Fit Bit errors...again

I am really getting fed up with this fit bit. Its one error after another and it has probably cost me over 50 km or more of lost data which has made me behind especially after the fit bit gave me over a month of bad data (Though I am catching up!). The problem with it today is that it will not connect to my computer and says it has an unknown error.
         I said the data would be up today and with exceptions of the last 2 days I have done a lot of walking even going for a walk of over one and a half hours on the weekend so I was looking forward to calculating how much I walked. But like I said it won't connect I even went through the trouble of going on another computer and installing all the things I needed for it to run on that other computer and yet the same announcement pops up. Which leads me to believe its not the computers but the fit bit. Let me tell you these things are not made to last. This morning I was taking  the fit bit out of the wristband and the wristband literally broke in two.

Anyways the lights on the fit bit are still on so I am hoping it is still properly calculating the distance I walked. I might start thinking of another way to count how much I walked.

Thanks for reading this update and I will try to solve the problem as soon as I can!

Thank you for following me on this adventure.

Maya

New stats

Hi everyone a quick post to let you know that new stats will be up by the 17th, when I am done most of my finals for university. Also the fit bit seems to be in working order again, more on that in the next post.

Thank you for following me on this adventure.

Maya

Walking to Cambodia days 63 to 75. And a malfunctionning fit bit.

Hi everyone,
As the title suggests my fit bit has been malfunctioning.... again. The light on the fit bit where not coming on which usually means it is out of batteries, so I charge it for a whole night and the next day there is still no lights. I charge it for another night and the next day the lights are on but when I look at the data it says that I didn't take any steps and when it was out of batteries it says I took 1,000 steps one day and 3,000 the othere which makes no sens since I walked at least 2 miles both those days. Anyways I am looking into it now and hopefully it doesn't leave me too behind.
               Also, I am in the middle of finals and last minute assignments which is why its been over my usual weekly post. But here is all the stats!

Date                Day #              Treadmill stats                     Fit bit          total for day   Grand Total

November 22nd	63	0	0	1,726 steps .77 miles 1.23 km	1.23 km	312.3 km
November 23rd	64	0	0	4,514 steps 2 miles 3.21 km	3.21 km	315.51 km
November 24th	65	0	0	7,893 steps 3.52 miles 5.6 km	5.6 km	321.11 km
November 25th	66	0	0	7,219 steps 3.2 miles 5.1 km	5.1 km	326.21 km
November 26th	67	0	0	10,623 steps 4,71 miles 7.5 km	7.5 km	333.71 km
November 27th	68	0	0	9,130 steps 4,05 miles 6.5 km	6.5 km	340.21 km
November 28th	69	0	0	6,686 steps 2,97 miles 4.7 km	4.7 km	344.91 km
November 29th	70	0	0	3,538 steps 1,57 miles 2.5 km	2.5 km	347.41 km
November 30th	71	0	0	4,950 steps 2.2 miles 3.5 km	3.5 km	350.91 km
December 1std	72	0	0	8,140 steps 3,61 miles 5.8 km	5.8 km	356.71 km
December 2nd	73	0	0	8,453 steps 3,75 miles 6 km	6 km	362.71 km
December 3rd	74	0	0	No data minimum 2,5 miles 4 km	4 km	366.71 km
December 4th	75	0	0	No data minimum 2.5 miles 4 km	4 km	370.71 km

I now have  985.09 km left until Cambodia! Less that 1,000 km!


Thank you for following me on this adventure.


Maya

Walking to Cambodia: Day 49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58,59,60,61 and 62 and Passing the 300 km mark.

Hi everyone!

I've been extremely busy these days ti's the season of finals. But I have gotten some walking in and passed the 300 km mark!

Here are the stats.


Date                Day #              Treadmill stats                     Fit bit          total for day   Grand Total

November 8th	49	0	0	841 steps. .37 miles 0.59 km	0.59 km	244.29 km
November 9th	50	0	0	4,711 steps 2.09 miles 3.36 km	3.36 km	247.65 km
November 10th	51	0	0	8,863 steps 3.93 miles 6.3 km	6.36 km	254.01 km
November 11th	52	0	0	7,573 steps 3.36 miles 5.4 km	5.4 km	259.41 km
November 12th	53	0	0	9,701 steps 4.32 miles 6.9 km	6.9 km	266.31 km
November 13th	54	0	0	7,909 steps 3.51 miles 5.6 km	5.6 km	271.91 km
November 14th	55	0	0	5,792 steps 2.57 miles 4.13 km	4.13 km	276.04 km
November 15th	56	0	0	4,715 steps 2.09 miles 3.36 km	3.36 km	279.4 km
November 16th	57	0	0	4,842 steps 2.15 miles 3.4 km	3.4 km	282.8 km
November 17th	58	0	0	9,204 steps 4.1 miles 6.5 km	6.5 km	289.3 km
November 18th	59	0	0	8,992 steps 3.99 miles 6.4 km	6.4 km	295.7 km
November 19th	60	0	0	7,384 steps 3.28 miles 5.27 km	5.27 km	300.97 km
November 20th	61	0	0	4,753 steps 2.11 miles 3.3 km	3.3 km	304.27 km
November 21st	62	0	0	11,225 steps 4.98 miles 6.8 km	6.8 km	311.07 km

So these numbers mean I now have 1044.53 km left until Cambodia!

