Canada 150

Glosette Girl and I aren't in Ottawa very often for Canada Day. Often we're visiting friends or family or camping or doing...well really anything, other than being here.

Hurumph. That makes me sound like a bit jaded and cynical doesn't it?! But, for a local, there's actually a lot of downside to being in our nation's capital at this time of year. The restaurants are packed and offer special "Canada Day menus" (translation: limited and more expensive selections), the roads are jam packed and the events are hard to get to.

Still, this year we decided to make an exception. Us Canadians don't get too many opportunities to be patriotic and 150 years seemed a nice round number to celebrate. In the age of Trump where much ink is being spilled on the end of the American century, a lot of people it seems are looking fondly at this quiet corner of the world and with the spotlight on Ottawa decided to throw a crazy party.

My sister, N, and her family visited us this weekend and so we tried to create a nice tourist agenda for them.

• Visit to Parliament Hill area. Check. 

We skipped the main events (5 hour wait to get on Parliament Hill. No toilet breaks. Pass!) and checked out the local acts

• Wolf down some liquid grub at a local pub. Check.

Happy Canada Day Eh!

• Walk back home because the buses were too full. Check.

Poor Margot! She was wearing rubber boots. Those boots aren't made for walking!

• Catch a nap before waking up in the evening to watch the Fireworks. Check. (You can't tell from this photo but it was pouring rain about 30 minutes before this shot was taken - we didn't know if there was going to be any fireworks at all!)

We watched the show from Lemieux Island near Hintonburg

Kudos to N, and her family for all the walking and for putting up with the crazy weather. Seriously, it's felt like the UK around here lately - 3 or 4 showers a day with sunshine and everything else you can imagine in between. And also kudos to them for putting up with the crazy commute from Toronto: 7.5 hours instead of the regular 5.

Anyways, it was a great weekend and I'm glad we were able to catch a glimpse of the festivities. Guess I'm not a cynical ol' urbanite after all!