Things to Do in Clarence-Rockland

During her more than 20 years as an interior designer and a teacher at Algonquin College, Elaine Comeau made sure to continuously sharpen her already formidable skills in the visual arts. Colour theory and perspective drawing are just a couple of the various mediums she’s taught at art schools and in private lessons. Now the owner of her own studio, Comeau again welds her experience as an educator to her talent for illustration. As with Fellini films and lectures on Thomas Pynchon, anyone over age 3 is welcome: Elaine's group, private, and semiprivate courses are all geared toward different age ranges. Better-half-free visitors can meet one another at singles workshops, which combine paint and blank canvases with music and a relaxed atmosphere. Children's art classes send celebrants home with their own crafts.

Operating on the trails that hosted the 2010 Bristol Dryland dog-racing championship, Timberland Tours employs experienced guides and 40 canines to propel adventure-seekers on year-round excursions of Pontiac county. Guides operate from a rustic wooden cabin headquarters, huddled in a circle of tall evergreens, which hosts revellers inside or on an open porch. An adjacent barbecue grill and bonfire pits often blaze with friendly flames, and trophy and photo displays inside the cabin chronicle sledding victories and awards for particularly memorable ghost stories from sleepovers. In winter months, two-person sleds carry riders down wooded trails, and in warm weather lightweight wagons send them soaring along on dog carting trips. Timberland Tours fuels its sleds using highly trained teams of Alaskan pointer, husky, and greyhound mixes.

More than 50 countries show off more than 190 travel and vacation exhibits within the glass-surrounded floor of the Ottawa Convention Centre for the Travel and Vacation Show's 19th year. Travel agencies, tourism departments, and adventure-tour organizers from across the nation and abroad tune visitors in to their area's culture alongside representatives from various European, Asian, African, and South American embassies. A sea of colourful exhibits plastered with photos of landscapes and culture interweave with the aromas of worldly cuisine as executive chefs from Aruba, Turkey, and Newfoundland demonstrate their multicultural recipes and dole out samples. Among the exhibits—which also feature Canadian provinces and U.S. states—dance groups perform and ice and produce carvings stand on pedestals as a monument to regional creativity and theatrical-leaning grocers.

Evan Malamud is a diehard baseball fan, softball player, and, most importantly, a father of three, including to his son and sports fanatic Jaedyn, who was diagnosed with autism several years ago at the age of two. Looking for a way to give back to the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario—where Jayden has received treatment since his diagnosis—Evan recently challenged six-time MLB all-star, former MVP, and one of his personal favourite players, Jose Canseco, to a charitable homerun derby via Twitter. Then, in a twist worthy of a Hollywood script or elementary school daydream, Canseco accepted.

On May 12, cloud-scraping softballs will be launched across Canada's capital in an effort to not only raise autism awareness, but also to raise funds for Jaedyn's hospital. After Malamud and Canseco square off in a head-to-head homerun derby, the pitch pummelling continues during a celebrity softball game where public figures, such as former Ottawa Senator Shaun Van Allen, clash for diamond supremacy. Sports fans can also expand their memorabilia collections during a charitable auction after the game, or at a Jose Canseco autograph signing on Friday, May 11, at Hazeldean Mall. There, the legendary slugger will dish out signatures to collectors and apologies to numerous broken bats.

Thumbing their noses at Mother Nature, Tagzone's staff has modified paintball so that it can be played year-round indoors. The principal switch is from paint cartridges to rubber foam balls, which are loaded into CO2 paintball markers. Players fan out in mazes and creep over bunkers on nine five-minute missions, whose play is intensified by dense fog, narratives about protecting the president, or—in a lightning round—a time limit lasting the length of the Mission: Impossible theme song. Two referees open every game to the public, and require at least six players age 10 and older before signaling to the DJ to play the opening theme music. Visits begin with a safety review and the distribution of protective masks that prevent opponents from seeing you flash back to middle-school dodgeball games.:

A fleet of muscular vehicles from Ferrari, Porsche, and Chevrolet’s Corvette series powers Ottawa ECR Inc. Its staffers can drop off and pick up the luxurious rides at customer’s doorsteps for rentals, ideal for special events such as a wedding or baby's first doctor's visit. Alternatively, drivers looking to polish precision driving skills can buckle their seatbelts for an instructor-accompanied test ride in a red Ferrari 360 Spider, complete with insurance coverage and gas.

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