Our First Ice Fishing Adventure

O'Hara and I were so keen to try this out, ever since we came to Canada and found out it's actually something that people do. My favourite thing to do is tell people I want to catch a fish so big it can't fit through my ice hole..... Unfortunately our first attempt went very similar to every single of O'Hara's other fishing attempts. Epic fail. Not even a nibble.

So, ice fishing is basically exactly what you'd expect. Drill a hole in the ice, sit and wait until you catch a fish. The fun part (aside from fishing if you get something) is the campfire, talking rubbish, whiskey and beer. Standard.

Watching the camera in the snow. Dedication

I love roasted marshmallows!!

It's also a pretty technical experience, if you go with Luke anyway there's no drop a line and wait. That would be silly. It's all about having an underwater camera, so you can see if there is fish there in the first place. How did we not catch anything even with a camera? O'Hara is the most unlucky fishing charm.

We also had a little mini hut thing, that you can sit in with a heater and fish for hours. When we went it wasn't overly cold and we had a fire so didn't really use it. I can imagine if it was much colder or there was more snow, it would be pretty important.

O'Hara trying to stay warm and some idiots on the underwater camera

We've got friends visiting in a month, so we're hiring a cabin by the lake for a weekend. Surely over 2 days we'll have to get something. I'm wondering if we don't take any food, there would be more incentive to catch something?

Canada Further East: Niagara Falls, Toronto and Fredericton

Finally finishing up the rest of our trip over East! We took the 10 hour trip from New York to Niagara, nice enough scenery but probably would have been better flying to Toronto. Trains make me so, SO sleepy. A 10 hour trip during the day had me sleeping around 70% of the time. Of course by the time we made it to Niagara I was EXHAUSTED!!

Niagara Falls, Ontario
The time of year that we visited was nice because it wasn't crowded at all, and also wasn't too cold. However, because Niagara Falls is actually a huge hydro electric dam they turn the flow down during the winter months. The Niagara Falls Power Company is required to maintain a minimum flow going over the falls, during summer days it's around 2,800m3 and during winter and at night time it's 1,400m3. So this meant we technically only saw the falls at half speed, but that's still a lot of water!

Beautiful Falls at night

They're thiiiiiissssss big!

Niagara Falls is a little bit like a small Vegas - casinos and tourist shops. We only spent one night there, but I think if you go for a few days it's worth while getting out of town and visiting the lakes and vineyard areas.

A prime example of the discrepancy between Canada and the USA. On the US side 1/4 price to use the binoculars!

Toronto, Ontario
O'Hara is in LOVE with Toronto. I think it's because we went all out with respect to food for the short time we were there. Toronto doesn't seem as hectic as other big cities nearby, but it has an awesome amount of diversity which means the variety of food is amazing. We also saw some fabulous design stores, which made us pretty happy. I can't wait to find a house we plan to live in for a long time and stock it with cool stuff. We'll have to go back to Toronto.

We checked out the Hockey Hall of Fame while there, and got to touch the Stanley Cup (NHL winners cup)!! Pretty cool, O'Hara is really disappointed with himself that he didn't lick it though. The Hockey Hall of Fame room was designed to be a bank. Canada decided that as hockey was going to be an integral part of it's culture, they would instead turn the building into a memorial hall of cups and best players. Only in Canada!

Emily with the Stanley Cup and the hectic vault used to store the old one

Australian Kangaroo (where else?) and a pretty church

Fredericton, New Brunswick
My little brother has just moved to Fredericton to do a semester of uni and be with his girlfriend (also Emily, great name). Fredericton is the capital of New Brunswick but it's a reasonably small town with about 30,000 people. Fredericton has a lot of French and English heritage which has lead to some beautiful downtown areas and architecture. The day we arrived there was a huge snowstorm which meant we had to circle the plane for an hour before landing, and also meant it was picture perfect when we got there.

On our first night O'Hara was convinced he should eat the Epic Burger at a local pub. This consisted of 2 pounds of beef, cheese curds, bacon, bacon, bacon and gravy. He ate it ALL! Epic effort alright. He didn't feel 100% that night, but lived through the ordeal without having a heart attack. The next day we went for a road trip out to the worlds longest covered bridge! Yep, it's a real thing in Hartland, New Brunswick.

Epic burger. Now you see it, now you don't!

Longest covered bridge. O'Hara's excited

GF Emily's family were kind enough to include us in decorating the Christmas Tree, which was a nice feeling as we didn't have a chance to get one in Kamloops. The day after, we spent with Jonathan exploring the scenic areas of Fredericton on foot. I finally found someone who slips on the ice more than me! Finally, and it's a good feeling.

