When You Can't Go to France, Go to Ottawa

(Note: I tried to post this from our hotel room in Ottawa, and just realized the posting attempt failed.)

Once our Friday-night flight was officially canceled, Michael and I spent about an hour on hold with Air France. End result? We now have tickets to fly on Wednesday evening.



My plan was to stay home and get stuff done until Wednesday. Michael didn't think much of that plan, so he made reservations at a hotel in downtown Ottawa.



We drove up Saturday. We're closer to the Montreal airport than we were at home, and in the meantime, we can keep busy having fun instead of sitting at home feeling sorry for ourselves. It's working so well that I find myself with surprisingly mixed feelings about our chances of getting to France later this week. (Partly this is due to dreading a trans-Atlantic flight with a 4-year-old once the initial excitement of going on vacation has worn off a bit.)



Ottawa is a charming small city. Saturday night we walked up to the Houses of Parliament. The kids liked the rabbit we saw hopping around on the yard, and the unicorn and lion statues. The grounds of Parliament and the nearby park have thousands of tulips that are almost ready to bloom. In another week or two it will be absolutely beautiful.



We also found the Byward Market area, which has many small ethnic eateries. Because we arrived right as most places were closing, we ended up eating Chinese, but not the typical Chinese food we can get in the Valley. The twins shared a huge seafood soup, and the rest of us had pork and thick noodles. And then we discovered beaver tails, a Canadian version of the fair food we called elephant ears in Oregon. The Canadians are more inventive with the toppings. My favorite so far is maple icing, but they have all been good.



Sunday morning, we returned to Byward Market to eat breakfast at the French bakery. Obama ate here once, and there are pictures of him all over the place.



We spent the bulk of the day at the Museum of Civilization. Did you know the Tsimshian people thought that humans and fish share the same group of souls? When you die as a human, your soul returns as a fish so you can help feed the current humans. The totem poles on display were impressive. There was also an interesting exhibit of artifacts from Afghanistan, but LW dragged me through that pretty fast. (He was eager to get to the IMAX movie.)



We find reminders of France everywhere, from the numerous French bakeries to the out-of-business Made in France store to the French embassy to the bilingual signs. These sightings sting a bit, but the pain is easing somewhat.