in which i promote the frozen wasteland of ottawa

apparently, everyone else in the world knows how great ottawa is (judging by the united nations of fellow tourists) except americans. i just knew ottawa was canada's capital, and it was really freaking cold. but it's a lovely place, full of polite people on bicycles, cheese shops and canals.

on wednesday morning, as we walked off our tim horton's breakfast, we stumbled on a marching parade of soldiers with a band, dressed in beefeater hats and red mountie uniforms (except for the bagpipe players, who wore kilts instead of black trousers). we followed them to the grounds in front of their parliament building and watched (along with about 5000 other people) a 30-minute long exercise that involved much shuffling of rows of soldiers to get straight that looked like a shimmying wave. i'm sure there was symbolism galore, but we didn't know what it was, so it was exceedingly dull. apparently it happens every day, which seems kind of rude (to get people all excited with a marching band and then bore them for so long on a daily basis), but there are worse things, i suppose, and i made up my own stories to make it more entertaining, like that the opposing rows of soldiers aiming at each other were going to turn and shoot the veterans in wheelchairs that were watching from on the field. hey, i didn't say i was making nice stories. next time, we will read up on what exactly is being reenacted so we can properly appreciate it and not have to resort to mental violence.

in the byward market, we found a german shop selling curry ketchup, and we bought two giant bottles. we recently ran out of the bottle we found in an import shop at seattle's pike place market when we were there in march for our post-hans brown-out, and we have been kicking ourselves for only getting one bottle. now we're set for a while.

we ate fresh mini quiches (zucchini and tomato for me, spinach for justin) from a farm stand in the market before riding our bikes across the ottawa river into gatineau, on the quebec side, which had excellent bike paths through greenways next to the river; it looked so much like brugges, in belgium, you'd think someone had copied it intentionally. we took a break from pedalling and sat on a bench overlooking the river and talked about chaos and the randomness of hans's death and i cried into the towel i keep in the saddlebags of my bike for wiping it off when it gets caught in the rain.

we got back to the hotel just before dusk (the most dangerous time of day for cyclists!) and took a leisurely swim in the heated pool (the tadpole's first swim!), then got cleaned up and headed back out on foot for the neighborhood around the byward market, hoping for a little dinner and maybe some live music. despite the fact that ottawa looks and feels like a european city (see aforementioned bicycles, cheeses and canals), it is still mainly a political town, which means it goes to bed early like most american towns. at home, we usually eat dinner between 10:00 and 10:30, which suits us fine in europe once we adjust to the time difference (except for madrid, where 10:00 is embarrassingly early), and we started looking for a place to eat in this very european town about 10:00 only to find that everyone was trying to shoo out the last few relaxed diners. and the only live music on a wednesday night in ottawa started at 8:30. so we decided to settle for pub food and sat down in one of two pubs still open at 10:30, only to find that it was smoke-free (!) and that they had a full menu and not just pub food, all good omens. it seemed to take an awful long time to get our food, especially since in a fake-irish pub you'd think the food would be mostly frozen and/or pre-prepared. and then our food came out and it was amazing and fresh and obviously prepared from scratch while we waited. i had a lovely piece of grilled salmon with lemon butter and spring onion mashed potatoes and crisp-tender asparagus spears and carrot wedges, and only good manners kept me from picking up the plate and licking it off. what a wonderful surprise.

yesterday we drove from ottawa to toronto, stupidly hitting the outskirts of toronto just as rush hour was really starting to percolate. but we made it to our friends' and got to meet baby benjamin, who will be three months next week and looks overwhelming like his father at first look but on second look is a nice blend of both his parents, and then had a beautiful thai/vietnamese dinner in a former convenience store/donut shop. today we will meet up with deadbabymama for roti and who knows what else, and then tomorrow we head home.

i hate that this trip is almost over. but there are some great memories to carry with me. like the woman in brandon, vermont, we saw wearing athletic shorts with "UMASS" across the seat. one could assume that she is an alumnus of the university of massachusetts, sure; or, one could read a little more deeply for the more meaningful message, such as [in a halting, questioning tone], "um, ass?" or [in a dreamy, homer-simpson-on-donuts voice], "um! ass!" another hidden message was found on the sign above the handrail along the steep ramp in front of the crowne plaza in ottawa, which read "PLEASE US HANDRAIL" - one could assume the "e" had falled off the sign, or one could see the greater potential of viewing the sign as a gentle directive: "please us, handrail!" when i told justin that, he suggested i climb on the rail and slide down. i was tempted but decided it was in the tadpole's best interests to keep my my shoes connected to the sidewalk.

and the tadpole seems to be thriving. i am hungry every two hours, and need a nap every day, and have begun to get nauseated when i haven't eaten. plus, my right hand goes tingly when i've been clutching the handlebar of my bike for more than five minutes. it's so awful and thrilling at the same time. i feel terrible! yea - another sign of pregnancy!