We’ve had some friends, Adrian and Sara, swing by from Winnipeg this week to do some touristing in Ottawa on their vacation, so Natasha and I have been doing our best to show them around. The only problem being that I feel very much like a tourist myself – I hardly know where anything is. Through a combination of fuzzy memory and 10 years of business opening and closing (and catching fire, and being turned into condos, and collapsing in on themselves) I’m having a hard time re-orienting myself to the city.

It’ll all come back in time, I suppose. My knowledge of the west end of town is probably better than it’s ever been, and parts of the market feel familiar – even though the skyline’s changed a lot.

I had a tough one in the car though, last night – Sara asked for an authentic “Ottawa” eating experience. I blew through my list pretty quickly as I started checking off what everyone could eat – with four passengers who are all allergic to different things, pizza (The Collonade! The Newport!), asian (Pho bo ga! Sushi Kahn!), burgers (The Works! Licks!) had to be avoided. We ended up settling on Seafood – luckily Coasters is still in the market and making tasty fish.

Anyone with any Ottawa restaurant suggestions? We have some more Winnipeggers coming to visit later this week!

EDIT: Okay, apparently Licks isn’t around anymore. See what I’m talking about?