I find that sometimes August can bring a few more showers than July.  It can be frustrating as you realize that the summer is slipping away, but you’d rather be outside than inside due to rain.  In any case, here are some fun rainy day activities for adults and kids alike!

1. Go outside and dance in the rain! Why stay indoors? Either suit up in all your rain gear, go out dressed as is, or put on your bathing suit, and just enjoy getting wet!

2. Grab a cup of tea and a good book, curl up in a chair with a cozy blanket and relax. Listen to the sound of the rain pelting on your window.

3. Do one cleaning task that you wouldn’t normally want to do on a sunny day when you’d rather be outside. You know, vacuum, clean your toilet, do a load of laundry. Get it done while you’re stuck indoors and then you can have fun outside when it’s sunny again!

4. Help your kids get a little crafty. Have them draw some new art for the fridge, or give them a dollar store canvas and some paints and let them create a masterpiece! If you are really into displaying art, give them specific colours that match your home decor, tell them to create, and then you can hang it up somewhere prominent! They’ll feel super special.

5. Go to a local pond and feed the ducks. They’re used to being wet, so a little rain won’t scare them away. It’ll be fun to watch them enjoy the rain!

6. Learn something new. Grab google, wikipedia or youtube and look up how to do something you’ve wondered about but never thought to try. It might be a cooking technique, how to play an instrument, or the history of a type of species. Whatever it is, expand your knowledge a bit!

7. Have a picnic indoors. We love doing this! Set up a space in your home with a table cloth or blanket on the floor. Serve up some fun picnic foods (like curried devilled eggs or Greek bean salad) and pretend like you’re outside! If you really want to make the experience exciting you can download some soundtracks of the ocean to play – it’ll sound like you’re right there!

8. Weed your garden. It might get messy, but it’ll be easier to pull some of those tough weeds when the soil is wet rather than when it’s hardened by the summer sun.

9. Make chocolate chip cookies. Is there anything better on a rainy day?

10. Make a pot of soup. Rain makes you feel like you want to be a bit cozy, so a pot of soup is perfect. It’s easy to simmer on the stove all day, and you can stay warm and dry.

Or, go for a drive.  Just not in traffic, or you’ll hate the rain even more.  :)

After attempting to get myself to sleep the night before, we all arose on Day 2 of our Montreal adventure with the anticipation of heading to the Jean Talon Market.

Not only was I super excited because it’s supposedly the largest open-air market in North America, but also because it was the starting location for our foodie tour!!!  2.5 glorious hours with a local tour guide to take us through the nooks and crannies of the market and the surrounding area of Little Italy and to show us some of the delicious tastes of Montreal.

Amazing, right?  Umm, yah, totally amazing.

Despite the calm exterior, I promise I was going crazy with excitement on the inside.

We got to the market a little early and we wandered through on our own  for a bit just cruising up and down the aisles of over 300+ vendors.  We paused to grab me a chocolate-almond croissant from Au Pain Dore and then we sat down for Peter to enjoy his crepe.

Eventually though we met up with Lise, our foodie tour guide for the afternoon!  There were 10 of us in the group, and it was a great size.  Any bigger would’ve been too chaotic in the already-busy market.

Our first stop was at “Pâtisserie le Ryad” to enjoy some Turkish delight.  We had passed the booth earlier in the day and I remarked to Peter how much I liked Turkish delight and how I wanted to buy some, but we resisted… But I still got to try it in the end!  It was very yummy.

Our next stop was to try some sparkling rhubarb juice (no picture) along with pickled fiddleheads and dried beef jerky.  It was all soooo incredibly tasty.  I really loved the juice, and the fiddleheads had a nice texture and “bite” to them.

Then we paused at a little sausage vendor where we were allowed to try one piece of sausage each.  The options were abundant: duck, bison, pig, cow, lamb, turkey, tofu, venison…and more I can’t recall.  I ended up choosing the duck sausage and Peter had a venison sausage.  We split them together and they were both so tender and flavourful.

