Very old school.

If you’re traveling in Ontario, Canada with your kids anytime between May 1st and September 8^th and find yourself anywhere near Greater Sudbury, make some time, a day would be best, to detour to Dinosaur Valley Mini Golf for a unique experience in family entertainment. Open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week, this singular attraction offers service in both English and French.

The park began as a dream for owners Josee and Marcel Rainville, who, after five years of work, completed the first 9-hole course in 1998. Over the years five more courses were added as well as the amazing steel dinosaurs, all scaled to size. The park owners make all of the skeletal replicas.

Dinosaur Valley offers a variety of amusement options ranging from a total of 54 unique holes of miniature golf to labyrinths and over 20 mammoth dinosaur and insect exhibits, plus their new Raptor and Dragon exhibits, added in 2006.

It is fun with a purpose, too. The Rainvilles have dedicated the entire park to cancer families to honor of the memory of their son, Steven, who died of leukemia. Dinosaur Valley also hosted Canada’s first Pro Mini Golf Tournament in which 100% of the proceeds were donated to charity (the Canadian Cancer Society).

This family fun centre is reasonably priced, too, with labyrinth entry only C$2.50 per person and 18 holes of miniature golf starting at C$5.99 for children and C$7.00 for adults. While some of the exhibits may be a little extra, most of the extraordinary metal models are incorporated into the golf courses. The park accepts cash, debit, Visa, and American Express. For those of you who like to plan ahead, you can book your visit to Dinosaur Valley Mini Golf online via their website, www.dinosaursudbury.ca .

The Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum (CWHM) in New Hope, Ontario, is unique because it is home to world’s largest collection of flying vintage aircraft. The museum also houses an aviation art gallery, interactive displays, audio-visual presentations, and an assortment of aircraft photographs and memorabilia.

The Museum began as a labor of love for four friends, Dennis J. Bradley, Alan Ness, Peter Matthews, and John Weir. The men did not just set out to restore just any planes, they specifically wanted to preserve and maintain a collection of the aircraft flown by Canadians and the Canadian military services from World War II to the present.

In 1993, an inferno ripped through one of the hangars at the Hamilton International Airport that the Museum was using for storage and restoration and destroyed five of the restored planes. The museum reluctantly acknowledged the need to move to a single facility that could accommodate both the displays and the space needed to do restoration work. As a member of Canada’s royal family and the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum’s royal patron, Charles, the Prince of Wales officially opened the new building in April 1996.

The Museum has over forty aircraft from the 1940s warplanes to jets from the 60s and 80s. Most of the planes are military and many of them are rare. Nowhere else will you find such a large collection of flight-ready vintage airplanes. The Museum flies one of their operational planes once a day during, the summer season, and Thursdays through Sundays in the spring and autumn, weather permitting.

The Museum’s ride program, Legends Flight, gives people the opportunity to reserve a ride in either an open-cockpit bi-plane or the Harvard Trainer. They also offer two different flight paths, the Niagara Escarpment Tour over Hamilton and the Lake Ottawa shoreline or the Grand River Tour.

What does Santa do all summer? If you have been asked this question one too many times, this year travel to Bracebridge, Ontario, Canada and find the answer. Bracebridge, just north of Toronto, sits on the 45th parallel, halfway between the Equator and the North Pole. Since 1955, Bracebridge has been home to Santa’s Village Family Entertainment Park, Santa Claus’ preferred summer vacation spot.

Not sure what to do first? After being greeted by Santa himself in Santa Square guests can catch a ride around the 50-acre park on the Candy Cane Express miniature train and use it to get your bearings.

Santa is not the only one on vacation over the summer; the elves are too. The park is full of ways to amuse elves (and children). Enjoy net climbing excitement in the Elves Island Play Area. Ride Rudolph’s Sleigh Ride Roller Coaster, the Christmas Ball Ferris Wheel, the Merry-Go-Round, and more.

Children can create customized souvenir crafts in the Elves Workshop and Candy Cane Lane features a variety of skill games to hone hand-eye coordination. Live entertainers perform at the park throughout the season.

Santa’s Village also features a petting zoo complete with goats, sheep, and deer, though not reindeer since Bracebridge is too warm for those hardy animals.

One of the attractions of this summer home away from the North Pole is warm weather and the chance to cool off in Santa’s Splash Zone. Work up a sweat paddling around lemonade lagoon in one of Santa’s Paddleboats or relax and let someone else do the work when you take Santa’s Summer Sleigh Jetboat Cruise.

The park is open 10am to 6pm from June to September. For more specific information about Santa’s Village, or to make reservations, visit the park on the web at http://www.santasvillage.ca .

The bright red uniform jacket and broad-brimmed hat of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police are a symbol of Canada recognized all over the world. The well-known red serge coat, black riding pants with their yellow stripe, and red-banded Stetson are not part of the regular daily uniform for these police officers. The red, white, and black dress uniform is, generally, only worn for civic ceremonies, public relations events, celebrations and memorials.

