Beaver Tails, Reese's cups, and maple taffy

Ah, Ottawa. The capital city of Canada. Home of the Senators. Rhonda's hometown. It's beautiful. We are touring at a sort of awkward time, since the 8-kilometre Rideau canal is no longer skatable but still frozen, the tulip haven't bloomed, the trees are bare, and the streets are somewhat dirty. However, the Parliament buildings still stand, along with myriad other buildings of every size, shape, colour, and even nationality. On Tuesday we wandered around Parliament Hill taking pictures with the statues, and Rhonda pointed out some of the finer sites of downtown Ottawa. We did our obligatory run of tourist shops and then bought Beaver Tails; delectable fried pastry covered in sugar and cinnamon. Mmmmmmmmmmmm. Rhonda and Jeremy stayed with Rhonda's parents, and Jonathan, Reneyah and I were billeted with another family. There I introduced them to Settlers of Catan. I won our first game, but ended up losing miserably the rest of the week. They loved it, and one night stayed up till 2:00 playing.
On Wednesday we went to a sugar bush. I think that's the right term...a sugar bush. Anyway, a maple tree farm, for the rest of us ignorant Westerners. Did you know it takes 40 buckets of maple sap to make a single bucket of maple syrup? And that Ontario and Quebec produce 75% of the world's maple syrup? And most of the rest is from Vermont? One of my grade school memories is learning about maple syrup and how people in Ontario have sugar bush parties and pour hot maple syrup onto the snow so that it hardens and makes maple taffy. I always wanted to do it, and I didn't get the chance this week. But that story is to be continued...
On Thursday we went to the Hershey chocolate factory in Smith Falls. Once you enter the building, the delicious scent of warm chocolate greets your willing nostrils. It gets even stronger as you go past the store to do tour the actual factory. We went during lunch break, so most of the machines weren't on except for the Reese's peanut butter cup line. You've never seen so many Reese's cups in your life. There were giant vats of milk and dark chocolate, a peanut roasting converyer bet, and gold chocolate bar foil on a roll. It was very cool. Whatever you buy at their store, no matter what the price, you get a free chocolate bar with your purchase. In my case, Reese's peanut butter cups. Yugh.
We went to a Good Friday sermon unlike any I've ever attended. It was a traditional service called a Tenebaum (I'm not 100% on the spelling), which involved about ten different sections. In each section, Scripture was read, there was time for personal prayer, and we sang a hymn. The whole thing followed the story of Jesus' crucifixtion. It was really interesting, and it really made me think about the price God paid for my salvation. This type of service has been practiced for over 1500 years.
I got to spend the rest of the weekend with family from both my mom and my dad's side. It was so good to see them again; some I hadn't seen for ten years. I went to Good Friday and Easter Sunday mass with them as well, which was a first for me. On Saturday (between families), Rhonda's dad drove us around the city to give us a more detailed view of Ottawa, complete with stories and more pictures with statues. And Rhonda brought me genuine maple taffy, made on snow, from the sugar bush! Cause she knew I wanted some! Isn't she great?
Last night, we got to watch the extended version of The Return of the King, but we also watched the first Superman movie. If you watch the first 20 minutes or so, and you get the the part where Clark is hanging at the football field at his high school, look at the school in the background. That is the headquarters of Spread the Word Theatre. I lived and rehearsed there for three weeks. Yep; it was filmed in Barons, Alberta. It's so weird to see it in a movie! And 25 years newer!
Well, that was our week in a nutshell. We begin a hectic performance schedule on Wednesday (and 11 of my family members may attend on Saturday night). I leave you with the quote of the week, wise words from Rhonda's father Dennis Kuz:
"To err is human, to really forgive is to travel across Canada with the same five people for six months."