Ottawa

At the end of the summer, at the Fringe Fest, I won a free flight with Westjet. Due to restrictions and fine print and my tight schedule, the only time I could really take advantage was over the short November Reading break. And so, I went to Ottawa to visit Rutha and some relatives.


After a very early flight, I arrived in our fair capital hungry and tired. After a nap, tea and a snack, Rutha and I went to a lovely and very decadent Sicilian-themed dinner.

If I look a little flushed in the photo, well, that glass of wine I'm holding didn't drink itself. Oh, and this was dessert:


A little cannoli on the left and a cassata (almond pastry filled with riccota and chocolate) on the right. Soooo much sugar.... Until dessert, everyone had been getting full and mellow. But afterwards there was silliness and Sicilians spontaneously singing.

On a more somber note, the next day (Nov. 11) we went to the Remembrance Day ceremonies at the National War Memorial. The weather was beautiful and as a result the crowd was huge. If you look closely at this photo you can kind of see what's going on at the memorial. Kind of.

It was a little odd to finally "see" an event in person that I had watched many times on television, most notably because I couldn't see anything except a giant TV screen that had been set up. So despite the fact that I was "there", I still watched most of it on TV (at an angle) without clearly hearing the sounds of the ceremony. As a result, the effect of the somber occasion was bit muted.

Most of the time in Ottawa was spent just hanging out (shopping, lots of coffee) rather than seeing things, since I've been to Ottawa several times before. So we walked around the Glebe area, went shopping in the market, and I walked along the canal:


I then spent a couple of days with family, whose lovely company was enhanced with what seemed to be an endless supply of chocolate and a seriously cute three-and-a-half-year-old who never stops talking. Oh, to be young and verbal.