Sleepy Cedars Campground Ottawa ON

 

Heading for home today.  We slept in a bit this morning, but not as late as yesterday.  We have our breakfast and pack up the last few things before we can hit the road.

We leave Sleepy Cedars Campground by 10am and shortly after, we are on Hwy 7 heading West.  We stopped along the way for fuel and then around noon, we pulled into this nice little rest area for lunch.

 

We had grilled cheese sandwiches and for dessert some ice cream.   This is a very nice little pull off, right beside a small lake.

 

We continued West along Hwy 7 and pulled over again in Havelock Ontario.  We had ourselves another little break before continuing on.  This is certainly the way to travel, all the comforts of home right here as we drive along.  We took some photos of the trains in the train yard at Havelock.

This one is pushed by a locomotive and is a snow plow that pushes snow off the tracks.

Some more trains in the railway yard.

 

We backed into our driveway at home around 5pm.

Sleepy Cedars Campground - Ottawa

My goodness, someone slept till 11:00 am this morning and it wasn’t me.  

Breakfast quickly became Brunch as we ate our bacon and eggs with toast. 

As you can see it is a dreary rainy day.  We won’t be going downtown today.

I have plenty of things to do on the computer.  I won’t be bored.



It rains off and on for the early part of the afternoon.  We watch as others pack up and leave.

 

It stops raining, so I go out and check the engine oil and the battery fluid levels.  It is a good idea to check the batteries every couple of weeks, they can and will boil dry ( I learnt this first hand last fall ) if you do not keep an eye on them and keep the fluid levels topped up.  Even though we are plugged into hydro, there are still systems that use the 12 volts that the batteries supply.   It is a good habit to check them.  There are 3 batteries to check.  They were all fine.

 

As you can see in these next photos… the Sleepy Cedars Campground just got a whole lot “sleepier”  there is hardly any one around.

  

We had our dinner and after dinner I began to pack away a few of our outdoor chairs and mats and such.  We will be departing for home in the morning.  The more I put away tonight, the quicker our departure can be in the morning.   That is if we can get out of bed before the noon bell rings.

Sleepy Cedar Campground - Ottawa

Slept in again, we are getting up later and later each day.  This morning it was 10am before we rolled out of bed.  Had our coffee and tea and checked our emails and played our online games.  We had a late breakfast and the headed off to do some shopping.

I wanted to check out one of the local RV stores so that is where we headed.  RV Canada here in Ottawa has a nice store and we spent a half hour browsing up and down the aisles.  Picked up a few things that we needed and then we were gone.  They don’t have what I am looking for.



I am specifically looking for a Tire Pressure Monitoring System, or otherwise known as a TPMS.  I always wonder about my tire pressures, even though I check the tires with a tire thumper, I don’t know what the pressure is.  It is a bit of a chore to check the pressure with a tire pressure gauge as I have to take off the hubcaps to do so.  I could put on valve extensions, but the tire experts do not recommend the use of valve stem extensions as they tend to leak.  So I am definitely interested in getting the TPMS so that I can see at a glance on the monitor screen what my tire pressures are.  

After leaving RV Canada we stopped at Canadian Tire, they didn’t have any TPMS’s nor did Princess Auto or Wal-Mart.

I remember our blogging friend Nick has a TPMS’s so when I got back to our motorhome, I fired off a quick message through Facebook to him and shortly after, Nick replied with the information that I was looking for.  He told me the system that he uses and exactly who to order it from online.   Thanks Nick.

We hung out at the motorhome till 4:30 pm.  We have been invited over to Anne and Jims apartment for a home made lasagne dinner.  This is Jim’s secret recipe lasagne that Karen has been raving about since Jim made it for her the last time she visited them in Ottawa over 10 years ago.  That was the first thing Karen asked Jim when we saw them a week ago, if he would be making his lasagne for her?

We got to their apartment by 5:00 pm and visited for a bit, then the delicious lasagne was served.  Along with garlic bread, the meal was scrumptious.

We stayed and visited till about 8pm when we said our good nights.

Back at the motorhome for the evening, write the blog and go to bed.  Night Night.

Sleepy Cedars Campground - Ottawa

Slept in today, this is becoming a regular habit.  Got up and we checked our laptops, answered emails, played a few online games, had our tea and coffee and then had pancakes for breakfast.

We are going to go with Anne and Jim to see a bit of Gatineau Park.  Gatineau Park is in the Province of Quebec.

They picked us up around 10:30am and we were on our way across the Champlain Bridge from Ontario into Quebec.



