This past Remembrance Day weekend, my dearest friend Emily came up for a visit. It was an incredible weekend of sight seeing, patriotic feelings and countless walks down memory lane. It was splendid.
The only place I could take pictures
Emily arrived on Thursday night and she hit the ground running. Being a Thursday we thought we should take advantage of a free museum and so we decided to go to the War Museum, being Remberance Day and all. It was an impactful tour seeing the special exhibit entitled “War & Medicine”, walking through the “trenches” of WWII and seeing the endless images of men and women fighting for what they believed in so strongly. We all walked away from there feeling a renewed pride in our country that stands for peace and justice. It was quite amazing.
After our somber tour, we decided to lighten the mood and go to Karaoke! Now for those of you who know me well, you will know that I am not a big fan of this social outing. I don’t really know why, but I just find it humiliating, frustrating and overall embarrassing for everyone involved. But knowing how much Emily LOVES karaoke, I thought I would give it a go and so Jon, Emily and I ventured off (Brent was smart). Overall it was fine. The bar we went to was packed with all types of characters, with obvious regulars who were more than anxious to have their turn behind the mic. The three of us decided that would each do a song and then call it a night.
One of the must frustrating parts of karaoke for me is choosing a song. This night was no different. I had no clue what to sing and so Jon picked out a song for me, and I agreed to it. After we submitted our songs to the DJ I started to panic as I couldn’t for the life of me think of the tune of the song. I sort of remembered the chorus, but had no clue what the verse was. I was terrified and prayed that I wouldn’t be first to go. Well wouldn’t you know that out of the three of us, I was the first one to go. It was awful! As anticipated, I didn’t know the tune of the verses at all! The chorus was not the best display of my performance abilities and half way through I motioned to “cut” the song, only to have the song continue for another two minutes. It was my worst nightmare: humiliating, frustrating and overall embarrassing.
My pride aside, the evening was great. Both Emily and Jon did a fantastic job and we had a great time laughing the night away. I will just say though, that the next time I decide to put myself through something like that again, I will be preparing for weeks in advance. No cold calls for me!
The rest of the weekend was amazing. Friday we spent the morning in the blistery cold, standing with the swarms of people at the National Remeberance Day Ceremony. Unfortunately we didn’t take into account the millions of people that would be there before we left and so the only spot we could find was behind the War Memorial. All we could see was the back of everything that was happening. C’est la vie.
These two mounted the monument at the beginning of the ceremony and then stayed completely still for the whole time. It was quite impressive.
Dang zoom!
Much to our surprise and thrill, at the end of the ceremony all the big-wigs moved to behind the Memorial, right infront of us, for the Veterans parade! We had the best seats in the house to see Mr. Steven Harper, warmly called Steve all afternoon by Emily, and many other people that I’m sure were famous. It was a great way to end a very long ceremony in the sub-zero cold.
The Priest, a famous writer (the tall one with the red pompom hat), Bob Ray and STEVEN!
The rest of Friday and Saturday was filled with more sight seeing, touring, a lot of walking and best of all, many trips down memory lane with my darling Emily. We talked for hours on end and were reminded of so many different memories that have brought us to where we are today. It was absolutely delightful. Emily you are truly my Sunshine and I was soo happy to have you come visit me. Thank you for being so amazing!
Enjoy the rest of the pictures from our weekend.
She wanted to get a picture infront of the Parliament buildings but her beauty caught the lens instead 
Infront of the Rideau Canal. You'll just have to believe us.
Me and Oscar.
On our way to Parliament Hill on Saturday!
Parliament Hill!
Loving the fact that we can walk (or leap) freely on our country's Capital lawns!
Unbelievable architecture inside Centre block.
Free tour of the Peace Tower
The ceiling of the Peace Tower
Did you know that there is a clock on each side of the Peace Tower? News to me.
Click to see panorama view of Wellington Street
Memorial Chambers: in memory of all the fallen soldiers
Emily making me look like a fool by not joining in the tea-party!
For Jeff Epp
Trying to hint to all the people that we were taking a picture! - National Gallery of Canada
Finally!
Inside the NGC
For dad and his love for billowing fabric.
How fun is this? Kids doing art in an art gallery. I couldn't resist.
Our final destination before Emily left: breakfast near the train station. If only they had a picture when we found it online.
What a place...they charged us for one jam packet! Also, that's not the White Horse that I've seen.
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