Wapati (Canadian for Big Ass Deer)

Okay, so it is hard to write a blog about what you did each day when you do not stop moving until midnight and then hit the ground running as soon as you get up. We apologize to those who were living vicariously through the blog. Even though I am going to update each of the five missing days as we drive back, I will be writing everything in the present tense as if it occurred that day. I am an English teacher, so that is okay.

Today we left Ottawa in the morning for a town called Montebello and a place called Parc Omega.  I was a little suspect on this venture because our host had explained it to Jen and she told me it sounded like the Lazy 5 Ranch. For all my Charlotte area peeps, I am not knocking the Lazy 5, but when you have traveled to another country you want to experience new things. Well, all I can say is that we did. Parc Omega is similar to the Lazy 5 Ranch in the way that Barry Bonds in Pittsburgh is similar to Barry Bonds in San Francisco. Parc Omega looks like it ate the Lazy 5 Ranch with a high level does of steroids for the other six courses of its fine dining meal.

Corinne rushed us into the park just in time to catch the tail end of the educational program at noon with a promise that we could see the whole thing at 2:00 (great story about that later). From there we wandered to the wolf and black bear enclosures for a quick lesson on the importance of these animals and an opportunity to feed each, from a distance. It was amazing to watch the animals interact with the trainers and for the kids to get an opportunity to throw carrots and bread at the bears. What made it even more fun was that both enclosures had babies in the enclosure with them who were adorable.

 

That took us to the 2:00 show and the beginning of the up close and personal fun. During the show they brought out several animals and occasional needed participants to interact with them. Amandine was chosen first from the group to race against the young warthog in the field. Things started out well and good until Pumba (that was the Warthog) decided to undercut Amandine and knock her over. Although Amandine was fine, Pumba  proceeded to run out of the arena and into the parking lot to look for snacks.

Emma was up next and was asked to stand on a bench enclosure in the middle of the field and to look up in the trees searching for an animal. Fortunately, after a few sentences and Emma just staring at her, the trainer realized Emma knew no French and switched to English.  As we had caught the tail end of the last show, Emma thought she was looking for the falcon. When she could find nothing, the trainer said to chant her name and she would come. This got Emma and the entire crowd shouting for “Stinky” to come join us and looking in the trees. This is when the trainer reached under the enclosure, grabbed the skunk and set it next to Emma. The pictures do not do justice to her reaction when she looked down, but she did pet it. As a “reward” she was allowed to choose one person from the audience for the skunk to spray. Fortunately, Jake must have made her mad that morning and I was spared as he was chosen.  For those of you that know Jake, he can be shy and I expected him to bail. However, he got up and joined. I don’t know if he was frozen in fear or just so stupid that he was going to stand there and let the skunk spray him but he stood the whole count to three as she lifted the skunk’s tail. Fortunately,  Stinky no longer had those parts and everyone laughed. I wish she had hidden a water gun in her pocket and squirted him, but alas she did not.

Mind you, all of this has occurred before we actually enter the official part of the park that is so popular. From here it did take on Lazy 5 feel as we purchased our many bags of carrots and started to drive through the trail. Everything changed when we got about 100 yards inside the fence line and a enormous animal was standing in front of the van staring me down. Based on his size and 10 point horns, it might have been a fair fight, but once we rolled down the windows and stuck out a carrot he came around.  It was fun to discover that no matter what language you speak, when a giant horned mammal sticks his head through your window and drools on you, we all make the same noise. This experience went on for many miles with Wapitis, Caribou, Warthogs, etc- all with young in tow.  On a side note, Jen refused to interact with the animals and sat firmly in the way back of the van with Gail. They enjoyed the show, but were not willing to play the game.

      

Around 4:00 we stopped for lunch at the swinging ropes bridges in the woods. Who would have guessed that while you were eating deer would come right up to the table and join you. They were so friendly and would even pose for a picture if you moved slowly enough and kept carrots nearby.

From lunch, we walked to the farm on the back of the park and the kids got to feed rabbits, goats, horses and a variety of other barn yard animals. This was a nice stop for the adults as we could watch from a distance and sit down.

    

  

After driving a couple of miles back towards the entrance through bison, musk ox, moose, and many more deer, we got to stop at the trout pond and feed the enormous trout- that is until Leopol fell in the lake. Fortunately, the Perry’s don’t keep a tidy van and we had a change of clothes for him. 

All in all we spent almost eight hours in the park and still actually felt like we were rushing to get out before they locked the gates at 8:00.  This is an experience the kids won’t soon forget and they haven’t stopped talking about yet. If you are ever in the Ontario province, this is a must do.

One more full day in Canada- what can we squeeze in.