I Can't wait to have less than 1000 km left. My goal this week will be to achieve 1000 km left or be under 1000 km left.

Thank you for following me on this adventure!

Maya

Stats

Hi everyone I know it's been over a week since my last post. There is going to be lot's of stats coming very soon.

Walking to Cambodia: Day #42,43,44,45,46,47and 48

Another tricky week this week. First I realize that my fitbit calculated the wrong amount of steps and then one day this week the fit bit died in the morning of the day I usually get the most steps so now I will need to only count what I can guarantee I did that day, so the least amount of steps, and now, today, I am sick and buried in homework so not much walking done. I will not be discouraged however because Two day's this week I supassed my goal and next week I have less homework and will hopefully pass my goal every day.

On to the stats!

Date                Day #              Treadmill stats                     Fit bit          total for day   Grand Total

October 31st	41	0	0	8.124 steps 3.6 miles 5.7 km	5.7 km	295.43 km 207 km
November 1st	42	0	0	7,825 steps 3.49 miles 5.6 km	5.6 km	212.6 km
November 2nd	43	0	0	5,560 steps 2.51 miles 4 km	4 km	216.6 km
November 3rd	44	0	0	Fit bit malfunction 4 km	4km	220.6 km
November 4th	45	0	0	9.080 steps 4.04 miles 6.5 km	6.5 km	227.1 km
November 5th	46	0	0	9.170 steps 4.07 miles 6.5 km	6.5 km	233.6 km
November 6th	47	0	0	6.121 steps 2.72 miles 4.3 km	4.3 km	237.9 km
November 7th	48	0	0	8,166 steps 3.62 miles 5.8 km	5.8 km	243.7 km

So there are the stats! I know have 1112.1 km left until Cambodia!


Thank you for following me on this adventure!

Maya

Walking to Cambodia: Fit bit Deceived me!

Hi everyone,

Some important news today and the title explains it all.

As I was scrolling through old posts I noticed something. In the first 10 days 8,226 steps gave me 5.87 miles and 9.4 km but in this last week 9,522 steps game me 4.26 miles and 6.8 km. Clearly one of these stats where wrong. With the help of my scientist dad we came to the conclusion that the first one was wrong meaning that the fit bit gave me more km than I actually walked. The data of the last couple entry's was right everything else was wrong! We got to the conclusion that instead of walking 295.43 km I walked 207 km so big whooping 88.43 km lost. I won't lie that information was a huge blow. Here I was thinking I was on track when in reality I'm behind. After some more calculations I came to the conclusion that I now need to do 5.8 km a day instead of 5.6. When I look at it this way it doesn't seem so bad. So I might have a lot of catching up to do but it's possible and something that I will do.

So today marks the start of a new daily goal. As well as the start of being more careful of the data the fit bit gives me.

Here's to many more steps and the twists and turn every adventure eventually brings.

Thank you for following me on this adventure

Maya

Walking to Cambodia: Day 39,40,41

Hi everyone!

As mentioned before because of my error I will be walking more this week and posting it more often so you can see my progress and how dedicated I am to fixing my mistake.

Date                Day #              Treadmill stats                     Fit bit          total for day   Grand Total

October 29th	39	0	0	9.522 steps 4.26 miles 6.8 km	6.8 km	282.63 km
October 30th	40	0	0	10,030 steps 4.45 miles 7.1 km	7.1 km	289.73 km
October 31st	41	0	0	8.124 steps 3.6 miles 5.7 km	5.7 km	295.43 km

So here's the data up until now. I will be posting more soon.

Thanks for following me on this adventure!

Maya

Walking to Cambodia: Day 32,33,34,35,36,37,38

Hi everyone!

Now before I post these stats for the last week. Let me just say I didn't walk as much as I had hoped. I miscalculated what the appropriate distance was by the lights on my fit bit. I have made walking habits now so in my daily schedule I have detours and things I do to get those km in but this week is reading week at my university which means no classes and that my routine is all off. I put in some time on the treadmill thinking that would be enough but I realize now it was not. Do not threat, now that I have seen my mistake, Starting now, I will start making up those km I missed. To be clear I didn't miss that many Km I just didn't reach my goal every day. I take this very seriously that's why I'm letting everyone know that now that I realize my mistake I will work extra hard to make it up as soon as possible.

Stay tuned I'll try to post more often this week so you can see me putting in that extra effort.

Date                Day #              Treadmill stats                     Fit bit          total for day   Grand Total.

