A most Canadian day

Today has been the most stereotypically Canadian day ever, for me. It started with breakfast at Tim Horton's, a quick drive around Mont Tremblant, dog sledding at Montebello, taking a ferry across an iced-over lake, and pushing the car uphill when it got stuck on the icy incline (to be fair, that was my father-in-law and uncle). At our Timmy's stop in the morning, I translated our order from English to French. At the restaurant we stopped at on the way home from the cottage, I translated the entire lunch menu from French to English. I spoke both French and English with our dog sled driver.

(Yes, my mittens are polar bears. They keep me warm and they entertain D.)

The dog sledding was the coolest thing ever, and we picked the best day for it. Yesterday, Hubby had the chance to go with his mum, and they had an amazing time! It was more expensive than our excursion today, because it involved harnessing the dogs, doing some of the actual driving, going a further distance than we went, getting professional photos taken, and stopping for hot chocolate and cookies midway. This was up at Tremblant. Our version was just the ride in the sled over about 4 km, which took maybe 20 minutes or so. Uncle Paul, D and I were in the sled, and there were 9 dogs pulling us (the names I can remember: R&B, Disco, Astro, Sienna/Ciana, Jazz). D and I chatted about vitamins, where dogs pee as opposed to big girls and boys, and the differences between cats and dogs (chiefly, that dogs will pull you in a sled whereas cats will not). She was mesmerized by the experience. After I mentioned that the dogs were very good listeners, she gave them a thumbs-up and said "Good job, dogs!"

Crossing an icy lake on the ferry was pretty neat as well. The ice is broken up to make a path for the ferry, and not too far away we could see dozens of ice fishing huts. (It didn't seem especially wise to me, but then I'm not an ice fisher.)