What we did today: Merveilles de sable

Today we went to check out Merveilles de sable (Wonders of Sand) at Lac-Beauchamp in Gatineau. Good citizens of Gatineau, you've been keeping this a secret for far too long. We had a blast -- and can't believe that we haven't heard of this before. (It's been a yearly event since 2009.) A few things that our family enjoyed:

• Sand sculptures. There were amazing professional sand sculptures (pictured above and below), and an amateur competition as well.
  
  
• A beautiful beach, a sunny summer day, warm water, party tunes blasting.
  
  
• Free boat rentals - canoes, kayaks and paddle boats.
  
  
• Reasonably-priced food and beer, a bouncy castle for kids, short waits at the porta-potties, lots of helpful volunteers, totally bilingual service the whole day
  
  
• Cheap. $15 got us on-site parking and admission for 2 adults. Kids under 12 are free.

Aside from a bit of sunburn it was a perfect summer Sunday. See you there next year.

Related: Ottawa Beaches & Swimming Guide

OttawaStart visitor stats from June

Some quick visitor stats from OttawaStart the month of June, as measured by Google Analytics.

Search engine referrals: Microsoft's Bing sent a small but significant number of searches our way for the first time in June. Here's are the top three search engine referrals:

• Google: 92.2%
• Yahoo: 3.7%
• Bing: 3.1%

Browsers: Most people visiting our site use Internet Explorer, but Google's Chrome is on the rise. Here are the top 4 browsers:

• Internet Explorer: 66.9%
  
• Firefox: 24.4%
  
• Safari: 5.3%
  
• Chrome
  

Top ten pages on OttawaStart:

1. Canada Day
   
2. Jobs
   
3. Bicycle
   
4. Radio
5. Television
6. Strawberries
7. Festivals
8. Events
9. Kids
10. Weather
    

Sens web site covers Development Camp

Check out OttawaSenators.com this week for some great coverage of the annual Development Camp for the team's top prospects. Over 30 players are taking part in on-ice and off-ice training and team-building exercises.

In particular, check out the player blog by Ottawa native Corey Cowick, who was drafted last week by the Sens. Here's a sample:

The cultural differences between us are interesting. It was about an hour and a half drive out to Wilderness Tours and we had Jakob Silfverberg, who’s from Sweden, in our car. It started pouring rain, just a torrential downpour and we couldn’t even see in front of us. And he’s got the iPhone out taking pictures and saying ‘this is crazy.’ At breakfast this morning, the Swedish goalie, Robin Lehner, said ‘I’ve never seen this before. You have potatoes with breakfast.’ You know, home fries. Just the different cultural things are funny but everyone’s got the one thing in common and that’s hockey. So you have at least one conversation starter and then you tend to go back into talking about their hometowns and what their country is about. It's a great learning experience.

Also check out Sens TV Online for videos like this one:

Related: Ottawa Hockey Guide

No juggling allowed!

Check out this unintentionally hilarious "no juggling allowed" sign. The text says "No busking / Amuseurs publics interdits. There were several of these downtown on Canada Day near Rideau and Sussex. Only in Ottawa! The photo is from @mWare who posted this to twitpic.Update: Meanwhile, bylaw officers try to shut down a street performer in the Byward Market, as onlookers voice their support for the performer. Read Maria Cook's account on Designing Ottawa...

Related: Ottawa Canada Day Guide

Is this the new OCTranspo.com web site?

Is this the new OC Transpo Web site? Someone posted a link to http://www.octranspo1.com/ over on the LiveJournal OC Transpo Community. If it's not an official prototype - it's a great fake that OC Transpo should adopt as their own. It's a big improvement over the current page -- this one is a much more visual (and modern) presentation, with the trip planner and maps front and centre.

Related: Ottawa OC Transpo Guide

Follow-up: Former public washrooms in Ottawa

As a follow-up to our earlier post about the best and worst public washrooms in Ottawa, check out this interesting collection of photos of public "comfort stations" in Ottawa.

It's from the Urbsite blog, and the photos include this note: "Contemporary concerns about safety and sanitation have made the public convenience a rare avis in today's cities. Most of the examples in this post have been walled up and closed. This post isn't about not finding a place to go, most just happen to be sealed. It's a survey of 100 years of a small building type."

Related: Ottawa History Guide

Ottawa's best and worst public washrooms

Catching up on some reading tonight, including this article about the best and worst public washrooms in Ottawa and Canada. The best in the area include the Antrim Truck Stop in Arnprior and the Chateau Laurier loos. The worst include the Rideau Centre.

5-star

- Antrim Truck Stop, 580 White Lake Rd., Arnprior.

- Bayshore Shopping Centre, 100 Bayshore Dr., Ottawa.

- Broadway Bar & Grill, 1615 Orleans Blvd., Ottawa.

- Centre Hospitalier Pierre-Janet, 20 rue Pharand, Gatineau.

- Cinema Fortune SatrCité Hull, 115 Boulevard du Plateau, Gatineau.

- Club Pigale, 97 Boulevard Gréber, Gatineau.

- The Elmdale House, 1084 Wellington St., Ottawa.

- L’Équipeur, 45 du Plateau, Gatineau.

