A couple of weeks ago we rented a car and took Friday and Monday off work.
The 2008, V6 Buick Allure may not have been the best choice in times of high petrol prices, but it certainly helped when you had to accelerate to overtake a truck or two. Despite being an American car, it was ok to drive; it didn't like to take corners too well but softer suspension than a Japanese car helped a lot on the bumpy Canadian roads.
The weather had been really hot lately, and the lack of wind had caused pollution to rise and cause Toronto's first smog alerts of the year. Buses displayed messages alongside their route numbers "Smog advisory, take transit".
The smog really was bad, it was like a rainy haze on the horizon. The further we got from Toronto the more we expected it to clear, but it never did...
Our first stop on the trip was Kingston, a nice little town about the size of Taupo with a lot of limestone buildings about 200km East of Toronto.
We did a tour of the Town Hall and Mum sat in the Mayor's seat, then had some lunch at a local steakhouse and moved on.
Ottawa was only another 200km northeast now, the destination for our first overnight stop.
The weather really hit us on this leg of the journey, it went from hot and smoggy to a wicked storm with forked lightning and rain so strong I could barely see the road in front of me!
After 10 minutes the rain eased off a bit, and shortly after we pulled into Ottawa.
It didn't take us long to really like Ottawa. One walk across the canal, through the art gallery and past the amazing town hall was all it took.
We stayed two nights in Ottawa which gave us time to take a ride on the canal and see the light show where they used the town hall as a canvass for a huge light and sound show.
Just like NZ's capital, Ottawa is a place where you can see yourself staying. We really loved it, and would relish an opportunity to go back again.
On Sunday we moved on down the road into Montreal. Now Aimee and I have been to Montreal before, so kinda knew what to expect, and after the experience of Ottawa, there was no real excitement.
It didn't help that we were pretty tired but we still had a nice night out and got to see some of the area.
The drive home was pretty uneventful, total tally for the trip:
KM's driven - 1200
Night's in hotels - 3
Stops at Tim Hortons - 8
Iced Capp's purchased - 20ish
Stops at dairy Queen - 3
