Today we were out of the house by 6am and the first stop of the day was Bruegger’s Bagels per Phil’s request. Phil is not really a morning person and so he needed all the strength he could possibly get to power through the whole day.
After getting bagels we set off to Lake Placid in NY. It was around a 5.5 hour drive and I managed to do it in one go. Phil tried his best to get some naps in, but that was difficult because he isn’t great at car napping and most of the drive was spent on winding roads. I did my best to provide a smooth drive though.
Once at Lake Placid we got out for a few minutes to use the restroom and then decided to skip lunch in favor of doing the Parliament Tour in Ottawa. The original plan was to have lunch somewhere, but the small town was slammed with people for an iron man competition that was going to happen in a few weeks. So I pivoted and we decided to head straight to Canada. If we left right at that moment we could just barely make the tour. After reserving the free tickets online we were off once more. I drove around an hour before pulling over to get gas one last time before crossing the border. I had heard it was both cheaper and less complicated to just get all the gas in the US. I thought that I would have enough range to do all the driving in Canada without having to stop for fuel, so we will see if that is a good assumption or not.
Getting through the US side of the border going to Canada was a piece of cake. It seemed deserted and there was no one on duty. On the Canada side there was a short line, but what do you know? I still got pulled over for secondary questioning. It was a bit stressful and I had my thoughts about whether I’d be stopped before going through, but in the end we were allowed in. That was a huge relief because there really wasn’t a plan b for this trip. (I think they were wondering if I was going to Canada to live there. Just in case you are reading this: I would never go without my xbox.)
The driving was actually pretty easy! I had been worried that the Ottawa drivers would be a bit crazy, but there is nothing to fear compared to Boston or NYC drivers. Also the mph to kph conversion while driving isn’t actually that bad. I used Google Maps the whole time and that told me my speed in kph. was The only real con is the speed seems pretty tame in most spots. (Around 60mph max in most places).
We had some trouble finding parking at the Parliament building and ended up having to park in a garage a few blocks away. I had looked on Google Maps satellite view and saw parking lots, but Google failed to mention that there would be a government protest and a lot of construction. There was no time to worry about the cost of the garage so that had to wait for later.
The entrance for the visitors center (plus tour) was tough to find, but after calling the number listed in the email and walking around a bit we found it. We got there about 5 minutes late, but they were super accommodating and got us on the tour anyways.
The tour seemed fairly short, but I’m glad I did it because now I don’t need to do t again lol. We did the House of Commons building. It looks similar to the UK Parliament chambers if you’ve ever seen that online. The inside has green chairs and a green rug and those are supposed to represent grass since the chamber used to be outside in the open air. It was only in modern times that they added the highly talked about 3 layered roof. (It didn’t seem all the special to me, but our tour guide praised it a few times.) We also saw the Senate room and then the tour ended.
Rather than going back to the hotel we decided to get dinner first. It was the only actual meal we had had all day and that hit nicely. Philip and I were getting pretty tired after that so we decided to go to the hotel. Good news! It turns out that the parking garage was only $7 for the 3 ish hours we were there. That was much less than expected. On the way to the airport, we did hit a sort of rush hour, but compared to Boston’s it was child’s play.
The hotel room was much more spacious than I thought it would be and Phil was awed. Overall it was a great day one to the trip!
Day 2
On Saturday, we woke up really early around 6:45am. Some could call it too early. The bungee jumping place said to get there 45 minutes early, and I really wasn’t sure if Ottawa would have much traffic, so to play things safe, I set an early alarm. (In Boston, there is a lot of traffic even on the weekend.) It turned out that there wasn’t much traffic at all! We ended up leaving around 8:05am and got there relatively fast.
I was under the impression that we’d be waiting a rather long time to go, but in around 10 minutes or less, Phil and I were given the introduction talk with a group of around 12 others, and then we were all off!
The thing that I had thought about the most was whether or not I’d be allowed to wear my glasses. You see, without them, I can see people and sort of see faces, but I can’t read. So I can walk around and not trip and stuff, but I’m sort of blind otherwise. It turned out that even with a strap, my glasses weren’t allowed on the jump. On the plus side, that meant I no longer had to worry about losing them when I fell!
