Ottawa - July 14 - Parking ticket day!

 We drove across the border at the small crossing at Derby Line and made a bee line for Les Vrais Richesses, a patisserie where we each had a croissant. (Jane and Norman recommended it.)

Then, we drove to Ottawa. Our Garmin did not work, however, as I erroneously just assumed that Canada would be included. Luckily, we saw a Tourist Information Center on the highway and stopped in and got directions to our B&B on Besserer Street as well as a good map.
  Mark got to Benner's B&B very easily. Our first impression was that it was a bit further away from where we thought it would be, but we quickly changed our minds. Our room was one of the three that is rented and is the only one with a little balcony on the street. Our bathroom is down the hall, but exclusively ours. The tub is very sunken and also a Jacuzzi. Everything - very clean.
    We were between lunch and dinner and really hungry, so Mark checked on Yelp for good, inexpensive food. We ended up at The Manx, a pub on Elgin Street. We almost walked out as it is subterranean and dark and only a few people were there. But, we trusted our research and were very glad we did. The food was creative and excellent. Mark had chicken salad and I had crab cakes. Both very good.
    But when we got out, we found, to our dismay, that we had a $100 parking ticket! We had read the meter carefully which indicated that parking was free after 3:30. But, what we didn't see in our haste to park and to eat, was a sign that said there was NO parking from 3:30 - 5:30 because of rush hour traffic. (It was 3:40) As it happens, a meter maid came by and saw us staring at the ticket and the meter in puzzlement. She was not the one who gave us the ticket and, when we explained it all, she recommended we go to City Hall the next day and fight it. We were skeptical, partly because it seemed it would take a big chunk of our day.

    We then drove around reacquainting ourselves with our old haunts from when we lived in Ottawa in the Glebe in 1986. We found the street (Fairbairn) where we had lived, but were a little sketchy on picking out the exact house. We also drove around our own neighborhood, found the Byward Market (open air market) and parked the car in the space the B & B has at a nearby apartment building.
     We got some fruit etc from a market and went back to the B &B, ate and read.