Morton/Alexanders come to Ottawa

My father has a conference this week in Washington, some UN/World Bank thing. So last week, he and mum came and stayed with us. It was fun!

The poor bastards spent 40+ hours on planes and in airports; Chicago was snowed in and everyone and their canine was delayed. Apparently there's a saying: "When Chicago catches a cold, the rest of the US airports catch the flu". To make matters worse, their luggage was sent to India! Or somewhere.

So, they arrived in Ottawa at 3am Wednesday morning, jet lagged and exhausted. I took Wednesday off, but they slept until about midday, so I managed to get some work done. After they where showered and breakfasted, we wandered into town for a late lunch and a beer at a great little pub called 'The Manx' (after Harry Manx? I don't know). We then sauntered past the ice sculptures they have up for 'Winterlude', the mid-winter festival they have here, then into town to buy some thermals for them - all their warm gear of course being in their luggage, which was laying in the sun with a cool drink in Bangalore.

Inside is a real Mammoth!

Elli and I worked Thursday, so they went to the Canadian Museum of Civilization, all the way over in Quebec! Also, their luggage arrived, suntanned and dusty. On Friday we hired a car and took them skiing; mum unfortunately hurt her shoulder, while dad took a two-hour lesson from the wonderful Beryl. It was cold, but even worse it was windy, so I was forced to steal Elli's ninja mask. It was great fun, for us at least; we haven't been there in the day for quite a while (we have season passes, but only for night skiing), so we got to try a couple of runs that we hadn't been on before. Dad also said he had fun, but poor mum was forced to sit inside in the warmth and eat more poutine. We topped the day off with a great meal at a Jamaican-fusion restaurant, whose premises are a cute little renovated house.

Mum gettin' her ski on.

Of course, we subjected them to the horrors of... POUTINE!

On Saturday they had breakfast with a friend-of-a-friend, while we slept in (hehe). Then we wandered along Bank Street, had some coffee in a trendy (ie. overpriced) Italian deli, and attempted to go skating. However, the canal was crazy-packed, so we contented ourselves with lunch at an Asian restaurant called 'Kinki' - the menu had a scantily clad lady eating sushi in a suggestive manner. Food was nice though. After that we wandered along the canal on foot, and ended up at Feleena's (our favourite Mexican place) with Peter, Jennie and Alyssa. So yeah, Saturday was mostly about eating.

Sunday was their last day... we made a snowman and took them to the airport. It was great to see them again, and very sad to see them go.

The snow man cometh...

...and for some reason he's Irish, gay, and very angry.

Come back soon guys!