Lovely duets and Christmas Tree

Of course all Australians want to do is find huge ice blocks and throw them off the bridge

Walking the the park with all the snow. So beautiful!

On our last day we went to the Farmers markets (they run all through winter which is awesome). There was a lot of local arts and crafts as well as food which was cool. I'm sad I didn't buy a pair of moose leather moccasins. I think I'll get Jonathan to pick me up a pair!

For dinner we went to Kings Landing, which is a historic settlement just out of Fredericton. The government was building a dam back in the day that would have flooded all the houses, so they picked them up and moved them! It's now an outdoor living museum. We had a traditional Christmas dinner that was wonderful and delicious. People came and sung us carols and made Jonathan (the only one not drinking) dance. Awesome!

Breakfast lobster roll at the markets, and Kings Landing dinner!

Canadian Happy Holidays

Well it's all over. The period that I was most excited for and dreading all at the same time. Excited because I was maybe going to experience a white Christmas and terrified because I knew I was going to miss everything going on at home.

So, we got the white Christmas! Kamloops generally doesn't get a lot of snow and December is a bit early but the snow Gods were happy with us and while we were on holidays Kamloops got snow. Quite a bit of snow really, enough that when we got home we had to shovel the driveway and scrape the car off!

Christmas didn't actually feel like Christmas at all, not because of the lack of decorations or snow or carols. Purely because Canada is almost a full day behind Australia at the moment. This meant I'd already spoken to my parents multiple times the day before and had a nice dinner because O'Hara was working Christmas day (no one feel bad for him, he only worked like 5 days in December).

I did however have a very fun day. I spent the day hanging out with the Wilsons and Greg and Lil. All Australians which I'd like to think meant we cracked the champas early. We spent the morning making Christmas food and sledding. Sledding for my first EVER time. It turns out it's actually quite fun. Especially when sled wars or trains occur. I'm clearly a giant kid at heart.

The sled train and my scared face!

For Christmas arvo we went to Kelly and Paul's house (American and Canadian) where they hosted 11 Australians for Christmas dinner, 2 deep-fried turkeys. Yep! This was obviously very kind of them. We drank and ate and drank and ate which is standard for Christmas.

Wii Just Dance and Christmas Love

Boxing Day I managed to be hungover enough that cleaning the house took around 5 hours. We were very lucky and got a cheeky visit from Daniel (O'Hara's brother) and Leonie. They were on the way through to Niagara for a wedding and stopped through.

Thursday we took Daniel and Leonie out to Lac du Bois with the Wilsons for more sledding and skating. Sadly the lakes were still too sloppy, so skating would likely to have ended in death or at a minimum soaked with ice water.

O'Hara will catch me, but not Daniel

O'Hara cooks a BBQ while we watch

The day ended with a beautiful sunset and moon. Perfection!

We managed a day at Sun Peaks in between Christmas and New Year, there was a bunch of snow which meant it was many soft landings for me. Winner!

For New Years Eve we made a late minute decision to head to Silver Star to visit the Wilsons and Burtons. More snow, beautiful ski village, tubing, skating and snowboarding. All in less than 24 hours!

It's important to hang on... sorry boys but this one is too good 

Ice-skating in the snow, and O'Hara learning how to play ice hockey

Above the clouds and me being a fail at snowboarding

Sadly my January 1st ended with a nasty stack, tears at the t-bar and a snow graze on my chin. Onwards and upwards I hope!

Thanks Wilsons for entertaining us for the holidays!

New York City. Best

New York City was on my Bucket List, just like I'm sure it is for so many people. My Aunty Ann told me before I left, that it was one of her favourite cities in the word. She's been travelling the world my whole life, so to say this made it a big deal. It took about 4 hours from getting off the plane, for me to fall in love. Finally I could understand the t-shirts and handbags. I honestly do love New York.

We stayed in the Financial District at Holiday Inn Wall St for 5 nights. We got a sweet deal on Hotwire with a secret room, I would definitely recommend that. My little brother was staying with us, so it was cosy but awesome value.

We caught the subway and walked a lot. Every night around 5pm we were exhausted and found ourselves in a random drinking establishment, resting our feet until a beer or two boosted our second wind. It was early December which turned out to be a perfect time to visit. The weather was mild, the crowds were virtually non-existent and the holiday season was well and truly there. O'Hara's Mum sent us a New York Pass for 3 days, which meant we could pretty much do everything pre-paid! Thanks Mumma and Pappa O'Hara!

