Our Nation's Capital

I attended the North American Council on Adoptable Children conference in Ottawa this summer, and spent just under a week in our nation's capital. I had a blast, met up with some friends, had some GREAT meals, and enjoyed the conference. Funnily enough, the gal in the office next to mine attended the same conference, but we didn't manage to cross paths at all!

The weather was hot and sticky, and I sweat buckets, so was thankful for A/C at the hostel where I stayed. It was located at the old Ottawa City Jail. Most of the hostel rooms were old cells, while I lucked out and stayed in one of the former guard's rooms/offices. It had lots of character and was reportedly haunted...though I saw nothing...I had the room to myself the first two nights, then a couple of Japanese gals joined me, and then for the last two nights, we were a full room (of 8). My friend S. joined me from Waterloo for those last two nights and we explored the city a bit. My feet were swollen and sore by that point, so we didn't go far. I also stumbled, (big surprise) and fell face first in front of the Parliament buildings...skinned my knee and rolled my ankle (quite a twist).

I also made the leap and got a new tattoo, this one on the back of my right hand, the Celtic trinity knot. It hurt some, but overall wasn't too bad. I had it done at Universal Tattoo, one of the best tattoo parlours in town (reportedly). I had been pondering another tattoo for some time, and was glad to finally take the plunge! I also went downtown with the daughter of an old friend (the daughter is now 20yrs old) and she was inspired by me to have her nose pierced. We captured it on video...

We took in a light show on Parliament Hill, which was awesome. They played a film commemorating 400 years since Quebec was born (Quebec City that is). The purple floodlights were my favorite though.

The Byward Market was okay, but lots of imported crap, sold by Canadian and immigrant vendors. I prefer to purchase locally made products, so the only thing I bought was a leather bracelet (import crap) and a necklace containing a grain of rice that had my neice's name written on it - he did it right there for me).

We managed to find a great little restaurant called Chez Lucien, just off the market which was terriffic - great value for wonderful food, and cozy atmosphere. I can't say as much about the rest of the meals in Ottawa, save for the luncheon at the conference. S. and I also managed to discover some awesome homemade ice cream and treated ourselves to a banana split. The dog bucket was at the ice cream stand.