Hi everyone!
I’m so happy to share that I am spending the week with my dear friend, Alyssa, whom I met during my semester in Scotland. We lived right across the hall from each other at the University of Aberdeen, and we even traveled to The Czech Republic and Poland together for a week during our semester abroad!!!
Since then, we have taken turns visiting each other once a year. The first year, I visited her in Canada. We spent time in Kingston (her university town), Shawville & Bristol (Alyssa’s home), and Ottawa. Last year, she visited me in the US, and we spent time in Dubuque, Galena, Madison, and Cuba City / Shullsburg.
This year, I am back in Bristol with Alyssa and her family! I couldn’t be happier.
Finally reunited
I landed at the Ottawa airport at around 2 pm on Tuesday. As I passed through customs and into the airport lobby, I felt a rush of excitement. I spotted Alyssa immediately and couldn’t help but run over to her. We hugged for a long time, and I could feel the eyes of strangers watching us. Movie moment!
Alyssa’s mom, Kelly, drove us back to their home in Bristol, Québec. On the drive back, we stopped at the iconic Tim Horton’s for an iced coffee and a bagel. I realized my love for Timmy’s on my last trip to Canada… and I hadn’t had it since!!!! Two whole years without Tim Horton’s.
When we got back to the Graham’s house, I was reunited with my other bestie, Copper.
We ate pizza for dinner, and then Alyssa and I continued our tradition of watching kids movies every night. The first time, it was the Despicable Me movies. Last time, we watched all of the Ice Age movies. This time, we decided on How to Train Your Dragon (one of my favorite movies ever).
A relaxing day
I started off the day on Wednesday with a nice, short morning run. Then, Alyssa and I took it easy. She worked on her Master’s thesis, and I read my book. Later, we went in their pool and caught up on everything that happened in our lives this year. We also reminisced on our time abroad, as well as our trips to each other’s homes.
The last time I visited Alyssa in August of 2023, we visited the Kingston Penitentiary, Fort Henry, and the Canadian War Museum. We also went to a sunflower field in Shawville, got delicious maple walnut ice cream in Norway Bay, visited the family apple farm & Coronation Hall, and went to dinner with her parents at a local golf course where she used to work. On our last night, we saw fireworks at the Parliament in Ottawa.
I meant to blog about this trip two years ago, but here we are 🙃. The time just slips away from me!
Okay, back to the present.
We were lounging by the pool when all of a sudden we hear a splash. We look into the water to find this fella swimming around!!!
I have never seen a frog this big before! He’s kinda cute.
In the evening, we prepared vegetables and salmon for Alyssa’s dad to grill. It was sooo delicious! Nothing beats fresh veggies in the summertime 😍
After dinner, Alyssa and I went for a short walk and sat on a dock on the Ottawa River to watch the sun set. It was beautiful and serene. We talked some more and then went back to her house to watch Moana 2.
Ziplining at Parc de Chutes Coulonge
Thursday was an especially epic day because Alyssa, Emma (Alyssa’s hometown friend), and I went to Parc de Chutes Coulonge to go…
ZIPLINING!!!!!!
Apparently, my ✨adventurous✨ hike in Iceland wasn’t enough to keep me away from massive gorges!
On our way to Chutes Coulonge, we stopped at a chip stand and had poutine for lunch. Alyssa has always told me that Québec poutine is the BEST — better than Ontario poutine, which I had eaten on my last trip to Canada—, so I had to try it. I had the buffalo chicken poutine, and it was delicious!
Upon arrival at the adventure park, we had to sign our lives away and then get suited up in our ziplining gear. We wore a harness with a bunch of carabiners on it. The guides showed us how to use everything and told us the rules — the major one being that you should NEVER unclip both carabiners from the line at the same time!
We got some good practice with clipping and unclipping the carabiners as we made our way to the first launch point. As we stood at the edge of the canyon, waiting to descend the ladder, I said to Alyssa “I am terrified”.
In hindsight, I should’ve kept my mouth shut because I think it made us all more nervous! Oops 😅 Emma had an Apple Watch on, and it said her heart rate was like 165 bpm!!!
