FRIDAY:
For once in my life, I didn't feel like I was dreading the drive. It really is a beautiful route, and, for the most part, sparse in traffic. I would love to take Brendan on a road trip to the states sometime.
I had intended to go to Target that morning, pick up a backpack, and then get on the road, but as I was leaving the store Brendan texted me saying I might want to bring a bathing suit in case we go to the lake. I had to drive back to my apartment to get a suit, so I didn't get on the highway until about half an hour later than planned. No big deal, I thought, I had planned an extra hour of time for breaks and stuff, so as long as I kept it short, I should still be able to make it there by 4:30.
Unfortunately, I arrived at his workplace about a half hour late due to some traffic merging between highways, as well as an unusually large amount of traffic in town due to the holiday and everyone heading off to their cottages for the weekend. I had told him to send everyone else to the restaurant so they didn't have to wait, but asked him to wait for me at his workplace. The restaurant was barely a mile down the road, but it took us 10 minutes to get there because of all the traffic. When we finally arrived, though, I got to meet a bunch of his coworkers and chatted with them through dinner. My SO and I were the only ones who really ordered food-- everyone else just had a beer. I listened to them talk about work things for a while (all environmental stuff) and they asked me some questions about what I do and our plans for the week.
After dinner we dropped our stuff off at the house and then drove to Ottawa to pick up his SUIT! He tried it on for me in the store and I was totally in love.
We're gonna look SO GOOD at the wedding!Afterwards we came home and spent the evening cuddling, talking about how we wanted to arrange the weekend and watching tv until I fell asleep after a long day of traveling and socializing. I was sooo tired.
SATURDAY:
Since we couldn't check into the hotel until after 3 but we didn't want to sit around all day, we made plans to go to the IKEA (my first IKEA) on the way to Ottawa. IKEAs are usually pretty big, but this particular one used to be the largest IKEA in North America until they renovated their Montreal store in 2013.
We made it through two of the floors and only got into one argument. The rest of the time it was kind of fun because we talked about what things we liked and didn't like, but we were also receptive to the wants of the other, and through it we were able to agree on a lot of things we'd like to have in our eventual living space. At the end of our tour, we (of course) had to hit up the cafeteria, where they were having a Canada Day special of Swedish meatballs, veggies, mashed potatoes, and lingonberry sauce. It was really good and I got extra meatballs so Brendan could have some, too. He had a salmon sandwich that he said was pretty good. I thought it was interesting that they did their own sodas instead of chain sodas.
We still had some time to kill after lunch, so we went to MEC (camping and outdoor store) to pick up a small backpack for Bden. We accidentally paid for 2 hours of parking instead of 1, so to make the most of it, we toured the whole store. We spent most of the time looking at stuff for him and then he wanted to go, but I protested because we didn't get to look at things for me! In the end I just picked up some SPF 15 chapstick because I knew I'd need it for the weekend. He asked me why I was getting it, but at the end of our trip he said he wished he'd gotten some, too. :P
We checked into the hotel around 4 and immediately turned the AC on. It was disgustingly hot and humid out and we felt so gross. We went to a Korean BBQ place directly across the street that had an "all-you-can-eat" style dinner where you just ordered what you wanted and paid one flat fee. It was a little expensive, and that made me a bit worried since Brendan has been trying to save money, but he insisted we stay. It was gooooooooood. I'd definitely go back there.
After dinner we decided to go to the grocery store to grab some snacks and things for the next 2 days. We picked up some granola bars and stuff, then went to the LCBO (liquor store) and each got a drink for the evening. By the time we got back, though, we were so tired, so we got into our PJs and cracked open our drinks. And then, just as we were getting settled in for the evening...
The power went out.
???!??
I had no idea whether I could call the front desk from the room phone (because the instructions for the phone were in an entirely different desk, as I later found out), so we got dressed again and went down to the front. We politely informed them that the power had gone out and they said they'd look into it. Turns out one of the circuits on the circuit breaker had flipped, so they just flipped it back on. Really??
SUNDAY:
It's Canada Day!!!! We got up early and got dressed in all red-and-white. We went down to the breakfast nook at the hotel, but it was absolutely packed with people and not well air-conditioned. We just grabbed some water and got out of there. We didn't realize it before, but the buses were free for the day, so we got to take one from a stop nearby the hotel all the way into town, which saved us lots of walking in the hot sun.
We started off at Major's Hill Park next to Parliament, which had a bunch of booths set up from various local and government groups. We got our free ice cream from the Dairy Farmers of Canada booth before it got crowded and wandered around for a little bit looking at stuff. I got my pins and flags for the day and decked out my backpack with them.
Because it was so gross out (the high for the day was like 37 with a humidex of 48 C), we tried to stay inside as much as possible, taking advantage of free admission to the local museums. We started off at the National Gallery, with exhibits featuring Canadian artists or artistic renditions of Canadian life. It was a well-curated gallery and felt very... Canadian. I guess that's pretty appropriate for Canada Day!
We stopped for lunch at the same pub we went to the last time we were in Ottawa. The world cup was on and there were flags all over the place, so we watched as Croatia kicked butt while we enjoyed our meal. Then we took the bus across the river to the Canadian Museum of History. We never got through the whole thing the last time we were there, so we started off on the third floor and wound our way up through the fourth in order to complete the museum. It was really crowded and there were a lot of kids around, but it was good to see the bits that I missed last time.
