When are James and Charlie coming?

When I was a kid, visits to the cousins were a semi-annual event, sometimes a little more often. When we talked about those trips, we’d say we were going to “Uncle Louie’s and Aunt Doreen’s.”or “Aunt Bev’s and Uncle Graham’s.” We didn’t say “Are we going to Sandra’s tomorrow?”or “Are Timmy, Cheryl and Heather coming over on Boxing Day?”

But, to our kids, the children lead the way and seemingly own the houses, too. And not even all of the children. Sam still calls Tracey’s place, Carter’s…but the “new” name is starting to catch on now that Anabel is nearly four. And Janey & Brett’s house is only incidentally theirs and one wouldn’t expect a pair of teen girls live in the basement, given that it’s called “James & Charlie’s.” The same holds true on the flip side. The kids aren’t in town to visit aunts and uncles. They come to Sam’s or Carter’s. It’s all about the boys.

For a long stretch now, those summer cousin visits to Ottawa have been fun but marred by unseasonably cold and rainy weather—often arriving at the same time as Janey’s van (or James and Charlie’s van, depending on who’s talking) like one of those rainclouds that follow sad comic book characters around. It was uncanny, and made for a weekend of much thumping and noise from the upstairs bedrooms. But even when it was indoor mayhem, the James and Charlie visit has always been a summer highlight.

This year, we got the fun and we got a hot and gloriously sunny Canada Day weekend. For the first time, we spent the whole visit outside. On Saturday, we packed a huge picnic and went to Westboro Beach for swimming, sand play, marsh exploring, and tree climbing. On Sunday, we picked up pizza and found our way to nearby Honey Gables, where a big new splash pad had just opened in an existing park.

In between, we had slip n slide fun and watermelon slices while stretched out in the sun on beach towels at Sam’s, and park play and woods exploration at Carter’s. Throw in some sleepovers in couch forts, a treehouse, video games, skateboards, water guns, bicycles, fudgicles, 100 episodes of Spongebob Squarepants on DVD, and that’s the makings of an awesome summer weekend.

And the aunties had a pretty darned good time themselves…

Camping 2010

We didn’t make it out to a campground last summer, what with the cousin visits and the Pirate Days, and the trips to Nova Scotia and the Morley cottage filling up the weekends, but we got “camping” on to the calendar early this year and invited Trace and the kids to join in.

We booked side-by-side sites (204-205) on an inner loop in the Lac Phillippe sector of Gatineau Park, about 45 minutes from here. While we planned a two-night stay, Mother Nature had a different plan in store for the Friday night. Torrential rains delayed our departure, but—as is often the case following a storm like that—Saturday and Sunday brought bright blue skies and warm temperatures. We loaded (and reloaded) our gear into our not-so-SUVs and headed east on Saturday morning. By noon, we had set up two camps, had a quick lunch of deli sandwiches, and were en route to the closest sandy beach.

Like a long, thin finger, Lac Phillippe stretches through the beautiful forested hills, joining Lac Mousseau to the south which itself reaches the tip of Lac Meech miles and miles away. With the mind’s eye, you can practically see the glaciers carving out this gorgeous “outdoor playground.” The water is clear and cool (but not too cool), the air is fresh, and the woods are picture postcard. Happily, the four sandy beaches spread along the campground’s shore were busy without being too crowded, which made them a perfect place for the kids to make friends and for the grown-ups to enjoy the sun.

Sam and Carter played with a few other boys and their pump action water noodle squirt guns and spent a good deal of time at the end of the beach sharing another boy’s fishing gear. But what they played the most was “Waterbender,” a movie-inspired game that had Jeremy flinging them high into the air where they struck warrior poses before splashing back into the lake. Luckily for them, Jeremy has superhuman stamina when it comes to water play. They clocked hours in the lake/air both days, and the boys’ enthusiasm for it never waned.

While most of the weekend’s entertainment centred around beach time, the campsite itself was good fun, too. There was a pair of huge rocks directly behind us that made for good climbing, and a couple of little trails connecting sites that offered up exploration opportunities (especially by flashlight). And that’s not to mention cooking over a campfire, playing in the tent, or following the road to the washrooms all by themselves—the stuff that brings back happy memories of my own camping days. And Sam pulled out a few faves of his own: the Ninja Hunt and the Ghost Walk.

