Back on tour with Jasper

Jasper was back on the road this week, this time without his dad. Lots of distance was covered this week, no wonder I am exhausted!

Route: Kincardine- Toronto- Whitby- Kincardine- North Bay- Barrie- Kincardine
Distance driven: 1405 km

Earlier in the week, Pat's little brother Nathan came over for pizza and some playtime. Nathan is expecting his own little baby brother soon, so he is getting lots of good practice with Jasper.

Hanging with his best bud Nathan.

Wednesday night some friends came over for an Enjo party. Who knew we'd get excited about cleaning products (but also snacks).

Thursday morning the road trip started with picking up Aunt Heather at her new house. Our first stop was the Russian consulate to pick up the visas. Thankfully, all five visas were approved without any problems.

Next stop was to Grandma Beaton in North York. Jasper showed off his new moves for Grandma and we took him for a walk to meet some of Grandma's friends. Some of the other residents remembered Jasper by name from the last time we came to visit. I will have to remember to print out some pictures and mail them to Grandma Beaton, since she doesn't use the internet. 

In Toronto with Great Grandma Beaton

The next stop was to the Hoyle's house in Whitby. We got to visit with Great Aunt Cheryl, Great Uncle Doug, Charlotte and Mike. Jasper sampled some of Doug's homemade soup and got to play with some of Charlotte and Christopher's toys from when they were kids. He hasn't quite figured out the piano yet. Aunt Heather survived the night sleeping in the same room of as Jasper and I.

Playing with Charlotte's old toys in Whitby

Friday morning after lots of coffee, it was off to see Great Grandma and Grandpa Love. Great Grandpa wasn't having a great morning, but I think having lunch and a visit with Jasper cheered him up a bit. He even had a second dessert at lunch. The other residents enjoyed watching Jasper try to eat his lunch. I was pleasantly surprised that the retirement home had a high chair for us to use!

With Great Grandma Love at Amica

We drove back to Kincardine to drop off Aunt Heather and try to get a good night's rest before setting back out for North Bay on Saturday morning. By some miracle, Jasper slept most of the 5 hour trip to North Bay, only waking up for lunch at Webers near Orillia. Luckily, Webers has a veggie burger and it was delicious.

With the cousins in North Bay.

Saturday and Sunday were spent hanging out with Aunt Shelly and cousins Regan and Hailey. We went for come chilly walks, met Santa at the mall and went to a spaghetti dinner at the Davedi hall.

Davedi spaghetti dinner in North Bay.

Jasper was really happy to see his cousins again. Regan is still an expert diaper-changer, but Jasper is a lot more difficult to make stay still now.

 

 

 

The McIlroy/ Passmore/ Beaton grandkids!

Monday morning, we saw everyone off to school and then drove back to Barrie for lunch with the Parr great grandparents. We are lucky to have so many people to visit, but I sure am tired now. Hopefully, we won't have to go too far for the next few weeks.

7 months old

This was a busy week for little Jasper. On Monday, he went with me to work for Public Health Professionals Day. He did pretty well to sit through a three hour motivational speaker session and then lunch with all my co-workers. I only had to walk him around the halls a few times.

With Scolastica, Laura, Amy and Bennet at the HCHU.

Jasper tried some more new foods this week, including feeding himself porridge and yogurt. It's quite a messy undertaking, as you can see from the photo below.

After eating.

Jasper was seven months old on Thursday, so we took his monthly picture with Fred. He is definitely bigger than Fred now. I like the mischievous look he is giving in this picture.

Seven month picture with Fred.

Friday night Jasper got to meet Santa, reindeer, llamas, goats and a camel at Kincardine's Hometown Christmas event. Jasper didn't mind sitting with Santa at all.

With Santa at Kincardine Hometown Christmas

After meeting Santa, we went back to Grandma and Grandpa's house, where Jasper could torment Kitty for a while. The poor old cat just takes it. I guess Jasper is not allergic to cats, since he was pulling off her fur by the handful.

 Saturday, my friends Erynn and Michelle came up to visit from Toronto. It was so great to have them here for the weekend. We got to cook lots of yummy food, walk around snowy Kincardine and stop in to Heather's house warming party for a few hours.

With Erynn at Hawg's Breath

It snowed the week Jasper was born, but this was his first real experience out in the snow. His snow suit is a bit big for him, so he looks pretty funny trying to move around with it on. The jogging stroller did well in the snow. Good thing, we'll have to get used to getting around in the snow for the next few months.

Failed attempt at snow angel.

Russian Visa adventures

This week, a significant amount of time was spent getting all the paperwork in order for our visas to go to St. Petersburg this January. We are going to take the train there for 5 days after the World Junior Hockey Championships in Helsinki. Even though we're only doing a short visit, the visa process is still a giant pain. 

Dad, Jasper and I took the GO train down to the Russian Visa office on Monday to submit the applications. Two of the pictures got rejected, but luckily there was a photo shop down the street that fixed and re-printed them for us. I dragged Dad to Auntie's and Uncles for lunch before we took the GO bus back to Milton.

