Some people think small, some people think big, but we think in alcohol

Another weekend has come and gone for the touchdown girls. We, as per usual, made the best of it by getting to see some of the fine spots that our good city of Ottawa has to offer. 

Friday night Michelle found herself back in Renfrew (not partying as hard as usual, but throwing off her sleep schedule just enough so that she would have to miss part of our Saturday festivities). What she did in Renfrew... well, you will have to ask her if you see her. Supposedly, it was not all that exciting.

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Michelle here. I would like to take this moment to clarify the complete lack of debauchery and shenanigans on Friday night, despite popular belief! I need to defend my honour!!! I had two, I repeat, two beer at Coco Jarry's (when I say that, the song from Cheers plays in my head "Where everybody knows your name") and then went home like a good girl. Definitely the most tame Friday night I have had in a while!
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Which brings us to Saturday. Now, up to this point we have had on and off luck with the weather. This weekend was initially expected to be a disaster due to all the rain that was expected. But with crossed fingers and heads held high we stuck to the plan and hoped for the best. We found ourselves celebrating the best that Westboro has to offer. Every year Richmond Rd. is closed down from Kirkwood Ave. to Golden Ave. so that us, the people, can enjoy a festival called Westfest.

All this really entails is restaurants and stores open up onto the roads, food trucks role into town, entertainers or all sorts come out to perform as well as the occasional giant board game and bouncy castles (which unfortunately we were too big to go on). 

Since Michelle was too tired at this point from her night before she will not be mentioned in this section... which is a really sad reality!

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Sad but true?!?!
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Danica and I started out said excursion going to watch her son play in a school band. The whole group of middle school children were amazing, but he was quite the sight on keyboard as well as percussion. After 4 very well performed songs we decided that it was time to start the full day of events off right. You guessed it, with a beer (or in my case a cider because that is how I do it when I can).

Our first drink, or at least Danica's first drink of the day took place and The Works in westboro; a well known burger joint with excellent service. Since our car was stacked to the brim with alcohol it really only made sense that we stay for one beer and to get something small to eat so that Danica would have a solid base to start a full day and night of drinking.

From there we were entertained by homemade instruments, balloon animals, acrobats, giant board games, singers, musicians, and food. Now, to say that you are entertained by food may seem like a bit of an exaggerations, but at this festival we were able to get corn on the cob, freshly broken coconut water, crepes filled with pulled pork (or for us girls we stuck to the cinnamon and sugar) and then there were the well known things such as snow cones and popcorn. We found ourselves taking part in every activity offered if it was possible and even found ourselves spending quite a bit of time at the car dealers playing with an old style Subaru... because you are never too big to play with cars! 

And thus began the rest of the night.

From Westfest we decided that house hopping for drinks was a swell idea, because there is no better way to enjoy drinking than changing the scenery as much as possible. First we went to our Friends Eric and Robyn's house where we were graciously served a delicious bubbly wine and some port. (For all those who remember the story of Danica in Renfrew... you may be able to guess where this story may lead). A little bit of socializing took place before we moved on to my mothers backyard (an oasis in the heart of the city). Here we enjoyed some more wine! (Do you see a bad pattern starting yet?) We were having so much fun talking about everything from our plans for the rest of the night to being forced into eating corn that we somewhat lost track of time.

Enters Michelle

At this point Michelle was busy getting her house cleaned and food ready for the potluck that was to take place at 6pm. At this point we were only a few minutes late... 7pm about. I am guessing she may (or may not) have been getting pretty excited about our arrival but couldn't start her contribution to the meal due to the fact that she is scared of starting, using or looking at a bbq (the looking part is a tad bit made up, but the everything else is true). Which in the end meant that she had to wait for the men to show up.

We drank our drinks as fast as we could, loaded up the cars and headed straight over to her house where the meal preparation, eating and drinking continued. The food was amazingly delicious, the Burt Reynolds went down smooth as well as the beer, and the laughs continued.

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Burt Reynolds went down as good as the beer, the wine, and the Gin!
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Once the food was gone there was no other choice but to move on to our next location. We once again found ourselves at the Mill St Pub; no doubt on of our favourite places to be. But this was not just a night out to drink, we were there to celebrate a friends birthday as well as his MBA (which pretty much just means he drinks a crap load of beer over time, gets his card stamped and then gets his name on this giant keg). It is more exciting than I make it sound, but there is no better way to explain it. In celebration we took lots of pictures, drank lots of beer and got just a little bit more drunk.

Once the stagnant life at the bar concluded we decided to call a cab for yet another adventure. We were picked up and drove around the corner to The Heart and Crown on Preston. We found the need to dance and listen to live music to finish out the night in style. What started out to be a group gathering quickly turned into everyone dispersing as some of us were at the bar, some of the dance floor, or others well... disappearing (that's Michelle, in case you do not know the usual occurrence at the end of most of our nights together). For me and Danica we danced until the music died down and we could no longer stay on our feet (the 4 or 5 shots we had when we got there did not really help our cause). 

The plan for the end of the night was to crash at Michelle's place, but at this point she was a little bit more than drunk seeing she was drinking and sharing a bottle full of Burt Reynolds. Her disappearing act brought her home and into bed passed out, but before doing so she drunkenly followed her usual routine and locked the door which meant the rest of us were locked us out. In the end this wasn't a huge deal as we all found our way home, but lets just say she felt like quite the ass at 4am when reality once again set in!

Oh, and Danica's lesson from Renfrew about not mixing or pre drinking with wine... let's just say by not following it she got a nice swift kick in the face from her friend hangover the next day. Myself and Michelle on the other hand had a lovely picnic while watching the Sunday football team rack up yet another defeat, although it was an exciting and fun game to watch.

Katrina