A Long, Strange Trip (to Ottawa)

I guess it wasn't all that strange a trip, but it was a bit exhausting.  Unlike dropping my son off at Carleton last fall, he was able to consolidate what was coming back with him to the point that I was able to take the train up yesterday, and we took the train back today.  Though VIA had a lot of trouble just a few weeks back, the train there was on time and coming back we were delayed at most by 10 minutes.  When things go well, VIA is probably the best way to get to Ottawa.  It's far less stressful for me than driving at any rate.

It's still quite a long train ride, however.  I was able to charge up my iPod and listened to music all the way there and most of the way back.  I didn't quite make it through Katherine Mansfield's Selected Stories (Oxford), but I got pretty close.  I have to admit that her stories generally don't do a lot for me, which is probably why I wasn't able to get through the whole book.  I had even brought an additional(!) book -- Guy Vanderhaeghe's Homesick, but I barely cracked it.  Given that I'll be on transit a lot next week, since there is so much rain in the forecast, I should be able to finish the final 100 pages of The Singapore Grip and then start in on Homesick.  

I got into Ottawa around 10:30 pm on Wed., made it to Rideau Station on the LRT (at least this was working after that ice storm that knocked it out).  I got through one quick work assignment and then crashed.

In the morning, I thought I would stop in at a Tim Horton's on the way to the National Gallery, but it was packed, so I just went straight to the National Gallery.  There's a small coffee shop right there at the Gallery, so I went there and grabbed a muffin.  Then I went straight into the museum at 10 am.  There was some trouble with their system, so they just waved me in.  I had seen the main exhibit, Uninvited, several years back when it was up at the McMichael.  I went through it again but very quickly.  

I liked this series of small sketches by Marion Long.  They were probably on view at the McMichael, but I'd have to go check to be sure.

Marion Long, Morning Sun, ca. 1925

Marion Long, Lower Bay Street, the Mystic City, 1930-5

This time around I spent more time on the main floor with the Group of Seven to contemporary Canadian artists, and I spent a bit less time on the upper floor, mostly just looking at the Impressionists to contemporary art.  I stayed just over an hour.  It was a decent if somewhat compressed visit.

Georgia O'Keefe, Lake George with Crows, 1921

Joseph Cornell, The Hotel Eden, 1945

I then caught a cab to Carleton to help my son finish cleaning his room (he had done most of it last night, completely abandoned by his roommate) and packing up the rest of his stuff.  We dropped about half of his stuff off at the off-campus place where he'll be living next year.  While I would have preferred that he live on-campus at UT, it is also true that he will have developed a lot more independence by living that far away from home.  And he's starting to think he'd come back to Toronto to go to the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy for his Master's, though that's a bit far ahead at this point.

My main complaint was that there are no small shops or restaurants around the Carleton campus, which seems like a clear market failure.  It wouldn't have mattered as much, but essentially all the on-campus dining options were also shut down as classes were over.  We finally found a coffee shop in the Minto Centre, though they had sold out of all their sandwiches, so we just had the yogurt parfaits.

It took another half an hour to check the room to make sure nothing had been left behind, and then he ordered an Uber to get to the VIA train station.  (I'm still holding out on putting the app on my phone!)  We were able to order a couple of sandwiches at the small restaurant in the station.  Then we only had a few minutes to wait before it was time to line up for the train.  The ride back was pretty smooth and, as I mentioned already, only a few minutes late.  So mission accomplished!

I'm assuming I'll take him back by train either at the end of August or very early September.  (Maybe I'll take Dickens' Dombey and Son on that trip...)  In terms of long rides, I am thinking of going out to Montreal in October or November to see the Marisol exhibit.  I'll probably train it rather than flying, but I'll decide closer to the time.  I'm also thinking it might be time to get out to Detroit.  I haven't been there in many years.  Probably not since my mother died, though I did make it back to Ann Arbor in 2008.  For a long time I had thought I would take the train to Windsor and then get over to Detroit on my own.  However, we now have 2 options to get to Detroit directly by bus, and that is a bit more appealing to me.  I missed the Van Gogh show, waiting on my passport, but if I make it over between mid-August and mid-October, there are two exhibits that look worth checking out, including one called After Cubism.  So this is something I'll look into; the bus prices are a lot more stable than plane fares, so I don't think I'll need to plan quite so far in advance.