October 22nd	32	0	0	6,049 Steps 2.68 miles 4.31 km	4.31 km	247.74 km
October 23rd	33	0	0	8,311 steps 3.72 miles 5.9 km	5.9 km	253.64 km
October 24th	34	0	0	6,700 steps 2.97 miles 4.77 km	4.77 km	259.54 km
October 25th	35	0	0	2,834 steps 1.26 miles 2 km	2 km	261.54 km
October 26th	36	2.00 miles	40:09 minutes	3,974 steps 1.76 miles 2.8 km	4.8 km	266.34 km
October 27th	37	0	0	8.754 steps 3.88 miles	6.2 km	272.54 km
October 28th	38	2.09 mile	40:10 minutes	1,935 steps 0.86 miles 1.3 km	3.29 km	275.83 km

So those are the stats. I now have 1079.97 km left until Cambodia!


Thank you for following me on this adventure!


Maya

Walking to Cambodia Day # 25,26,27,28,29,30 and 31 And passing 200 km!

Hi everyone Welcome to day 25 through 31!

To start off remember when I said weeks ago that I was busy? I am laughing at my past self now because I'm 5 times as busy now. Luckily it will slow down over the next weeks and hopefully I can post updates twice a week instead of once.

Now onto the stats as you have seen in the title I passed 200Km! I still have many more km and even hundreds of km to go but I'm on my way!

Here are last weeks stats:

Date                Day #              Treadmill stats                     Fit bit          total for day   Grand Total.

October 15th	25	0	0	7,723 Steps 5.51 miles 8.8 km	8.8 km	200.67 km
October 16th	26	0	0	7,328 Steps 5.23 miles 8.4 km	8.4 km	209.07 km
October 17th	27	0	0	5.079 Steps 3.63 Miles 5.8km	5.8 km	214.87 km
October 18th	28	0	0	4,430 Steps 3.16 miles 5,0 km	5.0 km	219.87 km
October 19th	29	0	0	4.865 Steps 3.47 miles 5.5 km	5.5 km	225.87 km
October 20th	30	0	0	9.898 Steps 7.07 miles 11.3 km	11.3 km	237.13 km
October 21st	31	0	0	5,563 Steps 3.97 miles 6.3 km	6.3 km	243.43 km

This means I know have 1112.37 km left until Cambodia!

Thank you for following me on this adventure!

Maya

Walking to Cambodia: Day # 20,21,22,23 and 24

Hi everyone here are some more stats!

But first if you haven't read my last post the fundraising page is officially up! So if you feel like it go check it out.


Date                Day #              Treadmill stats                     Fit bit          total for day   Grand Total.

October 10th	20	0	0	9,301 steps 6.45 miles 10,38 km	10,38 km	164.62 km
October 11th	21	0	0	2,935 steps 2.1 miles 3.37 km	3.31 km	167.93 km
October 12th	22	0	0	3,271 steps 2.34 miles 3.7 km	3.7 km	171.63 km
October 13th	23	0	0	7,309 steps 5.22 miles 8.04 km	8.04 km	179.67 km
October 14th	24	0	0	10,670 steps 7.62 miles 12.2 km	12.2 km	191.87

As you can see two slower days for walking as it was Thanksgiving here in Canada and I was busy with family reunions among other things. But to compensate I walked over my goal a day before and two day's after which means I already made up those 4 km I missed with those 2 days and more. I'm planning on doing extra also tomorrow so I'll be even more ahead of the game.

There's now 1163.93 km left until Cambodia!

That's it for these stats.


Thank you for following me on this adventure!

Maya

Walking to Cambodia: Day 15,16,17,18 and 19 and Fundraising page is Live!

Hello everyone!

Here is the stats for day 15,16,17,18 and 19.


Date                Day #              Treadmill stats                     Fit bit          total for day   Grand Total.

October 5th	15	0	0	5.111 steps 3.65 miles 5.87 km	5.87 km	118.27 km
October 6th	16	0	0	9,604 steps 6.86 miles 11 km	11 km	129.27 km
October 7th	17	0	0	7.815 steps 5.58 miles 8.9 km	8.9 km	138.17 km
October 8th	18	0	0	7,919 steps 5.7 miles 9.17 miles	9.17 km	147.34 km
October 9th	19	0	0	5,999 steps 4,31 miles 6.9 km	6.9 km	154.24 km

 All those stats equal one thing 1201.56 km left until Cambodia!

Everything is still very busy in my life but I'm still as determined and ready to keep going!

Like mentioned above the fundraising page is live! Which means that if you feel like it you can donate anything to my fundraiser. Money will be going towards my volunteer trip more on that here and half of all money goes equally to two charities. Reach out volunteers charity and Exceed both in my opinion great charities!

Here are two videos which demonstrates some of the work of the charities.

So if your interested follow the link on the side or click here. If not please feel free just to follow my blog by your google acount or by email you can do that on the side bar if you don't want to you can check my blog every once in a while to follow my progress. If you feel like it leave a comment with your thoughts!