The RCMP is a singular organization, since it is simultaneously a national, federal, provincial and municipal policing body. They provide total federal policing service to all Canadians. They are also under contract to provide policing services to eight provinces (all except Quebec and Ontario), the 3 Canadian territories, more than 200 municipal areas, 165 First Peoples communities, plus 3 international airports and several smaller airports.

The RCMP Academy, Depot Division in Regina, Saskatchewan has been training “Mounties” for more than 120 years. Despite the fact that they are a national police force, all new Royal Canadian Mounted Police recruits undergo basic training in Regina. At 12:45 each day visitors can witness the daily Sergeant Major’s Drill on the Parade Ground. Incidentally, women have been members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police since the first all-female class graduated from the Academy in March 1975.

Until October 2006, the Academy was also home to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Centennial Museum, where visitors could go to get a thorough account of the national police force’s history. The Centennial Museum was closed permanently in October 2006 in order to begin moving its collections and artifacts to the new RCMP Heritage Center.

The $40 million Heritage Center is scheduled to open May 23, 2007. A focal point of the new museum will be a ninety-eight foot (30 m) long three-dimensional sculptural timeline illustrating the roles and tools of the RCMP over the years.

Are you a wildlife enthusiast looking for something a little different? The a trip to Churchill in Northern Manitoba, Canada is just the thing. Indulge yourself in a little retro luxury with a sleeper ticket on VIA Rail’s Hudson Bay, a 2-day and night trip from Winnipeg to Churchill. The indulgence is worth it, since the destination, Churchill, is a no-frills sub-arctic town. This train is another of VIA Rail’s outdoor enthusiast routes and offers their unscheduled stop service to passengers who make advance arrangements for it.

Churchill, a tiny village with a permanent population that fluctuates between 800 and 1100, is known as the Polar Bear Capital of the World. The town, sitting between the Churchill River and Hudson Bay, is on the polar bears’ annual migration route. Peak season for polar bear sighting is from mid-October to mid-November each year. Polar bear viewing is best done by arrangement with one of the many tour operators in Churchill who will take out in a tundra buggy, vehicles specially designed for the safety of people, polar bears, and the local tundra.

Manitoba’s beluga whale population migrates to the Churchill River and Hudson Bay every summer during July and August. There are approximately 20,000 whales living in the area, and about 3,000 of them summer in the river estuary to give birth. Visitors have a chance to view, and, with many tours, swim with, these beautiful creatures.

Bird-watching enthusiasts should try to make the trip to Churchill sometime between mid-June and mid-July. According to the Churchill Northern Studies Institute, birdwatchers can expect to see approximately 100 species, easily, over the course of a four- to seven-day trip. For more information on species commonly seen, or at least heard in some cases, check out the birdwatching page on the Instute’s website at http://www.churchillscience.ca/index.php?page=ab_attrac_birds.

International sports enthusiasts can visit the history of the Olympic Games in Canada, and get a glimpse of the future.Canada hosted its first Olympic Games in Montreal, Quebec in 1976. The Olympic Stadium in Montreal features the world’s tallest inclined tower—it is 574 feet (175 m) high. The vision of the architect who planned the stadium was nearly impossible to achieve, however. The stadium’s retractable roof was not completed until 1987, more than 10 years after the event for which it was designed.

The velodrome built for the 1976 Games was re-purposed for education in 1992 and is now known as the Biodôme. Visitors to the museum will experience four typical indigenous American environments: the polar region, a tropical forest, the St. Lawrence marine, and the Laurentian forest.

In 1988, Calgary, Alberta hosted the 15^th Winter Olympiad and profited mightily from it (unlike Montreal, which is still paying for that stadium roof!). The Olympic Oval is a fully equipped training facility used by skaters, runners, hockey players, and athletes of all stripes. Nearby Canada Olympic Park is the home of North America’s largest Olympic museum, the Olympic Hall of Fame. The Park is also home to Canada’s only Olympic bobsled/luge track. Adventurous visitors willing to sign a waiver can even buy a trip down the track in a sled driven by one of the park’s trained drivers.

Canada will again be hosting the Winter Olympics, this time in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 2010. The city has already begun preparations for the big event. Omega, Official Timekeeper of the 2010 Games, unveiled a three-year countdown clock in downtown Vancouver on February 12, 2007. Construction of the Vancouver Olympic Village will begin in the summer of 2007. The Games facilities will be made available to athletes for training by Winter 2007/2008.

The Empress Hotel sits regally on the Inner Harbor of Victoria, capital of British Columbia, and is a joy to behold for both history and architecture buffs. The Fairmont Empress will be celebrating her one hundredth anniversary in 2008.

