We had a wonderful Canada Day we spent golfing with Richard’s brother Norm & his wife Jo at Clublink’s Grey Hawk Predator golf club. The golf course is in amazing condition and it was a very pleasant temperature to golf.
Wearing my Canada hat from the Dollar store, my Canada mask and new Foot Joy Canada golf shirt.
Jo had on her Canadian Open golf shirt and her new Adidas golf shoes.
Norm & Richard were also sporting Canada Day colours.
On some of the golf holes the flags were Canadian flags.
New Canada Day head over. Canadian flag on the green on #18 on Predator.
Richard had a very tough lie in the rough. Much like his Montreal Canadiens who have a very tough go being down 3-0 to Tampa!
#17 at Predator. A very short par 4. I think I was 56 yards from the green after my tee shot.
After a nice bit of shopping in the well stocked pro shop, we headed over to Norm & Jo’s house for a lovely evening sitting in their backyard. Jo served us some delicious salmon and salads. It’s nice to be able to visit with family again, now that we are fully vaccinated.
We sure slept well after all that fresh air!
Today we had another tee time at Grey Hawk golf club, but we were playing the tougher ‘Talon’ course. I should mention that Richard and Norm always have a $5 Nassau when they golf together. Yesterday Richard won the match. I wonder who was going to win today’s match?
Richard was using this club a lot today, as Talon is a longer course than Predator.
Wide open fairway on this hole. There were a lot more positional shots on Talon vs Predator.
Talon hole # 10. There were a lot of holes where the water cut into the fairway and it was really important to know where to land on the next shot. No lost balls today; a scuff mark on the ball, but that’s to be expected for bouncing the ball off the cart path. Two days of golf and I still have the same ball!
After playing Talon the match between the brothers is ‘all square’. Tomorrow we are playing the ‘Royal and Ancient’ or ‘Buckingham Golf Club‘ in Richard‘s home town of Buckingham, Quebec. Richard and Norm’s cousin Louise is playing with us tomorrow and she is a member at Buckingham. Louise is a very accomplished player having won many tournaments in Quebec over the years and it is a treat for me to play with her, on her home course. Buckingham Golf Club is where Richard and Norm would play golf as kids every day with their cousins when they were growing up. Who needed to send the kids off to camp when they could ride their bikes to the golf course and play all day instead? Richard recalls how they would bring their lunch to the golf club and the person in the golf club restaurant would take their lunch and put it in the refrigerator for them to keep It cold. The match between the brothers will be decided tomorrow on the old ’Royal and Ancient’ as Richard likes to jokingly call it. Richard’s dad was formerly the President of the golf club and when the golf club went from 9 hole to 18 holes, his father drove the bulldozer in his spare time to help the course architect design and build the course. So there really is some truth to the ‘Royal and Ancient’ ‘hallowed’ ground of Buckingham Golf Club, and a lot of family history too!
After golf today we went to Norm & Jo’s for a quick drink before heading downtown Ottawa to ‘Tavern on the Falls’ for a drink before dinner.
Heading to ‘Tavern on the Falls’. This building at 50 Sussex Drive and is the home of The Royal Canadian Geographical Society. Behind the building is the Ottawa River and beside the building is Tavern on the Falls. A couple of guys were setting up for some live music on the patio. We commented on how long it has been since any of us had heard live music. It’s nice the world is getting back to some sense of ‘semi normalcy’ as more and more people get vaccinated and the world becomes a lot safer without Covid.
In front of the the Royal Canadian Geographical Society building is this very cool 3D map of Ottawa depicting the important buildings in downtown Ottawa.
A close up of the 3D map of downtown Ottawa.
Rideau Falls which empties from the Rideau River, into the Ottawa River. The restaurant we went to called ‘Tavern on the Falls’ overlooked these waterfalls.
It was nice to have the fire pit lit while we sat out enjoying our drinks at Tavern on the Green as it was starting to cool down.
While we were sitting at Tavern on the Green Richard received a text from our neighbour Horst. Oh dear. Horst is looking after our place in Fort Erie while we are here in Ottawa. Apparently a very bad storm whipped through Fort Erie and the wind was so bad that it was like a tornado! Horst went to check on the house after the hail and rain storm went through and he found one of our very, very heavy Muskoka chairs upside down in the pool! Apparently we had 60mm of rain in a 20 minute period and hail stones the size of dimes. The tomato plants in our garden are pretty shredded Horst told us. It seems that we are doomed, because every time we leave home there is a devastating storm that blows through. Usually the storms of November are the ones that get us, but this time the storm was in July! Horst also told us there are wood chips in the bottom of the pool from our gardens. I guess we will have some vacuuming to do when we get home.
I found some pictures of the storm on Facebook from a Fort Erie photography group I’m in.
As the storm was blowing in.
Looking up the Niagara Parkway towards our house.
Hail on someone’s deck.
I hope our cars are ok after seeing this hail. I guess we will have to wait and see what devastation awaits us when we get home on Monday.
After a drink at this very scenic spot we decided it was time to head for dinner at the ‘Canal Ritz’ which is very close to Landsdowne Park, where the CFL’s Ottawa Redblacks play football. The Canal Ritz has a very large patio so it was nice to be able to sit outside and enjoy a meal in a restaurant for a change! Canal Ritz has the enviable reputation of having formerly had Hillary and former President of the United States, Bill Clinton as their guests!! Canal Ritz has a very large pizza oven on site, so of course. I had to try their delicious thin crust pizza!
Richard elected to have the seafood jambalaya pasta and he loved it! We forgot to take pictures tonight of our food, so unfortunately we have no photos to show of his dinner.
Sitting on the patio of Canal Ritz. It was not the warmest of evenings and I’m glad I had my jacket on my legs!
As we were finishing up our dinner we decided to google what time our favourite gelato spot in Ottawa South closed for the evening. We had just enough time to drive from Canal Ritz to go and stand in line on the sidewalk and wait for entrance to choose our gelato flavours.
Stella Luna Gelato Cafe! The best gelato you will ever have!
Stella Luna was awarded the Best Gelato in Canada and Top 3 Gelato Shops in the Americas at the Gelato World Tour (Chicago 2016). Family owned, and trained in Bologna by Italy’s finest, the owners and Master Gelato Chefs Tammy & Alessandro Giuliani combine old-world techniques and handcrafted recipes with a passion for finely prepared food. Stella Luna is the recipient of the International Journalist’s Choice Award (Italy, 2017) and was voted Top Places to eat in Canada by Yelp in 2021. We had been to Stella Luna once before on a Sunday evening when they were about to close and they didn’t have many flavours left to choose from. As we waited in line at 9:15pm, with only 15 minutes left before they closed, we really hoped they had some of our favourite flavours left!
So many delicious flavours to choose from! I had pistachio, butter pecan and salted caramel. Richard had butter pecan and rum, chocolate wild cherry. We sat out on a bench across from the gelateria shivering as we finished off our cold treats. What a great action packed day, with a special dessert to close out the day!
As we headed the 25 minutes home to Newman, we reflected on what a great day we had with Norm and Jo! It’s so nice to be able to visit with family again. We even had hugs after we finished golf on 18 today! We commented on how nice that was to be able to give a hug after golf!
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