Going Back

"They" say there is no going back but I just spent a wonderful week going back to Ottawa and enjoying a great time with my Eastern family. It's been two years since I visited them and many things have changed but much has stayed the same.

My sister, Lynda, and her new-to-me boyfriend, Chris, met me at the airport. I hadn't seen the new Ottawa airport as in 2007, I arrived via ViaRail. Ottawa International is very modern with many unique architectural designs. Water features highlight Ottawa's ties with both the Rideau and Ottawa Rivers.

After retrieving my luggage, Chris drove us to Lynda's new townhouse. What a cozy and welcoming place it is! She's done a fantastic decorating it and her walls bear testiment to her unique photographic eye. I'd never tire of looking at her favourites (see the sidebar for a link to her Shutterfly site).

Monday we took a trip down my memory lane by walking along the canal between Landsdowne Park where the Ottawa Roughrider's (Canadian Football League) used to play and Dow's Lake where we lived on our boat upon our arrival in Ottawa in 1965. The canal gardens are famous for their tulips in the spring but every season sees the beds planted in a variety of flowers. Lynda thought we could find some subjects to photograph and she was right. We also saw an artist working on a huge canvas painting the flower beds.

Since I tend to amble when I walk, we had to scurry back to Landsdowne so we could reach the Canal Ritz restaurant for lunch before the office rush. Lynda thought she might see someone she knew and she did. We had a lovely meal of penne pasta for Lynda and an eggplant pizza for me. Both were delicious.

After lunch, we headed to my Aunt's place to have a brief visit. Mabel had been in hospital the week before so I was happy to see her and even though she looked tired, she was still her vivacious self. We enjoyed a glass of her son's homemade wine before returning to Lynda's.

If it's Tuesday; it must be Mom. We headed out to Carleton Place Manor for my viist after the Queensway traffic had died down. We had a great chat and watched the DVD Glen made of our trip to England/Italy in 1977. Unfortunately, the photos appeared over-exposed perhaps due to the old technology of Mom's DVD player. We had a lovely lunch in the manor restaurant of minestrone soup, tossed salad, grilled cheese sandwich (Glen's favourite) and a lemon custard for dessert. Cecil, Mom's beau, joined us and had us in stitches with his wry sense of humour. His daughter, Donna, popped in to remind him of a doctor's appointment so I got to meet a small part of his large family.

Wednesday, Lynda made us a decadent breakfast of mango crepes with Ontario maple syrup before we headed to the west-end to pick up Chris. The only building in this area that I recognized was Algonquin College even though Chris said his house was built in the fifties. Glen's cousin used to live close to Algonquin but I could not remember his address having only been there once.

Lynda promised me a great photo-op on our way to Almonte (the route she takes to visit my other sister, Nancy) and she did not disappoint. An old stone church called Auld Kirk stood beside the highway and we had a great time taking pictures. She and Chirs had been there before but didn't seem to mind photographing it again.

However, when I changed my lens to photograph some horses, I must have done something to my camera because it stopped working. I didn't realize this until we came upon some red sumac which I wanted to photograph. Thank heavens I was also travelling with a pocket camera and it worked to record the moment.

Nancy's house is a work-in-progress so it was like being in our home in Edmonton. Each time I visit, there is something new to see. This time it was the outside siding that had been added to give the house a new/old feel. Lynda, Nancy and I had a great chat while Chris worked on getting Nancy's new notebook computer up to speed. We also viewed the movie Lynda made of her trip to Newfoundland. If you know the Fothergill sisters, you also know we can multitask when it comes to chatting so much ground gets covered conversationally even while we studied Lynda's photos.

Thursday, Nancy and I became hobbits and had an early morning breakfast with her husband, Andy before he headed off to teach then had second breakfast at Wheeler's, a sugar bush pancake house. After stuffing ourselves with a huge pancake and three maple-flavoured sausages, we headed into Perth. We did a little shopping, had Chai tea at Coutt's and Company before wandering through Stewart Park.

Can you believe we were ready to eat again? We had hot and sour soup and spring rolls at the Skye Dragon Restaurant before heading back to Canadian Tire to pick up Nancy's car. We returned to Ottawa via Carleton Place to have a brief visit with Mom.

Friday came quickly upon me and I realized my visit was almost over. Lynda had to work so I slept in and spent the day catching up on emails and making a potato salad to take to my cousin, Victor's. He barbequed up some ribs and they were delicious. Lots of his wine was consumed and many laughs were had. His kids are growing like weeds, Colin being almost 10 and Valerie, almost five. It was so good seeing them again.

Saturday I packed up my suitcase then Lynda and I went for a walk before hitting Moxie's for lunch. I had an incredible Tuscan sandwich made with pesto and tapenade. This turned out to be a mistake as I could smell the garlic oozing from my pores. I felt so sorry for the woman who sat next to me on the plane.

My flight home went without incident and we arrived 20 minutes early. It was so nice seeing Glen there to meet me. I love my family but my home is in Alberta.

It Wasn't Pretty

Glen played hooky Friday afternoon so after lunch we drove out to Cochrane to play 9 holes of golf at the local course.  We have played this course before with Meg and Mike as well as with the Bacterial Pathogenesis Research Group but always playing to the best ball.  This day we were going to tackle it with each of us playing to our own ball.

As you can tell by the title, neither of us had a great game score-wise but both came to the conclusion that we had a wonderful afternoon together.  Mark Twain said that golf was a good walk spoiled but I believe it can be a good walk challenged. 

We had plenty of challenges on our walk around the golf course.  The afternoon was sunny but a stiff breeze made it a challenge when hitting the ball.  I got a mouthful of sand from one of my shots out of the bunker which was a challenge to get rid of--it's amazing how grains of sand get into the crevices of one's teeth. We were both challenged finding the ball of Glen's best drive.  We think a black squirrel skulking in the trees made off with it because even though it hit the fairway, we could not find it.  As always, the greens in Cochrane are a challenge.  

We felt we had good drives on 7 of the 9 holes but Glen struggled with his iron shots while I had trouble with my hybrids.  Glen missed par once because his ball lipped the cup and mine hit the pin on a nice little chip shot but it took me two more strokes to sink it.  

We had the course to ourselves and played as a twosome which was nice.  We feel all the avid golfers were in Priddis watching the LPGA.  

The 'Tenth" hole is a lovely restaurant called The Tin Cup where we enjoyed a beer, corn chips and black bean salsa while we tallied the score.  It was a great day spent together playing a fun game.