Pastry's dish: Ottawa 2014 Trip - Traveling with my scooter

I haven`t traveled with my scooter in a while - not since 2008. Before that, the last time was in 2000-2001 when I went to Australia. This was an adventure for me. It worked out so well except for a glitch at the Ottawa airport. Their stairwell to bring things up from the cargo section of the plane to the gate was so narrow they weren`t able to bring my scooter to me at the gate so I had to sit on a wheelchair where I could literally feel the crossbars underneath me! It was uncomfortable but not painful. It was also annoying. But it was so well worth it to have my scooter with me in Ottawa!

I took my first Access Calgary (handi-transit) ride ever and it was to the airport. So much cheaper than paying for a cab ($3 versus $60) plus I was leaving during rush hour time and I knew that most of, if not all, the accessible cabs would be working for Access Calgary at the time. It brought me back to the days in junior high when I had to take the short school bus with a lift to and from school. I still feel uncomfortable sitting on the lift with a slight fear of rolling off the back when it`s up in the air or accidentally pushing the lever to go backwards instead of forwards when going into the bus.

It was easy to get an accessible cab, both in Ottawa and back in Calgary to return home. I have found I prefer the low ramps to the lifts! But whatever I get is what I get and I`m still happy with how smooth it worked!

Butter Chicken Poutine for dinner on my first night

I spent my evenings as well as Saturday afternoon exploring Ottawa on my scooter, camera in hand. I mostly stayed in the downtown-ish area, although I crossed over to Gatineau, QC on Saturday. For those who know me well, they would have accurately guessed I was out and about with my cameras. That was my primary reason for bringing the scooter actually! I had a few moments on Thursday night where I felt a little uncomfortable, not having a clue where I was! My map only had bigger streets on it so I didn`t know which way to go. I found my way, though. I also had a few moments where I thought maybe I should have done some research as to the safety of being out and about by myself in the dark. But maybe that was part of the adventure!

Ottawa is such a beautiful city! At night, the lights reflect so beautifully on the water and so many buildings look amazing with the way they are lit up. The architecture of many of the buildings in the areas I explored is also beautiful. The pictures in this entry are a smattering of the pictures I took. The sunset pics were taken on the flight back to Calgary. As a side note, I am frustrated with the layout set up of blogger - I gave up on trying to make the layout nice.