Happy Sunday! This week, Tina from Travels and Trifles is the lovely hostess for this week’s Lens-Artists Challenge and she asks whether we’re a city mouse or country mouse as in what’s our favorite environments.
Continue reading “Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #245: Environment”Tag: Adventure
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #244: Glowing Moments
Happy Sunday! Soybend from the blog, Bend Branches, is the guest host for this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge with the theme of Glowing Moments.
Continue reading “Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #244: Glowing Moments”Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #243: It’s Tricky
Happy Sunday! Donna from WindKisses is hosting this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge and her theme for this week had me thinking about it all day and still, I hardly have anything as cool as her photos – It’s Tricky.
Continue reading “Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #243: It’s Tricky”Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #242: New Experiences
Happy Sunday! Anne from Slow Shutter Speed is the hostess and I am reflecting on one of my favorite new experience on this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge with photos I haven’t looked at in nearly 5 years. Hope you enjoy.
Continue reading “Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #242: New Experiences”Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #240: The Road (Most Often) Taken
Happy Sunday! This week, John from Journeys with Johnbo is the host for this week’s Lens-Artists challenge. Instead of a physical road, the theme he has chosen led me down a metaphoric one and I’m talking about the style of photography.
Continue reading “Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #240: The Road (Most Often) Taken”Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #239: Finding Peace
Happy Sunday! This week, Tina from Travels and Trifles leads this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge by taking last week’s topic – Alone Time – one step further and asks us how we find peace in this busy and ever-changing world.
Continue reading “Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #239: Finding Peace”Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #238: Alone Time
Happy Sunday! This week, Ann-Christine from her blog – Leya – is the lovely hostess for this week’s Lens-Artists Challenge and this week’s topic – Alone Time.
Continue reading “Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #238: Alone Time”Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #234: Messages
Happy Sunday! Donna from Wind Kisses is the lovely hostess for this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge and she has chosen a difficult topic for this week’s challenge – Messages.
Continue reading “Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #234: Messages”Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #233: A One Lens Walk
Happy Sunday! Anne from Slow Shutter Speed is the lovely hostess for this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge and she has chosen a fun topic – One Lens Walk.
Continue reading “Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #233: A One Lens Walk”CFFC: Holiday Colors #WordlessWednesday
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #224: Exposure
This week, it’s Sofia’s turn to lead the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge and she has chosen one of my favorite topics – Exposure.
Continue reading “Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #224: Exposure”Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #223: Flights of Fancy
This week, John from Journey with Johnbo is hosting Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #223 and he threw out a topic with three words I don’t think I’ve heard in quite a while – Flights of Fancy.
Continue reading “Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #223: Flights of Fancy”
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #222: Mountains are Calling
Amy from the blog – The World is a Book… – is hosting this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #222 and she has chosen a topic I am all too familiar with – Mountains are calling and boy, are they calling!
Continue reading “Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #222: Mountains are Calling”CFFC: Clouds
CMMC: October Autumn Colors
CFFC: Texture
CFFC: Smooth
CMMC: September Alphabet: Begins with the Letter P
CFFC: Birds
US-Canada Trip 2022 Day 6
Between Mom’s snoring and feeling cold due to lack of covers, I got a very poor night sleep the night we arrived in Ottawa. The cons of sharing a bed with my mother – she wrapped the covers tight around her because she was cold while I just had the thin blanket sent up by request.
Anyway, the day forecasted rain so I wanted to see as much as I could of Ottawa before it starts to rain. We walked down to the Rideau Canal to see the canal locks. When I was studying for my Civil Engineering and we talked about the locks at Panama Canal, I couldn’t imagine what those locks looked like. Well, I have a pretty good idea now.
The picture above was one of my favorite pictures that day despite the gloomy sky. This is the Alexandria Bridge. On the other side is Gatineau – part of Quebec Province. I love the variety of foliage colors even though I am slightly disappointed that I haven’t seen much autumn colors yet despite the autumn equinox was a few days ago.
I almost forgot our surprise that day. We had planned to tour Parliament Hill but it was closed. As we continued to walk up the street, we found men and women dressed in kilts and were practicing their pipes. I tried to ask around to find out what was happening but just my luck, everyone I talked to was a tourist like me and they either didn’t speak English or they, too, were just as clueless as me.
I tried to Google it on my phone, too, but had no result.
Then the parade began. Men and women walked down Wellington Street in either a police uniform or in kilts.
In the meantime, mom has developed a dry hacking cough. She was cough every few seconds. At the same time, she was having leg pain. I told her a few times, “if you must rest, rest,” but she was adamant, saying she has traveled this far to see Ottawa, not to lie in a motel room.
I felt frustrated to had to stop every few minutes to look back to see her grimacing at the pain while hacking a cough or two. It made me feel hopeless because I couldn’t help her. It also made me feel frustrated because she was throwing tantrums as well.
By the end of the day, I am starting to feel an itch in my throat. I sure hope I haven’t caught whatever’s got mom because my swollen gums have just gotten better. I don’t want a hacking cough and who knows what else.
US-Canada Trip 2022 Day 4-5
For date reference, day 4 is referring to September 23 and day 5 is September 24. I think this is more for me than for anyone in particular.
As I wrote in this post, I felt like the trip had gone downhill after day 3. Even with the spectacular views from CN Tower on day 4, I can never compare those views to that of the Niagara Falls.
After CN Tower, we took the street car up to Toronto Chinatown. I have been to only two other well-known Chinatowns so far – Los Angeles and San Francisco – and I’ve come to expect rowdy behavior from the senior residents of Chinatown. Still, it was a bit disorienting and with Mom constantly wandering to God-knows-where, I had to be on my toes every second.
Can you tell my anxiety level has been pretty high during this trip?
After finally grabbing a bite, we walked a few blocks down to Toronto City Hall. It was my idea because I needed a photo of the Toronto sign in the Nathan Phillip Square to prove I’ve really been to Toronto. I don’t know about you but have you ever had to prove to someone that you’ve really been to a certain place?
I have. From then on, I’ve always photographed the sign of the place I’ve been to.
That afternoon, on the way back to the hotel, I received a call about my car. At first, I thought they were calling me to notify me my car was ready to pick up but it turned out they broke something while dismantling the car door. So now, new parts will need to be orders and who knows how long that’ll be. I became so anxious after the call. I know I should had been but I was.
Day 5 aka my birthday was spent driving from Toronto to Ottawa. Mom drove while I sat back and enjoyed my birthday drink from Starbucks – Iced Matcha Latte. I was thankful she allowed me to connect my phone to the rental car so I can play some music instead of listening to the hum of the road and our pathetic attempts of trying to make small talks with each other despite our small talks so far lasted less than a minute before Mom either got angry and started shouting or she got bored.
She also wasn’t feeling well that day and she had to exit in a random town and take a nap behind a Tim Horton (Canadian coffee franchise) while I just sat there, earbuds in, and listened to my music. I volunteered to drive but she wouldn’t let me, most likely still worried about my driving skills after my accident.
We finally arrived at the Ottawa motel at a little after 4 PM. As soon as we had a small meal, mom took some cough medication and went to bed.
This is Another Story 