Last weekend my buddy Troy and his Wife, who where on their honeymoon from Thailand stopped by Guelph and we decided to explore the region. This was my first time having guests in Guelph, so we headed up to Niagara Falls. This was the first time for Troy’s wife and me seeing Niagara Falls. Tory had been before but he was only a kid so it was a great new experience for us all.

We went on the Maid of the Mist, which is the boat that takes you into the water within a few feet of the falls, it was really wet and amazing. Really need a waterproof camera (yes everything gets very very wet, take a look at my shirt in the photos and I was wearing a full rain suit) to properly recorded it but we did get some good photos and even better memories.

We also went to a haunted house (everything around Niagara Falls is a tourist trap, tons of amusement park style crap), wasn’t much fun but the Tunnel at Ripley’s Believe it or Not was a lot of fun. If you’ve never been in one of these tunnels basically, you are in a dark room in which the walls rotate around you. Because your brain sees the walls moving it things the whole room is moving and you begin to feel like you are rotating. Then your body tries to compensate and actually forces you are off balance when you walk. It is so weird as really no matter how to try to fight it your brain overpowers your logic and reality and you end up walking funny and often hit the side of the rails (I often think back to this and wonder how many things if like are just our brains tricking us to do something that is no real).

Business took me up to Halifax on the Friday before Canada Day and I decided to stay till the Monday and celebrate Canada Day in Halifax along with some friends from Genie Knows.

I came into Halifax (really my first trip to Halifax as the last trip was not so pleasant and ended with me leaving just as quick as I arrived) to talk some business with Genie Knows (who later would hire me to handle their SEO and UI for several projects) as well as celebrate the launch their vertical search engine for the gaming industry (which is no longer online). The business talks went great and the evening of celebrations even better (this was my first time actually getting to play a lot of xbox 360 and my first ever time playing with a wii).

Spending a couple days walking around and doing touristy things in Halifax (the city is very small, probably one of the smallest cities in Canada) was enough to get a good sense of the city. Taking time of a tour of Alexander Keith’s originally brewery was interesting and worth a few hours of time if you make it to Halifax. Overall there is a lot of history and a lot of culture in the city, but is small. Being small for me was nice but some people won’t like that there is not much to do other then bars after 10pm (lucky when I moved to Halifax they started a basketball league, which took up a lot of my evenings).

On Canada Day I went to the home of the founders of Genie Knows and spent it with their family, it was a really amazing time (the founders have a big family with lots of kids, so its really nice feeling to see such a lot of family bonding). They are such nice people that you feel like your part of the family and for me it was the best Canada Day I can remember for a long time, well it also was my first Canada Day in 7 years (the only other Canada Day I can remember is when I was 15 or so in Vancouver and watching the fireworks from the airport).

I did enjoy Halifax, recommend staying at the Westin (which is in an old historical building), great location and rates, but you need to get a harbor view room (later when I moved to Halifax I got a corner apartment right on the edge of the ocean, was really amazing watching all the big ships come and go). The Marriott was also nice, closer to things and the casino but the rates jumped and they actually didn’t have room for me and my colleagues. Although I did enjoy Halifax I took an earlier flight back to Toronto/Guelph as after you’ve walked the downtown/harbor area for 3 days straight there isn’t much new to see (it is not a city you book a week of tours in).

So I am back in Guelph, just getting ready for another blitz of a week, just looking forward to the middle of the month as will be going camping with some colleagues from work and for me camping is always an amazing time.

UPDATE ON POST:

One thing I failed to mention is that Halifax also houses an amazing museum Pier 21 about all the people who immigrated to Canada from Europe in the early 90’s. If you had grandparents or parents that came from Europe they more then likely came into Halifax and you can often find their original signatures in the log books and if you are really lucky you can find them in the many photographs around the museum. I couldn’t spell the last name of my grandparents so I wasn’t able to look them up, but one of my coworkers did find information about his.

Last weekend went camping and white water rafting on the Ottawa River. It was great to get back camping and the white water rafting added even more elements of fun. The only thing that slowed down the fun on the weekend was the 8 hour bus ride from Guelph to the camp. Its makes spending 12 hours on a plane seem like heaven as on the bus there is no one feeding you snacks, even less room to walk around and limited entertainment.

We arrived at the camp Friday night and started up a fire and just took in the night. It is really nice to look up in the sky and see all those stars. The following day we hit the water and had some amazing hits and rapids, we did flip once and went swimming a few times. It was my second time white water rafting and was as enjoyable as the first. The most enjoyable part was dropping down a 15 foot waterfall, we all survived and nobody flips on that one.

That following night was great as we where all tired and ready for a nice relaxing time around the fire. We ate some marshmallows and hotdogs as we chatted about life while watching the flames dance in the fire.

The next day I took a lazy day and ended sleeping half it away as was a little sore and “someone” gave me a red bull the night before and I wasn’t able to sleep till nearly 3am. Most of the group headed back out on the water and had a great day. Then it was back on the bus and another 8 hours back to Guelph.

If you are interested in heading out to the Ottawa River for some white water rafting the company we used was HorizonX and they have a website: http://www.horizonx.ca/

UPDATE TO THE STORY:

There were video and photos from the rafting, I will be posting the photos and videos here so that those that came can watch and relive the adventure and give the rest of you readers more reasons to get out and enjoy some white water rafting.