Ottawa - the final chapter (and Toronto)

So the final Saturday of Ottawa was action packed. First, we headed out to Gatineau park to check out factory ruins.

There were waterfalls and tons of people.

We walked a bit further and then turned around. It was the luck of good timing, shortly after we got back to the car it started to rain. Next up was the King estate (everything was closed) and so we headed to a nearby village and drank tea, read the newspaper and watched the rain fall on the river.

Dinner was at a fantastic french restaurant in the woods (I'm currently eating all the food I will not be able to afford in Switzerland - this summer even a street-food donair was $14). Our good luck with timing continued as a table became available just when we showed up.

Back in Ottawa we went to this fantastic Karaoke (first time for me!) at this chinese restaurant hosted by a drag queen called China Doll. It was apparently this family business, parents used to run the place and when the kids took over, they made it more hip and started Karaoke night. The daughters ran the bar and the sons ran the Karaoke and one of them does the drag thing (only for Karaoke night). The place was packed and the night that I was there, the parents were sitting at the back taking it all in. It had a fantastic vibe and it was a great evening, plus with our excellent timing we got the best seat in the packed house because a table cleared just as we got in.

Then I was on my way to Toronto. That Sunday evening I stayed with Carey and watched her band The Liquidaires play at "Mitzi’s Sister, which is on Queen St. In Parkdale just past Landsdown"

Yeah, the picture is really fuzzy. I will claim a) dark room and b) captures the energy of the style of music anyway and claim artsy.

Anyway, if you are in Toronto I highly recommend checking them out, I had a lot of fun listening. Plus, the show at Mitzi's Sister was from 5-7pm. Now that's my kind of show time! They have a band webpage that is down, and I can't play samples from their cbc page but apparently they have a mailing list.

Then it was the train ride home to Stratford. Wildlife sighting - a hawk flying over the train carrying some poor struggling rodent in its claws. I don't know what the rodent was, it had a bit of a fuzzy pom-pom on the end of its tail (spelling mistake still works, the end of its tale).

Next on the agenda - wild packing and crazy paperwork and then.... homeless!!!