spa…

09 Thursday Jan 2020

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for my last full day in Ottawa, we went to Nordik Spa in Chelsea… it is the parent of Thermea, where I was, just days ago…

but it is so much bigger… there are whole sections for quiet activities, as well as silent ones… every time I go they have added something new… this time it was Quonset hut saunas… the light reflecting on the ceiling was gorgeous…

we started in one of the warm glass beds and moved to warm pools, saunas, hot pools, had scrubs, and sat around fires in huts…

we drank tons of water and had a delicious lunch… we chatted with strangers, just ourselves, and we spent time in silence…

they don’t allow photos on site so these are a few I took: leaving home as the snow fell, the view as we stood in line to get our bracelets, and a picture my daughter took as we were leaving…

it was a wonderful relaxing and rejuvenating day, and a great way to end my visit…

we drove home in the dark, after watching the moon rise from various pools, and had a simple supper before all three of us watched a movie…

we didn’t want to go to bed because she had to work the next day and I would be packing and flying home;-(…

market…

08 Wednesday Jan 2020

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on Sunday we had breakfast out at Stan’s Diner, which seems to be similar to the “A”…

then a trip to pick up mushrooms, maple syrup, bread, a raspberry scone, and squash…

we also tasted truffle butter and truffle ice cream;-)…

then home for a relaxing day…

Atelier…

07 Tuesday Jan 2020

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what a wonderful treat it was to go to Atelier for dinner…

my daughter took me to celebrate my retirement… her hubby acted as chauffeur for the evening;-)…

it is a twelve course tasting menu and every course is more impressive than the last…

we also shared a wine pairing… this worked well as I only wanted a sip of each offering…

our appetizer was on a plate which rotated while we were enjoying the three different bites… it was very cool…

one of my favourite courses was the sable fish… it was very tasty…

every course came on a different plate… apparently the chef collects dishes from all over… many of the ones we had this time were different from the last time I was there… because the restaurant is intimate they don’t need tons of each dish…

at the end of our meal, we had the opportunity to meet with Marc Lepine, chef/owner of Atelier…

next time I’m in Ottawa I will be sure to check out his new offering – Thru… it is only open on Tuesdays and has seating for six with a menu of 50 items… it uses QR code’s to order… sounds very fun…

what a special gift… it was a magical evening;-)…

keep…

06 Monday Jan 2020

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so far, we’ve had two chocolate tastings, and a pairing…

I’ve had a number of tastings over the years and always enjoy them… this last one was all about chocolate with coconut flavours… and I love coconut;-)…

our pairing was chocolate and an orchid tea… lots of fun preparing and doing the tasting…

I’ve also earned my keep by helping with data entry for the list of all the bars that are located in her office, or maybe chocolate room would be a better description, lol…

Tulip…

05 Sunday Jan 2020

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I always try to work in some public transportation while I am visiting my kids, lol… I love bendy buses and for the longest time we didn’t have any in Winnipeg… they also have double decker buses here… and recently the train has been added…

so, took a bus and the train to get downtown where we had lunch at Tulip, in the Hilton Garden Inn…

the modern decor is amazing… tons of purple and beautifully done… delightful space to be in…

we had two appetizers… polenta and tuna, both were delicious…

our mains were not as exciting, or a tasty, and unfortunately they didn’t have the dessert we had been looking forward to, but we had a wonderful time together and fun with buses, trains and even a bit of walking to finally get home;-)…

digs…

04 Saturday Jan 2020

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for the first week in Ottawa I slept on the pull-out couch in the living room as my son-in-law’s mom had the bedroom…

these were my digs, lol…

my suitcase was in my daughter’s office, where I would change… with all the chocolate, lol… at night we’d pull out the bed and I had the window ledge for my stuff… the whole system worked fine…

once my son-in-law’s mom left on New Year’s Day, I moved into new digs;-)…

there was a lovely message on their Airbnb board just for us;-)…

I added my new very soft purple blanket to the bottom of the bed…

and then, they added flowers and I added a new laptop;-)…

toy…

03 Friday Jan 2020

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well, I haven’t written a blog at the computer for absolutely ages… usually I write them using my phone…

but, yesterday, I got a new toy:-)… an Acer Aspire 5… it is a beauty… still haven’t connected a mouse to it but that will happen when I get home as I have a number there, lol…

I’ve been thinking about acquiring a new laptop for quite a while and finally made the decision yesterday while I had my son-in-law available to help me choose just the right one…

I had anticipated that it would be much more costly, but there were still sales on and we settled on this type… we had to go to two different locations before we found a store that actually had any as they’ve been selling like hotcakes apparently…

then we spent a good part of the evening getting it set up… the important things, like background and lockscreen, lol… also got my website and instagram connected… going to do as much setting up here as possible, while I have my geeky son-in-law to help…

this is only the second laptop I’ve owned… the first one was hacked many years ago and my nephew took it away to be fixed and never brought it back… it was also an Acer… he loaned me a different machine, but the screen started to go so it wasn’t very useful and I’ve only used it for a few particular jobs since then…

one of my retirement goals is to get caught up on technology as I have been too busy to fit time in to check out what’s new and improved out there… I think this is going to be a great asset in that process…

such fun:-)…

village…

02 Thursday Jan 2020

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last night we went to Upper Canada Village to see the lights…

the weather was balmy, with a bit of wind blowing now and again…

we wandered around and admired the hundreds of thousands of lights that lit up buildings and trees, had two horse and wagon rides, ate cookies with hot chocolate, sang Christmas carols in the church and had a wonderful train ride around the property…

unfortunately we couldn’t ride the carousel because you had to weigh less than 100 pounds;-(…

an excellent way to get in some walking…

new…

01 Wednesday Jan 2020

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had a very eventful last day with my son-in-law’s mom, lol…

started with a 7 am call to have the plumber come out to fix an issue in the bathroom… this also meant we were up early…

meanwhile my son-in-law was outside shovelling snow while the neighbour snowblowed both driveways…

then we got dressed in our finery for a photo shoot by one of my daughter’s friends…

we worked from a list to be sure that we covered every combination we could think of… wore two different outfits, had pictures of various combinations of people taken outside and inside and had lots of laughs throughout…

a visit with the photographer, breakfast for lunch, and then I built a tiny snow person before enjoying a wonderful walk around the block in the falling snow…

many pictures later I returned, just in time to join the nap club;-)…

we had appies, homemade and store bought crackers and toasted the new year – at 10:30, which was New Year’s in Newfoundland, where my son-in-law’s mom is from…

we watched a movie, recognized the New Year in Ottawa and went to bed… we did not stay up for the Manitoba time, lol…

lights…

31 Tuesday Dec 2019

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a few nights ago we took a drive to Taffy Lane in Ottawa…

my oh my… those people are serious about decorating for the holidays, lol… so many lights…

such fun… there were very few cars so we were able to take it slow and admire all the lovely scenes…

my daughter took this shot of one of my favourites, with a dinosaur and penguin in it;-)…