We can now add another “Province Visited” to our map.



Shortly after crossing over the bridge, we were at the entrance to Gatineau Park, or as they say in French….  Parc de la Gatineau.   French is the language of choice in Quebec, English is secondary, if even spoken.



We have 2 objectives today.  Number 1 is to visit the Estate of William Lyon Mackenzie King.  Number 2 is to visit Pink Lake.

We stop at the Information Map that is located just inside the Park entrance to get orientated.  Jim and Anne study it out closely.

 

Here is some information about the Mackenzie King Estate and Pink Lake.

 

Our next stop is the Gatineau Park Visitor Centre.

 

Inside we picked up maps and brochures about the park, then we wandered around looking at the different displays of animals and whatnot that are within the park.

 

There are many different displays to look at.

 

Jim got a kick out of pushing all the buttons on the interactive displays.

 

Now that we are fully informed, we head off for the Mackenzie King Estate.

 

It is already after 1pm so before we do any walking, we need to eat.   There is a nice (but expensive) little tea room /cafe in the Moorside Cottage.

 

Umm, ya… its a bit pricey, but we have to eat.

 

After lunch we are sufficiently fortified to begin our walking tour of the Estate.  We go upstairs in the Moorside Cottage to see the various rooms.

This is the Secretary’s room.  Jim and Anne check out the Guest Bedroom.

 

This is Mackenzie Kings bedroom.  He was Canada’s 10th Prime Minister.  He was considered by most, to be Canada’s greatest Prime Minister.



He loved his time spent here at the cottage.



We then walked over to the Kingswood part of the property.  This is where any dignitaries or important guests would stay.



I am reading about the history of Kingswood.  It is a lovely little cottage set in the woods with a pathway leading down to Kingsmere Lake.

  

At the end of the footpath is a very picturesque little lake and a little boathouse where he would store his canoe.

 

 

 

Of course, what goes down, must now go back up.



We then walked out to the Abbey Ruins.  King began construction in 1935, but it was never completed.

 

From here we walked back to the main house and through the gardens.  Karen photographs Jim, Anne and I as we stroll through the gardens.

 

We then walked over to the L’Arc de Triomphe, a scaled down version of the original in France.



Karen, Anne and Jim pose for a photo under the Arc.

 

Looking back at the Moorside Cottage.



From here we decide that we are going to take the hike to The Waterfall.



This trail is downhill all the way to the base of the waterfall and just over 1 KM in length.  As I always say whenever hiking, what goes down must eventually come back up, so with that bit of advice and every ones assurance that they will be able to make the climb back up, we head off to see the waterfall.  I always prefer the uphill part to be at the beginning of the hike, then it is a much easier downhill on your return.  It doesn't always work that way though.



I lead the way.

 

We come to a culvert / tunnel that passes under a road.

 

Around a few more bends we come to the waterfall.



Not exactly what we were expecting.  We were all disappointed that it was just a trickle.  We found out later that the river upstream from here had been dammed up after Mackenzie King died and the once spectacular waterfall that he enjoyed is now just a trickle for us to see.



Now we have to climb back up hill out of here.  After some grunting and groaning we do make it and are happy to arrive back at the car and the air conditioning.

So onwards we go to see Pink Lake.

Someone had told Anne that the water was pink, but that certainly turned out to be false.  The lake got its name, not because of any pink water, but because the Pink Family was awarded wood cutting rights to the areas around the lake.

The Lake is very unique and rare even if it isn’t Pink.  It is a Meromictic Lake, which means that it has layers of water that do not intermix.  There is no ozygen in the water at the bottom of the lake.  Most all lakes are Holomictic which means that at least once a year, often several times a year, the water in the top layers of the lake, switch places with the water layers at the bottom of the lake.  Lake temperature and winds are the driving forces behind this shifting of water layers.

We stopped at the Pink Lake Lookout.

 

We had planned to hike the trail around the lake, but at this point that is just crazy talk.  We all agree that after the hike to and from the waterfall, that we are all hiked out for the day.  It is 5:30pm and we are low on energy, so we take a look at the lake from here and then call it a day.

 

Leaving Gatineau Park, we head back to Ottawa the way we came.  You can just see the Parliament Buildings through the railing of the bridge.



Anne and Jim dropped us off back at the Sleepy Cedars Campground.  We invited them to stay for dinner, but they had to get back to their apartment.

Karen and I BBQ’ed hot dogs for dinner on our Weber Q BBQ and then Karen got busy naming all of the photos we took today.  I relaxed playing games on my laptop.