Only 4 or so hours from Toronto (by train or by car, 45 minutes by air) is Canada’s capital – and home of my in-laws – Ottawa. The May weekend before we were in Montreal, we went to Ottawa to spend some time with the hub’s parents and check out the tulips! The tulip bulbs are a gift in perpetuity from the Netherlands, first presented in the fall of 1945 by Princess Juliana of the Netherlands. The tulip bulbs are the Netherlands’ “thank you” to Canada for the role Canada played in i) liberating the Netherlands during the WWII and ii) providing a safe haven to the Dutch royal family during the war.* The festival is beautiful, featuring more varieties of tulip than I ever knew existed!

An interesting factoid, while in Canada Princess Juliana gave birth to Princess Margriet Francisca, the only royal baby to ever have been born on Canadian soil.

But our weekend wasn’t only wrapped up in tulips. We also had a wonderful time visiting the in-laws and playing with Misty the cat (well… the hubs played with Misty, allergy ridden me watched from a distance). That was also the weekend we, with some hesitation, sold our table (full story on that here). It was a typical rainy April weekend (in mid-May), but we were lucky enough to have the weather clear rain stop when we needed it too. All in all, a lovely weekend break spending time with family.