Since we arrived back in Canada...

So, it's time to get you caught up on what we've been doing for the last week. I'm not going to do individual posts for the several days that we missed... otherwise I'll never be up to date, and we've just got too much to do.

So... where to start? Well, when we arrived at our son's place in Gravenhurst, Ontario on June 28th, he and his girlfriend CJ already had plans for the weekend, so they weren't home when we arrived. He did come back and spend a couple of hours with us on Saturday morning.

They are also lending us their old 2006 Honda Accord for the next couple of months. Car rental prices here are nuts ($1,700 CAD, $1,250 USD) per month, and they hadn't used it since they bought a new vehicle last year. He said that if I put a battery in it and paid the additional insurance, we could use it. Sold! These older Honda Accords drive nice and the engine will never die.

We decided to stay two nights before heading to Ottawa, so on the 29th we had to buy some food. Gravenhurst isn't a very big town, so there are limited options. And of course we've read about the horrendous grocery prices in Canada, so we were somewhat prepared for sticker shock.

Here's what we bought... for $38.28 CAD ($28.12 USD)

The cheese is a little higher than last time. Compared to the cheddar cheese in the UK, Canada has terrible cheese and cheese prices. It would be half that in the UK. Yes, we could have saved a little had we bought two of them, but we weren't in a position to do that. The Liberty yogurt we think is the same price it was last time we were here. Broccoli has gone up for sure. $3 CAD, ($2.20 USD) for one small piece of broccoli. The cherries were a decent price at $2.99 CAD per pound. And they were delicious. We love cherries! 

Then we come to the potato. $2.24 ($1.65 USD) for one single fairly large potato! We didn't need any more than that. We hadn't checked the price, and had just grabbed a single potato. How bad could it be?? Well, pretty bad. Obviously we could have bought a 5 lb bag at a much cheaper "per potato" price, but we didn't want a 5 lb bag. Ridiculous. I almost returned it. 

We got a decent deal on the pork chops. The gluten free bread was expensive, but we knew it would be. And the smoked turkey breast was actually a deal.

Okay. On to something else.

We needed somewhere to stay here in Ottawa for the month of July. Property values and rents have skyrocketed in Canada, and we knew that. So we were prepared to pay. But it's impossible to find anything furnished for a one month stay for under $2,000 CAD ($1,469 USD).  

Long story short, I ended up finding a bedroom in a shared house on Airbnb for $1,577 CAD ($1,158 USD) for the month. It's not ideal, but the location is perfect and it's only a 2 km walk to my mother's place. And there is parking for both our vehicles. There are three other bedrooms. One has its own bathroom, and the other bathroom is shared with the other rooms. Fortunately, one of the rooms is not rented right now, otherwise it would get a little crowded. Of course that could change throughout the month. 

The other tenants are really nice though. There's a mother (50?)/daughter (25?) from Japan in one of the rooms. They are looking for a permanent apartment. And there's a single girl (30?) from Toluca, Mexico, just outside of Mexico City. Her English is only slightly better than our Spanish, so we've been getting some practice. 

We have shared use of the kitchen and living room, but so far the others seem to spend a lot of time in their own rooms, and they are mostly out during the day.

July 1st was Canada Day. We went over to visit my mother. My younger sister Alison lives in Alberta now, but she was there visiting so it was nice to see her as well.

We took the time to go for a walk along the Ottawa River.

Looking west.

It was a beautiful day!

Because it was Canada Day, all the grocery stores were closed! There's an Indian restaurant really close by that has reasonable (by Canada standards!) prices, and we've been there before. So we went there and had a big meal for lunch.

Ruth hade chicken tiki masala.

I had the chicken curry. There was lots of food, and we were full!

Me, my mom Elspeth, and my younger sister Alison.

There's a lot more going on that we'll tell you about tomorrow!

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Lightning deal price on the Jackery 500 Portable Power Station.

And in Canada...

Keurig Mini Single Serve Coffee Maker.