2 posts tagged “ottawa”
We finally got back up to Ottawa this past weekend, for a quick visit and tour around the old neighbourhood. For me, it felt like I'd never left, even though it has been over 2 years since we moved. I think it may have been that I was there for eight years, and that it was the time when I transitioned out of being a student and into the grown up world. It was also where I had built my career and had a tight professional community, had my sports teams, and lived very easily within the downtown core without a car, so I knew the streets, shops and even the other locals rather well. Once we moved to downtown Toronto, and I became pregnant, most of these things came to an abrupt end, and I'm only now starting to rebuild them again here in Mississauga. So it was both with happiness, and a little melancholy, that we returned for the weekend. It also wasn't enough time to see everyone, or even give everyone a call, which I felt bad about. But anyway, here are a few of the highlights:
Eating wild blueberries from the Byward Market in our room at the Chateau Laurier. ReRe won't touch the big, fat, farmed berries, but can't get enough of the tiny wild ones, which we can't find any longer in Southern Ontario, but up in Ottawa, they were still available from Quebec in the Market. We only stayed at the Chateau one night, but it was fabulous. I'd love to go back and stay longer, the room was big enough that ReRe could have brought his toys and had space to play with them, unlike our room at the Lord Elgin, which was ok, much more affordable, but no where near as lovely. The Lord Elgin may look posh from the outside, but they have modernized their guest rooms in a way that just makes them look like every other hotel you could stay in, so the price is really only worth the central location.
One of the first things we did, now that we are Traveling With Child, is hit the parks. We joined our friends, Beth'n'Jess, and their daughter Annie for some strolling and playtime in Strathcona Park. We played in Strathcona's Folly, an art installation made from stones and castings from famous buildings around Ottawa. 
It is really cool, because there are all these little niches, at a child's eye level, with bronze casts of farm animals in
them. Here is a sideways video of ReRe finding a cow:
On Saturday, we had brunch with a couple friends from my former soccer team, Christie and Christine, and Christine's little girl, Gabrielle:
We also got to hang out with my friend Marie, who lived in Malawi at the same time I was there. Unfortunately, we didn't get any pics with Marie, but we did get a few of ReRe and myself while playing in the park:
Sunday night we went to The Works for dinner, the very very best burger joint in the whole entire world. I mean, who else has the guts to put pears and carmelized onions on a burger? Or Danish blue cheese and walnuts? Or Kraft Dinner? Nobody!! I had the Guardian Angel with carmelized onions, avocado and havarti. We were joined again by Jess'n'Beth'n'Annie (who seem to evade pics) and friends. ReRe discussed in-depth whether to go classic, or try one of The Works' daring condiment combinations:
And we capped off the trip with a dinner at the Elgin Street Café with Junkii:
It was an awesome weekend with fantastic friends, and I'm not going to let it take so long before going back again. But next time, we'll spend the whole weekend at the Chateau, and party like rock stars.
Have you noticed a climate change in the area where you live over the past few years?
What I've noticed in Toronto and Ottawa is not so much warm temperatures, as greatly deteriorating air quality, which is always worst on the hottest days. In Ottawa, our recreational soccer league would have 1-2 games a season cancelled because the smog was considered to be too unhealthy to play. If it was just hot, we just got extra water breaks. Last summer, I was stuck in the apartment far too many days (sometimes it felt like whole weeks) because the air quality was too poor to take infants outside. I'm hoping that the air quality is better in Mississauga, especially since we'll be near the lake, and there are many more trees out there, but we'll still be in the Windsor-Toronto corridor, so I expect we will still suffer the bad air effects caused by the hundreds of thousands of cars and trucks that travel through our area every day. I have a real fear that lil'ReRe will develop asthma or a related respiratory condition from growing up in the GTA.