One of my favourite stops was the little Mexican restaurant called “Maya Croustilles.”  The sweetest little lady put together small soft corn tortillas (made there on location!) with a flavourful filling of green peppers, tomatoes, etc. done like a salsa.  She included a dark mole on the side which I put inside my tortilla and it was soooooo fantastic.  It had just enough “kick” to it and it was hearty but not overdone.  And she also gave us handmade tortilla chips to try, which were just as wonderful!

It was at this point that we did more walking through Little Italy.  Lise told us about the history of the neighbourhood, including a local cathedral (where we witnessed a young Italian couple getting married!) which was all intriguing and informative.

Our tour ended at a small Italian restaurant where we had the best cannoli on the planet.  Seriously.  Okay, so maybe it’s better in Italy itself, but seriously – this stuff was divine.  The made it fresh to-order when we all arrived.  Incredible.  Have I used that word enough??

Well, despite our official foodie tour being over, our food ventures didn’t stop there!  As if we hadn’t sampled enough food throughout the day, we actually continued on to the famed “Schwartz’s.”  It’s a Hebrew Delicatessen.  Apparently there is always a line-up from the moment they open until the moment they close, so we joined up the line and waited our turn.

We actually didn’t wait that long because space for 4 opened up pretty quickly!  We were seated at a table for 6, along with another couple.  Everyone in there eats with someone else in order to make the line-up go quickly.  It was a fun experience!

We had the typical smoked meat sandwich (beef) that comes either lean, medium or fatty.  Everyone says medium has the best flavour, so we went with that!  And we ordered a side of coleslaw and fries.  It wasn’t exactly health conscious, but it was so very tasty and we all were really happy to have tried it!!

On the Sunday we made our trek back to Ontario.  Can I just say, that not only did I wake up with a nasty cold but I also got to drive in the worst weather we’d had all weekend.  It was pouring rain.  And I have this “joke” with Peter that I only ever drive on our road trips in the really bad weather or the boring scenes.  For example: during a bad snowstorm on our way to New York City in 2006.  Or driving through the flat prairies for HOURS.  Or in this case, being pummelled with rain.

Despite the rain, the best part of the trip home was that Peter and I got to stop in Picton, ON to meet up with one of his older sisters, Rachel and her hubby Brian and their super cute kiddos, Olivia and Nathaniel.

We had a delicious dinner at “The Barley Room Pub” and then we finished up the rest of our trip back home.  It was a fun trip through Quebec and I’m so glad we had the chance to do it!

I’m going to interrupt my updates on our trip to Quebec (Part 1, Part 2) with a rant on having a cold.

I’m seriously grateful that my cold didn’t surface until the day we were driving home from Quebec.  But seriously?  Being sick at all in the summer seems totally wrong.  It’s warm and sunny outside…and inside I feel warm and…cold?!  Gross.  Granted, I rarely get sick anymore…not like when I was younger and I was constantly battling strep throat or tonsillitis.  Both of which resulted in me having my tonsils removed at the age of 18.  Yah.  Super fun.  You want to know what’s even more fun?  Having them removed at 35 years old.  Yup, that was my brother.  We have awesome tonsil genes.

ANYWAY, I thought I’d share a couple of tips for those of you who might also be suffering a summer cold.

Wash your hands frequently.  It can’t be said enough.  Use soap and warm water and keep washing!  Oh, and apply some hand cream here and there, or your skin will totally dry up.

If you’re feeling up to it, get out of the house and at least walk around the block.  It’s warm enough that you don’t have to bundle up like when you get sick in the winter, so do a little trot around the block and get your legs moving.

You will inevitably have to blow your nose a gazillion trillion times (yes, that’s an accurate number).  If you’re fancy schmancy you might have those special aloe vera tissues.  But if you’re me, then what you’ll do is apply coconut oil to your nose here and there throughout the day.  It softens your skin keeping it nice and moisturized, but it also is naturally anti-bacterial so it’ll keep the germs at bay.

Get dressed.  I don’t care if you just put on clean pyjamas or new sweat pants, but at least get out of whatever you slept in.  You’ll feel slightly more human.  If you can, kick it up a notch and shower!

Drink clear liquids like they’re going out of style!  A concoction that I find particularly helpful when I have a sore throat or cough in conjunction with a cold is: 1 cup of hot water + 1 tsp. apple cider vinegar + 1 tsp. honey + 1/4 tsp. of cinnamon.

