Frentures- Day 3!

This day was all about getting away from Ottawa/Gatineau and seeing some of the countryside and local attractions.

First stop: LaFleche Adventure Park
We messed up a little bit here because you need to book in here first.  And we didn't know that, so we could do only a portion of what we wanted, but we were glad to get squeezed into what they could fit us into.

That meant going through the caves, which were really cool! And cold. And guess who forgot to pack sweaters?? Yup! The caves were indeed cave-like and squirrelled all over the place. There were small tunnels that eager kids could crawl through, not large enough tunnels that adults had to stoop through, wet caverns that rained continuously, and large caverns that could host official dinners (if you could exorcize the dankness). Bats do live in these tunnels, but not in the summer.  The weather outside is better then, and so they make the protected caves their winter home.

We missed out on the high wire course and zip-lining over the lake.  It was not nearly as much fun watching others do it.

From there we went to Gatineau National Park.  This is a natural preserve with lots of lakes, trails and interesting variety.  Although there are more caves here, we decided on a hike around Pink Lake. The lake itself is a very rare type of lake that does not get oxygen to it's lower levels, resulting in some unique wildlife and opportunities to study the changes the area has seen over the millennia. All that is in the water, and so we can't look at that.  But the result is that they are very careful about the surrounding area, so the water is undisturbed.  As a result, the area is beautiful and we took a few hundred pictures during the hour it took to walk around this lake. I won't bore you with all of them, but bear with me as I share a bunch from this beautiful place.

From there we went to another area of the park- to the former home of MacKenzie King. He willed it to the Canadian People on his death. I guess he loved to putter out there and spent a lot of time developing the area and gardens. He hauled in pieces of architecture from buildings that were to be demolished and so there are columns and parts of buildings here and there.  He was a strange man, and his estate reflected that. In kind of a cool way!