a peek inside the fishbowl

Mark and I ran into Ottawa Citizen photographer Bruce Deachman at the Pinecrest Chapters a few weeks ago. He described a recent shoot he did at the Port Elmsley Drive In. He told us about the amazing access he had to the whole place, including a steep climb to the top of the screen. (!)

His photos (and his accompanying article) were published in the Citizen within a couple days of our conversation and they totally reminded me of how much I love (and miss!) the drive-in. It’s sad there aren’t any in the city of Ottawa. It is such a unique experience. I figured Port Elmsley, which is located between Perth and Smiths Falls, could make a sweet little family road trip. So we decided to combine a drive-in movie with an afternoon in Perth.

As we filled our water bottles and strapped on our walking shoes we didn’t realize that this was going to the kind of day that doesn’t go as well as we would have liked …

So learn from our mistakes and TAKE HEED YE FELLOW TRAVELLERS.

Bad: We chose to go to Perth on the hottest day of the whole entire summer. Poor Sarah suffered the worst and swooned with the heat.
Good: We had some great ice cream at White Mountain on Gore Street.
Excellent: We discovered Stewart Park, a gorgeous winding greenspace (largely behind the Perth town hall) which did wonders for our hot and sticky feet and helped restore our spirits.

The Tay River runs right through Stewart Park, which just adds to its cool beauty.

Emma walked around in a daze. She said (and this is a direct quote): “I cannot express in words how pretty this park is.”

I think Emma was right.

Added good stuff: we found some welcome shade in this far corner of the park

Good: there are some really cute little shops in Perth which would be worth exploring
Bad: they all seemed to close really early so all we did was window-shop (maybe that’s not so bad after all?)

Good: there is free parking in Perth
Good: they even seem to care about pedestrians (why can’t the City of Ottawa have these kinds of crossings?)!

Bad: our failed attempt at geocaching – which involved a lot of walking in the heat of the day – was going to end in a spot right near a bunch of beer-drinking tough guys. Instead of persevering and trying to find the cache we turned around and went back the way we came. How to explain geocaching to a muggle biker gang?

Bad: we were very hungry by dinnertime and didn’t know where we should go.
Bad: we ended up at Mexicali Rosa’s, which I KNEW FROM PAST EXPERIENCE WOULD NOT BE GOOD
Bad: the food was mediocre at best. I hate paying for food (in this case fajitas) I can make better at home
Bad: the girls received a lunch-sized Jello Pudding cup – in the actual cup – as their dessert. I don’t expect Mexi’s to slave over homemade chocolate pudding but couldn’t they at least scoop it into a dish? How cheap.
Good/interesting: we sat on a non-smoking terrace overlooking water populated by carp the length and width of a man’s thigh. Fellow diners donated their chips for the girls to feed to these crazily obese carp.

After our good/bad afternoon we drove to the drive-in.

Oh, you won’t believe how much we suffered there. Continue reading right here.