Avoid dairy and meat.  This is hard for me because I love my dairy… But if possible, avoid them both as much as you can.  They both create extra mucus, and no one wants extra mucus…

Rest.  Luckily for me I’m unemployed right now so I don’t have any major commitments, so that means my number one priority is getting well.  This means I’ve had the occasional nap.  It’s especially helpful if you’re not sleeping all that well at night.  Just sleep when you can.  Your body will thank you!

Don’t eat sugar.  It’s not good for you on the best of days, but it’s especially bad for you when you’re sick.  It feeds off of those little germies inside of you and can actually make you more sick.  So lay off the chocolate bars and ice cream for a few days, k?

If you’re sick, get well soon!  And if you’re not, I’m infinitely jealous of you right now.

During our trip to Pennsylvania we spent a morning/afternoon at a nearby train station called Strasburg Rail Road.  It’s set up so that you can take a ride on old restored trains.

There are different types of cars that you can ride in, from a completely open train car with bench seating, right up to air conditioning with tables and chairs and food service.  We chose the air conditioned one with food service!  It was a very hot day, and being indoors with a beautiful view of the countryside with a lunch was very nice!  It’s not super cheap, but it’s a fun experience.

They give you a “hobo lunch” served in these fun bandanas right off a stick, just like a “hobo” back in the day.  haha.

You get to choose your main dish off the menu (we had the philly cheesesteak, which to me was more like a meatball sub), but then you also get a homemade chocolate chip cookie, a baggie of chips, and a dish of baked beans (made without pork! yay!).

We also had a choice of lemonade or iced tea.  Personally I would’ve rather had water, which wasn’t an option, so I had lemonade.  It was even served to us in glass jars!  Love it.

Later in the day we went to Sight and Sound Theatre to see a production of “Jonah.”  It’s a telling of the biblical story of a man named Jonah who avoids what God has asked him to do and ends up being swallowed by a whale.  You can read the whole story here.

It was a great production with incredible sets!  They portrayed the water and waves so well, and they included a bunch of live animals that made it so fun!  It was a fantastic show.  And despite the picture, I promise my niece enjoyed it…

Have you ever been to Pennsylvania?  Have you ever ridden on an old train?  Do you like live musicals?

If it feels like I just got back from Florida only a couple of weeks ago, you’d be right.  And yet here I am with another trip under my belt to tell you all about!  These three months of being on hiatus since moving from Victoria until we move to Kuwait are quite busy!  It seems that for much of it we’re traveling to visit friends and family.  It’s tons of fun but definitely tiring as well.  Not to mention that Peter is in class in between the weeks that we’re away, so it feels like he never gets any down time.  Nevertheless, we’re blessed, and enjoying life to the fullest and just cherishing the moments we have.  :)

Some of those moments were had this past week in Pennsylvania!  It’s a state I’ve been to many times (in fact, we were shopping there just a month ago!).  This time we went as an entire huge family – my parents, us, my brother and wife and kids.  It was cool to be all together like that!

After our day in Niagara Falls with friends, we headed across the border and started making our way to Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  It’s about an 8 hour drive from where we live, so we split it into two chunks.

Lancaster is known for being the home to a large community of Amish people.  I actually did a study/speech on them during the 6th grade and ended up presenting my speech to the entire school (much to my dismay!).  They’re a quiet, simple group of people who are fantastic examples of what it means to enjoy time with family, and live without the crazy abundance of “stuff” that most of the Western World deems “necessary.”

On our first day we took a tour into an Amish farming area where we stopped at 3 different farms and drove by countless others.  We passed endless fields of corn that seemed to fade into the hot pale blue sky.

We tried deliciously fresh, soft homemade pretzles:

Strong homemade rootbeer:

And I drooled over the amazing variety of homemade pies:

My niece and nephew also petted numerous farm animals at the various locations, much to their delight:

The Amish people don’t agree with having their picture taken, so you won’t see any pictures of them here.  Besides, as neat as it is to get a glimpse into their interesting culture, I do feel badly that they’re sometimes treated as a tourist attraction.  I know it helps them to make a livelihood as well, but would I really want tour buses rolling through my street just to look at how I live differently?  I don’t know…

Anyway, it’s a beautiful part of Pennsylvania, and I always enjoy going there.  If you’re ever in that area you should stop and at the very least eat at one of the many Amish-styled restaurants that feature “Pennsylvania Dutch” food.  It’s hearty and stick-to-your-ribs goodness!

