Anniversary Weekend

This weekend we celebrated our 2nd anniversary (which is really on Tuesday).  John planned out the whole weekend and I had no idea what we were going to do.  We left Friday night after work.  We came home and packed first before leaving because we needed to leave after the traffic had died down a bit.  All I was told was that I was going to need something warm, for 0 degrees temperature and then something nice to wear for dinner.  It made packing a little interesting as I didn't know exactly what to pack, but I was able to do it.  We left the house by 6pm and then proceeded to go to dinner at Moxie's at Riverside and Hunt Club. Not going to lie, I was wondering if we were just going to be staying in Ottawa for the weekend, which would have been ok, but I had been prepared to leave the city.  It turned out though that it was just a stop so that we could wait for traffic to be not as bad.  Dinner was really nice.  John got steak and I got salmon and we shared a banana cheesecake dessert.  

Then we were off to our destination. As we drove through downtown, I had figured that we were going to Quebec (which I had kind of assumed).  While I had been wondering if we were going to go to Montreal, once we drove past the turn off for Chelsea, I realized we weren't going there.  Finally, we made it to our destination, which was Wakefield (this I only found out because we missed our turn off and had to drive through the town and I saw the Canada Post with the sign on it for Wakefield, haha).  John had booked us in a little country B&B, called La Grange.  It is a converted barn, which houses the B&B on the lower level, the owner on the main level and a yoga studio on the 2nd level.  It was very nice.  We got a nice suite room which included a small kitchenette, our own bathroom and exit from the house.  We got settled in around 8:30pm and realized that we didn't bring anything to do, so once we explored the lounge, we found a 1,000 piece puzzle we figured we would tackle.  It was the first time we had done a puzzle together.  Below is the beginning stages. 

The next morning, after a nice breakfast, we set out to explore the town and see the sights.  We found a covered bridge which runs over the Gatineau River from the 1800s which was rebuilt after a fire in 1987.

The scenery there was so beautiful, the fall colours were very rich.  John said the reason he picked it was because he knew I would like it.  I probably said "look, it's so pretty" about a million times because the trees everywhere were red, yellow and orange.  It made me wish for a nicer camera to take better pictures.  These will have to do.

One view from the side of the covered bridge.

Next we drove up around the Wakefield Mill, which is a big deal because it was sort of the center of the town and the MacLaren family who essentially founded/owned the town.  The Mill is now a fancy resort (which apparently books up fast as John tried to get in there, but only Friday night was available) and spa.  Just past the Mill is the MacLaren Place, the house the family lived, and the cemetery.  We decided to drive up to the cemetery to see why they had signs up to it.  I wanted to see if someone famous was buried there.  Well, the scenery up there was so beautiful up and around it.  I took many pictures, but I'll just share one.

 

After taking a bunch of pictures, we drove up and got out to see the cemetery.  We found a plaque there for Lester B. Pearson which the Government of Canada had placed there and then a cement sign on the ground saying "L.B. Pearson" and an arrow pointing up.    

I figured it meant that he was buried there, but John didn't think so because there had been a sign at the entrance saying that it held the MacLaren family and town residents. But we went to investigate the cemetery anyways and what do we find but Lester B. Pearson's grave. Apparently people like to put rocks on it?

 After our little adventure, we came back to the B&B for a bit before lunch and our afternoon activity.  We worked on our puzzle a little bit, see the progress?

We went for lunch at Tim Horton's and then went to the location of our afternoon event.  We ended up at Adventure Lafleche to go for a cave exploration!  Lafleche is an aerial park along with cave exploration.  At first I thought that we were going to go zip lining as there were a lot of people outside getting ready to go, but once we went into register, I found out we were going to the caves. It was really cool!  We started off going through a tunnel where there were a bunch of bats already hibernating for the winter.  Then we climbed down one flight of very narrow stairs and saw some pools of water with the cave.  The guide explained a little bit of how they were digging it out and where all the tunnels led.  Next we went up 7 stories high to the top of the cave.  It didn't seem like it, but I think it's because it was dark and you can't see down when you are climbing up (which was just as good because I may not have been able to do it otherwise!).  While up there, we went into one room which the guide had us turn off our lights and see the true definition of pitch black.  No natural light can get into this room.  It was really interesting to see how your brain plays tricks on you when there is absolutely no light for you to see.  I kept thinking I could see a faint light to the left, even though I knew there was not.  Finally we ended up in a great room, which the guide told us they had found blue whale bones in.  They have some theories as to how it would have ended up there, but no conclusive evidence.  Unfortunately it was too hard to get many pictures in the cave, but I got some when we exited looking back it.

Marble stone which is all in the cave. This is what it looks like when it has just
broken off.

This is what it looks like once water has rubbed against it.

After the caves, we went back into Wakefield and toured the shops.  John got some almond bark and fudge.  I think that made the day for him.  Afterwards, we went back to the B&B to relax before supper.

We had supper at the Wakfield Mill restaurant.  We got a seat overlooking the waterfalls they have there, which was so nice.  They had different dining options on their menu, we decided to go with their 'Discovery Menu'.  This included 6 courses of the chef's choice.  It was very interesting.  We had a lot of things we had never have before, many of which I can't even name and most of them we did not enjoy too much.  While it was not the most enjoyable meal, it was a really nice evening, as I really enjoyed our conversations throughout the meal.  It felt rather relaxing.

Back at the B&B after supper, we ended up working on our puzzle until almost 2am!  John wanted to finish it before we left and we didn't keep track of the time too well.  We just kept working on it until it got to the point that none of the pieces would fit, so we gave up.  This is the progress through the evening.

Sunday morning we slept in and finally I finished off the puzzle!  It felt like such a huge accomplishment! 

We checked out after 10am and went to a little bakery to get pastries for breakfast.  We were going to find a trail to go on, but it was really damp, so instead we decided to come home, unpack, do some laundry and then relax for the rest of the day before starting our weeks again.  I really enjoyed the time away with John, particularly because I had him for the entire time (unlike in Hawaii).  It was romantic and I could see that a lot of thought went into it.  I can't wait to have more weekends like this with him in our future!