Highlights of our trip included (this will be long.... it was basically everything we did);

• Black and White Picasso exhibition at the Guggenheim - I LOVE Picasso. O'Hara learns to love it after spending a while walking around. Ask him today though and he'll probably say he doesn't.
• Little Italy - Obsessed. The food, the decorations, the feel. We came here on our first night for dinner, ate at the original Vince's Restaurant. Had the best tomato pasta sauce ever (sorry Dad). We took Jonathan there on our last night for dessert. Win.
• Macy's flagship store at Herald Square - Christmas Magic
• Paella, sangria and churros con chocolate - We'd been on the hunt for churros con chocolate for months. Socarrat Paella Bar delivered.
• Jazz, wine and martinis - We went to the Village Vanguard for Monday night Jazz. We realised we were on a good thing when we met someone out the front who had been coming to the bar since he was 17. He is now 68. I love how Jazz has the ability to completely transport you to a different time. We felt like we were in the 50's drinking red wine and martinis and listening to Jazz in a club underground. It was wonderful.
• Central Park, Christmas markets and ice skating - Is Central Park the coolest place ever? Possibly. We seemed to end up walking through there at least once a day. The Christmas markets were on while we were there. Hot chocolate, truffles, hot apple cider, bratwurst, macarons and pretty things. Perfect.
• American Museum of Natural History - We saw the whale that Barney knocked down. This museum was huge!
• Times Square - at night, during the day, it doesn't even matter. 
• Catching up with Matt and Mim - Drinks with friends. Impossible to go wrong. It was fantastic to see these guys after so long. O'Hara and Jonathan hit the 10% beers, which ended about as well as you'd expect.
• 5th Avenue - Jonathan and O'Hara were hugely hungover, guess from when? They managed a quick wander through Tiffany and Co and found the lovely granite drinking fountain. Classy.
• Water Taxi - it was slightly chilly, but not too much that we couldn't sit up and watch the Statue of Liberty. She's beautiful. Unfortunately you couldn't go up inside her head because of Sandy, her island needed some repair. We also caught the ferry across to Brooklyn and had delicious pizza. It may have been a tourist trap, but it didn't matter because the pizza was worth it.
• Wall Street - We wanted to go inside the NYSE but didn't work that out. O'Hara and Jonathan got up close and personal with the bull. It was packed with people wanting to rub it's balls. A bit like the big marino I think. Strange!
• Brooklyn Bridge - crossed this bad boy a couple of times. Got in other peoples way doing jump photos. Took a thousand of our own. I think it's impossible to take a bad photo in New York. It's all just too pretty
• Ground Zero and Freedom Tower - Ground Zero was emotional, Freedom Tower is impressive. It's so sad looking at the Manhattan skyline, never having seen the Twin Towers. The Freedom Tower is an impressive skyscraper. It'll be amazing when completed.
• Empire State Building - We only splashed around the lobby, and instead went up the Rock. It meant we could see the Empire State Building from the sky. Awesome!
• All the pubs - We went to some cute little drinking establishments. It made me miss living in a bigger city.

Our only major fail was catching the train back to New York after Boston, rather than just flying straight to Toronto. I think we got confused when deciding where we were going and how to get to Fredericton. However it happened, it cost us an extra day and a half and around $300.... oops. At least we got a nice scenic train ride. Can I please move to the New England coast. So beautiful!

We really had the best time there. A holiday where major highlights are eating and drinking is always going to be brilliant, New York seemed to bring everything we needed in a city. Take me back!

O'Hara and Jonathan enjoying brews at some favourite pubs

Sweet treats! The macarons are the same brand (Vendome) they use for the Clinique ads

Maybe causing our own trouble at the museum. The blue whale stayed attached

Old wooden escalator at Macy's and Times Square

Beautiful buildings and bridges everywhere

Pizza in Brooklyn and the Statue of Liberty. All in a few hours

Manhattan at night and Jonathan being a ham

Hungover boys do not like been dragged around the town

Boston, Massachusetts

This is an out of order post but writing about New York will take me way too long. O'Hara and I are currently using up our annual leave on a two week trip to the East Coast of the US and Canada. If anyone is wondering it's a fantastic time to visit. There are minimum crowds as we're just before the winter school/uni break, the weather is still quite mild (though potentially unseasonably so), and everything is decorated for Christmas.

We were so excited to catch up with some friends in Boston. Connor (who I used to work with in Sydney) lives with his wonderful fiancée Karen there. While we were on the East Coast we couldn't pass up an opportunity to visit them. They are getting married next year in Wisconsin. So. Excited.

