For the start of my only full day in Ottawa, I got up early that morning and walked over to the nearest Farm Boy to grab breakfast. I had meant to grab something the previous night, but since it was a stat holiday a lot of places were either closed or had closed early. After finishing breakfast, I headed back out again towards Parliament Hill, where I had a tour of the House of Commons booked for 9:40am. 

One of the things I liked about Ottawa were all the free Parliament tours you can take advantage of. Since the trip was unexpected and I didn’t have a huge chunk of time to do regular touristy things, I tried to fill my time with as much free activities as I could fit in. Although the Centre Block is under construction, you can book tickets online for tours to the Senate, House of Commons, East Block and the Immersive Experience. They do recommend arriving earlier to get through security screening, but it wasn’t busy at all on a weekday morning. 

I was lucky as one of my Japanese language partners was also coincidentally in Ottawa at the same time, so we were able to enjoy the tour together. The tour of the West Block was quite nice and it was pretty amazing how they built it in anticipation of the renovations to the Centre Block. The tour lasted around 40 minutes and we also got to visit the Room of Remembrance on the way out.

There was around an hour and a half before our next tour of the Senate, so we ended up walking over to the Notre Dame Cathedral as my language partner hadn’t visited it yet. We also stopped to take photos of the big OTTAWA sign at Byward Market. By 11:30am we made it back to the Senate and got through security again. The tour itself was very similar to the House of Commons and I found both to be informative and enjoyable.

Once the tour was done, we bid each other farewell, then I quickly stopped by Sansotei for lunch, before heading back to the hotel to freshen up. It was 2:30pm once I finally made it to Ottawa City Hall for the wedding. The wedding itself was super low key, but it was great as her parents flew in from Japan and I got to see them again for the first time in almost a year.

They decided to have the actual ceremony outside at Confederation Park. The weather was perfect that day and it made it into a small and intimate affair. After the ceremony and signing of papers, we all got iced coffees in the park as we waited for the photographer to arrive. Then there was another gap of time once photos with family and friends were done. Everyone besides the bride and groom ended up grabbing drinks at a local pub until the evening reception.

For dinner that night we were put inside a private room at Beckta and were served their 5-course blind tasting menu. We started off with seared scallops, then roasted quinoa-crusted fish, veal cutlet and braised beef cheek. Most of us got their wine pairings to go with each course. As it was very meat-heavy, I was so full by the fourth course that I couldn’t finish it all. Luckily I saved enough space for the dessert, as it was beet-based with cheese. The combination was unexpected, but worked surprisingly well as a dessert that I finished the whole plate.

It was honestly a lovely evening and I couldn’t have been more happy for my friend. I was so glad I was able to share in the day with her. As I was due to take the train back to Toronto early the next morning, there wasn’t much left of my time in Ottawa. However, I definitely have more reasons to visit again in the future. =)