Finally, back in the travel saddle!

It was a long hiatus from traveling--about 9 months. It was good in that it recharged our OHIP requirements, and we were around for some family medical issues (which all turned out well in the end, thank goodness).
But now we're back on the road, this time traveling east. I've never been east of Quebec City (in Canada anyways), so I'm particularly excited to see this part of Canada!

We started out by going to Collingwood for a couple of days. We did a bike ride at Three Stage and had a very successful first night in the new traveling van! It is very comfortable and we're really appreciating the extra room. Plus, we camped in a field full of fire flies--so pretty!

The big highlight of Collingwood was seeing a WOLF! At first we thought it was a coy wolf, but it was awfully big and wolf-like...and after searching on the internets we figured out it was an actual wolf. It was fast and lithe, and ran through someone's back yard (in the mountains, in a forested area...but still). I wish we could of caught it and kept it as our trail dog/wolf ;)

We then headed to Toronto for a visit with friends. Friends who make us Eggs Florentine. Aww yeah.

Next we went to Ottawa to visit family. Ottawa was surprisingly warm and I finally got to swim in my brother's new pool. We discovered that someone else enjoys their pool as well--we witnessed a chipmunk diving into the pool and doing a partial lap before my brother scooped it out. They have a pad that floats at the side of the pool so that animals that fall in can get back out, and it was clear this chipmunk had done this before.

There is a horse stable close to their house, so we went to see the horses and saw three foxes in the field as well! A mom with two cubs. The cubs tumbled around, playing, while the mom came a bit closer to check us out before deciding we were harmless...or boring.

We also saw a terrible house fire, with dark smoke billowing into the sky. It was the second fire in that neighbourhood this month. With the first house, the fire razed the house to the ground. Crazy.

We went to Stella Luna for gelato as a treat too. They recently won third place in some important gelato competition for their "rick chocolate, KOVAL single-barrel organic bourbon, ganache swirl and maple-candied pecans" flavour. It was delicious! It was a great visit to Ottawa overall.

We then started making our way out east. The drive along the north shore of Quebec and the St.Lawrence was particularly beautiful and I loved the fjords at the mouth of the Saguenay river.

We finally made it to Baie Comeau (it smelled *amazing*, like sweet pine) and the start of the trans-Labrador highway!