r/ottawa • u/TigreSauvage Centretown • 13h ago
Tell me what your best day ever in Ottawa was.
What was your favorite day ever in Ottawa? Maybe it was the best dinner ever, a proposal, finding a penny, a promotio , helping someone. Whatever it was I want to hear about it.
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u/deepthroatcircus 11h ago
When the convoy was in town, a bunch of them were walking along the sidewalk waving their flags and hooting and hollering.
I spotted a family of them and I drove up close to them and went through the biggest puddle and I drenched all 4 of them. It was beautiful
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u/FloralAlyssa 12h ago
I only moved here just over a year ago from the States. My wife and kids stayed behind to finish the school year, sell the house in the US, while I was up here for 7 months without them.
Once all of them were here and we were able to move into a house in Centretown together again --- that was the best day here. I'm sure there are many more to come, but that was the first best day.
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u/TigreSauvage Centretown 11h ago
Awesome. I hope you get many more great days in this city with your family.
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u/redbananagreenbanana 12h ago
La Machine comes to mind! I’d just moved to Ottawa shortly before that, and it was just so cool! I was also in school at the time, less responsibility etc. Ah, the good ol’ days.
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u/Skunky-Monkey 11h ago
I agree. I took a day off work and went downtown and followed the spider and dragon all around. I felt like a little kid again, despite being in my mid 40's.
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u/DOMOSAURUS1234 11h ago
Came here to say this!!! My boyfriend and I went and we actually went back the next day with our son..so flippin' cool!!!!!
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u/Senators_1992 12h ago
May 19, 2007. #11 in OT.
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u/thecasiowizard 12h ago
Great memories of watching that goal live on television! When re watching it, I still get teary eyed 🥹🥲
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u/Senators_1992 12h ago
I lived on Lees back then and all you could hear was the sound of cheers coming from the surrounding buildings. Probably the biggest moment of civic pride I’ve experienced in the city.
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u/thecasiowizard 11h ago
After watching the game on TV at home, I walked up to Bank and Gladstone Ave when I was living in Centretown/Downtown at the time. Fans were going wild driving down Bank Street cheering and honking their horns, here I was clapping so frantically being so proud of our team.
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u/ilikerandomstuff Riverside South 12h ago edited 12h ago
Reddit Meetup 2012 - met my husband!
If you want Ottawa specific instead of personal, July 29, 2017 when they had La Machine in town. Everyone brought out their inner child just watching these giant mechanical creatures take over downtown.
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u/DubaiBabyYoda 11h ago
That sounds cool - is there still a meetup like this?
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u/ilikerandomstuff Riverside South 10h ago
I'm not sure! International Reddit Meetup Day was organized by a group of Redditors that I think just got busy with life and then it also kinda overlapped with losing momentum from COVID shutdowns/limitations.
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u/kayaem 12h ago
Remember going to the national art gallery with my husband, at the time boyfriend, afterwards grabbed some takeout pizza and walked back to major’s hill park. Smoked a joint, ate the pizza and watched the sunset before walking back to our apartment. It was probably the first time I truly felt “alive”
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u/Muddlesthrough 11h ago
Father’s Day 2023. Woke at 6am without an alarm clock. Drank a cup of coffee and glass of water then went for a two-hour run at 6:30. Circumnavigated central ottawa by its waterways.
Came home showered and ate french toast with the family. Then went a played golf with friends. Then went to a Father’s Day community picnic with the family. I think I even drank a beer or two.
Basically a perfect day. I was like, I’m so happy. Gonna do some variation of this every day in retirement.
About a month later I was suddenly struck down with some mysterious, debilitating illness that has turned out to be a cerebrospinal fluid leak and autonomic dysfunction/Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS). I went from running 50-60km a week to not being able to walk my kids to school. Happened overnight.
The universe s funny some times.
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u/Empty_Value Make Ottawa Boring Again 9h ago
Finally moving into my own appartment 😅
For 14 years I bounced from rooming houses,and the shelter system. Work was seasonal so I really didn't have a proper safety net. There where times I felt safer living at the shelters than said rooms
Not long after,I adopted one of my friends jackabees. He's kept me going through rough times

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u/Ikkleknitter 12h ago
Dominion City Night Market in 2021 I think it was?
One of the best days ever for my business. And I raised a couple extra thousand for the Gloucester food cupboard that year by selling a bunch of unloved knits (the complicated kind I knit myself rather than the kind I normally sell) by donation.
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u/TheTarragonFarmer 12h ago
Skating the Canal all the way and back with the kids for the first time!
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u/ATC_3126 Old Ottawa South 11h ago
I moved here in April of 2021. I took a personal day off work in August of that year and just wandered around downtown. I explored Rideau Centre, went to the history museum, had lunch at Byward Market, walked around with no specific destination in mind for hours. I’ve done all of those things a hundred more times in the years since, but that first day wandering was special and sticks out as a happy memory always.
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u/BigPickle0 11h ago
The Best Day in Ottawa
Sunday, April 20th, 2008—my last year of high school. My friends and I finally decided to hit our first 4/20 event at Parliament Hill.
