Right after Christmas Robert and I snuck off to Ottawa, Canada for the weekend. He had to go there for business, so I tagged along, and we made a weekend out of it.
We left home early and arrived in Ottawa around 11 am. I dropped R at his meeting venue and set out to find the famous Byward Market. A short 10-minute drive later I arrived on York Street and hooray! the Parking Fairy guided me to an open spot in the heart of the market area.
After donning ALL my cold-weather gear and grabbing an umbrella, I locked up Susie (Robert’s Subaru), and headed off to see why this place is such a tourist destination.
Byward Market
I must say, there are specialty restaurants for everything from pastries to kabobs. If you have a craving for ANY kind of food, you can probably find it at Byward. There were also quite a few specialty shops featuring local and regional handcrafted items. There were glove and scarf shops, hat shops, maple syrup stores, you name it. My favorite was a gallery specializing in items handmade by local indigenous youth.
When I got too cold, wet, and hungry, I ducked into a corner pub that was advertising homemade chicken noodle soup. Delicious!
After lunch and a bit more shopping, it was time to pick up my hubby and go find our hotel. After we checked in, he had to work a bit more, so I read a little and caught up on email before it was time to get ready for dinner.
Exploring Ottawa
That evening we chose to dine at Baton Rouge, which was a two-minute walk from the hotel and proved to be delicious. I had surf and turf, and wow! The lobster just melted in your mouth! SO good!
After dinner we had a nightcap in the hotel bar and headed off to bed.
We tried the nearby Tim Horton’s for breakfast Saturday morning, then bundled up and ventured out to see the city. Our hotel was only a few kilometers from Parliament Hill, so that was our first destination. The architecture is truly stunning! Each building was a little different, but they all meshed well together.
But guys, it was COLD! I don’t mean wear a hat and scarf cold. It was next-level wind off an icy river cold! Our toasty-for-central-New-York clothes could not keep us warm on that frigid day. So, we went to the National Gallery of Canada, where we warmed up while experiencing some excellent art.
On the trek back to the hotel, we stopped in a beautiful pub for a glass of cheer and detoured down to the river, which was lovely.
We had another nice dinner – this time at Maddison’s, then opted for an early night since we had to head back home in the morning.
Back to Work
After a week with the kids, then our trip to Ottawa, the next week proved to be fairly busy for both of us. Robert was playing catch up, plus he had to travel for three days, and I was planning my organization’s annual meeting and researching grant opportunities. It was a little exhausting after more than a week of leisure!
Weird, Wonderful Sunday
Saturday afternoon it started snowing. We ran errands early because there was a winter storm warning and were home by the time the snow started. It snowed all evening, all night, and a good part of the day on Sunday. We ended up with about 9 inches.
My original plan for Sunday was to take down and store all the Christmas decorations, but since I couldn’t get my car out of the garage to access the storage, those plans had to change. After I made breakfast, I did a little laundry, read the newspaper, and caught up on the blogs I follow. Before I realized it, it was 11 am and I was still in my pajamas. I debated getting dressed, but, with my Honey’s approval, decided it might be nice to spend a whole day in my jammies. So, there I was at 10 pm, still in my pjs, getting ready for bed. I guess there is a first time for everything!
Coughs and Sniffles
Robert started coughing Sunday evening. He got up and went to the gym, as usual, on Monday morning. By Monday afternoon he was feeling a little achy, but thought he overdid his workout. He had to go to the office Tuesday, and by the time he headed home on this nasty evening, his cold had taken over.
Wild, Windy Night
It is currently 9:54 pm on Tuesday, January 9 and I am sitting in the dark as I write this. Yesterday’s weather reports were predicting gnarly afternoon and evening weather, so I ran errands early today, and I am glad I did!
By early afternoon we were having 30 mile an hour wind gusts. The electricity started blipping on and off around 4. All the area schools and organizations cancelled evening activities. I was a little concerned for R’s safety since he was driving home from work, but he made it just fine. He is, however, still not feeling very good.
We now have high sustained winds and gusts are between 45-60 MPH. The electric lines apparently gave up the ghost about an hour ago.
The first time the electricity went off, it only lasted about a minute, so I jacked up the heat “just in case”. I am glad I did. As the evening wore one, the outages became more frequent and lasted longer.
I was pleased we had no outages while I was making dinner, which was a new chicken recipe that needed to bake about an hour. The lights blinked out twice during dinner, came back on, then started going out sporadically. Even with the darkness, my fig, balsamic, rosemary chicken was delicious! After dinner we tried to watch TV, but when the power goes off, the TV has to reset, so it was just annoying.
The power came back on long enough for me to clean the kitchen but blipped out again soon after.
Robert is feeling pretty crappy, so he opted for cold medicine and bed.
Now, the icemaker in the refrigerator is dripping – I guess there was a piece of ice stuck in the chute- and there is something beeping in the basement, which is driving me batty!
I went down there with a flashlight, and there does not seem to be anything anywhere near the area the sound is coming from. UGH! It’s not as high pitched as a smoke detector battery indicator, but it’s almost as bad.
Geez! What was that? Going to investigate…
Well, we lost a limb in the back yard. Fortunately, it fell on the sidewalk, so no harm there.
It’s weird when everything outside is so dark. We live in the heart of the village, so there is ALWAYS light. So much light that we have blackout blinds in our bedroom so we can sleep. The absence of all that light is surreal. The sound of the howling wind and the absolute darkness allows one’s imagination to run wild if left unchecked. And I choose not to go there. There’s no telling what my brain will conjure if left to its own devices. But dang! What is that beeping?!
Eureka! We have light! I better go turn everything off and get upstairs before the power fails again.
Thanks for reading. Until next time…