Our trip on the Wakefield steam train

We wanted to something fun over Thanksgiving weekend. We were totally blessed with the most amazing long weekend weather - beautiful, warm and sunny and around 20 degrees every day! It was perfect. On Saturday we took a ride on an old fashioned steam train. It drove us up to Wakefield, Quebec, through the beautifully changing leaves throughout Gatineau and Chelsea, Quebec. Here are Paul, his mother and the boys just before we got on the train (it was pretty darn early in the morning):

Peter was completely and utterly impressed with the train and loved the scenery on the ride up there. There was live music and a face painter to occupy the children . . . Pete opted out of having his face done however!
Granny gets a snack ready for Pete and David . . . thankfully an organized mommy always has everything on hand!

Pete takes a peek at some trees up close . . .

David and I - after I finally got some coffee into me. Ran out of coffee filters and didn't get my cup of joe before we left. Luckily for me I sent Paul to the snack bar on the train to fetch me a cup! My mom knit this beautiful sweater for Peter and now it fits David!! Looked great on him . . . oh, those marks on his nose are from a little nose dive he took down a couple stairs.

"I can't believe they took me out in public scarred like this . . . "

The scenery was just breaktaking, we really hit the perfect day to see all the leaves changing colours. We forget what a beautiful region we live in until we take little trips out like this. The Gatineau Hills in Quebec are amazing.


Here is the steam locomotive as it was *manually* turned around on the turntable. Four people pushed that thing all the way around so it could turn around and take the passengers back to Ottawa!!! Amazing to see . . .

Peter and his granny look out over the water in Wakefield. The train stopped for 90 minutes so everyone could get out and walk around the little village. It was just amazing. Or as Peter said, "it was really just awesome, mommy". We stopped into their world-famous bakery and tasted just about the best ever ham and cheese croissant I have ever eaten. And an apple danish. Yum.
It was a long day - 90 minutes to get there, 90 minutes to walk around the village, 90 minutes home, whew, we were all pooped!!! Peter didn't last ten minutes in the van . . .