what's fun in Ottawa on the August long weekend

. visiting my sister!!
. realizing on a 4 hour relaxing train ride that, contrary to popular (my) belief, Ontario actually is quite beautiful.
. museums. We went to the art gallery and the photography museum and it was WONDERFUL... so many beautiful and creative works of art, naturally with a few disturbing and "interesting" ones thrown in there. It was also nice to be mendering through the art with someone who appreciates it just as much as you do.
. beautiful beautiful glorious sunshine/weather! Praise be for temperatures below 30 degrees!
. Jamaicans. The greatest thing in the world is... love! (said at the Jamday festival about 30 times in 10 minutes)
. falls. Water ones to be exact.
. the transportation system in Ottawa ... never ENDING fun there :) People are so interesting.. and many of them speak French in that there city
. BUSKERS! What a great form of live/risky/fun theatre! We watched people juggle all sorts of various objects; develop intricate rhythms using basketballs, brooms, trashcans etc; get out of a straightjacket and chains that are tightly wound around them; balance on a bike that's on top of a tall pole and then stand up and juggle; and of course many references to how much you should pay them for their show.
. scrumptious food at the Elgersma/Ott residence
. parks. Lots of parks! I think we hit 8 parks in total. In one there were the falls, another held Jamaicans, another held a big lake, in another we watched a movie, in another we watched a play, in another we waited for the bus, and the last two were parks that we cut through to get from point A to point B. Beaucoup des gardins dans Ottawa!!! But watching a play in park was definately a very cool experience.... how can you not appreciate art when you're surrounded by God's art?
. watching 'Omagh', a powerful film about the bombing of Omagh by the real IRA, and renting it from this FANTASTIC movie rental place that has rooms FULL of mostly foreign/independant films! A little piece of heaven!
. gelato. Enough said.
. the Parliament's sound and light show. Ooooo.... ahhhhh. Makes you feel patriotic while you contemplate "what if we actually DID have a purple-coloured Paliament Hill.."
. Miss Tiggy Winkles. Seriously the BEST children's store in Ontario. Serious.
. doing all of the above with my sister!