*In my next few posts I’ll tell you about a train ride on an old locomotive steamer train and a theatre production that we saw.  Plus our trip to the Baltimore Aquarium and the Martin guitar factory!  Stay tuned for travel posts throughout the week!

I don’t know what it is with me lately, but I find I’m reading up on random articles these days!  Maybe it’s just a subconscious desire to be productive… Nahhhh.  :)

In any case, these are two rather contrasting articles that I read last week that I thought were worth passing along.

9 Quick Ways to Get “Depressed”

This article speaks about how we can easily get ourselves into a slump if we only focus on certain negative ways of thinking.  It’s a good reminder of what NOT to do!

How Soda Affects Kids’ Health

This article talks about some of the common issues with drinking soda and also rejects a few myths.  It’s not necessarily new information for me, but still interesting! 

Have you read any interesting articles lately?

As part two of our trip to Florida we spent some time in the area of Fort Myers and Sanibel Island.  It’s a truly beautiful region on the Gulf of Mexico.  There’s so much nature to see, gorgeous scenery, and in July, perfectly warm water for swimming in the ocean.

I don’t necessarily have “tips” for viewing this area like I did for Disney World, but I can list off some tasty restaurants and some fun places to go.  If you get the chance, you should definitely head down to this area!

Fort Myers:

• 6 Mile Cypress Slough: Tons of nature to see here including various birds, gators, turtles, and insects.  Even if it’s really hot the trail is mostly shaded so although you’ll feel the warmth you won’t be in direct sunlight for most of it.

• Fort Myers Beach: Although you might need to park in the crazy-busy touristy section of town, when you get down to the beach, keep walking…don’t stop with the crowds of people.  If you’re willing to walk for 10-15 minutes you can get past some of the big crowds and find some rather empty stretches of sand for yourself!

• Pizza Fusion: This was a really tasty pizza shop that caters to carnivores, vegetarians, vegans and even the gluten-free crowd!  I personally tried the Pear & Gorgonzola pizza and it was absolutely delicious.  You can choose their regular organic crust, multigrain or gluten-free.  You can also build your own pizza with their vast ingredients list, or you can have a salad, sandwich or wrap.

• Lush French Bakery: The French don’t disappoint with their pastries, that’s for sure.  I had a chocolate almond croissant (YUM!) and Peter had an apple tart.  It was perfect because it was literally pouring rain and we stayed nice and dry inside enjoying our tasty pastries.

Sanibel Island:

• J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge: Much like the slough, lots of wildlife to see.  This is more of a driving trail where  you can pull off to the side and see the wildlife as you wish.

• Cheeburger Cheeburger: This is a local favourite, it seems.  They have a fun concept where you can choose your burger size (and type), toppings and cheese.  Mine was super delicious!  It had olives, 2 onion rings, banana peppers, guacamole and feta cheese.  Oh, and super yummy fries, and milkshakes too…I had a cheesecake milkshake!  Yup, delicious and fatty. :)

• Schnapper’s Hots: This is a quick fast-food type stop with some tasty burgers and hot dogs!  We both got all beef hot dogs.  I can’t totally recall the toppings, but I think mine was their classic version, and Peter had one with sauerkraut.  Both were delicious!!

• Sanibel Marina: If you are there at the right time (and apparently we weren’t), you can see manatees just hanging out in the marina by all the boats!   But even if you don’t see manatees, you can enjoy a gorgeous sunset.

And, we finished off our trip by traveling back to Ontario on our anniversary, July 8th.  This is the only shot of us on that long day of travel (we were on the airplane…and then de-planed immediately due to weather in the northern states, and then we no sooner got off the plane than we were told the weather warning was cancelled and got back on within 5 minutes…it was a little nutso).

Ever been to Florida?  Like it?  Love it?  Leave it?