Ottawa - Apr 27 - May 3, 2005

The Story

I could write a long summary of this trip but I won't. If I did it would take me 5 months to put online which was the case for the China trip. Instead I'll give you a short rundown. I'm in the habit of taking time off every 4-5 months off now - work is sufficiently high pressure that I need a break to regroup. Originally I was planning on a road trip which was what I did last year and it was something I loved doing however my mom offered up her Aeroplan points and with a couple hundreds bucks out of my own wallet I got myself a trip to Ottawa and Toronto to visit some friends.

My first stop was Ottawa where I got to see my oldest friend, oldest meaning the one I've known the longest. I've been friends with Ian since I was 14 when he first moved to Vancouver and 11 years ago he moved out to Ottawa to get a Journalism degree. In the process he met and married a great gal, got a job in sports journalism and is now the proud father of a 11 month old girl. Friends like Ian are hard to come by, they are the type you hang on to. I hadn't been to Ottawa since their wedding 5 years ago and hadn't seen him since he last dropped into Vancouver a couple years ago so I was very excited to get to hang out with him again.

This was my fifth trip to Ottawa and were it not for Ian and Sonia (that would be his wife) I probably wouldn't put it among my top 10 destinations in Canada. Not that it sucks but a single stop for a week would easily cover all you would want to see there. The national art gallery can be very interesting as it does get big names in town but unless you have a fetish for British style government buildings the city doesn't hold that much appeal to it. That said, Ian did introduce me to some parts of Ottawa that I wasn't acquainted with which I enjoyed.

Oh yeah, those baby pictures? That's his daughter, Elissa. She's a cute little bundle who was very trouble free - I have no experience with babies but she wasn't as difficult as I had assumed babies were. Like her dad, she was easy to entertain which suited me well. That woman? That would be Elissa's mother, Sonia. Sonia was the one who "seduced" Ian and got him to marry her. Reminder, I'm not sorting these pictures out because it'll be 5 months before you'd hear anything about the trip. The white dude? That's Matt. He went to school with Ian and Sonia. Great guy.

Things I did : Crushed Ian in outdoor mini-golf (he repaid the favour the next day). Played glow in the dark mini golf (I won). Ate this huge poutine with an Italian sausage on top of it. It was delish. Ate at "The Works", an Ottawa only burger joint with 3 pages of burgers to choose from including a burger you could pay for with Canadian Tire money. Went to the Museum of Technology and Civilization (I'm into museums and art galleries except in my hometown). Went bowling with Ian and Matt and then had wings and ribs at Local Heroes where Matt asked Donna about her "cockblock" ring. Went to the Hershey Chocolate Factory.

All in all a very nice trip. I got to relax, I got to catch up with an old friend, I got to play with a baby and I got to eat my face out. Off to Toronto to see Alicia and Mike.