Cute hat from Aunt Colleen, but head is too big!

On Friday, Jasper and I took the bus from Kincardine to Toronto to pick up the first batch of completed visas. Jasper and I were both sick, so it was a bit of a challenging day to be schlepping around Toronto on public transit.

Playtime with Grannie.

Saturday morning, one set of Jasper's great grandparents came to visit him in Milton. We were going to head to Toronto and Whitby to visit the rest of the great grandparents, but didn't think it was a good idea to bring a sick baby (and adult) into retirement homes.

Great Grandpa always make sure Jasper's warm enough.

With Great Gran.

As it turned out, Pat also got called in to work on the weekend, so we drove back to Kincardine Saturday night. We made a quick stop in Elora to say hi to Britt and her family at her brother's stag and doe. It's good to see Britt again after her travel adventure. Hopefully we'll be able to spend more time together now that she is "funemployed" for a bit.

Stopped to see Brittney and her family in Elora.

Heading home

Our day started bright and early to catch our 8:00 am flight to Miami.

Playing on the airport floor.

It was a pretty uneventful day, just plane rides and a fast food lunch in the Miami airport. Jasper's new favourite activity is to stare at strangers until they smile at him, and then smile back. There were plenty of strangers to smile at in the airports and on the planes.

Looking for the CN tower as we land in Toronto.

Grannie and Grandad met us at the airport to bring us to Milton for dinner and an evening of figuring out our Russian visas. The Russian Consulate in Toronto is our task for tomorrow, while Pat heads back to Kincardine to work.

Catamaran day

Today was our last day in Barbados and we spent the whole day out on the water on a party catamaran. I'd done the same trip when I was here 10 years ago with the swim team for training camp. It was a bit different having Jasper with us.

Jasper ready for breakfast on the boat.

The service on the boat was quite impressive, they served breakfast and lunch and made sure you never had an empty cup. I mostly stuck to pineapple juice, but Pat enjoyed the rum.

The family after snorkelling

There were three stops during the trip: swimming with the turtles, snorkelling on a reef and wreck and swimming at an empty beach. Pat and I took turns swimming, and one of the staff even offered to watch Jasper for a while so we could both snorkel.

While Jasper napped.

Since it was an all-you-can-drink event, by the we got back to port at 2:30 pm, people were having a pretty good time dancing.

Jasper was the life of the party.

Pat even danced Jasper to sleep to the loud soca music that was blaring.

Matching hats and shades.

Back on shore, we went back to our room to meet up with Martyn. He's living in Toronto, but happened to be in Barbados visiting. It was great to catch up and we will definitely have to try to meet up in Toronto more often.

Martyn came to visit!

It was an early night, since our cab to the airport was called for 5:30 the next morning.

Spear fishing and Oistins

Today was another hot one in Barbados.  Kristin went on a solo mission to get some supplies this morning before it got too hot out, Jasper stayed behind with Pat in the air conditioned hotel room.  Jasper too a page from Warren's book, falling asleep with his knees tucked under him, and diaper sticking up in the air. We are almost as proud as if he had taken his first steps.

Jasper's first recorded "sleeping with his butt sticking up"

 After morning nap time, Kristin needed to go to the beach to cool off.  We rented some chairs with an umbrella to give Jasper a break from the sun, but it was still too hot for the little guy, so we didn't stay long.

Fussy in the heat

 After lunch Terrence came by to take Pat for his first spear fishing adventure.  Turns out there's a little more to it that regular fishing.  Both men fought valiantly through challenging conditions and treacherous predatory fish, but ultimately came back to the beach with an empty net.  Kristin and Jasper came down to the beach to make sure we hadn't drowned, and caught the sun set.

Calmer at sunset

The men returning from a dangerous day's fishing

Jasper getting comfortable with the spear gun

We headed to tourist the tourist mecca of Oistins, which specializes in beach side seafood dining from stalls supplied by the local fish market.  It was a pretty lively place on a Friday night, there was even a Banks bikini calendar dance off going on.  We forgot to bring the camera, so no pictures, but Jasper tried his first taste of fish (some sword fish off of Terrence's plate),

Harrison's Caves

The rainy weather forecast for today was finally right, it was cloudy and rainy all day. Luckily, we'd planned a (somewhat) indoor activity, checking out Harrison's Caves. 

Waiting for the "ZR" van

The caves are located in Allen View, right in the middle of the island, so we had to take the bus to get there. First, we took one of the private "ZR"vans into Bridgetown, then walked to the public bus terminal to catch a public bus to the caves. I didn't know exactly where to get off, but luckily there were signs along the way.

On the public bus to the caves.

 The only way to see the caves was by tram tour. The tour was a bit hokey, but the caves themselves were pretty spectacular. I was hoping it would be a bit cooler in the caves, but it was still 26 degrees.

On the cave tram.

