This year TAC (Transportation Association of Canada) conference was in Ottawa. AA was supposed to fly with Lola to Ottawa, but turns out he had to go to Peterborough for work, so he flew to Toronto super early in the morning to drive to Peterbourogh to do the test, then headed to Ottawa to meet Lola, who flew during the afternoon and ubered to the hotel.
Lola headed to the mall for supper and to pick up her new cellphone that she had preordered. She spent the evening setting up her new phone watching baseball while she waited for AA to get to the hotel.
Saturday Sept 23, Lola had meetings all day, learning from others about Geometric Design. AA went and got some groceries after we experienced a not so good, expensive breakfast at our hotel. After the meeting was over Lola and AA went to the Byward market for dinner.
They went to the Warehouse restaurant. The atmosphere was loud, and the food was ok. Not the best choice. After dinner we walked around the parliament building grounds, where the sky was so beautiful!
Sunday Sept 24, Lola only had plans in the evening so, we headed on a walking adventure...first stop was Zak's diner a popular breakfast place in Byward Market. The weather was so nice, we ate outside. Then we headed to the Senate (as our other tour was cancelled first thing in the morning). The Parliament centre building is under construction for 10 years, so all the buildings are in temporary locations. We went to the sentate that is located in the old rail station. The tour was great, and very informative. After the tour we headed to the Rideau Falls, with a short walk to the Official Residence of the Prime Minister. The walk was so neat, we saw neat bridges, historic buildings and statues.
At 4 oclock we met up with AA's coworker and family who moved to the Ottawa area last year. It was so nice to see the family, but unforuntatly Lola had a welcome reception, so the visit was pretty short, but the kids sure enjoyed seeing the sites, and playing with their walkie talkies. AA and his coworker F, sure were happy to see eachother. F is the whole reason this blog was started, as they are the family that caused AA to move to Montreal for 8 months back in 2012.
Lola headed to the welcome reception, and AA enjoyed some time to himself. We met up with some of Lola's coworkers for supper at Blue Cactus Bar and Grill. The food was good, and it was nice to meet up with coworkers Lola had only seen through the computer screen.
The conference was from Monday September 25-27th. It was a lot of busy days for Lola, while AA worked at in the hotel room. Monday night was "night at the museum" and it was a beautiful evening to walk back and forth across the bridge to Gatineau. The food stations at the event were pretty good, but lola really enjoyed the Poke Bowls.
Tuesday evening Lola went on a bike tour, and we ate at Sidedoor for dinner. This was the best meal they had in Ottawa, highly recommend it.
Wednesday was the last day of the conference. After the conference Lola and AA walked a around parlimaent one last time before eating at Milestones that is just near the Canal.
Thursday, September 28th, morning we decided to head to the Westin for breakfast buffet which we had heard was really good. It was good, and a short walk from our current hotel. AA went to get the rental car from the airport while Lola finished up packing and checking out before heading to Quebec.
We drove about 2 hours to Montebello where we had booked a night at the Fairmont. We got there a little early, so we headed to book a couples massage for the next day, and hiked around the grounds. The map was pretty poor, but we saw a lot of sites, including the lake, a neat Chocolate shop in town, Chocomotive, as well as an national historic site the Manoir of Papineau (, before our room was ready. The town is pretty neat, but AA was pretty disappointed there was no train at the old train station and chocolate shop.
We sat by the water, and Lola enjoyed a snack before getting to check into our hotel room. While we were waiting we saw helicopters come in and land on the grass helipad, so we had to go check it out. We walked over there and to see the helicopters take off.
AA had some work to do, so he did that before we headed for dinner at the restaurant at the Fairmont. We made a reservation, but that sure wasn't necessary as the restaurant was pretty dead at 5:00pm reservation. The food was so delicious. After supper we walked around looking at the historic wood structure hotel. The full moon was setting over the lake, and we sat to watch it.
\
As we drove north, the trees sure started to show their fall colours. The Reds, yellows, oranges and greens were amazing. We arrived in the "ski" town, and checked into our hotel. We checked into the Homewood suites, were we were upgraded to a 2 bedroom, 2 bedroom, exactly what 2 people needed, not. The place was huge, but it had a neat view of the bottom of the ski hill. We got some food at a restaurant called "la Forge". Lola enjoyed her meal so much that was the only place she wanted to eat, but figured the next time they should try something else.
Saturday, Sept 30th. We went for a great hike to see the river and the fall colours. It was so beautiful, and one of the highlights of the trip. Once back, we headed up the gondola with our packed lunch to see the fall colours at the top of Mont Tremblant. We got to the top, found a picnic table and enjoyed our lunch. Once finished was headed for another hike. Once we toured around the top, we got into the long line to take the gondola down. The line was so long we didn't know if we should have started hiking, but we were pretty tired. Luckily we saw a worker ask for groups of 2... when we got to skip in front of the line to join a group of 4 that were on their way down. It was so nice to not wait a hour in the line. Back at the bottom we headed to Le Shack for some dinner. The food wasn't as good as the day before, but still ok.
Sunday, Nov 1, we booked a luge ride down the mountain. First we had breakfast at the hotel, and then headed to the bottom of the hill just outside our hotel. We got our helmets and headed up the chair lift for the tries down the track. It was so much fun, and highly recommended.
We packed up and headed back to Ottawa to catch our flight home. We decided to stop at Montebello for lunch, which was a mistake as it was very busy. The first restaurant we went to didn't have any room, so we headed down the street to Le Zouk where they had a table, but the service was very slow, and took forever. There was a time when we thought we wouldn't get food, and had to leave so we didn't miss our flight completly.
We made it to Ottawa, after getting stuck in construction and detours, and were very late to drop off the car. It was high stress in the car, and we didn't have a chance to even put gas in the car. But we made it to the airport, got our bags checked and to the gate with a few minutes to spare. Our flight was pretty uneventful (but we weren't sitting together), and we made it just fine.
The conference was great, and the little get away after the conference was relaxing and so beautiful. Highly recommend heading to Quebec to see the leaves at fall.
Till next Time, Lola
No comments:
Post a Comment