of ways but I can see the functionality in what Lee the teacher was teaching. If your in Moncton just check the yellow pages for them under Ninjitsu in the martial arts section.

We were on our way to Pasboro to visit Tara's cousin and new girlfriend when we stopped into Amherst. It is a pretty town. I stopped in to talk with the Karate instructor, he was working on fixing up the new location he purchased. I have been trying to visit as many martial arts schools as I can along the way so I can learn about what others are doing. Both in style and in business, it is a good way to learn about what works and what doesn't when running a martial arts business. While we were there we stopped into a restaurant pub called Duncan's Pub. It was really nice, the chairs were so comfortable, music nice and just a good atmosphere.

When we got to Pasboro Tara's cousin brought us down to the water front where the tide moves in and out every 6 hours like the other place. He showed us a fish net called a Weir. A weir is a three storey high net held up with posts, it traps the fish when the tide goes out. After that we went to his place, went for a walk and just hung out. The next day we headed to Halifax.

Now Halifax is a cool cool place, such a fun place. We were visiting Tara's friend and my friend but more Tara's. We went out everynight, even the first day we got there. We drove straight downtown to have a beer and something to eat, then it turned into park Jeep in parkade and get drunk for rest of night. We love pubs and there are a lot of really nice ones. The few that I really liked were Foggy Goggle, Dirty Nelley's and Maxwell's Plum. If you like to party this is the place to go. We even went to Alexander Keith's Brewery for a tour. I didn't find it till the last night we were there but just down the street from our friends place is a dojo called Bushido-Kai that teachs JKD and all its levels like our Sifu teaches. We are planning on coming through here again to visit another of Tara's friends so I'm going to try and make sure we get in to train with them.

The trip is still going great and we have a lot of exciting things to do that are coming up. Enjoy your day.

Self Defence
Martial Arts
Realworld Self Defence
The Self Defense Company
Canadian Wing Chun Fellowship

Thursday, July 22, 2010

We have now been back on our trip from 1 week now, so I will give you a quick overview of what we have been up to. We started our trip by going to Niagra Falls. The falls are quite amazing really, they almost look like they are falling in slow motion. I find standing by such things a little bit scary because I feel like I could just jump in to go for a ride. Which would obviously be the end of my life, so then I decide not to. It would be fun while it lasted though. While we were there we stayed at a campground about 10km outside of town, so we did alot of biking back and forth. When you are in downtown Niagra it feels like a mini Vegas which is pretty cool. I finally got to do that indoor skydiving thing where there is a huge fan that pushes you up while you try to balance on the wind, it was very cool but I needed a spotter so I couldn't go very high. I must say though that I will not be wanting to go back to Niagra unless its with friends just for a night of partying. It's mainly because of our dining experiences, imagine going to a normal resaurant add $5 to everything, then make it taste worse and if you have a problem with any of it suck it up cause you still have to pay for it. Cool place though.

Then we started on our way to Algonquin Provincial Park. We stopped at a campground just past Simcoe Lake called 4 Seasons Tent and Trailer. It was really nice, lots of trees and quite. I say lots of trees because some campgrounds are just a field with trees planted here and there so there is no privacy.

The next day we made it to Algonquin, we drove through about 5 different campgrounds just to figure out that the first one we looked at was the one we wanted. Funny how that happens alot. The campground we stayed at was Canisbay Lake, it was very nice and quiet. The lake was very peaceful and warm, it almost felt like bath water. While we were setting up camp the first night we saw a bear cub run through the trees right in front of us, the mother didn't follow which was kind of a good thing. We were told that 2 full size bears had been trapped in that past week which means that the cubs mother might have been one of them, sad but possible. The first night we stayed there it rained for about six hours through the night and it rained quite hard, to the point where we discovered we were in a small hole. So we ended up completely soaked and had to spend the rest of the night sleeping in the Jeep. Thanks goodness for the Jeep. The next day was hot so our stuff dried pretty fast.

The next place we drove to was Voyager Provincial Park which is just at the edge of Ontario. That is a huge campground, and like most campgrounds in Ontario you have alot of choices on how you want to camp. You usually get the option of Family camping, Electric or none and no radio playing for the quiet campers like us. So far I liked this campsite we stayed at the best. It had alot of privacy so we got to do some more serious training. I just don't feel comfortable when people can see me training, not sure why but I just don't, unless it's in class of course.

The next day we drove through Quebec. The hardest part was finding our way through Montreal, which we did without any back tracking, it was quite impressive considering the map we have didn't give us much help. When we got to Quebec City we made a few wrong turns but we ended up under some pretty nice bridges so we got to take some nice pictures. Now were in New Brunswick where we will be for a few days.

It is nice having the Jeep with us for this part of the trip. The biking portion of the trip was amazing and I wouldn't have done it any other way but it feels like we a traveling in luxury now. Alot less stressful and we have alot more energy to do stuff at the end of the day. The main draw back is when you see something beautiful you are past it so quickly. Once we get to NFLD we will be taking things a bit slower and checking more things out. We are meeting Tara's parents there so we need to get there quickly. I will let you know more in about a week.

Self Defence
Martial Arts
Realworld Self Defence
The Self Defense Company
Canadian Wing Chun Fellowship

Monday, July 12, 2010

Hello All,

We just found out today that our Jeep will finally be arriving. Since you probably don't know we have been waiting quite a while for our Jeep to get here. Originally my mom and her boyfriend were going to drive it down for the beginning of June, but they are short on cash and were unable to. Then we got our friends Dana and Jenn who were going to have it here by the end of June. Where that went wrong was that Dana didn't want to drive our Jeep to death on the way here. Makes sense to me since we want to drive it to the East coast and back. So the newest problem was how are we going to get it here. We tried looking into trains which takes way to long, about 2 weeks from shipping date. So we went with a truck which only takes about 3 to 5 days and costs the exact same.

Anyways we are almost packed and ready to go, and very excited. Packing has reminded us of how awesome our trip getting here was. Once again we are going to miss the people we are leaving behind, but this time it is for a shorter time then the people we left behind in Alberta.

Just so you know I will be posting in pretty much the same way I did last summer. Where I let you know where we were instead of where we are going. This is just safer and since I am a Self Defence instructor I should practise what I preach.

If anyone of our new friends in Kitchener happen to read this, we love you all and will really miss you. For our brother's and sister's from the club, we are amazed by how quickly we became so close to you. For our friends at Shopper's we really enjoy working with you and hanging out after hours. I personally haven't worked side by side with women since I was 16 and it is a very nice change.

As excited as I am to leave I am just as excited to get back. I really love it here, mainly because of Wing Chun and the people in our lives. The city is pretty cool too but a far second. I hope this next part of the trip is a safe and enjoyable one. I hope you enjoy the stories to come.


Self Defence
Martial Arts
Realworld Self Defence
The Self Defense Company
Canadian Wing Chun Fellowship