Afterwards, we spread my picnic blanket out on the lawn behind the museum for a great view of the Snowbirds doing their fly-by. The finale was very impressive! They did a sort of "burst" formation where they flew directly upwards as a unit, then "exploded" outwards, with the center plane doing a free-fall for what felt like way too long, then rocketing away. It was really impressive and I wish I had gotten that last bit all on film!
We took the bus back and made our way into Parliament hill in order to see the first couple acts of the live music performances. It took us a good half hour to wait in line and get through security, so when we finally got in I made sure we got a seat in the shade, because I could not take any more. Thankfully the sun was starting to set, and by the time the music started it had dipped behind the stage and everything was about 20x more tolerable.
Once the first few artists were done, we headed into Byward market to find some dinner while the crowds were at bay. We ended up in a buffet-style place that turned out to be pretty great. It was such a nice reprieve from the heat outside, we almost didn't want to go back out to see the fireworks. Nevertheless, we left dinner with enough time to head up to Major's Hill Park again to try to get a decent viewing spot.
The park was absolutely packed and as soon as we found a good spot, THE TALLEST GUY came and stood literally RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME. I just looked up at Brendan like "help?" and he was like "I'm so sorry". I'm 5'1". Bden tried his best to reposition us but the fireworks were starting and we could hardly move. I kind of wish we'd been somewhere a bit further away-- the view was good, but the fireworks were really loud and I spent most of the time with my ears covered. Still, I was glad we got to see them.
As soon as the fireworks ended, everyone rushed out of the park. There were so many people, we figured it was pointless to wait for the bus, so we just walked all the way back to the hotel. It wasn't a terrible walk, but walking into that air conditioning at the hotel was such sweet bliss. We immediately stripped our clothes off, showered, and got into PJs. Unfortunately, other people must have been doing the same, because as soon as we were comfortable in bed...
the power went out again.
This time Brendan went to the front desk himself to let them know what had happened, and they were very apologetic and came and reset the circuits again.
MONDAY:
Since we didn't get to do it last time, we decided to go to the Museum of Nature. We parked at the museum and walked into town in search of a breakfast place. Unfortunately, the place we chose turned out to have an unlisted reservation requirement, and the wait would have been something like 40 minutes, so we decided to leave. We ended up at a Starbucks and had a fairly mundane but altogether pleasant breakfast.
Then we went back to the museum and proceeded to spend basically the entire day there. It was really nice, and the architecture is quite interesting! We had a lot of fun and actually got to watch a thunderstorm roll through Ottawa, lightning striking various buildings while we huddled safe inside the glass tower. I've never had such an incredible view of a storm before-- basically 4 stories up with a 270 degree view of the city. Wild!
We finished out our day at the museum and, tired from a long weekend, drove back to Brendan's apartment, where we picked up a pizza for dinner (at my request) and watched youtube videos in bed all night.
TUESDAY:
I treated Brendan to breakfast at a local diner before we drove out to visit the Diefenbunker, which is basically a huge underground bunker capable of sustaining a nuclear blast. The bunker was built many years ago and intended to house a large number of people, but was decommissioned at some point in the last couple decades. We decided to take the guided tour and got the guy who volunteers because he enjoys it and gives extra long tours, so we got a lot of extra information that I don't think you'd normally get on the tour. There's an underground vault that used to be used by the Bank of Canada and an area of offices complete with actual maps and things from the era that they now use as an escape room. It's all pretty cool, but I think Brendan got more entertainment out of it than I did. Outside of the tour, there are some rooms that you can go into where they have displays with things related to nuclear weapons and stuff, and there are a few rooms that have some very graphic images depicting people who were in the path of nuclear explosions. We didn't get to see that while I was there because we ran out of time, but Brendan went back with his dad a few weeks ago when his parents came to visit and told me about it. It's pretty crazy.
After that, we hit up a local restaurant that was recommended to us by one of Brendan's coworkers. They had some really interesting food selections. I got fairly tame fish and sweet potato chips (fries), but Brendan got one of their strawberry themed items, which was a burger with strawberries on it and strawberry sauce. He said it was actually really good and seemed to enjoy it immensely! We also indulged in dessert, and halfway through we both had to stop because we were so full. It was truly a great meal, and we would absolutely return again.
On our way home we took the long way home and Brendan showed me some sites where he'd planted things or done some monitoring for his summer job. He's very proud of it and I'm proud of him for it!
WEDNESDAY:
Brendan had to go back to work since the 4th is not a holiday in Canada, so I had to have my things packed up and in the car early in the day. I dropped him off at work since he left his bike there on Friday when I picked him up for dinner. It was sad to have to say goodbye to him there, but at least he was able to go right into work and start his day. He wore this outrageous Americana cowboy hat that I had brought up for him in honor of Independence Day. It was a sweet gesture.
The drive home was fairly uneventful and I just had one planned stop at a rest stop midway. Now when I do long road trips I feel like I should be going to Canada to see Brendan instead, especially when I drive up to see my friend in Saratoga Springs since most of that route follows the same route I take up to Canada.
I'll miss him a lot, but the next time I see him, we'll be getting ready for my friend's wedding. It feels almost surreal that this whole relationship started with us flirting about him accompanying me to this very wedding. Now more than a year and a half later, we're actually going! It makes me so happy that things have turned out so well with us.
You’ll have to let us know how the wedding went!