I’ve always liked my home town, but after spending a summer as a tour guide on Parliament Hill a few years ago, I think I truly fell in love with Ottawa. I spent my days trying to show off the city to visitors from near and far — how could I not be smitten with the capital as well?

I was thrilled last summer when I had the opportunity to take over Ottawa Tourism’s Instagram account for a weekend, and I was thrilled again when they asked if I’d like to be their first “local expert” featured in their new #OttawaInsider series.  I was to pick a theme and send them seven photos that showed things I loved about Ottawa.  Well, being on a bit of deadline and with my generalist brain, picking a very specific theme seemed daunting and so I just went with “West of Centre”: all seven of my chosen ‘grams’ were west of the city centre (hopefully that doesn’t seem like a cop out theme!).

So, here are my featured photos below! If you feel like reading the captions and following along on Instagram you can find me @kshap17 (even if you don’t feel like following along, you can still find me there!), and be sure to check out Ottawa Tourism’s account to see what the other ‘Ottawa Insiders’ are showing off. I love our city, and I hope these little snapshots can give you an idea of why I do!