A Trip to Ottawa

Earlier this week I had to travel to Ottawa (our nation's capital) for work, and despite the -24°C weather I knew that I had to walk around and enjoy some of the beautiful architecture.

Its been years since I've been here, but I can still picture how gorgeous it is in the summer with all the luscious gardens and parks. The bonus in the winter is that you can skate down the Rideau Canal, but unfortunately I forgot skates and it was a wee bit too cold to venture too far out on the ice.

One of my favorite parts of Ottawa are these great maps that are located around the downtown.

All of the key buildings are shown in a much smaller scale and it gives you a great impression of the city's layout.

Its fun to look down at the small scale....

...and then look up to see the real thing.

I was only in town for less than 24 hours, but I took full advantage of the time that I was there. I finished my meetings in the early afternoon and used the rest of it to explore around downtown, popping into shops here and there. In the evening I had the pleasure of meeting up with two of my roommates from university and having a wonderful dinner together in the fun Byward Market area. Now that we live 5 hours apart, we don't get to see each other as often, so getting to catch up was a real treat. I'm thinking I'll have to make a trip back in the summer when there is nicer weather!

Niagara-on-the-Lake

Last weekend I took a trip to Niagara-on-the-Lake to catch a play as part of the Shaw Festival. Its arguably one of the most beautiful towns in Ontario and its only short drive South from Toronto.

One of the best parts of the trip is that I got to spend the day with three of the most important ladies in my life: my sister, my mother and my dear great aunt.

We walked along the main street visiting some of the quaint stores and glancing at the menus of all the little bistros.

The Shaw Festival is one of the largest theatre festivals in Canada and the second largest repetory theatre company in North America. We had the pleasure of going to go see George Bernard Shaw's "The Doctor's Dilemma". The performance was fantastic and we had a great time. I've never seen a play there that hasn't been extremely well done.

The grounds of the theatre are simple and modern in contrast to the rest of the historic town.

The gardens were beautiful, lush and green.

The rest of the town seems to have maintained everything to keep within the historical name they've made for themselves.

Every light post has enormous hanging baskets, overflowing with colourful flowers, and even the street medians are immaculately groomed flower beds.

My sister and I posed for this picture, and then two seconds later I walked into that flower basket. They were that big that they hung low enough to walk into them.

Greaves is a great little shop full of jams, jellies and fun kitchen gadgets. The kinds of things that you don't really need but are adorable none the less (think strawberry shaped bowls and polka dotted tea cozies).

These old painted signs on brick walls are so rare to see in such great condition, but they really add to the charm of a small town like this.

This cafe had to chop down these branches of the tree, but they found a great way to keep it as an interesting pieces - wrapping lights around the branches and hanging lanterns from the ends. I can imagine it looks pretty interesting at night.

The famous Prince of Wales Hotel is absolutely gorgeous on the outside.

Their patio wraps around the side of the building and has some of the most beautiful flower beds on the main street.

Enjoying the sunshine :)

I wish I could get my garden to look like this!

Cute little horse drawn carriage.

After our adventures downtown, we drove through some of the neighbourhoods admiring the cute fenced in yards, beautiful gardens and tree-lined sidewalks.

We even took a drive along the water to catch a glimpse of our American neighbours on the other side. Hard to believe that we were just a stones throw away from them.


If you get the chance to go to Niagara-on-the-Lake, I highly recommend coming for a visit. Come and catch a show, visit some vineyards and enjoy some of the best produce that Ontario has to offer.

Jump!

While I was up at Six Mile Lake last weekend, some of the gang headed to a big rock ledge to go cliff jumping. I decided to stay behind and read on the dock, but Shauna grabbed the camera and headed out with them. She got some pretty great photos of everyone jumping in, that I photoshopped together real quickly, and I just thought I'd share them :)

Here we go!

(Doesn't he kind of look like he is standing on water in the middle shot?)

Just looking at these photos makes my stomach queezy thinking about that free-falling feeling. But the shots turned out great. Thanks Shauna!

The Extra Long Weekend

With Canada Day falling on a Thursday this year, I was able to take a 4 day extra long weekend and head up to my friend's cottage on Six Mile Lake.

Its a cute little cottage that my friend's family built years ago. Generations of his family have beeing coming up here to have fun in the sun on this gorgeous lake and it was nice of him to share it with the rest of us.

It was a great chance to catch up with friends and make some new ones too.

Keela was happy to sit out on the dock and enjoy the sun. That look on her face...I had the same one. Just pure bliss to be soaking up some Vitamin D, outside of the heat of the city.

Most of the weekend was spent either in the water, on the dock or on the back deck overlooking the lake. Something about being that close to water at all times can be so soothing. I could feel all my stress melt away (that is, until we played flip cup...then my competitive streak brought all that tension back. "Must. Win.")

When we weren't relaxing by the cottage, we were out enjoying zipping around the lake in the boat.

I wish I had the skills and coordination to pull off wakeboarding, but for now I'm happy to watch from the back of the boat or the dock. Less dangerous from there.

Keela was happy to go along for the boat ride, but she had the right idea and hid from the sun. Got room in there for me? ;)

However, I did partake in some good old fashioned tubing. Although thankfully I wasn't paired up with the guys...they will do anything to flip you off your tube.

The guys in this pic got beat up even worse than I did, but looking at these photos reminds me why my legs, arms and back hurt so much the next day. I was holding on for dear life (and loving every minute of it)

Shauna was happy to stay back with the pups and try to convince them to go in the water. Chewy toys weren't enticing them enough to jump.

But eventually Shelby (the German Shepherd/Lab mix) couldn't resist a swim with her owner and had to jump in to cool off.

Before we knew it the light was fading and there was just enough time to hit some golf balls before dinner time.

The lake was so calm and quiet at night (that is until someone started cranking some Lady Gaga)

And of course no cottage weekend would be complete without some bonfires. Every night we had a big one, with plenty of marshmallow roasting. I think I ate my weight in smores...soooo good.

I'm back at work this week, but this nice little mini vacation really helped me take a break and just relax. Its so rare that I wake up and have nothing to do. Getting "away from it all" really seemed to be just what I needed.

Did you have any big plans last weekend? Or something coming up this Summer that you're looking forward to?