Trip to Ottawa - Some more firsts

The family finally got away from hockey, school, work, life by taking a quickie vacation to Ottawa, our nation's capital. I'd been there before and so had the hubby but hadn't done too much touristy stuff. We'd been there for work mostly. The kids had never been there and since my oldest had received an early acceptance to the U of Ottawa plus a scholarship we thought we'd combine a college scouting trip with some family fun.

We survived the almost five hour drive there (yes, Ontario's a big place and Ottawa is about 4 1/2 hours away from Toronto). There were a few close calls as to whether we'd survive the drive or not - with 3 kids each wanting either quiet, or a movie - not that movie! - or music - not that radio station! and me, the supposed driver, that almost got us killed once when I forgot that we weren't on HWY 401 with it's one way two-lane 100 KM speed limit. Rather we'd taken the old HWY 17 route that was a normal two lane road and as I zoned out into the last hour of driving forgot I couldn't just pass the car in front of me by pulling to the left. Luckily my husband saw the oncoming motorcyclist just in time and yelled "What the **** are you doing?!" which immediately snapped me out of my stupor and I pulled back into the proper lane. Yikes. That woke me up for sure.

The hotel was super nice with two big bedrooms and two baths and a kitchen and an amazing pool. Unfortunately I'm not a swimmer so I didn't bring my bathing suit which my family grumbled about but honestly, it's been a long winter and my body is just not ready to see the light of day yet.

We toured the Byward Market, the Canadian Mint, and the Parliament buildings. We weren't planning on taking that tour but a nice lady gave us the tickets she'd gotten for her nephews who turned out didn't want to do the tour. And it was the highlight of the trip. If you ever get a chance to go into the Parliament buildings please do so - the gem? The Parliamentary Library. It honestly took my breath away when I walked in.

But the coolest thing? I walked into Chapters and got to see my book on the shelf! Granted I had to ask them to go get it since they hadn't unpacked it from their recent new shipments but, hey, they had 3 copies of it and there were 12 more copies in Chapters in the Ottawa area!

I love my nation's capital!