A leisurely, pleasant twenty-minute drive takes us to the downtown area of Ottawa, absent the rush hour. We pass stretches of the urban forest, meadows with rushes, Queen Anne's lace, Purple Loosestrife, goldenrod and trailing lotus if we take the Eastern Parkway route, rather than the expressway that girdles the city and is usually packed with traffic. The parkway partners the Ottawa River, as it winds its way along, and in these summer days people on foot, bicycles, walking singly and in small groups take their recreational walks along the river, or spread blankets for sun-bathing or have family picnics on the grounds looked after by the National Capital Commission.

There are many landmarks to pass, and national institutions like the aeronautical museum, the paddocks of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Royal Canadian Mint, the National Research Council, the Department of Foreign Affairs, and various foreign embassies before arriving at the Peace Memorial, the nation's Cenotaph, and the Parliament buildings. Tourists flock to the area and from there make their way to the Byward Market, and today there were plenty of tourists.

People eat in the courtyards of cafes, or second-story restaurant balconies overlooking the bustling streets below. It is colourful and busy, but the city presents a serene, contented face, despite the presence of commerce because it is a city planted within a great natural setting, with both the Rideau and the Ottawa rivers nearby and within which the locks of the Rideau play host to recreational boaters passing through the area.

For a change we drove over the 401 to our Bank Street destination, and returned home via the Parkway. Driving directly downtown takes no longer than the other option in the early weekday afternoon, and Ottawa presents its other face, both residential and commercial. This is a green, green city, with what the municipality calls its "urban forest" which they interpret as the inventory of mature trees growing directly on city streets, in front of homes and apartment buildings and commercial enterprises.

On this trip we came through seeing more of the commercial-residential side of the city, though we did pass the venerable old Museum of Nature on the way. In downtown churches just as before many apartment complexes, colourful summertime gardens have sprouted that further enliven the scene. We bypassed the Market this trip, but did head for the Rideau Bakery where the epitome in fresh baked goods that have a traditional old-world taste can be guaranteed.

There is an awful lot of construction being carried out in Ottawa Some of it is the renewal of vital urban infrastructure, some of it is new construction, some represents the refurbishment of heritage and/or government buildings. There was a pile-driver busy right beside where we were parked adjacent to Bank Street. There is hoarding up everywhere. People walk by, busy with their routines; people driving electric wheelchairs at surprising speed share the sidewalks with mothers pushing strollers.

There are shops and storefronts catering to all kinds of people from various cultures in this immigrant-heritage nation, and their lifestyles. You see people in a constant stream entering churches, to take advantage of the social programs each offers to the community. There are shopping emporiums everywhere. Restaurants catering foods from Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America are there in abundance. Used-book shops, bars, couturiers, flower shops, purveyors of imported products of all sorts from rugs to folk art, proliferate in this lively, verdant place we call home.

Before finalizing our trip to arrive at the parkway and our way home, we passed 24 Sussex Drive, the official home of Canada's prime ministers, not now inhabited by the incumbent and his family since a massive refurbishment of the building, both exterior and interior has been undertaken, a years'-long and necessary focus to bring the elderly building to a point where it no longer threatens imminent collapse.On the opposite side is the Governor General's stately residence standing on acres of parkland where before the gates at this time of year the GG''s red-uniformed footguard stand duty.

Under partially sunny skies, on a day when the temperature will top 30 degrees, as good a way as any to spend a few hours after our own earlier-in-the-day ravine walk with our two little dogs. That we weren't successful in the purpose of the trip, to drop by Wallach's art supplies to find the transfer-lettering we planned to obtain which wasn't available through other sources, or the art and antique magazines that should have arrived, but haven't yet was disappointing, but tolerable. Everything is, on such lovely summer days.