Thank you for much for following me on this adventure!

Maya

Walking to Cambodia: Day 11,12,13 and 14 and Passing the 100km mark

Day 11,12,13 and 14.

These last day's have still been as hectic as ever. I have a never ending list of things to do. But I'm still on track! And like the title said I have passed the 100 km mark! I'm so happy about that!

Without Further a do here are the stats

 Day           Day #             Distance and time on treadmill     Fit bit data   Day total    Grand total

October 1st	11	0	0	6,876 steps 4.91 miles 7.9 km	7.9 km	96.5 km
October 2nd	12	0	0	9,672 steps 6.91 miles 11.1 km	11.1 km	107 km
October 3rd	13	0	0	4,070 steps 2.91 miles 4.6 km	4.6 km	112.2 km
October 4th	14	0	0	205 steps 0.15 miles 0.2 km	0.2 km	112.4 km

You may notice that October 3rd and 4th I did not do my 5.6 km daily goal. The reason it's only 0.2 km on the 4th is that I was sick in bed all day so not much moving. But it's alright since I passed my goal almost everyday since the start of this fundraiser I'm still on track and today day 15 when I'm writing this I have already passed my daily goal.

So let's make the daily calculation. I have now 1243.4 km left to Cambodia!


That's all for today.

Thank you for following me on this adventure!

Maya

Walking to Cambodia: Day 8,9,10

Welcome do day 8,9 10!

I've been so extremely busy it's the time of the year with essay's, quizzes, term papers and midterms. On that note I need to go back to studying. I'll just let you know quickly that the fundraising page will be open for donations very soon so keep a look out for that and now since i'm low on time here is a graph of what happened in the last days.

September 28th	8	0	0	5,614 steps 4.01 miles 6.4 km	6.4 km	67.7 km
September 29th	9	0	0	8,226 steps 5.87 miles 9.4 km	9.4 km	77.1 km
September 30th	10	0	0	9.995 steps 7.16 miles 11.5	11.5 km	88.6 km

The zero's are from not going on the treadmill the 4th row is fitbit data the 5th row is the day's total and the last row is the grand total.

Good stats to start the week on I'm going to keep it going!
 

 Thank you for following me on this adventure!

Maya

Walking to Cambodia: Day 7

Day 7!

Quick note this is the stats for yesterday(I still haven't caught up to posting I need to make a habit of posting right before turning in for the night) Another post will be put up today and when it is it will also mean that the YouCaring page is officially lauched! More on that later. (Update due to some technical difficulties it won't be up for another couple days i'll keep you updated)

So day number 7. I ran/walked on the treadmill for 22:06 minutes which was 1.11 miles so 1.7 km. My fit bit calculated 4,952 steps which is 3.54 miles so 5.6 km. The total for the day being 7.3 km. The grand total is now 61.3 km. So 1294.8 km left until Cambodia!

Thats the end of the first week! I'm so excited to continue next week!

Where will next week lead!

Thank you for following me on this adventure!

Maya

Walking to Cambodia: Days # 5 and 6

Day 5 and 6!

The first week has almost past, at the end of today I will have completed the full week! So far I have succeeded in my goals everyday. And I plan to continue to do just that.

Let's start with Day 5. On day 5 I biked 30 minutes (Again let me know if this should count toward my goal in the comments.When I get some feedback I'll either calculate it in or won't) I also did 8.622 steps which is 6.19 miles so 9.9 km. Which makes my grand total 47.2 km. 1308.6 left until Cambodia!

Now onto Day 6. I walked/ Ran 36:22 km on the treadmill which came to 2 miles, so 3.2 km. Then I did 3,163 steps which means 2.26 miles so 3.6 km. The total for the day is 6.8 km. The grand total is 54 km. 1301.8 km left until Cambodia!

That's all for those 2 days.

Thank you for following me on this adventure!

Maya

Walking to Cambodia: Day 4

Day # 4,

Another busy day on September 24th. I'm short on time today to write the post so I'll just go straight to the facts.

On day #4 I did 8244 steps which mean I walked 5.9 miles that equals 9.4 km. A grand total of 37.3 km. And 1318.5 left to Cambodia!

Thanks for following me on this adventure.

Maya

Walking to Cambodia: Day 3 First day of Fall!

Day # 3!

Hi everyone Iv'e been running behind one day for posting that will get resolved this weekend. So let's get on to day # 3.

Over where I live yesterday, Day#3 was the first day of fall! The morning sure felt like it with low temperatures but it was very warm in the afternoon more than 23 degrees. Which is above normal temperatures for fall. I love fall for it's lovely colours and how it's not too cold or too warm, a nice middle. The only problem is that soon it will too cold to walk outside for long, I'll have to find new ways to get my walking in.

Photo I took a couple Falls ago.

