Year Of Dates–September

 

Happy sweet, sweet Friday everyone! I have pep in my step this morning as the LONG weekend approaches! This weekend in the great, white North of Canada it is Thanksgiving weekend! I am oh-so THANKFUL for the blessed 3 days off!

Before I head off for the weekend though I wanted to share with you all our September date that Ryan and I checked off fairly early in the month! At the time we knew we were expecting but the rest of the world didn’t. We went on our date when I was 9 weeks pregnant and feeling rough! But, it was a chance to get away and not hide our pregnancy. I could feel crummy and not try to hide it from family or friends.

Septembers date was planned by me! I actually had to do quite a bit of research for this date because I wasn’t sure if the place I wanted to go to would still be open in September.

Less then an hour away in the little town of Eganville is a very popular tourist attraction, Bonnechere Caves. I have never been and I wasn’t sure if Ryan had been either. I thought it was would be a fun way to spend a couple of hours together doing a local tourist attraction!

It says, “September – No gift cards in this month. No pre-purchased tickets either. I know you (Ryan) are scared of heights so instead of going up…let’s go down…”

About a month before our date was about to happen a Groupon came up on my phone for Bonnechere Caves! I was so excited because that would be 2 months of dates that I had planned where we would get a discount! 2 for 1!! Woo HOO!

At Bonnechere Caves waiting for our tour!

It was a cloudy and overcast day but it really didn’t matter because we weren’t spending time outside.

It turns out that Ryan had been the caves before on a elementary school trip! The best part was that it was so long ago that he really didn’t clearly remember it. I assume he was one of the kids at the back of the group making trouble instead of listening! ha ha!

The tour finally started by looking at some fossils that were actually found on that property! The tour guide was excellent at interacting with the group!

Finally, it was time to start our decent into the caves! I was surprised at how big these caves went on for! There were trails and areas to climb into at every turn. The scariest part for me were the bats flying over head! The guide kept telling me to not duck when they fly by my head because they can’t see you if you don’t move! But I couldn’t help it! I was worried they were going to get caught up in my hair! Yuck!

I think my favourite part was all the history that we got to hear about. There’s nothing more that I love then learning about history! I am one of those annoying people in a museum that has to read every sign! I was always at the front of the the tour group so that I didn’t miss anything the guide said!

When we got out of the caves we walked around the property a little bit before we grabbed a quick lunch at Wendy’s on our way home (well Ryan ate I sat there in misery). I was feeling pretty sick all day (I hate you week 9) but I am still glad that we got to fit our date in. This was the last weekend that Ryan and I were keeping the pregnancy a secret. So, it was very nice to spend those last private moments together with our secret.

I love being a tourist in our own area. The Ottawa Valley is so full of fun things to do that we have not done before! You really don’t have to travel far to do something neat. We were already talking about other local ideas for next years “Year of Dates”.

Happy Friday and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

xo