Trip down to Ottawa

We're going to be doing this drive quite a few times between now and October 15th when we leave for Nova Scotia. We're staying at Ruth's father's house in the village of Galetta, which is about a 45 minute drive from the center of the city of Ottawa, Canada's capital.

Yesterday morning, I gave the little blue car a much needed vacuum and wash. As I was doing that, Ruth did some laundry and some baking.

We also had a visit from an old acquaintance of Ruth's from her high school years who has since become one of our blog readers. He wanted to stop by for a visit, and drove over in his nicely restored 1970 Barracuda.

Ruth, Mike, the little blue car, and a 1970 Plymouth Barracuda.

1970 Barracuda

So we spoke with Mike for an hour or so, but we had to have some lunch and get going because we were heading down to Ottawa to pick up our son Alex from his work!

Uneventful drive down to Ottawa, but it was interesting to see some of the ongoing construction that has progressed since we were last here 11 months ago. Some major highway projects on the go in the city, as well as the beginnings of a "light rail" transit system that will take the next five years or so to finish. We also couldn't help but notice the huge blue and yellow Ikea store that up until this month was the largest in Canada. A new store opened in Montreal recently that is even bigger! But the Ottawa store is massive in itself, and we'll have to stop in there one day just to see the inside.

Tried to organize a visit with my mother, but she already had plans for the day so after picking up Alex we stopped by my older sister Elaine's place for a quick visit with her.

Then, it was off to old friends Jeff and Shelley's for dinner. Jeff and I have known each other since we were 16 years old and he is one of the crew of guys that I'll be getting together with this upcoming weekend. Always lots of laughs with them, and we'll try and get together again before we head to Nova Scotia.

Looks like another beautiful day today, so we're headed out for a walk around the countryside.