Now enough on the season change, let's get into how I did yesterday. Like I mentioned in my last post Wednesday is one of the day's I'm pretty busy and won't get as much walking in. And so yesterday I did only the minimum which is my goal of 5.6 km. So let's breack this down. I walked 4,921 steps which equals 3.51 miles, so 5.6 km. Which makes the grand total 27.9 km. 1327.9 left to Cambodia!

That's all for day #3.

Thank you for following me on this adventure.

Maya

Walking to Cambodia: Day 2

Hi Welcome to day 2!

Today let's start with a bit of explanations. Monday it's easy for me walk a lot my day is not too busy but the rest of my week is packed with school, school work and my job. When I spell them out like that it doesn't seen like much but it takes most of my days and leaves me exhausted at the end of the day when I'm planning to walk. Don't worry! I'm not using this as an exuse not to do my daily goal(Because I'm still determined and have reached my goal yesterday) I'm just letting you readers know that Tues, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday will not have as big totals(yet will still be at least 5.6) as Monday, Saturday, Sunday will(most likely more than 5.6 km). Though while saying this my technique to get a lot of steps in yesterday really worked and I surpassed Yesterdays total. So you never know!

Now let's get into my Day #2 (Yesterday when this will posted). My day started early and going from place to place was how I got most of my walking for Day 2. Taking longer walking routes to my destinations when I could, doing a lot while at my Job and more stuff along those lines. All this was measure by my fitbit. I don't know if you know much about fitbits but they are supposed to buzz when you reach your goal until then it tells your progress in 20 percents so each 20 percent one of five light appears on the device.  So here's a little story, I was at 5 light so 100 percent yet it hadn't buzzed. Two hours later it still hadn't buzzed and I had done a fair amount of walking so in efforts to get it to buzz to mean I was done my goal I walked up and down some stairs did laps in my house for a good while (granted I could have hopped on the treadmill instead but it was late and I thought all I needed was a couple more steps) and yet still nothing! Eventually I just said enoughs, enough I had also done 23 minutes of biking earlier that day so I would have done my goal either way (let me know in the comments if you think biking should count). Now can you guess what my total was? 10,557 steps! Yep that's right I was only 2% away from my goal of 11,000 steps.

Now on to all the stats! On day #2 I walked 10,557 steps so 98% of my 11,000 daily goal which equals 7.68 miles so 12.3 km. I also did 25 minutes of bike which I will calculate later and put it in my weekly wrap up. My total for all the days is now 22.3. And so I have 1333.5 km left to Cambodia!

Thank you for following me on this adventure!

Maya

Day 1 of Walking to Cambodia: First day excitment.

It's officially day 1 of my Walking to Cambodia fundraiser!

I'm so excited to get this started. Quick thing before I get into how I did today. You can visit my fundraising page however due to a couple things you won't be able to donate until next Monday September  28th. You can still follow my follow my blog and twitter and see my updates on my progress.

Now that that's out of the way let's get into how today went. I spent 95:02 minutes on the treadmill and walked/ran a total of 3.73 miles so 6 km in that time so I surpassed my daily goal of 5.6 Km. On top of that my fitbit tracked that I walked 3,983 steps which equals 2.84 mile which is 4 km. That makes a total of 10 km today. And I have now 1345.8 miles left to Cambodia.

I'm pretty happy with those stats for the first day! To start off this Fundraiser well, I'll leave you with this video of an Elephant with a prosthetic leg. It goes well with this Fundraiser since it's a video filmed in Cambodia, it involves elephants which I'll be working with when I go there and it has to do with one of the charities the money will go to called Exceed since what they do is help with protetics in Cambodia among other things.

Thanks for visiting. If you've missed my previous post on this Fundraiser go and check it out it has more information.

Thank you for following me in this adventure.

Maya

Volunteer work in Cambodia

Hi everyone.

If your joining me from the link on the YouCaring website Hi! Thanks for visiting. If you have found this blog another way I also thank you for dropping by.

This post is going to be a bit different than my previous posts and will be one of many more to come. Later this year I'm going to be going to Cambodia on a volunteer trip. To fundraise some money for my trip(and for some charities more on that later) I have decided to not just post a random fundraising page but to do something to get people more interested in it. My goal is to walk to Cambodia by walking 1km for every 10km it takes to get there. That makes a big total of 1355.8 km. To reach this goal I'm going to have to do 5.6 Km a day. All this starts Monday and continues until a couple day's before my trip.

On this blog I will post very often on my progress and on every post will be how much I walked in one day and how much the total is. This is a big feat for me for a couple reasons (more on this page here) and because of those reason I'm very determined to succeed in the challenge I have put out there for myself.

Of all the money I frundraise half will go in the travel costs it will take for me to go to Cambodia and half of all the money raised will be split equally to two Charities. The first is Reach out Volunteers which is the charity of the organization I'm volunteering with (for more on this charity click here). The second is Exceed which provide prosthetic's to people who can't afford them in Cambodia. They also help with teaching people and a lot more. Check out there website here for more information. Both these charities are fantastic in my opinion because they provide help to people who really need it.

