Ottawa!

So as many people who are reading this know, I went to Ottawa with a bunch of people this past weekend. Here's the story (sorry so long!):

I left work at 2pm on Thursday, to pick up Lou & Janet in downtown Toronto. Janet got there around 4pm, and Lou got there around 4:30. However, Lou did not get dropped off where she was supposed to, so I had to drive to find her, and driving at that time in downtown Toronto was pure HELL! Never again. Then we try to get to the DVP, but we needed to go down Bloor, but we weren’t allowed to turn onto Bloor anywhere. Grr…downtown Toronto + Jill driving = a very sweary Jill. Finally got on the DVP before 6pm, and it amazingly wasn’t too bad. The 401 wasn’t bad till we hit Pickering. Until Oshawa. It was horrible! Picked up in Oshawa, then we stopped at the service station just passed Oshawa for dinner, which we arrived at around 8pm. Left at 8:30, and traffic wasn’t too bad the rest of the way. After a gas stop in Kingston, we got to Matt’s place around midnight. The other car (carrying Ally, Brandon & Sophie) was already there. We chilled & chatted a bit that night, then went to bed. I was tired, but I never sleep well on a new bed, so I slept like crap that night.

However, when we got there, we got the news that Brandon’s key had broke. Apparently someone put the ignition key into the door (different keys for each), and then someone else twisted it, and it snapped. Oops. But the keysmith came – poor Brandon was up till 2am to get it fixed, but then, all was well.

We were up early the next morning, and Ryda came to Matt’s place to join us for the day. After breakfast, shower & getting ready, we hit the road. Took the bus to the beach where Ally saw some of her friends from high school. Then Jeff joined us. We bussed to the new War Museum, where we spent 3 hours (and too much on a not-so-good lunch) The nice thing about Ottawa is that all the museums & art galleries are free on Canada Day! But the war museum was AWESOME! I’m not much into the history and such…I actually enjoy the changing technology and stuff. But it was cool. 3 hours was not enough, but people were getting bored & wanted to see other things.

We headed to the Rideau Centre – Matt & Sophie took the bus, since Sophie had a rather large blister from her shoes, and it was only about 4pm. The rest of us walked though – we walked along the Ottawa River, and it was a gorgeous walk! We sat in the food court of the Rideau Centre, watched all the people, had some frozen yogurt, and it poured for about 10 minutes while we were there. Then we hit a pub for dinner, which was super-busy, so had horrible service. My wings weren’t too bad, but I paid $7 for a pint of beer before we got our table, and it wasn’t even poured properly! I think the prices were higher, just b/c they knew people would pay on Canada Day.

Afterwards, we headed to Parliament Hill, where we met up with some other friends (Peter, Henry, Kevin & other people) We stayed for some of the concert, where I got some good video footage of Lou dancing :D During Kathleen Edwards, we left the hill to see some of the tourist-y buildings, and find a better place to see fireworks. This is where I got lost, as I thought I was following people who looked like Lou & Brandon, but then they turned around, and they weren’t. Oops. So I looked around, but I figured that someone would find me eventually. Which they did – yay for Janet!

So we went to Major Hill’s Park, where we saw some other people we knew, and watched the fireworks, which were slightly delayed. Now, being from Waterloo which is a smaller city, I thought the fireworks were great – I was in Ottawa last year for Canada Day, and didn’t think they were any worse. Of course, they weren’t as good as the ones I saw in Sydney Australia on New Years, but I still thought they were good. However, Matt, who’s from Ottawa, says that they keep going downhill every year. *shrugs* Oh well :)

After the fireworks, we talked to some people, then we were going to hit a bar or club, but we decided we didn’t want to wait in line for 3 hours. So we went back to Matt’s place, where we hung out & chatted for awhile. Then went to bed. I slept much better that night :D

Saturday, we got up late, and had breakfast & got ready. We met a friend, Denise, for sushi in Kenata. I love sushi – when I tried it last year for the first time, I wasn’t much of a fan, but I’ve had it about 5 times now, and I love it! But it was good to see Denise – she was the one that I worked with last work term at RMC, and she’s a lot of fun! After that, we headed to our friend Peter’s place.

Coming out of the parking lot of the sushi place, we lost the other car somehow, who were following us. I thought they were behind us, but realized they weren’t when we got on the highway. So, we got off, and pulled into a parking lot to call, since I had their cell phone numbers in my phone. However, I discovered that I left my phone at Matt’s place. So we went back to the sushi place to see if they were there, which they weren’t. So we decided to go to Peter’s, since Brandon had Peter’s number, so hopefully he called there for directions. If not, Peter had Brandon’s number, so we could call them when we got there. We got there to the news that their car had broken down. They pulled over to look at a map, and they couldn’t restart the car. It was an old car, and over the years, too much dirt & “foreign objects” got in the ignition, so CAA came and took apart the steering wheel & cleaned it out. But everyone got there eventually, and it was a great time at Peter’s! His parents own several acres of land, and had a pool, and sauna, and volleyball court. Plus there was lots of food & drink! Good times! We crashed there that night. 5 of us crashed in a tent, and went to bed a bit earlier, since we had to get up early the next day to get Lou to the bus station, plus some of us had to drive back. However, they were still partying, so kept me awake for a little while. I slept alright once I fell asleep, but then they woke me up :S

We had some cereal, then went back to Matt’s where Lou packed up and said good-bye, and I went back to sleep for 1.5 hours. Then we packed up, and I drove Janet & Sophie back. We stopped at Tim Horton’s for lunch, and were on the road by 12:30pm. It wasn’t too bad of a ride home – busy after Kingston, but didn’t actually slow down much till Port Hope. Then we were in a lot of traffic, but as soon as the highway turned into 3 lanes, it wasn’t bad at all. I dropped Sophie off in Scarborough, then Janet in Mississauga (after going for gas/Subway for dinner) Got home around 8:20pm.

Twas a very good weekend – too short, but lots of fun! Didn’t matter much that my camera’s broken and in the shop – I’ll get enough pictures off Brandon, Ally, Sophie, Lou & Janet :D Hopefully I’ll get them soon, then I’ll try to post some!