I Heart Ottawa

OMG – Ottawa Rocks!!

I went over to Jamie-Lee’s house Friday evening and we hung out, tried to get to bed at a decent time because we wanted to be up early to make our way to Ottawa!

We woke up and left the house at about 730am. We made a quick stop at McDonald’s for egg mcmuffins and timmies of course for coffee. We then set out on hwy 118 and started our 4 hour trip.

The drive was INCREDIBLE!! SO beautiful! I wish I had of stopped to take some pictures along the way, but never even thought of it. The scenery was made up of lakes, rocks, hills and trees. On some parts the road curved around the tall rocks on one side and the lake on the other…I felt like I should be driving a Mazda and found myself humming “zoom zoom zoom”.

On the way there we started a list of animals we saw along the way (alive or dead – a little sick yes I realize), mainly because Derek (Jamie’s fiancé) told us to watch out for animals on the drive because the area is heavily populated by deer and moose.

So this is what we came across (over the course of the entire weekend):

1 bird (alive)
1 fox (dead)
2 porcupines (dead)
1 very juicy bug (was alive but died on impact with my windshield – strange part, no blood just clear liquid splatter)
2 raccoons (dead)
1 bunny (alive)
20+ RCMP horses (alive)
1 bird (alive but died on impact with the transport trailer in front of us)
7 black crows (alive)

About ¾ of the way there we stopped in Renfrew at the timmies to go to the bathroom and I got another coffee. From there it was about another hour, and we parked downtown Ottawa shortly before noon.

About to head downtown after arriving:



We shorted our stuff, and then walked the few blocks to Parliament Hill. I was so excited! From the time we pulled off the highway I just kept pointing at things and saying “Oh! Look! It’s SO beautiful!” And it all was! And I hadn’t even seen the really good stuff yet!

Downtown was PACKED obviously, but it was good. Have never seen so much red and white in my life! Some people were right into the whole Canada Day theme. There were even several dogs that we walked by that people had dressed up and/or dyed their fur. We walked through the streets and watched all the different street performers. The first guy we watched was a contortionist. He fit his whole body through a toilet seat…it was kind of gross as he had to dislocated numerous body parts in order to do it. He told some pretty funny jokes though, quite dirty but definitely worth a good laugh. Next we watched some small street bands, some guy doing some weird poses on the pavement, people doing skateboard and bike tricks and some trampolinists.





We then went and had some poutine and walked through the market (OMG I LOVE markets!!). We walked through the big park (Major Hill?? Can’t remember the name…), watched the high divers and walked along the canal for a bit and back through the streets.

We got to this street performer who was doing some robot tricks, hard to describe but he was amazing! A kid or adult would throw a dollar or two in his basket and he would come to “life” and goof around with them for a bit. Jamie and I watched him for probably 20 mins. He then came out of his robot tricks and as Jamie described, got a little “weird”, I guess you could say he was doing some magic tricks. He sliced a knife through his arm amongst other things. He then made some gestures (he never spoke) to ask for a cigarette from someone in the crowd. This girl offered one and he joked around with her for a bit. He then eventually lit the cigarette and smoked about half of it. He then started walked towards me. He came over and stood right in front of me. He took both my arms and I thought he wanted the bottle of water I was holding. He shook his head ‘no’ and made me raise my arms higher. Then in one quick move he grabbed the sweater that was tied around my waist. I screamed. LOL. He moved back from me about 15 feet taking my sweater with him. He teased and joked around a bit, mocked me by suggesting he would give the sweater back. Jamie said “I think you have to give him money” so I went to put money in his basket but he chased me back to my spot. He put the sweater over his one hand, took a final drag of the cigarette and put it right into my sweater. Naturally I knew my sweater would be alright (after all it wouldn’t be very impressive if it wasn’t) but it did look really convincing! He showed the sweater and there were absolutely no marks. But he still wouldn’t give me the sweater back. I went to put the money in his basket again but he still wouldn’t let me. Instead he pointed to his cheek and made a kissy face. Stupid me, goes to do it (I like my sweater, wanted it back)…I’m just about to kiss him on the cheek and he turns and kisses me right smack on the lips. GROSS! A random kiss from some street performer! Jamie and I left shortly after that. Had a good laugh about it though!

We waked along the street vendors again and I got a henna armband done (though this henna isn’t nearly as good as the henna I got at the Mendi Party (I believe it was called if I remember correctly) at Jamie’s sister’s wedding in 2003.

We then started walking along the streets looking for a good place to eat. We were walking along a not so crowded street and I hear someone shout “HEY YOU!” I turn around and see a family sitting on the curb (a large family – parents, children and grandparents). They wave me over and ask if my sweater was ok…I take it off and show them that it was in perfect order. And the grandpa asks me if the man was a good kisser! LOL Jamie and I had a good laugh with them and then carried on.

We eventually ended up at Richtree (mmmm one of my all time favourite restaurants!) and had dinner. We then went and sat in the park to watch the main stage concerts. No real impressive bands, the biggest name was Colin James, the others we hadn’t ever heard of but they were good. They did the unveiling of the Six String Nation Guitar which was kind of neat. It started to rain but they could still eventually do the fireworks and it wasn’t until after that it REALLY started to pour!

Random pictures from around Ottawa:









The next day Jamie and I were up super early and drove around a bit, went down Sussex Drive, saw the Prime Minister’s place and that’s also when we saw the RCMP horses at the stables there. There was an amazing lookout and we saw the trails that run ALL over the city. Amazing! I definitely need to go rollerblading there sometime!

We did a little shopping (I bought two pairs of sandals – it couldn’t be helped, two for one at Aldo!). We tried to buy Jamie some rollerblades so that we could try out the trails (she was wanting to get some for a while now) but we had no luck getting them in her size. So we went back downtown and had a late lunch at the Hardrock Café.

We then made the trip back home with the intention of surprising Derek who was down at the Falls in Bracebridge getting ready to do the fireworks (he’s a Kinsmen and they are the ones who always organize the B’Bridge fireworks) since they were rained out the night before. We made it with time to spare and watched the fireworks with her sisters, nieces and nephews.

And that was pretty much my weekend. I LOVED Ottawa and can’t wait to go back. Planning a possible late August/September trip. Who’s coming??

Yesterday was Del’s (my brother-in-law) birthday. They were all over for a BBQ yesterday, but I missed it being away. No one told me we were celebrating on Sunday and I had already made plans to go away. But they were all over again today and since they didn’t work had come over in the afternoon to go swimming. When I got home from work I went swimming with Ty. He’s amazing, not even 3 yet and he can swim on his own (with his lifejacket though of course) and he even jumps off the diving board! We were playing in the pool and I guess Asili was a little too close to the edge as when she went to scratch herself she toppled over and fell into the water. Poor thing. We then BBQed and had some ice cream cake.

It was a fabulous Canada Day weekend!