Toursists

Before our guests came to visit, I cleaned our house top to bottom. With 11 people under our roof, this level of clean was hard to keep up, so thankfully, we had other distractions. A side benefit to having out-of-town guests is the chance to show off the best parts of our environs. We made a list of all the things they wanted to do and see and, amazingly, accomplished most items. Come along with us on a journey, by land and sea...

One of the things I had looked forward to when we relocated to Ottawa was increased road trips to Montreal. The metropolis has so much to offer and, embarrassingly, I have only visited once in the two years we've been here. This week we loaded up two minivans and took a day trip to Montreal, where we visited the Biodome, toured old Montreal and ate poutine. Amazingly, we also navigated the metro system with seven kids, two strollers and a train switch (each way) without losing anyone, hurrah!

On our last day, we boarded the Lady Dive Amphibus for a legit tourist experience. We boned up on our Ottawa tourism facts (Did you know there is a match factory across the river that has burned down nine times? There is!), and saw our city from a new perspective. The tour bus drives right into the water in a mind-blowing manoeuvre that's as close to being in a real-life Transformer as we'll ever get. We sailed along the Ottawa River, looking up at Parliament Hill from below.

Then we disembarked and headed over to a food truck festival in which trucks offered innumerable types of mac'n'cheese. Ironically, there was a group pf vegans protesting at the entrance. We carnivorously sailed on past and gorged on macaroni made barbecue-style, with pulled pork on top, under ribs, mixed with butter chicken and amidst stew. It was glorious for those of us who love our mac'n'cheese.

Samuel de Champlain discovering Canada

Our guests are now gone and our house feels a little too quiet. We all ate supper and ended our day feeling a little heavy at having said goodbye to our buddies. Maybe it's the residual emptiness or maybe a day spent in the fresh air on the water, but I am ready to curl up in bed and melt into my duvet.