A zoo of a weekend

This weekend was Doors Open Ottawa.  Building around the city that aren't usually open to the public open their doors.  Some offer tours, others allow you to look around at your own pace.

I haven't been in several years, in part because for the last three years, some fool keeps booking Spark camp for the first weekend in June. (Yes, it is me.)

This weekend was also Spark camp at the Papanack Zoo.  We decided to make it a day camp - it's cheaper, and a lot less packing - so we all met at the zoo at 10 (except one girl who was sick, one girl who was MIA, and one girl who got scared by the rain).

It was pouring when I left my house, but when we got to the zoo, it wasn't nearly as bad.  There was some drizzle, but not too bad.

After lunch, it progressed to misting - constant really light rain. Everyone was a pretty good sport about it, but by the time we got to feeding the animals at around 3, it was raining pretty hard.  We packed it in and went for pizza early.

(We went to the Friendly Restaurant and Pizzeria in Rockland, and the pizza was really good, so keep that in mind if you're ever out that way.)

Last night, I put away most of the camping stuff (although my hiking boots really need to be cleaned and put away, and I still have a cooler of drinks in my living room), and this morning, I headed out to Doors Open Ottawa.

The old Ottawa train station was open to the public and I've always wanted to go in, so we started there. After we looked around (and ate some popcorn), we went through the tunnel to the Chateau Laurier and took a tour there.

We didn't get to look in any of the guest rooms, but saw the drawing room, heard about the history of the hotel (including the Titanic connection) and visited the pool.

As we were hearing the history of the pool, and older woman felt the need to put up her hand and say that she had swum in the pool.  That prompted two other women to tell us about how they used to swim in the pool. I didn't really care, since I naturally assumed that people I don't know had swum in the pool at some point. If not, they really didn't need to keep full of water.

Overall, it was a good weekend.  I might even make it to work tomorrow.

But I should really clean my hiking boots first.