So after reading all this if your interested in following my progress there's many ways to do this. You can either follow my blog by email or by your google account, you can follow me on twitter or just check this blog regularly. If your interested in donating follow the on the side bar to my YouCaring account through which I'm doing the fundraiser you'll be able to donate starting tomorrow September 21st.

I can't wait to get started, I hope you'll follow me in this adventure.

Maya

A Day in Aylmer

After an errand this week. Me and my mom decided to take a little trip down to Aylmer. Aylmer is a small city in Gatineau, Quebec. It is a really cute town. My mother as a child used to go down to Aylmer every Sunday but she hadn't been there for 15 years so she was reminiscing on the old times as well as giving me a small tour on where she used to stay when she went.

On my part, I haven't been to Aylmer well ever, from what I can remember. So it was nice to see. I really liked the overall look of it and how it was full of history. I'll get to more of that in a bit. But as I usually tend to do I'll start with the beginning.

We took a quick stop at a local mall since my mother wanted to stop at a store that we don't have where we live. It turned out that we also stopped at a beer store that carried beer from all over the world while purchasing a variety pack of beers for someone in my family. We asked the man at the counter if he could suggest any good restaurants. Without a minute of hesitation he said, "L'Aubergiste".

 Now If you're lucky, when you ask a local for somewhere to eat or go he will tell you of someplace that the local's go. Someplace you wouldn't find on your own. And that has fantastic food.

Little sidebar here. That proves this story. Someone I know recently went on a trip to France for work. Some of their colleagues who travel there often recommended this little restaurant. As they went to find it they found themselves in a bit of a shady area with signs of it being kind of like a red light district. Their colleague that recommended it, is not the type of person to frequent those kind of areas so they where confused. They thought maybe they had went too far. They walked on a bit more and found a small little house with the name of the restaurant. In front of it sat an old lady who they later found out was 91 and the daughter of the first owner. She told them they where too early and had to come back at 8. They where hesitant but they decided to come back at 8 and found it to be their favorite restaurant of their whole trip with great food. They went back twice, the second time being on their last night in France and I know for a fact that they are still trying to recreate the salad they tried there it was so good.

All this to say that sometimes taking a chance and going where the locals go can pay off. So we went to where the beer store clerk suggested.

I had fish and chips and my mother had cream de chevre, bettrave, orange confites, pistaches et sauce aux frambroises. (Cream of goat cheese,beets,orange confits, pistachios and rasberry sauce). Both where good but I tried my mother's dish and it was just so good. She couldn't stop raving about it.

It was worth trusting his suggestion. We then went on to walk down to the water front. It was such a nice day.

Right by the water there was a small little museum.

We went through the museum and it was quite interesting. There were pictures of Queens Park back in the early 1900's which was quite interesting. One of them was the old water slide and of the merry go round and other attractions they had there. Here are some pictures I found online that where similar to the ones we saw.

 After some time there we headed back to the car. While we walked I took a picture of something I had been noticing since our arrival in Aylmer. It was these black markings on the pavement placed here and there. It turned out they showed who used to live in the older buildings in the town.

On the way back we stopped at a liquidation store where they had a lot of varied things. I ended up getting a Spanish learning set for more than 55 percent off. Why am I telling you this? Well learning new languages helps you while your in a foreign country and I might just be going somewhere where Spanish is spoken. More will be told on that subject when it is determined if I am or am not going. Meanwhile I will be giving updates on twitter (@MayaAdventure) and/or my blog on my progression in Spanish and what tools I am using to learn the language.

That ended my small trip to Aylmer it was great time. And overall a great way to spend a day!

That's it for this adventure.

So what are you waiting for? Go find adventure big or small!

Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival 2015

Not too long ago in Ottawa it was the Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival. If you haven't heard of it well the name describes it pretty well. It's a festival centered on Dragon boat races. Here's a picture I took of what they look like.

These boats are powered by everyone rowing in time to the beat of the drum in the front of the boat. Along with some commands that are yelled to keep the beat. These things combined make the boat move pretty fast.

The festival started in China over 2,400 years ago as a cultural tradition meant to make bountiful crops. The festival in Ottawa started in 1994 but was founded a year earlier. The first festival was half a day with 25 teams. This year it was over 200 teams and 4 day's long. Making it recognized as the largest dragon boat festival in North America. (for more information visits there website )

So as you see it's been going on a while and every year I hear about it through social media. And yet I have never attended it. So this year I decided I would. And I'm glad I did it was interesting and worth going to.

There's more than just the races at the festival there's also free concerts, activities, booths of food and more booths with some vendors and other with some information. Along with all that there's a children section with activities for them. And when I was there a bicycle stunt chow. But more on that later. Let's start with the beginning.

Part of my journey to get to the festival was a bus ride. It was a long one. The bus was packed and when I got to where there was supposedly a bus shuttle to the festival all I saw was a lot of people walking so not seeing a shuttle or anyone waiting for one I decided to follow the crowd. It was a bit of a walk but I'm so glad I decided to walk instead of wait and look around for a shuttle bus. Because of these guy.....