- Fairmont Chateau Laurier, 1 Rideau St., Ottawa.

- Foundation Restaurant, 18-B York St., Ottawa.

- Heart & Crown, 353-B Preston St., Ottawa.

- The Home Depot Canada, 1900 Baseline Rd., Ottawa.

- Lee Valley Tools, 900 Morrison Dr., Ottawa.

- MacEwan Casselman, 631 Principale, Casselman.

- Moxie’s Classic Grill, 1976 Ogilvie Rd., Ottawa.

- Spins Laundrymart, 320 McArthur Ave., Ottawa.

- St. Louis Bar & Grill. 399 elgin St., Ottawa.

4-star

- Best Western Parkway and Conference Centre, 1515 Vincent Massey Drive, Cornwall.

- Cafe Orient, 808 Somerset St. W., Ottawa.

- Cornwall Civic Complex, 100 Water St. E., Cornwall.

- Elephant & Castle Restaurant, 50 Rideau st., Ottawa.

- Les Galeries de Hull, 320 Boulevard St. Joseph, Gatineau.

- Gloucester Centre, 1980 Niagara St., Ottawa.

- Hazeldean Mall, 300 Eagleson Rd., Ottawa.

- Laurentian View Dairy Bar, 33387 Highway 17, Deep River.

- McDonald’s, 2380 Banks St., Ottawa.

- Plant Recreation Centre Pool, 930 Somerset St. W., Ottawa.

- Starbucks Coffee, 787 Bank St., Ottawa.

- Summerhays Grill, 1971 Baseline Rd., Ottawa.

3-star

- Burger King, 700 March Rd., Ottawa.

- Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Dr., Ottawa.

- Fifth Avenue Court, 99 Fifth Ave., Ottawa.

- Loblaws South Keys, 2210-C Bank St., Ottawa.

- Loblaws, 1460 Merivale Rd., Ottawa.

- Place D’Orleans, 100 Place D’Orleans Dr., Ottawa.

- Ottawa Hospital, General Campus (2nd floor), 501 Smyth Rd., Ottawa.

- Rideau Carleton Raceway, 4837 Albion Rd., Ottawa.

- Rona Home & Garden, 585 West Hunt Club Rd., Ottawa.

- Swiss Chalet, 653 Terry Fox Dr., Ottawa.

- Wal-Mart, 3651 Strandherd Dr., Ottawa.

2-star

- Chinese Buffet Wing Hing, 1315 2nd St. E., Cornwall.

- Feleena’s, 742 Bank St., Ottawa.

- Loblaws, 1980 Baseline Rd., Ottawa.

- Patty’s Pub, 1186 Bank St., Ottawa.

- Pizza Pizza, 1779 Carling Ave., Ottawa.

- Rideau Centre, 50 Rideau St., Ottawa.

1-star

- Diamond Shawarma, 3541⁄2 Rideau St., Ott

You can access the entire list at PowderRoom.ca

Related: Ottawa Services & Utility Guide

Even more bands added to Bluesfest

You can add Busta Rhymes, Metric, Lynard Skynard, K'Naan, Gym Class Heroes, Silverstein, King Khan and BBQ, Black Keys to the long list of performers at this year's Bluesfest. You can see previous posts about performers here and here.

Plus, there's a whole new series of shows planned for the Byward Market, including George Clinton & the P-Funk Allstars, The Proclaimers, Matt Mays, Wintersleep, and a whole lot more.

Related: Ottawa Bluesfest Guide

Rant of the Day: Ottawa's pedestrian safety campaign

Blogger Eric Darwin has a great rant today on his West Side Action blog. He's highly critical of the City of Ottawa's pedestrian safety campaign, pointing out that currently on the City's web site, there's currently lots of suggestions for pedestrians to avoid getting hit by cars - but none for motorists.

"It seems pedestrian safety is 100% a pedestrian responsibility. So if you get run over ... you know who's fault it is," writes Darwin. Read his entire pedestrian rant here...

Related: Ottawa Driving Guide

Name Ottawa's downtown transit tunnel

A few weeks back, we asked for your name suggestions for Ottawa's downtown transit tunnel. Officially it's called "DOTT" (Downtown Ottawa Transit Tunnel) but we think we can do better. Here's what you came up with:

• Larry's Basement
  
• Ottawa Underground
  
• Capitunnel
  
• Be-Lo-Train
  
• [fill in name] + "bunker", e.g. "McGuintybunker" depending on who actually approves money for it Blogger: OttawaStart Blog - Create Post
• The PayWay
  
• The Big Dig, Canada Edition
  
• OUT - Ottawa Underground Transpo
  
• The Medium-Sized Dig
  
• The Hole Near The Rideau
• BORT - Below Ottawa Rapid Transit
• LOOT - Ludicrously Overpriced Ottawa Transit
• BM - Bureacratic Mess, Bureaucrat Mover, OR Bowel Movement
• ByTowne Tunnel
• The Flying Pig (at least until it gets built)
• OTown Tunnel
• OTown Transitway
• #FAIL
  

That last one, submitted by spydergrrl is our favourite! Thanks to everyone who replied to our blog, sent ideas via Twitter, or through Public Transit in Ottawa.

Related: Ottawa OC Transpo Guide