With my love fully immersed in her conference, I decided to rent a bike and take advantage of Ottawa’s wonderful bike paths. I got an early start to get some riding in before the heat would become oppressive later in the day. After picking up my bike and helmet from a local shop downtown, I’m off along the Ottawa River trail heading west away from downtown.
The bike trails around Ottawa are beautiful, and a great feature of the city helping to promote a healthy lifestyle:
After a morning city tour of Ottawa on our first day in the city, we’re excited to tour the Centre Block of Parliament in the afternoon for a couple of reasons. First, the obvious thrill of standing in the place of so much of our country’s political history; Secondly, to escape the heat for about an hour. We end up with a lovely tour guide who initially says she’s from Halifax. After asking where everyone is from, she admits after our reply that she’s really from Dartmouth, but I think we’re the only ones who get her “City of Lakes” reference.
After the requisite security check, we’re off upstairs to just outside the House of Commons. As the House isn’t sitting on this holiday Monday, we get a great view of the House from inside its doors:
One of the joys of an early morning flight is arriving at your destination with a full day ahead of you. We’re checked into our hotel and off on our first day in Ottawa by 9:30am. After a stop at Bridgehead Cafe for a much needed coffee jolt and at Parliament to pick up tickets for an afternoon tour, we decide on a city tour to kick off our trip. It’s a common travel pattern for us – use the first morning to quickly get an overview of a city before exploring it in more depth during the rest of the trip.
It’s a sweltering day with the temperatures already pushing 30C when we hop aboard the bus. Taking a seat on the top level, I’m glad I liberally applied sunscreen before leaving the hotel. Here we are just as the tour is about to get started:
I spent about a year living in Ottawa in the mid 1990s while working for Nortel during my undergraduate degree program. Back then, Ottawa and I didn’t get along well. It was cold, I didn’t have quite the sense of adventure I do now, and it was the first time I lived away from Halifax.
Today I’m sorting through pictures from a four day mixed work/vacation trip to our nation’s capital where I had the chance to explore the city with a fresh set of eyes after all these years. I’ve worked in the city since then, but really only had the chance to see the inside of the airport, cabs, hotels and offices. I’ll be posting more over the next week on the trip. Safe to say… Ottawa and me… we are now back on speaking terms.
I feel pretty fortunate to live in Halifax. For a town of about 400,000 people, it punches well above its weight for food, drink, art and music. When I travel, I’m always looking for things that let me get a taste of the culture; a brief feel for what it would be like to live in a place. With that in mind, here are 7 ideas for the visitor looking to get a feel for my hometown. Whether you’re in town for a day or a week, check out a couple of these aimed at the food/drink/music loving 30-something.
1. A show at The Company House (@thecompanyhouse) – I think this is Halifax’s friendliest bar. If it was in my immediate neighbourhood, I might never leave. The music here tends toward the singer-songwriter, folksy/acoustic in style, and frequently local. The sound is first rate. There’s a great selection of drinks and a limited menu of bar snacks that enhances the feeling that you’re watching a show in a good friend’s living room.
2. Eating a Banh Mi in the Public Gardens – Stop at Indochine Banh Mi (@IndochineHfx) on South Park St. across the street from our fabled Victorian gardens to pick up one of the best sandwiches in town. Then find a bench in the park overlooking the pond from which to enjoy lunch. You are guaranteed to leave here more refreshed than when you entered.
The trip to Toronto with my Dad was a blast. Reconnecting over baseball, beer and a selection of artery clogging foods is a pretty great way to spend a few days. Before going on an afternoon brewery tour, we walked through the locomotives and rail cars in the Roundhouse Park in downtown Toronto. My Dad is a walking encyclopedia of North American rail history. Looking back over the pictures from the trip, this one below is one of my favourites – I got an action shot of Dad sharing some of his knowledge with me on one of the locomotives in the park:
Through a combination of my sister living there for close to 15 years, an extended work stint in 2007 and numerous business related travels to the city, Toronto doesn’t feel like a vacation destination – and that’s not a bad thing. With Dad and I both having some favourite haunts in the city, we hit a couple of them over our three day vacation.
Steam Whistle is probably my favourite Ontario beer. My typical arrival pattern to Toronto involves having one (or two) of these on the Porter flight into Toronto Island, dropping my bags at my sister’s place, then picking up a case of the green cans/bottles at the Summerhill LCBO.
A confluence of events brought my Dad and I to Toronto. I had a few vacation days to burn, my sister was traveling which left her condo available for us, Dad had the points for a free flight, and the Blue Jays were wrapping up a home stand against Seattle and Texas. That made plans for a three day trip come together very quickly.
Saturday: Three days, three baseball games, and a steady diet of cardiac arrest inducing food and drink kicked off shortly after arrival at mid day. After touching down on separate flights, we met up at the condo, quickly unpacked and made our way down to the stadium. Before entering, we pass underneath this sculpture outside Rogers Centre (“The Audience” by Michael Snow) which always makes me smile:
Not knowing much about the Seattle Mariners, we take in batting practice to try and learn about some of their hitters:
We make our way up to our seats for the Saturday afternoon game. Not too shabby for $14. I have to pinch myself that I can see professional sport for less than the cost of a junior hockey game in Halifax. Jays win 7-0 in a very entertaining game:
Banff is a picturesque town, full of charms to the wanderer. As my last post on our trip, here are some pictures taken of the town on a number of walks over a few days.
Banff Avenue:
