Things I Love About Ottawa

So one of Glosette Girl's friends, S, is moving to Ottawa. Yay! More adult company!

To give S some comfort that she's made a good call, I've decided to write a blog post about some things I love about the burg I call home. It's not too hard - Ottawa has lots of great thing going for it. However, it's not perfect and I can be a bit opinionated about the not so-perfect parts. Hopefully, that gives this post a bit more authenticity than some of those recent articles about Ottawa that list things like going to a liquor store as one of Ottawa "trendy" spots.

In any case, here's my Ottawa love list!

• It is ridiculously close to nature. In about an hour you can be in some serious wilderness - especially on the Quebec side. I saw a bald eagle in the Market the other day. I can't say that's a regular occurrence (I've never seen one in this area before) but a bald eagle?!
• You can choose what culture you want to live in: French or English. OK OK, for sticklers, the area that is in Quebec is in a different city (Gatineau) but that's a technicality in my books. What really matters is that here are few places in the world that I can think of (maybe Strasbourg?) where crossing a river results in a different dominant language, different school system, different cost of living, different tax system, different everything! It's fascinating and you have real options when deciding what system best suits your lifestyle.
• The "good" part of Ottawa is walkable, and is full of shops, restaurants and green spaces. What's the "good" part you ask? That's for another blog post!
• It feels like it's improving. Some towns and cities feel like they've stalled or are slowly dying. It can be quite sad. Ottawa, though, is finally getting a real mass transit system and urban renewal is evident everywhere. 

Jen walking past a future station of Ottawa's underground light rail system

• It feels safe. Indicators: walking at night is normal in most places. People leave stuff outside without fearing it will be immediately stolen. The problems of the world are very far from Ottawa.

Marching in the Woman's March on Jan 21st was classic Ottawa-safe

• It has four seasons. Long time residents might laugh when they read this one as they wait for the next snow storm to hit but I love how we have summer, spring, fall and winter. Being in Costa Rica for Christmas felt...off! 
• Its big enough to have interesting cultural events but small enough to avoid big city problems like traffic congestion and pollution.
• Ottawa (and the people who live in it) are genuinely nice and modest. That could just be a Canadian thing though.
• This one is personal: it may be the only place in Canada where Jen and I can both have successful careers as I am only licensed to work in Ontario and her dream job pretty much requires her to work in Quebec.

So all-in-all lots of good stuff! S, if you're reading this, you made a good choice!

p.s I think this be the first blog in a new category of posts on "Tough Cookies" relating to lists.
p.p.s if you're counting bullets you'll notice I listed 9 things and not the usual 5 or 10. That's just how we roll in Ottawa.