Last days in Ottawa

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It's 20:31 on the 5th of May. We've arrived at Scales Nature Park, but I'll get into that on tomorrow's blog. First I'll wrap up our stay in Ottawa.
So Friday. We had the day off Friday and so we resolved to go into Ottawa - however Tim was giving the German girls a lift to the bus station that morning so we couldn't get a lift in with him. Instead, Laura was driving to a town called Manitick that was kind of half way between the house and the city, so she was to drop us off there and we'd get the bus the rest of the way.
However, once Laura had disappeared into the distance and we had stood at the bus stop for about half an hour, we came to realise that the bus was only a commuter service and didn't run until 5pm that evening. We considered the predicament for a minute and decided to walk into the town proper to find another bus. Unfortunately it transpired that Manitick effectively was the bus stop, and that the residential area was in the opposite direction to Ottawa, so we turned back around and headed to the intersection where the initial bus stop was.
From there we walked up the highway that was at least in the direction of Ottawa, hoping to stumble across a town with a different, better serviced bus line. The sun was getting hot by this point, and we walked along the dust road for a mile or so, trying to hitch a lift as the cars past (much more common practice in Canada) - but to no avail. Eventually we passed a man on the other side of the road walking his dog who told us that the nearest bus to get us to Ottawa was 2 miles down the road and that we were unlikely to successfully hitchhike down the road we were walking.
We thanking him and turned to carry on in the midday heat when a pulled up in front of us. The driver, who introduced himself at Brad, said he'd seen us while in Tim Hortons walk around the intersection looking for a bus stop, and asked if we needed a lift anywhere. We gratefully and accepted, and Brad agreed to drop us off at the town a few miles down down the road that had a regular bus service into Ottawa. As he drove Brad told us that he was retired despite being probably late forties, and was currently spending time with his father that followed in a Jaguar behind us (we were in a high spec 4 track). Clearly Brad had enough money knocking around that meant he didn't have to work.
He was the kind of man that you talk about for the rest of the day, even though we spent only a few minutes with him. He had an energy that was infectious, and seemed to have a genuine interest in us and our plans. He dropped us off outside the stop and told us which bus to get, which was only $3 and took us to downtown Ottawa. Unfortunately, by this point it was gone 12 and we were being picked up by Tim at 3.30, so we didn't exactly have eons of time in the city - so quickly grabbed some lunch and headed down to Parliament Hill to have a look around the Government buildings. The security was very heavy - apparently even more so after the shooting last year, and we all had to go through airport type checks before getting in.
Only the rotunda and memorial rooms were open for the public to see, and both were grand and ornate, in a low key kind of way. The pictures will give a better impression I'm sure.
By the time we had seen parliament and picked up bits and bobs we needed from the shops, we met up with Tim and headed home. The evening was fairly uneventful - Laura, Haf (a Welsh WorkAwayer) and I stayed up to watch Dateline, but little more than that happened.
Saturday was our last day working. Rosie and Kate spent the morning setting up in the barn for an event in Sunday, while Matt continued to organise the shed he had started the previous working day. I was determined to do something useful, so gathered spades, trowels and other tools and headed out into the verge of the road where the 'Winchelsea' sign was standing, and set about tidying that area up - pulling weeds, removing stones and the like.
We stopped briefly for tea and lunch as usual, but worked fairly solidly until around 3, by which point the signs groundings had been suitably beautified, and my arms and face suitably burnt. Rosie and I then set out to walk the long, straight, hot walk down the road to the Tim Hortons about 3 miles away - taking about an hour to get there. We bought a few drinks for the evening and a snack to keep us going for the walk back, but fortunately Tim - who had popped out to buy wine - quickly spotted us and drove us home.
That evening a family with two daughters and a son, all between 6-13 I would guess, came round for beers and a barbecue. The food was delicious, and the beer made it that little bit better with such a warm evening. We ate until we could barely move - then, to much groaning from the adults, the kids floated the idea of playing Capture the Flag. Of course we did play in the end - and in fact the game was a particularly good ones with so many people playing, and we continued until darkness fell and we had to stop. We slept well that night.
Sunday was our last day, and our day off. We woke late, about 10 o'clock, and ate a leisurely breakfast before beginning a few hours of amusing ourselves with sunbathing, runs, books and phones. I was a little bored by the afternoon so decided to head back down to TH, more for the walk than anything, and also bought a few salads for the bus journey the next day. This time no one was there to pick me up, and the trip took 2 and a half hours in total.
Another family with 3 kids came round that afternoon, and the beer and food was just as good as before - if not, as Harry (H-W) once famously said of last days of a holiday, "tinged with sadness". We played a altogether more low key game of Capture the Flag before I had to head in to pack. By the time I was done, it was time for bed - it was an early start on the morrow, and the room had became uncomfortably warm with the rising temperature (it was 26•C by Sunday.
So that was it for Ottawa, our second host - and we were to move on to Scales - an experience, I can already say, that is totally different.

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