Oh Canada!

I have been very quiet the last month and a half. Truth is, I got rejected to my Graduate programs (Thanks Creative Writings UBC and UVic) and it shook me up. Rejection, even when you know it is probable, is hard. It is even harder when it is based around your hopes and dreams.

So here I am. Trying to force myself back into the swing of things.

I have finished working at the shoe store (and my shoe collection is happy for that). June 30th was my last day, which meant I could head to (another entry) Moskha Yoga, pack and head to my friend's house for a sleep over before OTTAWA!

Yes, I did get up at 5am in order to celebrate Canada's birthday in Ottawa with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

We arrived around 11am, got ready and headed downtown getting to Parliament Hill to see the empty carriage that carried Will and Kate being pulled away.



On the way down we stopped for some tasty, unsweetened aka perfect, lemonade thanks to a life-long friend and her silliness (but really here awesomeness).

Upon arriving at the Hill the amount of people was overwhelming and moving through the crowd my friends and I held hands like in kindergarten in order to stay together. We got in front of the big screen and I oohed and awed over Kate's fabulous fashion sense and outfit. Then I "ewed" at Stephen Harper. We tried to get some photos off the screen and a few were successful!



The crowds.



Will and Kate singing "God Save the Queen"


I will say this though, the amount of infants and dogs was ridiculous. Crowds and heat of those proportions are NO place for the young, elderly (who really weren't present) and animals. On top of that, the overly rotund pug that needed to do his business on the sidewalk in the middle of the crowd...was not amusing.

HOWEVER, we had a tasty lunch at Dunn's and then headed to the National Gallery (Free admission!) to get out of the heat. We wandered through the gallery and I got to "teach" my friends a little from my first year Art History knowledge.



Outside the National Gallery.

Honestly, we were tired and Mother Canada smiled on us. We walked out into a gorgeous atrium where we had a nice 20-30 minute nap...that was interrupted when a security guard came to check on us. I'm assuming they were getting some intoxicated persons wandering in and wanted to keep everyone safe.

At this point though we figured we could keep going and headed outside to the "club." The amount of energy some of the dancers had was off the wall so we soaked up some rays and enjoyed their dancing until I spotted the Quality Street Street team and we all know I love chocolate....and Quality Street is one of my favourites!

I trotted over and asked what was happening...taking handfuls of the orange cream chocolates. Turns out if you followed them on Twitter via your mobile and showed them they'd give you a free limited edition tin with Will and Kate on it!! Obviously my cell was not cooperating but the lovely Street Team let me have a tin and so I followed them once my mobile complied. :D

Lots of tasty treats for me! (I still have a few left, don't you worry ;))

We ended up slowly making our way back to our humble abode through the market, and along the canal, got showered and rested and then headed back downtown for the concert! Well, really we missed most of it BUT we caught Great Big Sea and the night matched our day. Completely perfect.



Analicia's First Beaver Tail in the Market.



The Fireworks were sensational and we headed to the market and ended our night at one of their great pubs saluting Alexander Keith!



I really just had the most perfect Canada Day. Thank you Ottawa and lovelies for that!

To end. Let's all look at how cute my outfit was. :D