We stopped for lunch near the caves at a cafe on someone's front porch. The lady served us macaroni pie and rice and peas for lunch. The food was really tasty and the people were friendly, especially with Jasper.

Exploring the caves.

On the way back, we got on one of the big private buses. School kids ride any bus for free, so the bus was full of students for part of the trip back. We missed our stop in Bridgetown, but the driver helped us out and stopped again.

Taking refuge from the rain in Bridgetown.

Back in Bridgetown, it was now pouring down rain so we stopped at a bar for a drink to wait it out. Our ZR trip back to the hotel was during rush hour, so the van was packed. We couldn't open the windows because of the rain, so it got really hot ans stuffy in there. Jasper went bonkers because he was too hot, so we ended up getting out and walking the rest of the way home in the rain. Once he cooled off in the rain, Jasper was happy again.

Mount Gay and north Barbados

Jasper had a bit of a rough night last night, so when he woke up this morning the two of us went for a walk to get coffee and let Pat sleep for a bit. Later in the morning, Terrence picked us up to head to Bridgetown for a Mount Gay rum tour. 

Jasper sniffing the rum on the Mount Gay tour. 

 We got to sample the different Mount Gay rums and had a fancy cocktail at the end. Jasper wanted to try too.

Lemme try!

 After the rum tour, Terrence showed us around the north of the island. We stopped to buy ital stew from a guy selling out of the back of his station wagon. Terrence has been telling us about ital since he lived with us in Kincardine. Unfortunately, the man was out of stew, but he did have some veggie burgers and roti. Best food I've ever had from someone's trunk.

Archer's Bay

Terrence then took us to the property his parents are developing near Archer's Bay. It's a beautiful spot, looking out over the open ocean. There are plans to make a restaurant, pool and apartments, as well as a house for Terrence's parents to retire to. It'll be a great spot once it's complete.

Where the Atlantic meets the Caribbean Sea

Back at our room, we rested for a bit and cooked up dinner. Pat took Jasper to the local tiki bar to have a drink with some Brits while I cooked. Jasper really loved the roasted sweet potatoes and okra. He had okra seeds stuck all over his body when we went to clean him up.

Yummy okra.

Surfing and doubles

This morning I finally got to try surfing! Terrence set me and Gabby up with his friend Christian at Boosy's Surf School (which I'd highly recommend!). Pat watched Jasper on shore and I got to surf in the baby waves for two hours. 

I think being a swimmer really helped to pick up surfing more quickly. The paddling is obviously a similar motion and I think swimmers have pretty good balance too. I thought I was doing pretty well, then Christian let me try a smaller board (not the extra big beginner one I was on). I still managed to stand up, but I was definitely a lot less stable.

I don't think I'd do so well without someone to help with finding a wave and with timing. I definitely want to try surfing again. Although I'm not sure if I'm brave enough for the cold water Lake Huron surfing. 

Waiting for a (small) wave.

I was super hungry after surfing for the morning, so I was happy to try out some chickpea doubles from a nearby food stall. Doubles is my favourite dish at Saffron's in Port Elgin, and these were even better. Pat went up to get a second set before we'd even finished our first.

Jasper tries some chana doubles.

After Jasper's nap, Terrence picked us up to go into Bridgetown to a beach with good shipwreck diving. It was starting to get dark, and only one of us could snorkel at a time, so only I got to see the wreck this time. There were all kinds of fish and even a sea turtle swimming around the wreck. We'll have to go back later in the week so Pat can see it too.

Thinking about going for a swim.

While we were snorkeling, Terrence was teaching swimming lessons on the beach. We went to watch and tried to get Jasper in the water again. He still isn't too sure about the ocean.

Watching Terrence teach swimming at sunset.

Terrence had to go right to another job teaching a cross fit class, so we went back to the hotel for spaghetti and mystery vegetarian "meat" from a can. We really appreciate Terrence showing us around, especially when he's so busy.

Fun in the sun

Despite the weather forecast, today was another sunny day in Barbados. We went back to the beach this morning and found a nice shady spot for Jasper to nap. Pat and I took turns swimming out to a rock break wall to snorkel. There was lots of interesting fish and coral to look at.

When Jasper woke up, I took him for another dip in the ocean. A little wave splashed up on him and he was not impressed. I also tried having him sit at right at the water's edge at the beach, but I think the waves scared him.

The sun was getting really hot, so we went back home for lunch. Jasper enjoyed some eggs, cheese, pita and local cantaloupe out on the balcony. He really liked the cantaloupe, especially after he figured out which side to chew on.

After his nap, we decided to head into Bridgetown to explore. We were unsuccessful at figuring out the bus, so we decided to walk towards a restaurant I'd read about online.

After walking for more than an hour, we finally found the place, but it was closed, so we turned around and walked back. Even through we weren't very successful on that outing, it was good to get some exercise and we got to see a full rainbow.

It is now about 9:30 pm, and pouring rain outside. I'm definitely glad this rain didn't come down while we were out walking!