The Best of What's Around

Since Jeff and I moved to Montreal, we have gone to visit our friends Tracy and Chris twice. We always have a great time on these trips because Tracy and Chris are adults who know how to treat a guest. They do things such as feed us real food and wine and treat us to a fabulous time. We have tried to emulate them, but we are not nearly as successful.

We went to Ottawa for the first time for my birthday (c'mon...you should know that it is Sept 16th). We were still new to Montreal and I wanted to ring in my 26th year with people I knew. We drove there on Friday and they made an awesome supper for us. The following day, I got my first look at Ottawa. We walked around the outside of parliament and downtown. We also did some shopping - yay for spending money. Here we are enjoying downtown Ottawa...






For dinner we went to a restaurant called the Empire Grill. The meal and the drinks were incredible. After dinner, though, we went to a martini bar called (I believe) Helsinki's. They had the best martinis ever, and they were all pervertedly named - it won me over. The following day, we (and by we, I don't mean Jeff) were pretty much to hungover to do anything productive, so we went back home to Montreal.

Six months later, Jeff and I return to Ottawa. You may have read about it on Jeff's blog. This time there was less sunshine but even more hospitality. Chris and Tracy had gotten a hot tub. So fabulous. Friday night saw us eat the most fabulous meal and then we went to the hot tub for three hours drinking pitchers of martinis. This was the greatest way to de-stress from my crazy semester at school.

The following day, we went and toured the inside of parliament. My dad raves about the library there and so I decided we should go see.







This is the library:



I am a unicorn!


Here is me being Terry Fox. Now, I do love Terry Fox. I am not disrespecting him in any way by being his statue. But, as I posed with Terry, a man in a wheel chair rolled by...I felt awkward. I felt I needed to explain that I did indeed love Terry.

That night, we went for supper at Luxe Bistro, which was fantastic. Then, the whole reason for the trip, we went to the musical Hairspray ! I had seen the movie when I was younger and I was very excited to see the musical. It was really funny. It was Jeff's first musical and he didn't hate it! Yay! It is being re-made in movie form again and should be out this summer. After the musical, we went for some dessert and went back to the hot tub.

Our trips to Ottawa are always fantastic. Next year, I am doing a rotation at the Children's Hospital in Ottawa and will get a whole month of Tracy and Chris. Lucky me (not so much lucky them).


"Every dog has it's day, every day has it's way of being forgotten - "Mom it's my birthday" would you say (what could you say)" - DMB

Labels: 2007, jeff, rachel, roadtrip, tracy and chris