One of Sam’s highlights from this trip was a bedtime visit by a family of raccoons who discovered the beach snack bag we forgot about in the dining tent (and we were so careful about cleaning up after dinner and smores!). Sam heard the growls and grunts first and then looked on in nervous fascination as Jeremy corralled the big mama and her babes back into the woods—they took the granola bars and drink boxes with them! “I’ve never seen a real racoon before!,” Sam said excitedly. “Only ones on TV that wear clothes and go to school!” And Carter chimed in from next door: “No fair! Sam got a raccoon in his tent!” You just can’t put a price on that sort of back-to-nature experience.

We really should do this more often.

Movies on the Beach

One of the awesome things about living in Ottawa is that it is such a green city—full of and surrounded by parks, rivers, hills, woods, trails and more. It’s 3 minutes to a big beach, 15 minutes to the gates of a national park, and 30 minutes or less to any number of fall fairs. But the real treats Ottawa offers up combine the best of urban and country life in fun ways. Case in point: Movies on the Beach.

Thanks to a couple of local sponsors, Movies on the Beach is free family entertainment that is reminiscent of the drive-in movies of days gone by. Every other Friday, the organizers set up a huge inflatable screen on a beach or in a park and show a popular feature length film at dusk. The program kicked off this year at the nearby Westboro Beach on June 25—the last day of school—with a screening of Avatar. Staying up and outside wayyy past bedtime? What a perfect way to mark the end of grade one!

We grabbed our beach chairs and packed our bags with sweaters, blankets, popcorn, and iced tea, heading off to Kitchissippi Point at about 7:30. It being darned close to summer solstice, we knew it would be a good while before dusk. But loads of other people were heading that way, too, so, for one, it was smart to stake some decent viewing territory. And, for two, the chance to play on the beach for a couple of hours on a warm early summer evening nearly eclipsed the movie itself for Sam and Carter.

They made fast friends with a couple of boys who were constructing sand dams and sluiceways at the water’s edge. The little group must have ferried hundreds of buckets of water while we lounged in the beach chairs well back from the water. Does it get any better than a sandy shoreline and no hovering parents? Every now and then, Sam would look up, scan the growing crowd, pick us out and wave, and then get back to it.

After the sun set right into the Big Rideau itself, we bundled up and settled in for the film. We’d all seen it before, so we half expected to be ducking out partway through, once night fell for real and the chill and fatigue set in. And the boys were in their Mickey Mouse camp chairs, which had us wondering how much of the screen they could see over the crowd in front. But their attention never wavered. It was after midnight when the credits rolled and the large crowd made its orderly way to the parking lot. When Sam caught site of the clock in the car, he exclaimed, “Carter! We stayed up until tomorrow!” That’s a good summer memory, right there.

Calypso

In Greek mythology, Calypso was a nymph who lured Odysseus to her island and kept him and his crew imprisoned for years. It’s an apt name for the kidstravaganza that opened up just 35 km from our house this summer — Calypso Water Park. It certainly lured and captured Sam. The hype around this 100 acre, 50 million dollar park (Canada’s largest) has been building in these parts for more than two years, so we knew it would be ridiculous to try to get anywhere near it during summer vacation. That’s why we didn’t wait until summer vacation.

On June 28, the last Monday of the school year, we pulled Sam and Carter out for the day and made our way to Limoges. We weren’t the only geniuses in line (about 40 school busses were in the lot), but we learned later that this pre-season visit was definitely the way to go. The first day the temps topped 30 degrees; there was a 4 km-long line-up of cars trying to jam into Calypso’s parking lot! On the contrary, we all enjoyed a balmy 23 degrees and a parking spot that was 50 steps from the entrance.

