Road Rage? No, Bike Sundays!

Oi! Guess what?

I did another "first" this past weekend? For the first time ever, I went for a bike ride down the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway for the NCC's Bike Sunday weekly event. Woohoo!

This was actually a pretty big deal for me because for all the 20 or so years I've lived in Ottawa, I've  been annoyed that on Sundays the city closes down key routes in the city so people can cycle around. If you don't own a bike it's really frustrating!

Well last year, as I blogged about, I bought a good bike. And this past weekend, I finally had a good window of opportunity to go exploring on my Trek FX 2. It was pretty sweet actually. Even though I was gone less than an hour I was easily able to bike down the parkway to the Champlain bridge and back (so maybe 8 km). And I must say - wow do these new hybrid bikes go fast, especially when there is no car traffic to share the road with! I'm hoping later this summer to get on the road with Margot so she can experience the fun.

So cross that one off my bucket list. 

I'm still not 100% sold on this closing down key routes idea but now that I can participate I think I can survive these Sunday shutdowns. As for the current pilot project of closing the main road up Gatineau Park to non-motorized vehicles most days during the week...that's another story.

A Park fit for Royalty

This past weekend, with my brother J and his family in tow, I enjoyed the first true in-person Ottawa Tulip Festival since 2019. COVID-19 meant it was cancelled in 2020 and it was a pretty quiet affair in 2021. 

Tiptoe through the tulips...

But this year...wow...! A lot of people got the memo that the festival was back on because it was jammed packed.

Taking a break from the crowds with J's baby K

Still, the crowds didn't prevent us from enjoying the 100,000 or so tulips that are sent annually to Ottawa from the Netherlands as a thank you for Canada’s hospitality towards the dutch royal family during World War 2. 

In fact, one member of the royal family, Princess Margriet, was actually born in Ottawa during the war at the Ottawa Civic Hospital, which is just a few blocks away from my house. Back in 2020 Princess Margriet was supposed to visit Ottawa to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands...but well...COVID.

Well, flash forward two years later and Princess Margriet and her family finally made it to Ottawa and the city honoured her visit by renaming my local Fairmont Park after her. I didn't realize ANY of this was going on by the way until I passed by the park a couple of days ago and noticed the sign had been changed.

Margot honoured the princess by playing really good tennis

While I will miss good ol' Fairmont Park, it's kindof cool that the new name certainty comes with a bit of history. 

Bird Border Wildnerness

Ottawa is a pretty big city (935,000 or so plus another 276,000 on the Quebec side). But it is surprisingly close to nature as I've blogged before. Just how close? Well its not unheard of for wild animals like elk, moose or even bear to occasionally wander in. I've never come across one of these animals in the city myself, but it happens frequently enough that it only makes page 10 of the news (or maybe page 2 on a slow day!).

But this past weekend I was lucky enough to have my own wild sighting. I was driving Margot across the Ottawa river when, just as we were crossing the Champlain Bridge, a few people with crazy sophisticated cameras looking at the trees. I didn't think too much about it but I made a mental note to check it out if they were still there when we returned. 

Sure enough, two hours later, an even bigger crowd was standing around pointing cameras at the trees next to the bridge. This time we were ready! We did a quick u-turn and found some parking and wandered over to check out what the fuss was about.

What you lookin' at?

It didn't take me long to realize that a Great Horned Owl was perched overhead.

Even better, a baby Great Horned Owl was looking down at us from a smaller tree.

I've actually been bird watching for close to 12-years now and I have never seen a Great Horned Owl before so I was super excited. Let me tell you, they are big! And the little guys are just cute angry-looking little bundles of feathers! 

Unfortunately I only had my cell-phone camera, but even from far away I could make out the distinctive tuffs of ears and knew that I had snagged bird number 169 on my life list.

I still find it hard to believe that I would see one of Canada's fiercest birds of prey only 3 km from my house and within the city boundaries!

A Day (Weekend) in the Life of a Daddy of a Horseback Rider

This is the first year that Margot is part of the competition team at her stables, Maplewood Equestrian, which means she commits to competing in a number of competitions with the same horse throughout 2022. 

Some of these shows are "in-house", meaning only girls and boys from her stables compete. They are less formal, meaning kids don''t have to dress up in her formal showing clothes, but they are still judged, so Margot still takes them seriously.

Other shows are part of the Challenge series against a rival school, Riverview Stables, which is a few minutes down the road. For the Challenge series, Margot has to dress up in all her regalia and points are kept to see how well you did throughout the year. Having a rival is also kindof fun as it gives Margot extra joy when she or another member of her team beats her "nemesis". 

In total, Margot will probably do about 7 shows this year, whether "in-house" or part of the Challenge series. It may not sound like much but here is a sample schedule from what we did this past weekend to allow Margot to compete.

Saturday:

• Drop off Margot at Maplewood at 5 pm so she can prep her horse for Sunday's show. Glosette Girl and I went for a pub dinner in the area and then a walk until we could pick her up at 8:30 pm (it's too far to drive home).

Sunday:

• Wake up at 5 am so we can get Margot to Maplewood for 6:30 am for more horse prep. Glosette Girl and I went for a run...

Stretch those calves!

• and then breakfast, until we could pick her up at 9:45 am.

I'm HUNGRY. Lil' Eggs Benni will quench that fire.

• 9:45 am - drive Margot over to Riverview Stables after her horse, Elliot, is loaded unto the Horse truck.
  
• Hang out Riverview until 11:30 am, and then watch Margot compete in several rounds of dressage and hunter, which wrapped up around 1:30 pm.

You can tell who is the parent of which competitor depending on when they whip out the cameras

• Chill out at the show as the rest of the competition wraps up. Read, grab a hotdog at the cheap on-site canteen, occasionally watch some horses do some awesome horse things, and give Margot an occasional high-five as she basks in having received another "Reserve champion" (2nd place) designation in dressage.

Horseback riding and sci-fi reading: such a civilized atmosphere!

• 3:00 pm - after Elliott loaded back onto the truck, drive Margot back to Maplewood.
• 3:30-4:00 pm - hang out in the parking lot while Margot helps bring in supplies, makes sure Elliott is back in his stables, safe, clean and sound.
• At 4:00 pm, drive Margot home while she chatterboxes away about the day. Home by 4:30 pm and time to start cooking a celebratory dinner!

I think we all passed out in exhaustion when we went to bed. But that's OK! Now that Margot is fully committed to one one activity, I feel like I'm entering a different phase of parenthood, one where my primary role is just help stoke that passion for as long as possible. So even though there are some long days, I feel really privileged to be a part of this.

And if you are curious about seeing how she did, check it out: