Cariboo Mainline Region 2008 Travel Blog

Now that the judging is finished, the amazing fair committee planned an excellent day for us to enjoy.  We were kept very busy day with interesting tours and excursions.  Two of our students went on an Aboriginal Tour experience which included a canoe trip, two went on a Canadian Heritage tour which involved a nice bike ride by the Rideau, and Rob had an Ottawa excursion where he was treated to a gourmet lunch at Chateau Laurier.  Kaitlyn and I had a tour called “Earth and Sky”.  We went to the Canadian Nature Museum and the Aviation Museum.  We even got to go for a 10 minute flight on a 4 seater Cessna.  It was pretty cool!  I’ll put a couple photos on our Flickr site that I took from the air. Our weather cooperated for the tours today.  It rained most of the night, but today was in the 20′s again.

We had a quick dinner at the mall, then walked over the long bridge which connects Ontario and Quebec (Ottawa and Gatineau).  We spent a little time at the Museum of Civilization, then watched an Imax film called “Blue Planet” to end our evening.  We had a great walk home, admiring the view of the Parliament Buildings all lit up on the hill.

We managed to get ahold of our M.P., Betty Hinton.  I don’t think she can make it to the project viewing time tomorrow,  but she has invited us to meet her for breakfast instead.  The girls are so excited.  I think it will definitely be one of the highlights of the trip! Stay tuned – I’ll definitely post some pictures of that tomorrow!

Today was once again dominated by judging, with the students spending 7 1/2 hours in the gym waiting for their opportunity to present to the judges in the interdisciplinary awards divisions. After a brief dinner, we all set off to Carleton University for a carnival celebration. The crew was treated to a series of fun activities ranging from sumo wrestling to juggling, with the highlights being three stage shows that culminated in a magic extravaganza. In spite of the glitz and excitement, it’s fair to say that the real highlight was hitting the pillow the moment we got back to residence. A couple of the girls were so tired they even took a little nap on the floor at the carnival (see picture above).  Judging can wear a girl out!

Tomorrow we are all off in different directions on our much anticipated excursions. Hopefully the weather holds out. We’ve been fortunate to have lots of sun the last couple days, but there may be some rain in the forecast… Hope you’re all doing well at home!

(Today’s guest co-writer was Mr. Schoen)

Today was day one of judging and all five girls indicated that things had went well. I am impressed by their dedication and confidence as they share their projects with everyone. Presenting to the judges can be nerve-wracking, but all five of them seem to be handling things just fine. You should be proud!

Judging took up the better part of the day until dinner. After we ate, we were bussed to Major’s Hill Park where we wandered around looking at the tulips (the Tulip Festival is happening right now) and took a stroll to Parliament Hill. We were able to see the Rideau Canal as well. It’s pretty fascinating! After enjoying the sunny evening walks, we were treated to the “Mysteries of Dark Matter” presentation offered by the Perimeter Institute. The scientist who was presenting did a great job of keeping the information manageable for those of us who are not physics geniuses (myself especially) and it was quite thought-provoking and interesting. If you want, you can Google the Perimeter Institute to find their website. Apparently they have tons of great resources, including online videos, which you can download.

Now we are all off to bed… in fact, I think I’m the only one still crazy enough to be up working on this blog! More judging tomorrow and then the Carleton Carnival in the evening. It sounds like it will be a lot of fun!

Phew! Today was a really busy day!

This morning the girls had their first taste of presenting as delegates and elementary school tour groups were invited to view the projects and ask questions to the finalists. It was good practice for tomorrow when the real judging starts. They all seem a bit nervous about the judging, but also confident in their topics and projects. I’m not worried about them at all!

After lunch we all took part in Cognos Hands-On Science tours. We were all in different locations so, unfortunately, I don’t have any photos of these to share. Everyone seemed to have enjoyed their presentations and taken some new learning away from whatever they had gone to.

Following the tours, we were taken to the Canada Science Museum. We got to spend time in the museum, take part in some activities outside, dine at a special BBQ, and even look at the moon from a high-powered telescope. I’ve put the picture I took from the eyepiece of the telescope at the top of this post. It’s pretty cool – you can even see some craters on the moon if you look carefully. After a rousing game of “orange toss” on the lawn (which changed to frisbee after our orange took too much of a beating), we returned back to our residences and headed out for a little stroll. We managed to find a shopping mall very close to the University. Much to our disappointment, we arrived only 15 minutes before closing, but I think we will definitely plan an excursion there when we get a little free time later in the week.

First of all, I just want to let you know that all 5 projects passed safety inspection. Phew! All the girls will be ready to go for the morning with some school viewings.

We had a terrific evening. We were bussed over to Quebec (just across the canal) to the Canadian Museum of Civilization. We had a little bit of time to look around, but there was still a great deal that we didn’t get to see, unfortunately. The opening ceremonies weren’t too long, thankfully, and included some interesting music and dance presentations.

After the opening ceremonies, we were taken to the Canadian War Museum where we had a great dinner served to us. A politician from Ontario made a big announcement that the Ontario Government will be putting a lot of money into promoting Science fair and Science opportunities for students in Ontario. We are hoping that the BC Government will follow suit! After dinner we had a chance to tour around the war museum for a bit and look at some really interesting displays and artifacts. We even got to go into the Hidden Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which was pretty cool!

We’re all going to make it an early night tonight. Losing 3 hours sleep made getting up this morning a challenge and we are all ready to “hit the pillow”.

I’ll add more pictures to the Flickr account shortly. More tomorrow….

Hopefully everyone has phoned home to check in and say, “Happy Mother’s Day”! We have arrived safely in Ottawa after two uneventful flights. We met up with some students and their delegates from the Kootenays. They are with us in the above photo.

Today was a brief orientation assembly, and then we spent the rest of the morning on set-up. We still have a little work to do, but so far all those who have been put through the safety checks have passed.

I have put some of the pictures from set-up this morning on my Flickr site. The link is on the right hand side of the blog by the top posting. You can also link to it from the bottom right of the blog page where a few of the photos are there to preview. Please check them out!

I’ll try to post again this evening after we attend the opening ceremonies and banquet. It sounds like it will be terrific!

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We have under a week to go until we leave for Ottawa! It is going to be an awesome trip!

I have started this blog to communicate with friends and family back home during our week at the fair. Internet access permitting, I will endeavour to provide daily updates, photographs, etc. to help those at home share vicariously in our activities and send comments to us about our adventures.