The first thing the boys discovered was Calypso Palace, the 52,000 square foot wave pool. Here’s the blurb from the website: “You wanted a wave pool to eclipse all others; we’ve got it. We’ve captured over an acre of ocean and set it free in our park. With several different types of waves, and easily accommodating 2,000 of your friends, Calypso Palace wave pool is where people gather to have fun.” Yup. That’s right. 2000 of your friends. Thankfully, there were only several hundred people in with the boys! The waves start slow and build in force until they’re throwing Sam 20 feet back at a time. Loved it!

Next up was the Turbo Lab, a series of tunnel water slides. Sam wasn’t tall enough for two of the four routes down, but he could ride the Steamer with me in a tandem inner tube. The slow climb up the stairs dwarfed by high school students didn’t do anything to boost his confidence (I saw very few kids smaller than Sam on the rides), and when his wee butt slipped through the inner tube hole before he could reach forward for the handles at the top of the ride, it was game over. Not this time. We wiggled our way down the entrance stairway and headed for a ride with a flat bottom tube—Canyon Rafting!

This was Sam’s slide. A 500-metre elevated river ride which swings a big 6-seater raft up the walls to the tipping on its way to splashdown. It was a hoot! We rode it twice—the second time with a foursome of teens whom Sammy was not shy about hooting and hollering in front of—even advising that they "hold on! hold on!" as we ripped around the last corner.

From there, we headed for Jungle Run, a river ride whose current pushes swimmers through a ‘rainforest’ adventure of much soaking. Then we stopped briefly at the Pirate’s Aquaplay climber and circled back for a picnic. Carter and Tracey went on some of the big rides, like Fast Track, Adrenaline, and Zoomerang (Sam’s a few inches shy of having to consider summoning his inner daredevil), but most of the afternoon was spent answering Calypso’s call at the Palace, anticipating the conch shell song that starts the big waves rolling.

The boys came away exhausted and happy; and the moms came away patting themselves on the back (ouch! sunburn!) for having kicked off the summer season off with a bang. Or a splash :)

Goodbyes

“Today’s my last day!” Brandon exclaimed when I showed up at the centre to pick up Sam after work. The two of them had been playing on the monkey bars and they both came running when they spotted me. That’s not unusual: Brandon often greeted Sam at the door when we arrived in the morning, to say good morning and to fill him in on the planned activities. In the afternoons, he often came over to show us a craft or homemade book on the go — sometimes even giving them to Sam. But today’s his last day.

I’d seen the For Sale sign on his front lawn a few months back and worried, vaguely, that he might be leaving the neighbourhood and the school, but I somehow didn’t expect that he’d be moving to Newmarket. Tomorrow. He was all smiles when I told him that I was born there and that it was a good hockey town and he’d love it. But his expression changed when it was time for us to leave. With a big hug, he said, “Goodbye, Sam — I’ll miss you” and pulled away choking back tears. Sam, blinking hard, said “I’ll miss you, too” and suddenly I was crying behind my sunglasses as well.

Not wanting to leave Brandon fighting his emotions at the edge of the playground (he had his back to the group, looking skyward, willing the tears not to spill over his eyelids), I told him a quick story about how I never even went to school in Newmarket, how I’d already moved a few times before I started kindergarten in Scarborough, and how I went from there to Winnipeg, where I changed schools twice and then moved back and changed schools two more times before I even finished grade 3 up in Beaverton. He was chuckling at how silly that all sounded and he smiled when I said that I loved all of my schools and I quickly made new friends every time. “It’s tough to leave one place, but it’s exciting to go to another one,” I assured him. Then we left with a final backwards wave.

Sam stayed silent throughout that exchange and lagged a ways behind me across the hardtop to the car. I was lost in my own memories of walking into new classrooms, trying to recall how much I missed the kids in my old schools. When I glanced back at Sam, I could see he was pretty upset. “He had the best ideas for games at recess,” he said, his voice cracking. “The best.” I tousled his hair a little and have him a sympathetic smile, saying “He was a really good friend. I know you’ll miss him.” Then we drove home in subdued silence. This is the latest, and probably the toughest, in a series of school and child care friends who have disappeared: Michael, Derek, Sai, Eden, and now Brandon. Looking into Sam's sad eyes, I realize it’s probably easier to pack up and move on than to be left behind on the playground missing a good friend and his games. The best games.