Living in Canada it is not uncommon to see these guys. But I usually just see them while driving I only get a quick look and then we have driven by. I have never really seen one much less two so close on a trail with so many people walking by. So naturally I stopped and too some pictures here's one last one.

And then we get to the festival

After a quick bag check there you are in the middle of it all. There was a decent amount of people walking around but not too many and a lot more people in the team and volunteer section of which I do not have a picture of. Here's the first view of the festival.

First I passed the Children section they had bouncy castles and a life size model of a cow people could try milking after which they got a sticker saying I milked a cow. I saw a couple children sporting them proudly in the festival grounds. Then on one side was the food vendors and further along some more booths with some wares to be sold, some causes that wanted support, and some centers publicizing there services. I spent some time walking around looking at all the sights. Like the main stage. Here's some pictures of the stage where concerts where going to be held later in the day. When I took the picture there was some people playing but I'm not sure who they where.

After that It was perfectly timed that I ended up at the bicycle stunt show right as the show was about to start. The show was sponsored by bell and it was partly about safety so the stunt man from new jersey would insert safety tips along the performance. And explain some tricks he used on how he did it safely. But he would also pretend he didn't know what he was doing at some points like bike towards the crowd and stop at the last second or do a trick of jumping the bike over a person and doing a cool move around him before actually doing it of course with room to spare.

Those weren't the best pictures I know. I had a good view at first but then the green hat child pushed through the crowd and went in front of me and well I figured making sure every one could see was a lot more important than taking the best picture.

Once the show was over I climbed the hill seen in previous pictures and took some neat pictures of most of the ground.

And then it was lunch and it all looked so good that I took picture. Chicken pad thai and freshly squeezed lemonade with watermelon flavor. Here's the photo of the stand I got the pad thai from and then of the food.

I ended my time at the festival with some time on the beach watching the races and taking yet again some more pictures.

All in all it was a good time and I'm glad I went. Lot's to see and do I stayed for about 3 hours or a bit more and I could of stayed longer if I found a place on the beach to sit, read and watch the races before going to see the concerts that started around 5. And if a person went with young children they could be there even longer since there was many things and separate activities for them. So there you have it The Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival. Free admission and interesting, worth to go have a look.

So what are you waiting for. Go out there and find some adventure big or small!

Montreal road trip

Hi I'm back.

I know I've been absent from posting on this blog for a while/ and there's not really a valid reason for that. Well there was a valid reason for a while but then when that passed over I could of went back to writing but I did not and don't ask me why I don't know. But like previously mentioned the blog is back and the tales of adventures big or small is too. So let's not waste any more time and get right to a recent adventure.

So not too long ago I went to Montreal, Quebec Canada a short little trip as I live less than 5 hours away from there. Someone in my family had work there and asked if I wanted to tag along. Naturally I jumped at the opportunity. Travel is travel and every opportunity might lead to an adventure that is amazing.

Our trip started with a long car ride and brings me to my first point I think you should know. Montreal driver's not the best. Now I'm not saying every driver is bad. But I think the driving style there is just different most people tend to drive aggressively. My tip when your there be confident with your driving and always look around. I say this because I've been to Montreal with different drivers. One was more of a timid driver and the other very confident both noticed that driving there was different than where we live but one driver the very confident one had less trouble. The other one, well lets just say it took us 25 minutes instead of 7 to get to our destination since we kept missing our exit our doing an unnecessary detour partly because of a faulty GPS but stress was also a contributing factor.

Our hotel for our stay was the Westin. First thing you should know about the Westin is that the entrance is pretty hidden here is a picture of it.

Photo taken from Google Images

What you see here is a picture of the entrance but that is not how it looks like from the street. That's an important thing to know since like us you might drive by it twice before realizing where it is. The entrance is somewhat hidden and when you enter it than it will look like the picture above the entrance is covered and part of the building. When you arrive there will be valets service for your car we took it since the only parking at the hotel is valets parking and if you don't take there is not really any parking spots anywhere near the hotel or in the general area. Any parking you might find if lucky would probably cost the same, close to the same or more. The way the parking works is that you pay for each day and can come in and out as many times as you would like. It takes up to 15 minutes for them to bring up the car so call in advance if your planning on driving somewhere.

Overall the Westin was a nice hotel with ideal place right next to old Montreal. The rooms where nice and the pool was interesting ( some parts of the pool had a transparent glass bottom.).

