not so labour-intensive labour day

some might think i'm being a tad tardy with a post detailing a recap of my labour day activities. for those who criticize, i will say that i chose to recap my labour day weekend rather than write about my canada day festivities. now that's a little out of season. so on to the story...

my new girlfriend melissa and i had planned a weekend alone together some time now. it is a little difficult to see much of each other due her residing in the newfangled suburbia that is orleans, and me shacking up in the dreadful town of cornwall. however, with the long weekend upon us, we made a point of taking advantage of it. [on a side note: can anyone explain the relevance of labour day? are we celebrating a break from labour?]

friday was spent in pajamas. after a shopping spree of m&m's meats, and fine pastries from the dutch store on merivale, we spent the rest of the evening relaxed in our comfies on the couch, watching movies. considering the work load we had put in that week at our respective jobs, it seemed to be the most fitting way to celebrate the end of the work week.

saturday morning came quickly and we were up for adventure. still in our comfies, we picked up a copy of xpress and headed to bridgehead. we made friendly with the quasi-gay cashier who hooked us up with more than the requried stamps for our bridgehead coffee card. free comes early when you're friendly - and when the gay cashier is infatuated with my newly purchased h&m jacket i was wearing. melissa claims he was hitting on me, and let me tell you what i think about that .... i'm fine with it. i'll do what i have to do for free brew.

after coffee we hit up the brown loaf bakery on elgin st. for some freshly made breakfast breaderies and pastries. i decided another coffee was in order so we scooted back to bridgehead, winked at sir sexy pinky, and off we went.

breakfast of scrambled egg-omelettes and chicken bacon (which, as it turns out, is cheaper than turkey bacon!) was followed by a quick shower. we were on the road to glory by 10:30am.

and where does glory lead to, you ask? the hershey chocolate factory in smiths falls, of course! though the production facility was inoperative that day (they only make chocolate on a 9-5 sked), we took a quick tour of the joint anyway. not as exciting as you might think - the tour - the real highlight is the gift shop! at the pull of a lever, an outpour of chocolate streams through the funnels of chocohappiness and into a plastic bag. all for an incredibly low price. melissa and i came away with 5 bags full of chocolate, totalling a mere $45. we thought we might have gone a bit overboard but the cashier assured us that earlier that week a family of 3 had spent an incredible $289 on chocolate. rumour has it the average weight of a typical canadian family doubled that day.

next stop was the lift locks of smiths falls. we spent a significant amount of time walking along the rideau river (yes, in smiths falls) and along the locks. to our luck, a boat appeared ready to be lowered through the lift lock (or sink lock) just as we walked up. let it be known that the locks at smiths falls are the biggest of any on the rideau river at a breathtaking 26 feet. it's quite the spectacle to see an engineering feat as this live.

with no schedule in mind, melissa and i decided to check out the quante town of merrickville on a recommendation from skippy. merrickville has recently been dubbed "canada's most beautiful village", and though i have little to compare it to, i would not argue with it's title. the town is a unique victorian-style village with plenty of "delightful restaurants and shops" [quoting the website here]. we were surprised to find one particular 2-storey shop dedicated entirely to christmas. in fact, this store operates year-round with only christmas merchandise. it was a tad overwhelming for melissa and i, but the tourists seemed to enjoy it. it was incredibly busy in there.

we took the scenic route back to ottawa, through manotick and awed over some of the luxurious houses there. we rented coffee & cigarettes from blockbuster and got 3/4 through the movie before nodding off around midnight.

on monday melissa came down to cornwall to visit the folks. we've been dating for little over a month now, so it seemed to be an appropriate time for her to meet skippy and mom. skippy didn't dissapoint either, goofing around and only living up to the expected crazyness that is his reputation. after dinner, we headed back to ottawa for a nightcap.