A mother and daughter skate on the Ottawa Canal
For the past few years, I have had a very hard time enjoying the wintertime in Ottawa. The cold wind, having to always look at your feet to make sure you don’t trip or slip on some snow, those 5 minutes that seem to last hours while waiting for the bus on a freezing night. It’s hard to imagine how some people love winter so much. But as luck would have it, my wife is one of those people, and slowly, she has been helping me enjoy the season a bit more!
The Rideau Canal skateway opened on New Year’s eve!
Once she helped me get the appropriate coats, boots and long johns, it was time to try some outdoor activities! First up, Ice skating. The Rideau Canal is the largest skating rink in the world, and is a UNESCO world heritage site that stretches for 7.8 km (though when we went, only about 3km were open). You can get a bite to eat when you’re down there and if you don’t have skates, you can rent them right on the ice!
There are signs on the canal that let you know how far along you are
As soon as the sun sets, it starts to get very cold!
As fun as it is to go skating on the Canal, my photographer side likes places where I can go a bit slower so as not to fling my gear around! It was with this in mind that we visited the Experimental Farm to do some winter bird watching! Surprisingly, not all birds hightail it to Florida for the winter. So we walked to go into a wooded area (preferably with a birdfeeder), parked ourselves down, and wait for different birds to come by!
Catching a bird mid-flight is not an easy task!
Cardinals may be one of my favorite birds to see in the winter
If you wait long enough, many different species will come!
All in all, the new year has just begun. My wife has signed us up for snowboarding, and has hinted that snowshoeing would be an interesting activity, so it looks like I’ll be very busy this winter. Sorry PlayStation! I thought it would just be you and me!
There are many winter sports I haven’t tried out yet!
What are some winter activities that you enjoy? Let me know in the comments!
-Chris
I like Ottawa’s winterlude festival! and montreal’s nuit blanche! 🙂
The winterlude festival is always fantastic to go to! I love the ice sculptures!