Head out for an a-MAZE-ing time at McMaze!

by Leslie Just a short hour-long drive from Ottawa through the countryside toward Cornwall takes you to amagical farm, McMaze, with horses, donkeys, pigs, sheep, ducks, chickens, llamasand so much more. We were pleasantly surprised by the laid back atmosphere. There were only ahandful of families there when we went. At times, it felt like we had the place to ourselves.

We tried the duck races to start us off. This event consisted of some PVC pipe and old fashioned waterpumps. Primitive to say the least, but that didn’t stop us from doing it more than once!

There’s a “playhouse” with two long straight tunnel slides. When we tried the first slide, we were a littledisappointed. We travelled quite slowly and inched our way out of the black ridged tunnel. My 9 yearold son insisted on trying the second slide … Good thing he did. This one shot us out like a rocket. It’samazing how a black tube can provide so much fun.

We then attempted the tall grass mazes. They were surrounded by clover and other wild flowersyielding a pleasing, sweet and delicate aroma. Interspersed throughout the maze are some triviaquestions. Answer them all correctly and get entered in a draw. I’m not sure what the draw was forexactly, but it doesn’t really matter.

Off to the corn maze we went. We weren’t checking our watch, but I’m convinced this one took usclose to an hour. The maze is cleverly designed, it’s theme clearly Canadian … and thank goodness theygave us a map! We set off to find all of the trivia questions. We easily found 9 of the 10. The sun wasbeating down, the heat starting to drain our energy. We persevered and found the last clue in the puck… or was it the hockey stick?

Don’t forget to try the door maze. This is exactly as the name suggests – a series of doors that you haveto find your way through. You enter through one door and make your way through door after door(in the semi-dark and really dark) until you come out the “exit” door. My husband and I got stuck and needed to be rescued by a couple of toddlers … seriously!

We went for a ride in trailers pulled behind a Gator. If the adult in you is groaning right now, don’tknock it until you’ve tried it. It was a blast! We zoomed along way faster than we imagined we wouldand circled the tall grass mazes a few times.

We arrived prepared to find a Geocache on-site but we ran out of time. We were all surprised athow quickly and enjoyably time passed. Don’t be fooled by its simplicity. A visit to McMaze is an old-fashioned good time. P.S. While you are there, don’t miss out on the heavenly treat of homemade ice cream with flavours likechocolate-orange, cookie dough and apple-spice … Mmmm!

Leslie Foster is wife to Dave and mom to a 9 year old boy “Monkey”. She is President of FunatoriumExplorium Inc., a new event management company for family entertainment events based in Ottawa.