Ottawa (First Visit)

I went to Ottawa for my first time ever on Oct 11, 2011. The drive wasn't that bad, the weather turned out really nice for driving which made me very happy I was not looking forward to snow. I hate driving in the snow. I didn't get to see as much of the sites as I would have liked to being a history buff and all, but what I did get to see was breath taking. I have yet to see a more beautiful city. I got to see Parliament hill, two malls lol the cat hotel and the canal. Our first night we didn't stay in Ottawa, we had Hammy with us and it was hard to find a place at 1am that allowed dogs and was not $200.00 a night. So I called a million places well pulled over to the of the road there was only one place that had a room that allowed dogs, well that’s a story and a half. We get there, it looks shadier then shady, there is a sign on the door that says be back in 5 mins so we wait 20 min and no one comes I call the number on the door, the man who answer the phone tells me "Christine" is down the bar, bar tending go on down and see her and she will set you up with a room. So I do what the man on the phone says. I get into this bar (guess I didn't read the sign outside) it’s a "gentlemen’s club" oh man I'm thinking what have I gotten myself into, okay it can't be that bad, eyes on the floor try and find bar tender by the way she looks like a 50 year old hooker when I do find her. She takes me back up to the motel counter and rents me a "room" no ID required. She takes me down to the "room" and well I would have rather slept in the car, but I have paid for it so I guess I am sticking it out. She says to me "Oh I guess you will want to check out in the morning well ummmmm just leave the key on the table and close the door" At this point I am so grossed out, I don’t want to touch anything the room is gross the lady was gross and my skin is crawling. Well I look around which takes I donno me stand in one spot and looking from side to side this is what I see: A bed, a table, a chair, a cabinet that at one point had a TV in it, now has a bar fridge with moldy meat in it, a hole in the wall that is blocked by this cabinet, a bathroom with one towel. The bed has a fitted bottom sheet and a top blanket two pillows without pillow cases. I say okay one night I can do this just "man up" Lucky me I have Jer and Hammy with me lol. There is one outlet in the whole room and it is in the bathroom we set up the laptop so we can watch vampire diaries. All of a sudden as 2am fighting starts in the hallway Hammy is losing it, and it lasts until 5am. At 7 am with no sleep and there is no way I am showering here or touching anything else for that matter we pack up and leave. Oh did I mention that when I pulled the top blanket back the fitted sheet was covered in mold needless to say I slept in all my clothes (well there was no heat anyway) on top of the blanket and cuddle up to Hammy, with Jers back against mine to try and keep me somewhat warm. The next morning Jer tells me as we are leaving what that place is really used for and I thought I was going to be sick :(
We take Hammy to Kim's house who is the founder of Friendly Giants Dog Rescue where I get to meet Brett who is her partner, what a very kind man he was. I introduced Hammy to him and stayed for a few mins to meet their pack. I didn't stay long I wanted to explore and the longer I stayed the harder it was to leave Hammy.
We spent a few hours exploring Ottawa then I got to go and visit Dogs At Camp Ottawa which is the coolest things in the whole world! What it is, is a "free roam" doggy day care the dogs get to spend all day outside with each other and 2 employees, at feeding times they all eat in the giant barn and when it comes to bed time they all move into the barn for the night. Its super cool they also hold two spots for foster dogs for Friendly Giants. I would love to have one of those places down here, but full of fosters! The ladies there are very nice and it was great to see all the campers that they had that day.
We found an ecno lodge, and it was a dream compared to what we slept in the night before. The first thing I did when I got there was shower lol. 
We had dinner at Don Cherry’s which is one of my fav places to eat and we no longer have one in Sarnia.
I watched the Toronto Hockey Game, we had heat lol and each got our own beds. And I slept like a baby compared to that other place.
Sunday morning we went back to Kim’s and we spent the day with Kim and Brett and their wonderful pack. At that time they had 12 foster dogs.
We talked about which doggy I was going to be bringing back with me lol by the end of it I was taking Rocky, Todd, Dexter, and Diego lol too bad I only had my little red car!
I was sad to leave Hammy behind I didn't like the idea of not being able to be there while he had to see the vet about his mass. He is such an awesome little guy and I just wanted to keep him at home with me.
We ended up bringing Dexter a 4 month old black lab puppy home with us.
We drove straight home from Ottawa and I was more than tired when I got home. We did the introductions with Dexter and Ace which went very well which at the time I was grateful for as it was like 2am lol.

ALL in ALL minus the first motel I had a wonderful time in a very beautiful city and I can't wait to go back and see more of it!