Road Trip!

Saturday, Dear Hubby and I decided to take a short drive. We wanted to see a bit more of Canada. So we headed off to Ottawa!

Just before we crossed the river and entered into Ontario, I turned back to see this little information center that greets you as you enter into the province of Quebec. Aren’t the flowers just great?

Across the Ottawa river we went (they have really big rivers here)…..

And into Hawkesbury, Ontario. I love the way the church steeple sticks out above the trees.

Hawkesbury greets us with flags and a sign.

But this is the sign I was really anxious to see. And although it might not look like much to you, it was in English! And that meant the world to me. Never mind that the sign right behind it was in French. I was never so happy to see the words “Welcome to” and “More to discover.”

Just a short ways down the road, Dear Hubby laughed out loud when he saw a “For Sale” sign instead of “À Vendre” in the window of a car. I never knew someone so happy to see a little sign.

There were flowers everywhere. By the way, the sun comes up at 5:00 in the morning here. And sets at about 8:45. Those are long days and lots of sunshine. Apparently the flowers really like it. Well, that and the cooler temps here. My Texas friends will be envious to know that the temps here have been in the 70’s nearly every day since I arrived! I’ll try to bottle up some of that cooler air and bring it back to Texas with me.

Just a few short miles down the road I saw this sign:

And my heart skipped a beat. I yelled out, “Quilt Shop!” and Dear Hubby turned the car around faster than I could get the words out. In fact, I tried to talk him out of stopping! Whatever possessed me? But this was our day and a trip to Ottawa was planned. I figured I could come over here another time, now that I knew how close it was. But Hubby was insistent that I’d been looking for a quilt shop since my feet hit the ground in Montreal and I had to see the inside of this one.

So inside I went. Dear Hubby waited in the car and entertained himself with his audio book. Tracy greeted me (in English!) when I entered and asked if I wanted coffee. And she brought it to me in a nice mug, so I had to stay long enough to drink it all. The shop is also a shoe store! And although it was small, it was warm and inviting (as were all the people there), with a nice classroom and enough bolts of fabric to satisfy my “new fabric on a bolt” fix for awhile. They invited me to come over and sit and stitch any time. And I had to run back out to the car to get my stars to show them, etc. etc. Nice, nice people. And when we got home that evening I had two emails from them! I will definitely be going back on any future trips to see Dear Hubby! Who knows? I might even need to buy some shoes!

But we were Ottawa bound for this day. And the blue skies beckoned us to continue our journey. It was a glorious day for a drive. And I stitched stars along the way too.

I should mention here that since I arrived, Dear Hubby has been on a mission to find Mexican food. I think he is missing our great Tex-Mex places in Texas! So we have been keeping our eyes peeled for Mexican food for several days. I’m not sure I really want the Mexican food that they might have to offer this far north, but Dear Hubby wanted it and I was happy to oblige. If we found some.

So Dear Hubby’s face lit up when I hollared, “Mucho Burrito!” as we were almost at our destination in Ottawa. We went a bit further, but I knew we’d be heading back for this one. And head back we did.

Except this is what it looked like inside. Horrors! It wasn’t open yet, according to a young man in a shop down the street. I guess we’ll be making another trip to Ottawa next time I come to town!

So we ended up having lunch at Kelsey’s, recommended by the same young man (who was anxiously awaiting the opening of Mucho Burrito.) It was a lovely place.

I mean… how inviting is this on the menu to a vegan like me? And I don’t mean the sizzling fajitas. So Dear Hubby and I shared a veggie burger and it was great. It was so good that I forgot to take any pics. Sorry. Bad blogger here.

We ate outside, where Dear Hubby intently studied his phone while we waited on our food. What did we do before smartphones? I believe he was studying his gps feature here. Still trying to find Mexican food.

We actually went to Ottawa to see a movie. A 2 hour drive for a movie guaranteed to be in English. But we had the added attraction of Ottawa being the Capitol of Canada! So afterwards we drove around to see if we could find the government buildings and take some pics.

This was our first view as we followed the gps to “Parliament Hill.”

And now for your first of the 473 pics that I took of government buildings in Ottawa, Canada. I have no idea what any of them are. I just took pics of all of them and you have to see them. All of them. Get ready. They really are pretty cool. Of course, as all pics go, things are much better live and in person. Still, you get to ~~suffer through~~ enjoy the pics, OK?

This one might or might not have been their Supreme Court building. You decide.

And I think this is the Parliament building. From the side. Oh, not to worry, there’s a pic of it from the front too. And probably the back.

Love the trees all around too….

Church steeples….. or maybe spires?

I don’t know what this building was either, but it was very interesting! And even though I took this pic looking directly into the sun, I was pleased with how it shows the glass in the building and not just the bright light behind. And yes, that’s water behind there too. These buildings all overlook the Ottawa River.