The jump site is 200ft up at the end of a tower crane. There is a lagoon underneath the jump site and you get the option to have your head dip into the water when you jump. To get to the crane, we had to walk up a steep gravel hill. That was honestly my least favorite part haha. Once we all made it to the top, we all got the safety talk. Then we were given harnesses, and it was jumping time! Since we were in Quebec, there were a lot of French speakers, and that meant that all the instructions were given in both French and English. Pretty neat. (All the road signs in Quebec were in French too, but it was pretty easy to understand everything, so that didn’t pose much of a problem.)
Philip’s Note: I’ve always loved heights, it’s a weird quirk. I’ll jump off anything as long as I’m pretty sure it’s safe. That’s what had me most excited for bungee jumping—stepping up to the edge to see if my nerve still held. And wouldn’t you know? No nerves, just excitement.
What I remember most about skydiving was the feeling of free fall. There’s no thrill like it. What I’ll remember most about bungee jumping though, is that initial leap. Sending myself off the edge was every bit as cool as I dreamed it would be. Huge shoutout to my brother for making this trip happen. And yes, obviously I’d do it again!
I waited around 20 minutes to jump. Normally, I suppose that would just make someone more nervous, being that they would be high up just looking really, really far down, but unfortunately for me, everything was blurry without my glasses. Philip jumped first out of us, and he did the water dip. “Five. Four. Three. Two. Onnnnnne!” That’s what you hear before you make the jump! The crew at the top was quite cheerful and supportive. I wasn’t really worried when putting on the gear or anything.
*Quick side note: the videos are like 3 minutes long, so I cut them down to 30 seconds for the blog.*
Finally it was time to jump! I stood on the edge and looked down. Even without my glasses it was a bit jarring to be staring so far down just knowing that I would be making the decision to lean forward and fall voluntarily. There really isn’t a feeling quite like it. It was both scary and awesome. My mind was like “wtf are you doing?”, but I willed myself to go anyways. “Five. Four. Three. Two. Onnnnnnne!” For the blog! (Off I went)
The fall took maybe 2 seconds and then my head was underwater. I barely had time to register that I was wet before. Was whipped back up around 160ft into the air. It was awesome! The actual bungee wasn’t that noticeable on the first recoil, but the more it happened the stronger the pull was. It was a novel experience to swing 50ft in the air above water while hanging by my ankles upside down. I’m not sure I’ll ever experience that again unless I go bungee jumping somewhere else.
When I got back to shore, Philip was waiting for me with my glasses and I got a first hand look at the world once again. Sadly it was only around 10:30am and that meant we had around 2 hours to kill before the zip line so we decided to go to Subway for lunch. I kid you not it was the best Subway I’ve ever had. The toppings looked like they could be in a showcase with how finely they were cut.
After lunch, we tried to go into the nearby village of Wakefield, but there was a farmers market going on, and that meant parking was just about impossible….so we went back to the bungee jumping place to just wait out the zip line instead. It turns out it wasn’t much of a wait. The zip line wasn’t all that impressive since I’ve done it before. It turns out I weigh too much to zip line like Superman, so I got to do the traditional sitting position. Philip got to do that as well and also wasn’t that impressed. (I forgot to get pictures of this and a video wasn’t offered like it was for the bungee jump.)
After the zip line we had a lot of time so we tried going to Chelsea, Quebec to get ice cream based off of one of a tip from one of the bungee employees. It turns out that everyone else in Chelsea had the same idea and so that meant that finding a parking spot was basically impossible. Not the end of the world! After a 40 minute car ride we were back in Ottawa, but this time in a more suburban part and eating ice cream. (I found a place while trip planning and marked it on the map just in case.) It was nice to be in a quieter part of town for once.
Since it was a beautiful day outside, that meant that a lot of people decided to go ride their bikes and therefore the whole area got busy in a hurry. Phil and I decided to head back into town and go to a bar before going to the boat cruise.
After an hour at the bar it was about time to go to the boat dock so we wandered over there. It is situated down by the end of a canal and relatively easy to find, but very poorly marked. We had doubts, but after walking around for a bit we confirmed that the unmarked spot at the bottom of the hill was indeed the meeting point.
