Fall Colours Tour

Fall in Canada means beautiful leaves of yellow, orange, and red. We headed out by shuttle to Gatineau Park for a hike (and picnic) to see the fall colours.

Pink Lake

CultureSavvy Team

View from the hike at Pink Lake

Yes, the water was this colour. So pretty!

Microbrewery Tour

Canada is proud of their beer and proud of their many awesome microbreweries. We went on a tour of a Cartwright Springs Brewery, a local, eco-friendly microbrewery in Pakenham, ON.

We learned about making beer from spring water and locally grown hops. We tried a flight of 4 delicious beers, ending with a stout made from maple sap.

Brewmaster, Andre, at the site of the spring that makes this beer great!

Getting a tour of the brewery and the equipment

Trying one of  the Cartwright Springs beers while taking the tour.

Summer Camping

A great way to experience the Canadian great outdoors is summer camping. We spent a weekend at beautiful Lac Phillipe campground in Gatineau Park, Quebec and had tons of fun!

Raccoons at night, thunder while canoeing, cooking over a campfire, making Smores, playing Bocci ball ,and torrential rain on our last day--all of this made up our memorable weekend!

Waterfront quiet campsite 

Here's the CultureSavvy team enjoying outdoor dining!

Zhenzhen looking out at beautiful Lac Phillipe

Getting ready for canoeing and SUP paddling

View of the lake from our tent

Cooking over a campfire

Bocci ball challenge is on

Vodka, Gin, Rum--Canadian Style

Canadian culture = beer, but we also wanted to check out other alcohol made locally. That's when we booked a tour of a local Ottawa distillery.

So maybe we're not all hard liquor drinkers, but it sure was a fun tour and we learned a lot!

Barrels of gin, rum, and vodka

Learning how rum is made.

Enjoying North of 7 gin back at home!

Canada Day 2016

Ottawa is the perfect place to celebrate Canada Day! 

We put on our red shirts, got our maple leaf flags and tattoos, and off we went to check out the activities in the nation's capital!

CultureSavvy Canada team getting ready to join the crowds!

We found a friend! 

Zhenzhen bought a bubble gun! Fun!!

Looking Canadian--gotta wear red on Canada Day!

Ziplining

One adrenaline-pumping way to enjoy Canada's great outdoors is ziplining! Our CultureSavvy team spent an afternoon checking out what this activity is all about. We can tell you for sure it's an experience you won't forget!!

Starting down the first zipline

What you do after a hot afternoon 50 feet above the ground.

Beer Tasting

Canada is known for 3 things: 

1. polite people
2. hockey, and 
3. BEER!! 

Beer tasting at a microbrewery patio

If you are in Canada for even a short time, you will need to know something about beer. We ordered a "flight" of beer to get a taste of each. 

Flights of beer--great for trying different beers

Many microbreweries have flights of beer on their menu. 

We started with light beers like wheat beer, blonde beer, an IPA (India Pale Ale), then moved on to a red beer and finished with dark beers like a brown ale and a stout.

I love stouts, but Wanqing prefers wheat beers, and Zhenzhen loves hoppy (kind of bitter) IPAs. While you are in Canada, you've got to try them for yourself and see what you like best!