Category: Life in Ottawa

Today’s post is the third in a series of suggestions for fall family fun in and around Ottawa. On Thanksgiving Monday, friends of ours who also have three boys invited us out to join them at Saunders Farm in Munster, about 20 minutes west of Barrhaven. I’d never been, and had been waffling between bringing the boys to Parc Oméga or Saunder’s Farm. I knew both were pricey and the opportunity to go to Parc Oméga presented itself first, but in the end we decided to splurge on both in this, the year of no daycare fees.

How have we gone so long without visiting this gem? It was so worth the price of admission, which ran us $60 for a family of four, plus one free baby. We chose the daytime Halloween adventure, but apparently they spook it up quite a bit at night. We bypassed the Barn of Terror (recommended for 10 years and older) but the boys loved the Discovery Barn, the Barnyard Treehouse — Tristan wants nothing more in life than a treehouse right now — and the other play structures including a huge pirate ship.

By the time our friends led us to queue up for the Harvest Hayride, Lucas had fallen asleep in the backpack carrier. I should have clued in that it wasn’t a regular old hayride through the forest by the kids who’d been on it in previous years, some of whom buried their heads in their mother’s lap for the whole thing. Apparently it’s nowhere near as spooky as the night-time haunted hayride, but it was plenty spooky for my boys! (Even poor Lucas was scared awake by one of the sound effects.) The look of concern-bordering-on-fear on their faces in the centre picture above is genuine!

After lunch (Plan B diet? What plan B diet? Pass the fries!) we tackled a few of the dozen or so mazes. Some are labyrinths – no wrong turns or dead ends, just a continuous path – and some are mazes. The boys LOVED them! They chose to keep running the mazes rather than enjoy the Star Wars-based live show going on that afternoon. Next time I need a way to run them ragged for an afternoon, I know where to take them.

There was a letter to the editor in the paper this weekend complaining about the price of Saunders Farm, but I’d happily pay $60 — more or less what we’d pay for a movie and snacks — for a day out in the fresh air. The kids had a great time and the weather was perfect. This is a wonderful new addition to my collection of Ottawa’s hidden treasures!

(The full set of Autumn Family Fun photos is on Flickr, if you’d like to see more.)

I’ve posted several times before about Hog’s Back Falls, truly one of Ottawa’s hidden treasures. It’s one of my very favourite places in the city, especially in the fall. The paths are broad and easily accessible by stroller, but there are paths and steps to be scaled and stone walls to scamper across: plenty of adventure for a six-year-old who fancies himself “Tristiana Jones”.

This year, the boys were finally old enough to enjoy feeding the chickadees and nuthatches without being frightened by the light pickyness of their claws.

We brought peanuts to feed the chipmunks but we didn’t see a single one, and the red and black squirrels were too shy to take the peanuts from our fingers. They didn’t go to waste, though!

Beloved assures me he wasn’t thinking of tossing the baby into the falls, despite the look on his face!

I’ve been reading a little bit of the history of Hog’s Back. Most of us know that they mark the spot where the Rideau River diverges from the Rideau Canal. But did you know that rather than the 41 foot drop that exists today, in the time before the Canal they were simply rapids that were navigable by canoe? Also, the dam that was built to divert water from the Rideau River to the Canal at Hog’s Back actually collapsed twice during construction. You can read more about the history of Hog’s Back on the Rideau Canal World Heritage site. Or, you can just go for a lovely amble and enjoy the smell of the leaves, the dappled sunshine and the sound of water splashing over rock. Does it get any better?

It’s been a beautiful autumn so far, and we’ve been out and about enjoying it. If you’re looking to get out and admire the fall colours, this trio of posts might give you some ideas for family outings both expensive (but worth it!) and free, all part of my ongoing exploration of Ottawa’s Hidden Treasures.

The first weekend in October, we piled into the van with Granny and headed northeast into Quebec for a visit to Parc Omega. I’d been hearing about it for years and had been meaning to check it out. We figured a crisp fall day with the leaves turning scarlet and gold would make for a lovely drive. It was lovely, but rather long – by the time we picked up Granny and cut across the city, it took us the best part of two hours to get there.

Parc Omega is a kind of African Lion Safari with native Canadian animals like wapiti and wolves and bears instead of lions and baboons. It’s the same concept, though. You drive a 10 km loop through gorgeous forests and plains amidst the (mostly) free-roaming animals. Instead of baboons crawling on your car, you can feed carrots (and, in our case, soda crackers) to these friendly girls. I think they’re wapiti. Or maybe red deer.

At the furthest point on the trail, you can hop out of your car for a stretch and a wander along some easy hiking trails. We didn’t go far, but we did make it up to this lovely gazebo overlooking a little meadow full of white-tailed deer.

And then we stopped to see if deer like soda crackers, too. (They do, but they’re less fond of noisy little boys full-to-bursting with kinetic energy after nearly three hours in the car.)

The day was getting late and the sun low in the sky as we made our way through the second half of the park when we heard an alarming cry that sounded for all the world to me like the angry Tusken Raider brandishing his staff over Luke Skywalker. Turns out fall is rutting season, and this guy was on the prowl for a Saturday night date. We named him Ralph and had a lot of fun at his amorous expense. (If you have particularly observant kids and don’t want to answer a lot of “birds and bees” type questions, you might want to avoid the park around rutting season. But nothing says ‘Canadian adventure’ quite like watching frisky wapiti on the make!)

We had to peer patiently into the forest to catch a glimpse of these lazy arctic wolves snoozing in the late-afternoon sun.

But there was no mistaking the plethora of big black bears hanging around, including this guy who looked for all the world like he was waiting for the shift change so some other bear might take a turn posing for the tourists.

We also spied coyotes, more wolves, bison, wild boars, ibexes, a handful of birds we couldn’t identify and about a million chipmunks… a pretty cool cross-section of animals. In all, we spent about six hours in the car that day, enough to drive out to my brother’s place west of Toronto, but all three boys were surprisingly patient and well-behaved. To make the drive home a little more interesting, we took the ferry back across to Cumberland, adding another $8 to an already rather expensive outing, but the boys were tickled by the ferry ride.

In all, we spent $75 on admissions for three adults and two kids (Lucas was free) plus a quarter-tank of gas. An expensive day out, but worth doing once a year or so. Next time, we’ll leave much earlier in the day to give us a little bit more wander time to explore the park!

Coming up next: my favourite wander, much closer to home and free!