Obama Tales from Ottawa

It's been over 24 hours, but Ottawa is still recovering from the most talked about visit in years. President Barack Obama made his 1st international visit as U.S. President, and he made it to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. And what a what a whirlwind visit it was! Even though he was here for only 7 hours (about an hour longer than originally planned), he made quite an impression on the nation's capital. I'm sad that the visit was right smack in between my two night shifts, otherwise, I would have braved the cold (yes, that's right, you heard it here, me, braved the cold!) to be right there on Parliament Hill with the other 2500 people to welcome, and perhaps even get a glimpse of him. (Yes, I have to admit, I have a major crush on the man, completely falling into the whole celebrity thing...) I feel that the President coming to town was such a momentous occasion (though definitely not more momentous than the day he was actually elected), but it was one of those days that I will always remember, nonetheless. (Too bad I will always remember that I was at home sleeping!)

He arrived on Air Force One at 1030 am and left at 530pm. At about 340pm, his motorcade (and let me tell you, talk about craziness! We're talking Secret Service Agents, choppers with snipers above head, RCMP, countless police and military...the whole city was prepared, even my hospital and it's helipad were on standby), made a surprise detour to the Byward Market. There, he shopped, shook hands, and bought one of the oh-so-famous Ottawa pastries, the BeaverTail. More specifically, it was a BeaverTail created especially for him in honour of his inauguration, coined the ObamaTail. He also wandered through the Byward Market shaking hands, charming people, leaving most of them awestruck. His last stop before he left the market was at Le Moulin de Provence bakery (Jen, this is the same place the 3 of us pigged out in when you were here this past summer) to buy shortbread cookies in the shape of maple leafs, which he said were for his daughters (awww!).

At 415pm he arrived back at the airport via 'The Beast', a state of the art, self-contained limousine. Ed knew he was in the vicinity of our neighbourhood because he was stopped dead in traffic as he commuted to pick up Bella from daycare. (They closed sooo many roads while his motorcade of something like 60 vehicles passed by en route to the airport via Colonel By and Airport Parkway.) I knew he was in the vicinity because the house shook and vibrated with all those helicopters that flew overhead as they followed the motorcade to the airport (remember, we live only a few km from the airport). Apparently, there was something like 12 miles of airspace closed.

Some pictures to mark the day. Bella with the headlines from today's Ottawa Sun (there were no Ottawa Citizens to be found anywhere, so The Sun was the only local option...)

The Globe & Mail's Headlines:


And because this is a blog about our daughter, I figure I should throw a few more pics in for everybody. ;)

"I have to vacuum the crumbs." (Her exact words, not mine...truthfully! I'm sooo proud of her!) ;)
You know I had to buy her that toddler-sized dust-buster, now we match!

Lifting the rug. Such a good girl! :)


That's all folks! Looking forward to this weekend. (I'm off again, I know, it's crazy!)