The hotel was begun in 1904 after supporters of the city convinced the Canadian Pacific Railroad to establish regular ferry service to Vancouver Island and build one of the railroad’s signature hotels in Victoria. The Empress, named for Queen Victoria, then the Empress of India, and designed by English architect Francis Rattenbury. The original, 116-room Edwardian chateau-style building opened with a great deal of fanfare in 1908.The hotel’s magnificent architecture and opulent décor are legendary. Built at the height of British power in India, it features a number of colonial India-themed areas. Most notable of these is the club-like Bengal Lounge, decorated with objects given to the hotel by some of its notable guests. An Indian maharaja donated the mounted tiger skin on the wall and the murals above the bar were a gift to the hotel from the king of queen of Siam.

To take Afternoon Tea at the Empress is to take a journey back in time. This formal, high tea occurs daily and is enjoyed by over 100,000 people each year. Do not expect to take it lightly, though. High Tea is, in many ways, a meal, and you will pay accordingly.

There were rumors that the owners were planning to demolish the property and build a new resort on the site in the 60’s, but the public outcry caused against this plan led to the $4 million “Operation Teacup” renovation. Another, significantly more expensive renovation took place in the 1980’s.

The hotel is also home to Willow Stream Spa and affiliated with two local golf courses, for guests who want more than art architecture.

Drumheller, Alberta, in the heart of Canada’s prairies, proclaims itself“The Dinosaur Capital of North America”, and has the fossils to back it up.

Just northwest of Drumheller is the Dinosaur Trail, a 32-mile (50km) circular drive along Highway 838 that will lead visitors to, among other things, the Royal Tyrell Museum of Palaeontology, and the World’s Largest Dinosaur.

The Royal Tyrell Museum has a wide array of exhibits. The Hexen Science Hall features an interactive display to demonstrate basic scientific concepts. In the Preparation Lab, visitors can watch scientists prepare fossils for study or display. The Burgess Shale and Devonian Reef exhibits offer a look at life under the waters of Canada’s prehistoric oceans. In the Cretaceous Garden, Museum guests can walk through living history, a garden filled with the same plants the dinosaurs ate.

The main attraction at the Royal Tyrell is Dinosaur Hall. The Hall is full of mounted dinosaur skeletons, and is the largest exhibit of its kind in the world. Walking, swimming, and flying reptiles are all present, including the Albertosaurus, first discovered by Joseph B. Tyrell.

Farther down the Dinosaur Trail visitors will find themselves confronted by the World’s Largest Dinosaur. The Dinosaur is an 86-foot (26.2 m) concrete and steel Tyrannosaurus Rex. He stands four times taller than the real thing did and visitors who climb the 106 steps to the viewing platform in his mouth will enjoy a magnificent panoramic view of the badlands.

For dinosaur lovers, the two-hour trip to the Tyrell Museum’s Field Station at Dinosaur Provincial Park is a must-see. It functions as a base for continuing scientific study in the area and has skeletons on display in an exhibit building. Visitors can also make reservations for a bus tour to areas of the park being excavated, areas not available to the public any other way.

Toronto, capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario, is an art enthusiast’s dream. The city, the fifth largest in North America, is home to several major galleries and museums.

The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is the largest in Canada with more than 40 galleries. The museum displays both art works and natural history items and has the largest collection of avian and mammalian skeletons in the world. The museum’s Far East Collection, the largest collection of far eastern artifacts outside of China, is anchored by the Ming Tomb, a complete seventeenth century warriors tomb and the only complete Chinese tomb in the West.

The Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art was, at one time affiliated with the Royal Ontario Museum. This specialized museum is home to more than 2,000 pieces of ceramic art. Their collection features everything from pre-Columbian pottery to classic European porcelains of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

The Art Gallery of Toronto has strong collections of European and Canadian art. One of the main attractions of the Gallery is its collection of Henry Moore sculptures, one of the largest in the world. Henry Moore personally designed the exhibit space for this collection in 1974.

For more than thirty years the Textile Museum of Canada has celebrated international fiber art. Their permanent collection contains more than 12,000 textiles, from pieces as much as 2000 years old to modern designs, with samples from more than 200 regions of the world.

The Bata Shoe Museum is housed in a whimsical, shoebox-shaped building designed by architect Raymond Moriyama. The museum is home to a 4,500-piece, semi-permanent “History of Shoes” exhibit that highlights examples of footwear spanning time and the globe, from ancient Egyptian sandals to the sleekly sexy stilettos of 1990s. The Bata also has three additional galleries that display special exhibits throughout the year.

The first Stampede was held in 1912 and attracted almost 40.000 visitors its first year, far more than anyone expected.  Attendance at the 2006 Stampede was a record-breaking 1.26 million people.  Stampede organizers recommend that anyone who wants to attend the event make reservations well in advance.

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