Canada Day!

The first of July every year is a Canadian national holiday celebrating the anniversary of the July 1, 1867, enactment of the Constitution Act, which united two British colonies and a province of the British Empire into a single country called Canada.

We’re really starting to enjoy the multi-national existence that we lead. January 26 we celebrate Australia Day, April 30 we celebrate Koninginnedag and now July 1 we celebrate Canada Day not to mention last years mammoth Fourth of July celebrations we were lucky to partake in! It is so interesting to experience the different ways that nations have of celebrating their existence.

Actually – scratch that. They pretty much all celebrate in the same way. Street parties, concerts, fireworks, food and booze in abundance. Canada was no different in that regard. What was different however was the fact that Queen Elizabeth was in Ottawa for the celebrations!

We were lucky enough to be residents of Ottawa for the Canada Day celebrations. Not only because the Queen was here but also because Ottawa is apparently the best place to celebrate Canada Day. Having now experienced it I do not doubt this for a second.

We began our celebrations when Mikey & Anne-Marie arrived at our door at 11:30am. We started the day with a leisurely stroll down Rideau Street towards Parliament Hill. Now, when I say leisurely stroll I mean picture Prinsengracht on Queens Day or Sydney Harbour on NYE. It was packed with people out enjoying the festivities. There were buskers galore, concerts and even a skateboarding competition out on the street. We happily strolled along and noticed the crowd getting progressively thicker the closer we got to Parliament Hill.

As we neared Parliament Hill it became close to impossible to walk. Why? Because Queen Elizabeth was on her way! The streets were half closed and security was there in abundance so we joined the masses and waited in excitement for the Queen to go by. She went by in a flurry of fancy horses in a horse drawn carriage with the Duke. It was actually quite breathtaking to see! When she was safely on stage the streets semi opened again and we moved onto Sparks Street to check out more buskers. We were not disappointed and were entertained for ages watching the street performers. After a while we headed back up to Parliament Hill and were lucky enough to sneak in onto the lawn just in time to see the Queen speak!

I’m as surprised as the rest of you re how excited I am about this. I never thought I cared about the Royals. Turns out I am a huge fan who is incapable of speech when the Royals are in sight. Strange. After standing in awe until the Queen announced ‘God bless Canada’ and went on her merry way, I was able to enjoy the festivities once more.

Sights seen we headed back towards Casa J&J for some beers and snacks. On the way we hit up the newest restaurant to open in Ottawa. Its not a restaurant. It is a poutine take-out place called Smokey’s and it is the best. For those of you not familiar with poutine (have I already told you about this? Skip this part if I have …), it is a delicious mixture of hot chips, gravy and cheese curds. It sounds gross. It is not. It is delicious! And Smokey’s offers a range of different flavoured poutines including pulled pork & bacon

(which Joep ordered) and sausage (which Mikey ordered). Hilariously, when A-M & I were in line to order there was a woman and her family in front of us. She kept exclaiming excitedly about the different things on the menu only to be bitterly disappointed when her family reiterated to her continuously that it came on top of poutine. For example: Mum – ‘Oh nachos!’ Daughter – ‘Yeah but it comes on top of poutine mum.’ Mum (*disappointed sigh*) – ‘Oh.’ Mum – ‘Oh butter chicken!’ Daughter – ‘Yeah but it comes on top of poutine mum.’ Mum (*disappointed sigh*) – ‘Oh.’ I’m not kidding. This went on for ages. It kept us entertained as the queue moved slowly along.

Poutine purchased and sampled, we headed back home for refreshments on the balcony. I really cannot explain in writing the buzz on the streets so you are all required to imagine Queens/Australia Day at the height of its craziness and apply it to all scenarios discussed in this blog.

We spent the next little while soaking up the rays and the beers on the balcony before grabbing our bikes and heading to a bbq at friends of Mikey & A-M. On the way we passed many bbq’s where people were playing various games. Ours was no different! As the boys set about playing a game of washer toss, us ladies enjoyed some lovely conversations and refreshments. It was a hoot! It was also lovely to meet so many of the people that we’ll be with at Mikey & A-M’s wedding in a couple of weeks!!

An exorbitant amount of time was spent enjoying the hospitality of Adam & Elyse until we realized that the fireworks were soon to begin! So the 4 of us once again mounted our bikes (P.S. J&I were LOVING the reminiscent biking after a few drinks through crowded streets … awww Amsterdam!) and headed back towards the Market where we were lucky enough to have snagged a spot on a friend of a friend of a friend’s rooftop terrace!

The fireworks were actually pretty impressive! So was the company despite the late hour of the day. We spent the next whiiiiiile up on the terrace soaking up the atmosphere before our mammoth day was called to an end and J&I biked home for some much-needed R&R.

All in all I must say that our first Canada Day will be a tough one to top! We had a blast!! This is further supported by the length of recovery time I needed. Having said that, Friday was a semi work day so there has been plenty of recovery time.

In addition, the days following Canada Day have been pretty conducive to R&R. The sun has been shining every day and yesterday we even managed to bike to the beach for some chill out time in the sun! This city keeps surprising us … in the best way possible!

So Happy Birthday Canada! We thoroughly enjoyed sharing in the festivities!