Ottawa Visit (two weeks ago)

     We have been away for the past two weekends, so I haven't had a chance to update my blog.  Two weeks and a bit ago, we left G-town on a Thursday to have a mini-vacation in Ottawa.  We had planned to visit my dad and step-mother, who live just outside of O-town, and spend the rest of the time exploring the city and enjoying some good food.

Fall colours en route

     We made good time getting there and stayed in the centrally-located Lord Elgin Hotel, across the street from Confederation Park, and just down the street from the houses of Parliament, the Chateau Laurier and the Rideau Canal.

Confederation Park Statue

Houses of Parliament in the distance

Rideau Canal with Chateau Laurier in the background

Looking down the Rideau Canal towards the Ottawa River

Looking up the Rideau Canal towards the Chateau Laurier

Houses of Parliament across from the Rideau Canal

     After having a bit of a walkabout and a rest, we walked over to the Byward Market to get some dinner. It started to rain and we couldn't decide what we wanted to eat, so were walking around, crankily, desperately trying to figure out what to eat.  We ended up at a place called Luxe Bistro, and had a very tasty, cosy meal, the first of many!

First meal - Fish Tacos appetizer

     The next day, after a filling breakfast at a diner further down Elgin Street, CC went back to the hotel for a lie-down and I did a quick investigation of the neighbourhood and took some touristy photos.

Houses of Parliament Eternal Flame

Peace Tower through the wrought-iron fence

Post Office lion

Fun botanical sculptures (with legs!)

     We then drove out to Carleton Place to visit my dad and stepmother.  They moved earlier this year and my dad turned 88 in August, so we wanted to see how they were getting on.  They have three dogs and just got a kitten, so there were plenty of welcomes when we arrived.  We went out for lunch to a converted farmhouse that is on the local lake.  After some good grub and conversation, we went back to their place in town and chatted a while longer. Although my dad's getting on in years and his body is not what it once was (he used to be taller than me), his mind is as razor-sharp as ever. That's promising! 

Myself and my future self - eek!

Step-mummy, daddy and I

     We headed back to Ottawa and went for a walk along the river to stretch our legs, as we had been sitting most of the afternoon.  It was cloudy and grey, but there were some lovely views.

River walk

Tunnel under Wellington Street

     The next day, Saturday, was our final full day and we wanted to make the best of it.  We had an overpriced breakfast in the hotel, then headed over to the pedestrian path by the Ottawa River to go to the War Museum.  It was a bit of a hike and the Museum resembles a bunker or trench from the first world war, not the prettiest of sights on a grey day.  We didn't find the layout all that wonderful or engaging, and we both felt there could have been more artifacts and less text.  The different wars also flowed into one another, and I thought it would have been better to have separate areas for the different wars.  Regardless, it was quite overwhelming, and we hurried through the WWII part as we had had enough.  Strangely, there was no special exhibit commemorating the 100th anniversary of the start of WWI, which I thought was a huge oversight.

The bridge to (from?) Hull

Sumacs in foreground, Hull in background

Fall colours

War Museum exterior

War Museum interior

Creepy WWI exhibit

We then took a different, seemingly longer walk back to the hotel, had some lunch at a pub, then split up to do our own things.  CC wanted to go to the Market and I wanted to go to the Natural History Museum, which is in a gorgeous, old Victorian building.  It was a very interactive experience and had very well prepared exhibits that were very kid-friendly.  It was quite fun to watch all the kids getting excited about birds, geology, and, of course, dinosaurs!

Museum of Natural History

Giant Jellyfish for bioluminescence exhibit

That night we went to a restaurant called Signatures, which is in the building that houses Canada's only Cordon Bleu School.  The setting, service and food were memorable and the meal was one of the best I ever had.  Octopus and duck sausage on a bed of kimchi for starters, rabbit with Swiss chard gnocchi for the main and a wild strawberry-themed dessert.  Each dish was a paragraph on the menu and combined flavours and textures that I will long remember.

Stuffed rabbit with dried fruit and pumpkin seeds, swiss chard gnocchi, wild mushroom mix and rabbit juice with apple verjus

Strawberry licorice custard, dehydrated strawberry milk, coconut semifreddo, vanilla pebbles, pop rocks, vanilla bean ice cream, Swedish berry drops, meringue chips

It was a great finish to a much-needed break, and we can't wait to return.

     On the Sunday, we tried the breakfast buffet at the hotel, also disappointing and not inexpensive, packed up and headed home.

Back to G-town

N.B.  A few days after we left Ottawa, all hell broke loose as Nathan Cirillo was gunned down in front of the National War Memorial, where we had been just a few days earlier.  Such a tragedy.

Lest we forget