I have the privilege of spending about four weeks of the year in Canada (or more specifically in Ottawa and Toronto), and Ontario never fails to disappoint!! My most recent two week trip wrapped on Monday, so this week’s ‘Friday Favorites’ is devoted to all things Canada – well almost!
1. Ottawa National and CSI3* Ottawa International Horse Shows – This was the purpose of me being in Ottawa and what made for a great two weeks! As the public relations firm for the horse shows, our responsibilities onsite include distributing daily press releases and coordinating media coverage – of which we received quite a good bit of, which is always great news!
2. Horse Show Mondays – While I spent Tuesday through Sunday of each week at the horse shows, the Monday in between the two shows was a day off, which I completely took full advantage of…I’ll forever savor/love Mondays off in between busy horse show weeks.
I kicked off my Monday morning with a great run on a trail by the hotel…
…then enjoyed room service brunch while doing a bit of work…
…before joining my boss and her husband for the afternoon! They recently purchased a beautiful lake house about 15 minutes from Perth, ON – the home of Ian Millar and location of Big Ben Park and the Big Ben statue (pictured below). We went for a late lunch and ice cream in Perth before heading out to their house.
Serious future lake house goals!!
3. The ‘Great Trail’ – As of my Monday morning run, I thought the trail that I could get on from right by the hotel was ‘pretty long.’ I’m pretty sure I even texted my boyfriend that I thought I could go like 20 miles on it! By Tuesday night, I had confirmed that it ‘pretty long’…and by that I mean 14,000 MILES LONG!!! 😱 It’s part of the Trans Canada Trail, which I never even knew was a thing and now think is the coolest thing ever and want America to get the memo and create such a thing stat!
4. Canadian country – I’m really into staying on top of new country music or finding lesser-known new country songs/artists, so I always love the discovery of different Canadian country artists every time that I visit. A few personal favorites that are also currently circulating the American charts include Dallas Smith, High Valley and Chad Brownlee. And a lesser known, random one song choice would be: “Good Night For Going Nowhere” by Autumn Hill. (A pretty good ‘Canadian Country’ Spotify playlist can also be found here!)
5. Tottenham game – The day after my return from Ottawa, I got to catch up on some boyfriend time at a Tottenham Hotspurs game with Justin! My soccer career never went much beyond the phase where you’re all just running around the field after the ball, but I’m kinda digging learning more about the game from Justin (a soccer coach himself)! And I was also secretly thankful he’s a Tottenham fan, because there colors are blue and white, which I can totally get behind as a Penn Stater. 😉
Now I’m looking forward to a rare weekend at home with no real plans!
