Our first adventure of the day came when I woke up early to do some laundry (the thief got all our remaining clean clothes) since reception didn't have any laundry cards last night. I went downstairs, loaded up the laundry, put some money on the card, and set it to wash. It is important to remember, for this story to work, that I put all of Adam's pants in the laundry - he was still dozing in his pjs.
At about the end of the wash cycle, I went back downstairs... to find that the washer with my laundry in it, still washing, was the only machine left hooked up inside the room. There were workmen hauling all the laundry machines out, to be replaced by new high tech ones, that wouldn't actually be hooked up until school started.
So keep in mind that all of my husband's pants are now clean, but soaking wet. I have a problem. I went to reception and they told me "Oh, yeah, you have to go to Staunton." (which is what? and where is it? and what am I to do there?) Turns out that Staunton is the (fairly ghetto) next dormitory over, where there is one washer and one drier on each floor. So I carried all the wet clothes next door, found another laundry room, and put them in the drier. These machines were even older, so I wound up pulling out most of the clothes a few minutes before the end of the cycle (still a tiny bit damp) because we didn't have enough time to run them again, and I wanted to make sure at least our clothes for that day were dry.
Clothes clean (if not completely dry), checked out of the rez, (we got permission to leave the car in the parkade while we looked around) we went downtown.
It is unfortunate that we hadn't been able to make contact with my cousin John, who lives with his wife and 2 boys in Ottawa, but it turns out they were out of town... this is what happens when other people have busy lives, and we can't give any notice, since we don't exactly know when we'll be anywhere in particular!
So it was great to be able to make plans to see my cousin Shannon and Aunt Linda, who live north of Toronto.
We also tried to make plans with Amanda, a great friend from Vancouver (and best friend to my awesome sister) but she was too busy with work to make the scheduling work.
All of these arrangements were being made over another delicious breakfast at a "Cora's" before we did some power-touristing in Ottawa. We saw the statue of Oscar Peterson by the National Center for the Arts, (where they play jazz over the speakers all the time and you can sit on the piano bench next to Oscar!) the war memorials, (the one for the Korean war was extra cool - there's a statue, and in front of it is an arrow that is part of the pavement, that points the direction to the cemetery for Canadian soldiers in Korea, where an identical sculpture looks back at this one). The WWI sculpture is much bigger and more detailed, but I was particularly moved by this one.
We saw the Parliament buildings, the Supreme Court, and any number of buildings and museums that look like castles, and the most impressive sculpture of Queen Elizabeth I've ever seen! Not to mention about a hundred other sculptures.
On our way back to the car, we were able to see the locks working in Rideau Canal, before stopping at Rideau Center so that I could replace some of my makeup.
Then we got back to the car, loaded up, and got on the road. I drove.
Let me tell you some things about my experience of driving on the 401. I'm sure it's very different at rush hour, when nothing's moving. And I can't imagine trying to do it without a) GPS and b) Adam, to periodically look ahead in the GPS so that I know what lane I will need to be in (in time to do something about it). The drivers were consistently fast and agressive, but not competitive. That is to say, they'd leave exactly enough room for someone to get a lane over, but if you hesitate for a second or fail to drive consistently 20 km/h faster than the posted limit, you will be lost (or at the very least, miss your exit).
I actually found it pretty exhilarating, and Adam was very glad that it was my turn to drive.
We stayed at the dorms for Humber College Lakeshore (a jazz school - not that there were too many music students there at this time of year) in Etobicoke (the very western edge of Toronto proper). The photos looked very much like our Ottawa residence, but in reality it was a little more downmarket, although it was still a double room "suite" with much the same layout - just not as nice finishes.
It was also the only dorm we've stayed in without wifi. They were willing to sell us ethernet cables (we did, in fact, buy one, but it was kind of a nuisance to be tethered). It seemed very low tech. Crazy luddite jazz musicians.
I was feeling a little bit bad that we weren't having much luck finding family and friends who had time to hang out with us, and that we were too far out to want to brave the expressway to get back into Toronto to experience some nightlife, so Adam offered to take me out if I could find something. We found a place called "Biermarkt" in Etobicoke, and went there for a drink.
The place has about 30 beers on tap, and another 120 in bottles - about which the server/bartenders are very knowledgeable - and they also had really delicious soft pretzels and a fantastic charcuterie platter, including house made candied bacon. (Candied. Bacon. Need I say more?)
We had a lovely "date," went back to the residence, and got a good nights' sleep. Playing with 3 and 5 year olds in the morning!
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