Memorial Day Weekend

Looking up at the East Block Parliament Building

Memorial Day Weekend meant road trip for us. We had been invited to a reunion in Ottawa - basically a gathering of people that had worked together at Nortel. It happened to fall on Memorial Day weekend so we decided to make it a longer weekend and head to Ottawa for the event and to get to see Tika.

The drive up was interesting as it was the Friday before Memorial Day and we drove through sleet as we entered New York State from Pennsylvania. The weather in Ottawa was similar to DC so it meant for a cool couple of days but started to warm up by Memorial Day.

We spent the weekend at a condo that we had rented. It was very convenient being right downtown and the fact that it had a well equipped kitchen meant that we could also relax a bit about where to eat and do some of our own cooking if we wanted - which we did.

The weekend was also Race Weekend in Ottawa with a full slate of 2k, 5k, 10k, half- and full marathons being run. A friend had registered for the 10k but was not able to run it so I joined 3 friends and ran in his place. Running in Ottawa is great - everything was green - the weather was not too warm and the views are fantastic. On top of that it seemed that the entire city was out supporting the runners. Even though it had not been a week since my half-marathon in Fredricksburg I ran a pretty good race, bettering my best 10k by over 2 minutes finishing in 47:56 - good for well within the top 10% of finishers.

After the race we went straight to the re-union and got to see some old friends. Some we keep in touch with regularly, others I had not seen in almost 20 years, but you would have thought it had been 20 weeks. We had a great time.

We also got to spend a good bit of time with Tika. We had brought some stuff up for her which meant she had to go through her place and do some culling of clothes etc, which she donated to a local charity. We also brought her up a new bike for her birthday. We went to ZenKitchen for lunch on Sunday, a birthday lunch, and did some shopping together. It was a great way to spend the day.

Monday was a beautiful day and Laura and I spent it relaxing and walking around Ottawa. Of course we did some shopping as well but it was just great to have a sunny, warm Memorial Day with no need to hurry to do anything.

It turned into a great weekend and I hope we will find time to go back soon - I now September I will be back as I have a race in Ottawa which I am looking forward to :-)