Normally I hibernate in the winter because I hate the cold (I live in Canada of all places...), but this winter Trista proposed a new idea.  To get me out of the house and "celebrate" winter (who would want to anyway), she said we should take a trek up to Ottawa and check out the yearly winter festival called Winterlude.  At first, I confused it with the winter festival in Montreal with the big snow man, Bonhomme de Neige.  Reluctantly, I agreed to go freeze my buns off, but I am happy I did.  I was absolutely awed by the ice sculptures created by artists around the world.  I hope my photography below can do their artwork justice.  

The rest of the weekend we took in some of the sights in Ottawa, had a load of food, drank a lot of Guiness and had a lot of laughs with friends.  We skated on the canal one afternoon and I checked out an awesome record store in Rideu St where I bought some vinyl I had on my to buy list (Jeff Buckley - Grace, Portishead, U2 - Joshua Tree, Supertramp - Crisis What Crisis).  I was especially happy to find the Jeff Buckley album and I'm loving it.