Dreams really do come true!

How many lifelong dreams can you fulfill in a week? Quite a few it turns out.

Some people dream of scaling Mount Everest, or seeing the Colosseum in  Rome, or diving the Great Barrier Reef. My goals are not quite as lofty.  For an incredibly long time, my biggest desire has been to visit Ottawa.  Seriously.  If you were to ask me if there was one place in the world I wanted to visit, I would have answered Ottawa. In a heartbeat. 

Well, ladies and gentleman, my dream finally came true. This past week, I laid my eyes on Parliament Hill for the first time and I was the happiest tourist in Canada. 

I am quite a bit happier than I look. I blame the sun.

Looking at Parliament is quite lovely, but we did eventually make our way inside, doing the tour and dropping in on our nation's leaders in Question Period.  A lot of hooting and hollering goes on in QP, making it quite entertaining, but not entirely constructive.  It is my new aspiration to be a back bencher MP that gets to shout from the corner and heckle the other parties.

As a good public historian, I also attempted to visit every museum in sight. The museums in Ottawa are huge.  Word of warning - when visiting museums in Ottawa, proper footwear is a must.  Otherwise, you will experience what I am going to call early onset museum fatigue, where your body will tire of the experience much earlier than your brain.  Regardless of my aching feet, my first encounters with the Canadian War Museum, the Canadian Museum of Civilization, and the Canadian Museum of Nature were tremendously rewarding.  I even met some friendly veterans at the War Museum that took quite an interest in the public history field - and then they proceeded to make me pose for a picture wearing a helmet from the Boer War.

 I think I could pass....

That in a nutshell was my Ottawa experience, but the magic of being a tourist didn't end there.

After leaving Ottawa, my husband Jordan and I continued on to Montreal.  Having been to Montreal before, I pretended to be a tour guide, showing Jordan the Notre Dame Basilique, Old Montreal, and St. Joseph's Oratory.  But we also had the opportunity to do two things on my quasi-bucket list - it can't be considered a real bucket list because I haven't written anything down and I usually forget what is on the list until I do it.  Except for Ottawa.

So after Ottawa, the next thing to cross off my list was going to a Cirque du Soleil show.  We bought the tickets quite impulsively at the suggestion of a friend and we are so glad we did.  It was incredible.  The show was called Amaluna, featuring a predominantly female cast. My favourite part was probably the duo of unicyclers - they spun and twirled like nothing I've ever seen.  I can't even ride my bike with no hands.

After going to the show, we went out for dinner at a fabulous restaurant called Garde Manger.  Now this isn't just any restaurant. It is owned by Food Network host Chuck Hughes.  Since we've been married, Jordan and I have had an unhealthy obsession with the Food Network.  We have always wanted to taste the food of one of the famous chefs featured on the channel, and it was quite exciting to sink our teeth into expertly prepared food.  Lobster poutine anyone?

After our Montreal adventure ended, we trekked onward to Quebec City.  I had also been here before, but I never get tired of walking around Old Quebec and seeing the Plains of Abraham.  Which brings me to my next dream/goal/wish/delirious inclination, or whatever you want to call it.  This is sappy, so I'll be quick.  We went I went to Quebec the first time in the winter of 2005, I hoped that one day I could return to see it in the spring.....with Jordan.  I did and it was lovely.  End of sappiness.

While my short vacation has come to end, I am about to embark on another adventure in Halifax that is itself a fulfillment of a much deeper aspiration.  Tomorrow, I officially start my internship at the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21. Although, I am only an intern, I am finally realizing my goal of working in a museum. Whenever people asked me what I wanted to do with a history degree, I adamantly responded that I wanted to work in a museum, without ever really knowing if my ambitions would turn into reality. Now I know dreams really do come true, whether by impulse, circumstance, providence, or a lot of hard work.