Summertime Visit Continued OR WHAT THE HECK, SUZANNE

Were you all following along in our last installment wherein Engie complimented my skin (thank-you, sweet Engie, there is no secret unless you count being oily and fat) and Suzanne basically accused me of abandoning my daughter during a tornado? Lol, jk, I adore Suzanne, but to be very very clear, by the time we left Eve at home to go downtown, the tornadoes (gotta love when multiple tornadoes are now part of the summer vernacular) were long blown away, and Eve was in no danger of being in Oz by the time we returned home.

So Friday we weren't going to Bluesfest and the forecast was refreshingly clear of catastrophic weather events, so we went down to the market to shop and eat. There's an adorable little shop called Milk that we love and always visit when Zarah and Sophie are here, owned by two sisters and featuring cute sustainable clothing and fun stickers, pins, jewelry and socks. The owners are really fun and they totally let us make our daughters try everything on and run around the store showing it, along with reading all the sweary stickers at full volume.

Eve grabbed this dress and said "ooh cool, this will give me a creepy doll vibe"

Eve and I bought Crocs flip-flops for camping - my feet were absolutely shredded by the end of last time, and Eve couldn't find traditional crocs in the right size, and we figured out we could buy the same size flip-flops and were enchanted by the ridiculous twinning possibilities. 

We had lunch on a patio and also went to the paper place we love - Eve was on the hunt for the perfect journal, which she still wasn't able to find, but it's a fun place to wander around anyway, even if I did manage to resist the Frida Kahlo wrapping paper book Zarah waved seductively in front of me.

Friday we went for a walk and then went to meet friends for dinner before Pitbull. This led to my first time taking Ottawa transit in many, many years, due to getting a car and being too much of a zero-sense-of-direction-having wuss to take transit usually. We drove down to our parking lot and parked, then walked to the LRT station halfway down the hill we walk down to to get to Lebreton Flats, where Bluesfest happens.

It was surprisingly easy and efficient (surprising because Ottawa transit is notoriously um, not great). 

I made them pose like this for my friends who make fun of me for being afraid of public transit (look, I lived in Toronto, I took the subway daily and hardly ever got lost, I've just lost the habit).

Our friends made the reservation and we coincidentally ended up at the same place I had had lunch with my friend Janis the week before on our yearly market date.

I like it because the food is good, but also it's so pretty you feel fancy even if you just have the tacos.

I mean look, I took this photo of Sophie with her mocktail and it looks like it should be in a resort brochure.

Then we got back on the LRT. We accidentally sat in the 'inclusive seating', but the car was empty so we didn't have to move, and spent some time trying to figure out what all the icons for people who should be given preference meant.

The blind guy with the dog and the woman with the cane were easy enough, but the second one looked to me like someone with two heads. I mean, yeah, I would give the dude preferential seating because clearly he's got some stuff going on. Zarah stood up and looked more closely and figured out that it was someone carrying a baby in a backpack. Fair enough, but I think the illustration could use some work.

It was Saturday and Bluesfest was sold out for Pitbull, and the moment we walked in the gates I was a bit tense because oh, the humanity. The mostly young, mostly drunk, very excited and boisterous humanity. We managed to find a place to put our chairs and then Zarah and Sophie and I went to the bathroom and oh lord, that was an adventure all on its own (a young girl did say she really liked my dress, so there was that). Eve was pretty tense by the time I got back, but then the show started and even though the lawn chair section was more crowded than usual there was plenty of breathing room, and we made friends with the people beside us it was a really fun show.

And the next day Zarah and Sophie went home, and Eve and I did some non-traumatizing highway driving and took Lucy for a walk and then Eve had a friend over to watch Too Hot to Handle (if nothing else does, this should convince you that I don't alter facts to make my family look better on this blog), and I accidentally took a three-hour nap, got up for two hours and fell asleep again. In other words, it was a really great week.