Boston is a pretty nifty little city. I had no idea how much of the American Revolution stemmed from there. It was also lovely to be in a city built with red bricks after being on the Wood West Coast for the last 9 months. We only had one full day there, so decided to walk the Freedom Trail. We downloaded a free app, which had info on the major points along the way. You can do guided tour, with dressed up guides as well, that looked quite fun.

Some footage from the oldest park in the USA

Boston has the oldest Park in the USA, and the first public school in the US that Benjamin Franklin and 3 other signers of the Declaration of Independence went to. We followed the little red line for around 2 hours, ending up at the USS Constitution.

O'Hara and the USS Constitution, the oldest commissioned warship still afloat. Undefeated. Legend

Connor and Karen took us for a delicious seafood dinner at Legal Sea Foods near the water, oysters from the East Coast were amazing. O'Hara ordered Lobster Roll and Clam Chowder, not bad for a boy who didn't like seafood when I met him. I had fried clams which are also a New England thing. So much deliciousness.

Tragically while we were in Boston, the Sandy Hook massacre occurred. We didn't realise until the afternoon when catching a cab home and heard it on the radio. Unsurprisingly everyone is devastated. It breaks our hearts hearing about it, and we have tried to avoid watching the news. 2012 has been a year of ups and downs for us. Our wedding and moving to Canada we're great, but we've lost two wonderful people from our lives, had close friends deal with tragic loss and this was another event in 2012 that has changed how we view each day. I honestly believe the Mayans may have been onto something as this has been a tough year for me personally.

I'm looking forward to 2013!

B is for Bacon

What do you think of when you hear Canada? For me it's maple syrup, snow and bacon. I don't really know why I have this image. I think it's because there's something called Canadian Bacon.

I've never actually seen Canadian Bacon at the store, in fact the best bacon I've found is something at the butcher called 'Aryshire Bacon'. Who know's what that means, but it's good. Canadian Bacon is supposed to be similar to thick cut bacon, it sounds delicious and I wish I could remember to look/find it.

We tried buying bacon from the supermarket, but similar to Australia it's rubbish. I've been told that bacon from the butcher is different because it contains more meat, rather than just buying strips of pig fat (which I LOVE, but the meat at least gives the illusion you're eating protein).

Yum yum bacon cocktail

Since I've been in Canada I've had bacon in some fancy ways;

• Pancakes, bacon and maple syrup - I didn't like it. However, I'm willing to give it another go at a better restaurant.
• A Bacon Caesar (Clamato Bloody Mary) - This was delicious, more cocktails should have bacon
• Caramel Bacon Popcorn - I didn't think I'd like it, but was impressed!
• Bacon wrapped scallops - This isn't too random, and is obviously amazing
• Bacon wrapped chestnuts - For some reason chestnuts aren't really that common in Australia. Lets just say they taste good wrapped in bacon.

5 things I needed to know and I now own

5 Things I should have know
There are so many things that may seem like common sense to someone who grew up in Canada, but these are not obvious to me.

- You have to leave the heating on in your house so the pipes don't freeze up

• Me: I don't really understand how my heaters work, like whats the point of 10 degrees?
• Friends: You can leave it on the lowest 24/7 in winter
• Me: That seems like a waste
• Friends: Well if you don't your pipes will freeze 
• Me: ??

- You need to carry an emergency car kit

• Me: I'm just hoping it doesn't snow while we're driving, I'm kinda scared I'm going to die
• Friends: As long as you have an emergency car kit, it'll be ok
• Me: Emergency whaattt?????
• Friends: You know, blankets, water, snacks, torch, hazard markers, shovel, first aid, tool kit, tow strap
• Me: ??

- Skis and snowboards need to be waxed

• Friend: I can't go snowboarding yet, my board needs to be waxed
• Me: ??

- Elk and Moose will stomp you and your car if threatened

• Aus Friend: The ranger said we were "waaayyy to close"
• Me: Why?
• Can Friends: Elk are crazy angry, they'll stomp the crap out of your car
• Me: ??

- Narwhals are a real thing

• Friend: There's heaps of wildlife up north, whales, seals and narwhals and stuff
• Me: Wait, those things with the horns?
• Friend: Yea
• Me: I thought they were just a random thing on Futurama

Number 6 addition: You can't leave dogs in the car when it's cold too!! This I guess is obvious, but I'd never even thought about it. Apparently the car has some sort of fridge effect, poor puppies.

5 things I now have

I also now own a bunch of things that I would never had needed in Australia

• Winter boots - these bad boys are good down to -30 degrees C
• A snow shovel - unless I move to Mount Wellington
• A balaclava - O'Hara has this so he can ride to work in the cold
• Winter tyres - Luckily these came free with Wheels!
• Halloween decorations - Yay