At 5pm the boat pulled up and we got in line. This was a tour that was highly recommended on both the internet and TripAdvisor so I expected good things. It turned out that I had bought “premium seats” when purchasing tickets. That basically just meant we had first dib at the upper level seats near the sides (no windows on an open air boat).
The tour lasted a bit over an hour and gave really good views at a lot of the famous buildings on the river. It was a good way to pass the time after such a wild morning.
After the boat turned we were both feeling a little tired so we decided to go back to the hotel to freshen up and then headed straight to dinner. Rather than go back into the city, I had found a place called Hunter’s Public House. Philip ordered some wings and we both suffered through the hottest sauce. Dinner was delicious! It was a short 10 minute drive back to the hotel. Overall another solid day of the trip!
Day 3
Sunday was more of a driving day than a trip day. We left at around 7:30am and first went through the US customs checkpoint, which was much more straightforward than the Canadian side luckily. I had floated the idea of Phil and I changing the plan and first going to Montreal to try the highly esteemed “Montreal bagel”, but Phil was not a fan of waking up at 4am to do that (and neither was I to be frank) so we kept to the original plan. Maybe someday I will get to try the bagel that is supposedly better than a NYC bagel.
Once through the checkpoint we were on our way to Syracuse for lunch. It took about 3 hours and once there maybe another 15 minutes to find parking. Street parking is tough in Syracuse if you are going to the Dinosaur BBQ. I got sliders (pulled pork, cheeseburger, pork belly) with a side of mac & cheese and Philip got pulled pork with a side of chili. It was all delicious!
The next leg of the drive was to a place in Pennsylvania to meet up with some gaming friends. It’s not everyday that I get to see them since most live all around the world. It was pretty cool to get to talk for a bit and hang out. Philip also got to say hello! I’ve never really talked to people about more than just the game, but there is a community behind it and it is very friendly. (Usually).
The last part of the day was driving to New York City! I was very conflicted the few days before we left because I was worried about parking and whether or not my car would be damaged. I felt like leaving it in a garage overnight was risky and therefore a valid concern. That thought was outweighed by my Mom / brother telling me that it was insane to drive from Ottawa to NYC to Boston in one day. In the end I decided it wouldn’t hurt the image of the trip to stop for the night. (The photo is of my phone holder coming off the windshield right as we crossed into New Jersey. It was a bit of a tragedy because that meant from then on I had to make split second decisions and try to not miss any exits. The holder survived about 2 years in all temperatures and on Sunday it melted off the windshield.) 🙁
I did some research and it turns out that the Pier 40 garage is $50 for 24 hours, has good security, and isn’t valet. That met my standards. Driving in New York City really isn’t that bad from a driving perspective. I’m just not a fan of the parking situation and the tolls.
The garage is not close to Phil’s apartment, but that’s ok because it meant that I got more time to enjoy all the skyscrapers and the subway. I love walking in New York City.
For dinner we were joined by Phil’s roommate Paul and we all went to get pizza at Joe’s. Probably my favorite pizza place outside of Lisa’s in Medford, MA. (It would be a tough showdown if they were to duel.)
That night I stayed up a little later and rewatched a few episodes of Andor (really good!!) on Disney + then went to bed.
Day 4
I wasn’t thrilled to drive back to Boston on Monday because that just meant there would be more traffic. Part of the argument for driving back late on Sunday was that there also wouldn’t be as much construction. The trade off was that I felt more refreshed on Monday.
It took about an hour to get from lower Manhattan to Queens via the Battery Park tunnel / Brooklyn express. I got lovely views of the skyline on the way.
I hate driving through Connecticut so I tried my best to not stop at all on that portion of the drive, but I ended up taking a brief break around Willington, CT. I had been driving really fast for a few hours and I thought maybe stopping might encourage me to start fresh. That was wishful thinking on my part and within one and a half hours I was home. The trip was finished!
See you next time!
Trip Stats
- Estimated miles: 1,154mi
- Actual miles: 1,141mi
- Jump height: 200ft
- Jump rebound: 160ft
- G-forces on jump: 3
- Was the glasses strap worth buying: sort of
- Did we try poutine: no
- Did we try beaver tails: no
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