a peek inside the fishbowl

I am determined to return to Andrew Haydon Park (map here) for dinnertime. We’ll go earlyish; and bring a frisbee, a single-use bag of charcoal briquettes, some burgers and a side salad or two (like this coleslaw recipe!), and claim one of their many BBQs for the afternoon and evening.

Speaking of charcoal, check out this handy tip for lighting your hibachi. Smart eh?

Andrew Haydon is pretty close to perfect: it has views of the water, lots of trees and picnic tables, and just the right ratio of parking to nature. Curious children will enjoy themselves here.

It is dog-friendly too!

My favourite time of day to visit is the hour or so just before sunset. The whole place is flooded with golden light. It is a sight to behold.

Perfection.

What’s your favourite picnic park in Ottawa? Do tell.

–

Looking for other fun activities and events in Ottawa? You might want to check out the ultimate Ottawa Bucket List!

Mark had some work to do at Saunders Farm yesterday (a blog patron of mine) so the girls and I decided to tag along. It was our own personal “bring your family to work day!”

I’m so glad we got to see daddy in action. I think it was really great for the girls to see what he does.

We arrived around 10:30. I expected hoards, but was pleasantly surprised (read: totally shocked) by how relatively few people were there. There were lots of families on summer holidays, but also lots of obvious play dates going on; mothers with multiple children, arriving with friends and their young families with picnic hampers and coffees in hand. Smart!

Our pace was not nearly so leisurely. We dutifully followed Mark around wherever he went.

By the way, I covet this tree house:

It was a great day. I asked the girls about their favourite part of our visit. Sarah said she enjoyed the splash pad the best. No surprise really, it was the perfect kind of day for it.

Emma said she liked the gem mining:

From my perspective however it seemed as though they REALLY enjoyed the jumping pillows. They were there for a looooong time:

I tried them out too, and they were VERY fun but I was worried that all that jumping would shake the pee right out of me so I didn’t bounce nearly as high as they did. (IT’S KEGEL TIME.)

Ahem.

Interestingly, the girls also chose to spend a lot of time on what I deemed “The Sibling Bike”:

It requires some degree of agreement in order to drive it. Saunders has a whole bunch of single-rider versions of these, but the girls stuck to the double. Forced co-operation for the win! Every parent of siblings should have one of these! Ha.

And of course we checked out the mazes…

… but soon it was time to wrap it up and head out. We could have stayed all day but Mark had to go back to the office. Boo.

Thanks Saunders, for a sweet little visit. We will be back again soon!

–

Looking for other fun activities and events in Ottawa? You might want to check out the ultimate Ottawa Bucket List!

Last week we celebrated the end of a school year and the efforts of two very hard-working students with a special dinner out.

Our destination: Mill Street Brew Pub. Have you been? No?

GO.

NOW.

Mill Street Brew Pub is located on Wellington Street in the remains of a beautifully renovated stone mill (it’s actually the oldest standing mill in Ottawa) near Lebreton Flats. Here’s a view of part of the building:

We liked how they kept some of the old bits intact (this is away from the actual restaurant, but still cool):

The area is beautiful. It’s right on the bike path. The river is just over to the right:

Local writer Ross Brownfoot snagged a great photo of this scenic pub in this blog post and resto review.

Ottawa long timers might remember this as the site of another restaurant called The Mill that got uniformly terrible reviews over many years. This is very much not the case anymore. New owners. Big reno. Big plans. We had a great dinner of upscale pub-type fare and I’m determined to go back sooner than later.

Here’s the menu in case you want to have a peek. Sarah ordered a burger. We were a little worried that she wouldn’t be able to finish it, but we were wrong. This was Mark’s:

Sarah’s was the same but she had a Caesar salad instead of fries.

I had a steak salad, which was a little heavy on the dressing (note to self, always order dressing on the side!) but was otherwise very good. You can see Emma’s fish and chips across from me here. They were excellent.

No more ordering off the kiddy menu for us! Darn it.

Craft beer fans rejoice! Mill Street Brew Pub makes their own line of beers on site. Tours are available but we did not partake. Next time for sure. I tried a glass of their original organic beer, which I enjoyed very much. ALSO – and this was new to me – they also brew their own root beer. It was proclaimed to be “the best root beer ever” by discerning tasters:

Mill Street Brew Pub is a casual and welcoming place that seems to attract a lot of the after work crowd. Because of that I did feel a little underdressed in my shorts and (nice) t-shirt. Oh well. Next time I will wear a sun dress! Easy peasy. The staff were friendly and we had decent service. (A sidebar to parents: please don’t let your kids wander around busy restaurants unattended! I always picture a server accidentally dropping a tray of beer and nachos on some kids head. Just don’t do it.)

We had a great time and I can’t wait to return. Next time we’ll aim for a spot on the patio and not leave our visit to a special occasion.

Thank you Mill Street!