An epic father's day weekend

Father's day family shot, deep in the Lusk Caves

Happy belated Father's Day to all the wonderful dads out there, and to all those who are celebrating the dads who are near and dear to them. Around these parts, we devoted the whole weekend to Clark-requested activities, most of which involved outdoor adventures.

PJ-clad, picking early morning daisies for a special father's day breakfast

 Having planned a pretty huge adventure for Sunday, we spent Saturday doing all the classic father's day activities.  This meant a sleep-in for Clark, a fancy, elaborate breakfast, all sorts of presents (most of which were homemade), and then a day doing activities of his choosing.  We ended up engaging in a bit of family mountain biking around Kanata, ending up at a big splash pad so that the kids could cool off while Clark did some solo riding.  Then, the afternoon was spent organizing, as Clark put all his tools away in his brand new father's day tool cabinet.  Our garage has never looked so organized.

All fresh and ready for a day's worth of adventure!

Sunday, however, we REALLY went for it. After some consulting with Simon and Judith, we planned a day in the Lac Phillipe area (in Gatineau Park), with the purpose of finding and exploring Lusk Caves.  This was to be a multi-part adventure:  it involved driving to Lac Phillipe, biking about 4 km to get to a trail, hiking 1 km or so up the trail, exploring the cave itself, and then doing everything in reverse (with the added bonus of a dip in the lake on our return).

One cute little biker

It was, I have to admit, pretty amazing.  And the kids were champs - it ended up being far more rigorous than we had expected.  This was especially true of the biking - rather than being a relatively flat ride (as we had wrongly anticipated), it involved one large hill after another.  Up and down, over and over and over, on pretty loose, sandy, rocky terrain.  This meant a whole lot of heavy riding, walking up many hot, dusty hills, and a few near disasters on the descents.

Head-lamp on, contemplating the caves

 The caves, however, were worth the effort.  They aren't extensive, but they are incredibly beautiful, and (as anyone who has been spelunking can surely attest), otherworldly.  There were bits of the cave that were pure darkness, lit only by our headlamps as we carefully picked our way through cold, waist-deep water, and other parts that opened into shimmering, sun-light expanses. It was next to impossible to get any decent pictures, but I tried (risking both myself and the camera in the process, may I add):

At the very end, the water was deep enough (and the cave low enough), that we were forced to either go underwater to the other side, or carefully limbo across the divide.  The kids lost their courage at that point, and I was not entirely sure the camera would survive that kind of test, so the three of us turned back and retraced our steps.  Clark and Simon and Judith, however, finished the adventure in full.  It was definitely one of the coolest outings we've done in quite some time.

Linden is becoming more and more friendly with the caterpillars he finds

After the caves, we ate a well-deserved lunch in the woods, and made our way back to the beach.  Though it was very difficult to find any space to actually sit down at that point (the afternoon beach-going scene was hopping, let me assure you), it was well worth the effort.  The water was cool and refreshing, and a romp through the sand was just what the kids needed.  We were all hot, sweaty, and EXHAUSTED (at one point on the bike ride back, Linden had cried: "I can't go any further!  My legs hurt too much.  My perfect, perfect legs!" But with some encouragement, his perfect, perfect legs got him back safe and sound).  

When it was finally time to call it a day, we had to to drag Linden (very unwillingly) from his beach play, which had devolved into simply laying in the sand, and pushing clumps of it around.  He didn't even make it to the highway before he was out like a light.

Fast asleep on the way back

Anyway, that was definitely a father's day for the books.  I hope everyone else enjoyed a similarly fantastic weekend. See you next week!