bonjour ottawa!

On Thursday afternoon Joel and I spontaneously decided to go to Our Nation's lovely capital, Ottawa, overnight. We both had Friday off, and we were both itching to get out of town for a day or so and do something different. So we did.

We stayed right downtown. We were across the street from the original Giant Tiger store. Or, in other words, the first location that China-made discount crap entered the country under the premise that it was "All Canadian." Yay.

During my one-year stint in high school, I went on a class trip to Ottawa to visit the Museum of Civilization. After the tour was over, the bus let us off downtown and we were given two hours to eat dinner and get back to the bus. My friends and I decided to find a "trendy city restaurant." I can't recall what our criteria was for determining which restaurants were "trendy" and "city," but we ended up at this place called the Blue Cactus. We were thrilled with it.

On Thursday, Joel and I were looking for a place to eat (it was late) and, once again, The Blue Cactus appeared. It still seemed trendy and city, plus this time I discovered they have a surprising array of vegetarian meals, and impressive martinis.

On Friday morning we hit up some of the shops in the market area. I tell you, any of you, it is SO worth going to the Ottawa Byward Market. We went to The Sassy Bead Co.

Then we discovered a couple very sweet vintage clothing shops, including Adorit, where I found these 70's crocheted flats which I LOVE, and even more so because they actually fit me (I have really small feet):

After the market, we went and warmed our hands by the eternal flame,

and then shook our fists at Stephen Harper.

And then we went to the Rideau Canal to go skating, which is actually the whole reason we went to Ottawa, and not, say, Toronto. Ottawa has the canal, which claims to be the world's largest skating rink (the cleared skateway is 7.8 kilometres long). There is just something SO Canadian about winter, outdoor skating, and being in Ottawa...combine the three and it really is a quintessential Canadian experience. It is actually an experience that I've only had once before, when I was a kid. And Joel couldn't remember if he'd ever been skating on the canal. So it seemed like a good time to give a nod to our culture. Or, at least, our country's perception of its culture.


I haven't been skating in three years, but I had a lot of fun. We skated about five kilometres in total (2.5 one way and then we turned around). There was something genuinely cool and romantic about skating hand-in-hand down the canal...I would love to do it again sometime.

After we were finished skating we indulged with another Canadian tradition: The BeaverTail pastry, which is apparently a creation of the early Canadian explorers, but the modern version of this delicious treat originated in Ottawa, at the canal. A BeaverTail is basically dough that is deep fried and then smothered in the topping of your choice (I chose cinnamon and sugar, mmmmm!) I also discovered that they are now made with whole wheat flour, and are fried in veggie oil, so they're practically a health food (haha, I wish).

From the BeaverTail hut we headed home. It snowed the whole way. Since we have now gone skating on the Rideau canal (which was on this year's winter to-do list) I feel like it can officially warm up now and become spring...after all, in another strong Canadian tradition, we have some maple syrup to make!