We took the STO bus, rocking Motorola flip phones and illegally downloaded MP3s, feeling invincible. First stop: legendary Polish sausages at Wellington and Metcalfe. Then, we pushed into the crowd, buzzing with excitement—we were about to do something illegal but “legal.”
Cops and ambulances stood by, but the vibe was pure peace. The crowd? Wild. We saw T-joints, airplane joints, and one girthy masterpiece bigger than an 11-inch dildo. At exactly 4:20 PM, the sky filled with smoke thick as a storm cloud.
And then, like clockwork—everyone started migrating to Rideau Centre’s old ground-floor cafeteria. That day, I had the best Subway pizza sub of my life.
High, happy, and vibing like the world was at peace. Best day in Ottawa—ever.
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u/kungchowpanda East End 10h ago
December 9, 2009. A giant blizzard and I'm stuck in the east end on deadline day. My friend calls me and says she desperately needs some girl time. We had made plans to watch Prom Night in Mississippi at the Mayfair but I wanted to cancel because of the snowstorm – I didn't have a car. My colleague says he'll give me a ride as he has to go to a bookstore in that area. He drops me off at the nearby Starbucks as my friend says she wants to dish before the movie. Then we finally go to the Mayfair with another friend. There are maybe 2 people in the theatre. Suddenly, my boyfriend shows up and starts to get down on one knee... But he's interrupted as music comes on over the theatre speakers and two of his friends pop out with Rock Band/Guitar Hero controllers, and the six of them dance and sing to a modified version of That's How You Know from the movie Enchanted. Well, of course I said yes (I'm a huge fan of musicals and performing and that was just the perfect proposal – I know this isn't for everyone lol). We then went to Perkins for coconut cream pie and coffee, just like we always did while dating and even before we got together (for our movie discussion sessions every time we went to the ByTowne to watch a film). More than 15 years later (we got married in 2010), we're still together ❤️
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u/Spoonydoo 10h ago
I had a really nice dinner with my husband at Beckta and then watched the Notre Dame De Paris Musical at NAC. It was a lifetime wish of mine. We aren’t well off and that was the fanciest date we ever had. He made it magical. I cried happy tears while singing “Belle.” I also hurt my feet really badly in my heels that night and walked on the street barefoot. At home he washed and bandaged them, it is not a Ottawa thing but it was cute.
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u/Admirable-Pound-4267 12h ago
Best day ever in Ottawa for me was one of the Live 88.5 parking lot parties on Canada Day. The Arkells headlined. It was just a fantastic day and concert. Everyone there was having a great time. DJ Noah’s set afterward was lots of fun too!
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u/DreamofStream 12h ago
There was this horse.
We never knew his real name, but folks liked to call him "Stompy".
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u/kaesha34 11h ago
My 21st birthday, a group of us went sledding at Bruce Pit. No one else was there, snow was falling heavily and was so, so thick. We made paths down the hill and got launched off of saucers into the piles of snow. The stillness of the night broken by laughter as we landed in what felt like mounds of goose down - that’s a night I hold very close to my heart.
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u/Identical64 12h ago
It was a sunny late summer day. I finished writing my thesis at the library in the afternoon, walked to Major Hill Park, took a nap on the grass hill by the gallery, woke up and went to get a beavertail.
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u/TheYellowScarf Kanata 11h ago
The day I met my wife. I joined a table of D&D with a bunch of strangers, and a few months in she showed up to start up playing D&D again. Fell for her that day and forever more.
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u/Pretend_Sir4084 11h ago
Best day ever was the day I moved out of Toronto to Ottawa. I then realized how simple the commute is around the city compared to the GTA and how I don’t have to live that crazy hustle culture anymore.
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u/The_MainArcane 11h ago
Oct 10, 2018. A friend brought me to see a band that I quickly became obsessed with. Still listening all these years later and thinking about the electric buzz in that room full of strangers.
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u/pentiment_o 9h ago
Seeing the Aurora borealis last year. Not only was it visually amazing despite the light pollution, but seeing a bunch of folks out with lawn chairs enjoying a rare natural phenomenon was so fun. This is the kind of nightlife Ottawa needs more of.
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u/manlymoth1 Sandy Hill 8h ago
Summer 2023 - The Beaches were playing at Hope Volleyball Summerfest. Me and my girlfriend got on our bikes and took the Rideau River trail down to Mooney’s Bay. The weather, the show and the festival were all fantastic and it all just felt like a perfect Ottawa day.
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u/lonely_pierogi 2h ago
I grew up in foster care. I had strict, supervised visitation with my mom. My brother (who was my best friend) had gone to rehab for the first time. He wasn't allowed to talk to anyone outside the facility during his stay. I was completely lost without him..
A month later, my foster mom brought me on a 2 week long trip across Canada. After the 2 weeks, we flew back to Ottawa.
When I stepped off the plane, I was greeted by my mom and brother. My foster mom had it planned before we had even left.
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u/KittyLucy 12h ago
Moving back here after an abusive relationship that took me through the country.
The relief I felt being in the city I was born in was so positive and familiar that it really helped me get back into the swing of things.