Home for the holidays – The Adventures of Nick and Pam

The Wrights returned to California yesterday after ten days in Ottawa, hanging with family for Christmas. We had a wonderful time. It felt so good to spend time with our families, reconnecting since the last time we’d seen them in July, enjoying lots of yummy food and many a tasty beverage, and it was even a pleasure to see all the snow.

This thing was breaking up ice on the sidewalks and sweeping it away.

We had a few travel adventures this year. We opted not to rent a car, since last year we rented one, it cost us $600, and it mostly sat in the garage. Instead, we took the train (and one Greyhound bus) everywhere. The train tickets cost $440, but we came out roughly even in the end because we missed our train once and had to buy last-minute bus tickets, and we took a few taxis and filled the gas tanks of family members who were kind enough to drive us around.

You may have also heard about the ice storm related power outages, which nearly jeopardized our turkey dinner at my parents’ place on Dec 21. Luckily, they had lots of candles for light, a woodstove to keep us warm and to cook veggies and gravy, and my stepdad is a boss and chipped ice off the barbecue to finish the turkey.

One of many Christmas trees we encountered on our trip!

The next time we hit Ottawa will be next September, so we also had to get in a couple of Canadian delicacies…poutine and flavours of chips that we can’t get here in the U.S. (silly Americans…all-dressed chips are the best!).

Can't get these in the U.S. either!! — Can’t get these in the U.S. either!!

I’m off work until Monday, and the weather is supposed to be beautiful here, hitting the 70’s during the day, so we’re hoping to go for a few hikes/bike rides and get some sun!