Emma was the first to go out of all of us. I watched as she sat at the edge of the platform, counted down from 3, and then zipped across the gorge. Alyssa went next, and I was the last to go. What’s funny is that we had to clip ourselves onto the line, so I was nervously triple checking my clips to make sure they were completely closed.
As we zipped across the water, we watched for the signals from the other guide telling us to slow down or, alternatively, stop braking.
After the first zipline, I was ready for more. My fear was gone, and all that remained was pure adrenaline. We hiked to the return zipline. This one was shorter than the first but had an option to run and jump off of the platform. Of course, I did just that!
At one point, the guide asked me for one fact about Wisconsin. I said “we really like cheese!” And then, thinking that wasn’t good enough, I said “well… we are the second largest producers of dairy milk in the US… California has us beat”. He then proceeded to make fun of me for telling him twice that Wisconsinites love cheese 😂
We made it back to Bristol just in time to have dinner with Alyssa’s grandparents. They are so sweet! Alyssa’s grandma told me about how much fun she had playing women’s hockey when she was younger. Alyssa and I also laughed because when they asked, “where are you girls traveling to next?!”, our response received complete silence… nothing but crickets. 🙊
After dinner, Alyssa and I played our favorite game, Overcooked, and then watched the movie Super Troopers. I was reminded of this comedy when my dad responded to the Snapchat I had sent him of my lunch with a quote from the movie. It’s a good one! And Alyssa had never seen it.
A day at Koēna Spa
After our adventurous day on Thursday, Alyssa and I decided to have a slow morning on Friday. We made coffee (they have the best coffee maker!), ate breakfast, and read our books. She has also been working on her thesis, so the mornings are a great time for her to write! I really enjoyed our relaxed mornings, since I am usually rushing around with little time to spare!
At about noon, Emma picked us up and drove us to Koēna Spa in Gatineau. We spent the entire afternoon there, jumping from one thermal pool to the next. We also drank fun mocktails and tried out the saunas, the Himalayan salt room, and the exfoliation room. I was feeling very relaxed, and my skin was the softest it has ever been!
We left the spa at about 6pm so that we would have time to stop for Thai food in Shawville before the restaurant closed. I ate some spring rolls and pad thai — it was delicious! Who would’ve thought that a small town like Shawville would have such good Thai food.
After dinner, the three of us got ice cream from Brooklyn Place. Alyssa had shown me this ice cream parlor the last time I was in town! This time, I tried the maple walnut… great decision 😍
We got home around 9 pm and decided it was too late to watch a movie, so we read our books and went to bed. Neither of us stays up late anymore! It’s so nice to be on the same schedule.
Pool day
Saturday morning, I woke up and went for my long run. I’m currently training for a marathon, so my long run was 20 km (12.5 miles) this week. It was going to be super hot later in the day, and even worse on Sunday, so I figured I would just get it over with right away in the morning.
It was a beautiful and challenging run! Alyssa had helped me plan my route on FootPath the night before, which I appreciated because it is hard to tell what the terrain is like from looking at a map alone. The route she planned for me included some gravel roads, farms, and two HUGE hills. I was both cursing her for KILLING ME and thanking her for the great training as I ran up those hills.
By the time I returned, it was time for lunch. Kelly had made lobster rolls the night before, so we had those. They were SO good!!! I was especially hungry after running on no fuel.
Lucky for me, Alyssa was down for another chill pool day. After a few hours, we got too hot and decided to play some more Overcooked. At one point, my eyes were stinging so badly from not blinking during the game — that’s how intense it is! I may have also shed a few tears when we were SO CLOSE to reaching the next level, but failed. Eventually, we gave up on the game and decided to watch Alyssa’s favorite comedy, A Million Ways to Die in the West, which I had never seen. It was really funny!
When Alyssa and I woke up this morning with fresh minds, we were finally able to unlock the new level of Overcooked that we had been trying so hard to do yesterday. We also went to Coronation Hall for some yummy apple pie. Before I knew it, it was time to leave for the airport.
Every time Alyssa and I have to leave each other, we say “see you tomorrow” so that we don’t get too sad…
So that’s exactly what we did as we hugged goodbye in the Ottawa airport.
I am so blessed to have such a wonderful friend ❤️
Until next time,
Clara