Photo taken from Google images

My family member's work was in the hotel and so we explored the surrounding areas pretty well. Like I mentioned it was next to old Montreal so we walked through it. I have to say it was not what I was expecting I had imagined something similar to Vieu Quebec(which is gorgeous by the way with old buildings and buskers and cute little shops) but it was not even close/ It had not many shops I was interested in, most where clothing shops and high end art shops with many tourist shops mixed in. Nothing very unique that I saw. Saying this it still had it's Montreal french Canadian flare in some parts and some buildings where very cool looking though they weren't the majority. I still enjoyed walking through it and in the tourist centered spot in the old Montreal there was little caricaturists booths one busker doing something that was not too amazing(sorry but it's the truth) and some balloons along with many little stalls with paintings from local artists. There where a fair number of people there and I think that in summer it must have lot's more things going on, more people and a better atmosphere than the day they we went.

For lunch we went to a place called Boucherie Charcuterie at the corner of the road Saint Paul in old Montreal it looked like a cute little restaurant. 

Photo from Google Images

The service however went from great to bad. Most reviews of this place on travel websites such as tripadvisor mostly say it's excellent or very good. With a few one star or two star reviews We went in not knowing any of this just stumbling on it and deciding to stop.

Like I said it went from great to bad. At first we came in got a seat right away and the server was a guy with lots of energy. He was nice and always throwing in some jokes. All was looking good. 5 minutes in it changed it started with microscopic things that if that was all that happened it would not have mattered a bit but when you add it all together it was somewhat irritating. My mom ordered a sangria with white wine and was brought one with red wine. The server assured her the red wine was better after she informed him that she preferred white. But with his suggestion she stuck with it. I noticed however at 2-3 other tables with people who also had ordered sangria that it was all red wine. Whether that’s a coincidence or that they where pushing the red wine sangria I don't know. But it was no big deal my mom informed me it tasted fine not great but ok.

Then came the next part we ordered soon after we sat down. When we asked about the deserts(since they where supposed to have fresh pastries there) He said they where probably out. It was only about 1 in the afternoon so that surprised me, still it was no big deal. We ordered our meal and started talking but we realized after a bit that it was taking a long while for our food. When we saw someone who came after us get there food before us than a man sitting next to us who got his food shortly after we sat down eat and leave before we where even served we were not too happy. After a few more minutes we asked how much longer it would be and the server said he would check and came back saying that it was coming soon. We waited some more with the server passing a couple times telling us again that it was coming but it was getting ridiculous more people came in someone who came in at the same time as us was getting ready to leave. My mom's theory was that he had forgot to put in our order until we had asked him about it 15-20 minutes after we had ordered.

At first I didn't mind waiting and so I told my mom to be patient and give it some time, that we weren't in a rush and to not ask again just yet. The point where I started becoming irritated again was when our server decided to take a break and go for a smoke outside. We saw him walk out cigarette in hand.

I gave it 5-10 minutes thinking maybe he was just going for a quick smoke and would be back soon but when he did not. I was like that's it and so this time we went to another server and asked again with him his response was “ who's your server I'll let him know” We informed him we saw him go out a while ago cigarette in hand. With that he said he would check for us and finally a couple minutes later our food came. We where very hungry by then and the food was sadly mediocre I had had high expectations for it it was supposedly a place with fresh meat and cheese made there but it didn't taste like it. When we where done eating we waited for the bill as we saw that at other tables it was brought to them before they could go pay at the front. But our server was still not back from his break so we went to another server once again. He told us “ I'll let your server know. Who is he” And we had to inform them that we hadn't seen the guy since he walked out of the restaurant cigarette in hand. We got the bill and let me say we were looking forward to leaving the crammed restaurant. When we got to the cash what do we see well what do you know pastries, when there was supposedly none. For some reason unknown to me my mom bought one a brownie, after all that and that at least the brownie (which we found out was made by another company) was good.

All this to say maybe we where unlucky and just had a bad server or came at a bad day but it was not a nice experience at Boucherie Charcuterie. And seeing other reviews on websites where not the only people it happened to. One review was saying they where not served because they did not speak french but me and my mom speak fluent french and we did nothing wrong and still waited there way too long.

The rest of he trip was good though. After that lunch we walked around some more and for supper went to a place suggested by the hotel concierge called Nolana. It was a nice restaurant with very good food. They where accommodating and the restaurant had a cool little style. When we asked about desert we were informed they where out of there normal dessert so they made a smore, caramel pizza with nuttela. It was so unhealthy but so good. If they still do that make sure you share it with someone we where two and didn't even eat half of it.

Overall Montreal was ok we didn't see much of it but what I saw was nice. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had had more time to explore than a day and a half. I know from research that there is a lot to see. There was some nice architecture and it was fun to be in a more french environment for a bit. Overall a great little weekend trip and I now know for next time what I want to see and what I won't go back to.

Little tips and information:

You should know is that even if it is a french place and a lot of the signs are in french most people do speak English so you won't be too stuck if you don't speak french.

Bring good walking shoes since walking is the easiest way to get around. ( I didn't have them and ended up with many painful blisters) There is very little parking in the busy area's such as old Montreal and downtown unless you are willing to pay a fair price. There are many attractions within walking distance from each other so that's another reason to go with walking.

That's all for this adventure

So I'll leave you with this as always.

Go out there and find adventure. Big or small.