Christmas 2022 Mer Bleue

Mer Bleue is one of our favorite places to hike when we visit Ottawa in the winter. 

This little squirrel is enjoying life in the bird feeder.

There were more birds near the bog trail than on the trails we usually walk on for our bird feeding walks.

We love walking on the boardwalk over the peat bog. The sky was amazing the day we visited.

Every time we go on a trip, I always take a picture of a tree so I can post it on Facebook, tag my mom, and write, "Look Mom! A tree. Isn't that..... interesting?" That statement goes back to my teen years. She always comments on those pictures with some sort of tree fact. I stepped off the boardwalk to go over to this little tree and sank thigh deep into the snow. 

After leaving the boardwalk, we kept on walking over to the next parking area a few miles away.

Nice aim with that snowball. His aim was perfect.

We ended up getting stuck in Ottawa for a few extra days. We were supposed to fly home on December 31st. When we tried to check in for our flight, we received this:

Our 6 am Air Canada flight to Toronto was cancelled. The other airlines leaving at that time did not cancel their flights. Air Canada said it was due to fog. They were unable to put us on another plane for 5 days.

We had to rebook a rental car and find a place to stay. After a few hours, we were able to reach our Airbnb hosts. They were able to extend our rental for the extra days we needed. 

To get home sooner, by one day, we drove to Toronto to catch a flight to North Carolina. We figured we would have more choices being in Toronto than in Ottawa. It was a mess at the airport. I used a kiosk to pay for my bag and Boogs' bag and when I went to turn our bags in, it said we had not paid. My husband's bag worked. But, my husband did not have an assigned seat on the plane. It was a tense wait. They were asking for people to volunteer to leave the flight. The plane was 3/4 boarded before they gave my husband a seat assignment. We finally made it back to Austin but had to sit on the plane for almost an hour because there were no gates available to deplane. It was so nice to finally be home.