A Trip to Ottawa

Earlier this week I had to travel to Ottawa (our nation's capital) for work, and despite the -24°C weather I knew that I had to walk around and enjoy some of the beautiful architecture.

Its been years since I've been here, but I can still picture how gorgeous it is in the summer with all the luscious gardens and parks. The bonus in the winter is that you can skate down the Rideau Canal, but unfortunately I forgot skates and it was a wee bit too cold to venture too far out on the ice.

One of my favorite parts of Ottawa are these great maps that are located around the downtown.

All of the key buildings are shown in a much smaller scale and it gives you a great impression of the city's layout.

Its fun to look down at the small scale....

...and then look up to see the real thing.

I was only in town for less than 24 hours, but I took full advantage of the time that I was there. I finished my meetings in the early afternoon and used the rest of it to explore around downtown, popping into shops here and there. In the evening I had the pleasure of meeting up with two of my roommates from university and having a wonderful dinner together in the fun Byward Market area. Now that we live 5 hours apart, we don't get to see each other as often, so getting to catch up was a real treat. I'm thinking I'll have to make a trip back in the summer when there is nicer weather!