I’ve had some requests to put up the Year of Epic posts a week or more in advance, for planning purposes. So sorry to do this to those of you who don’t live in Ottawa, but here’s another YOE post that is for NEXT weekend, May 19-20. Oh, that’s a long weekend! EPIC.

If you want to know what’s going on THIS weekend, see here.

Also, at the bottom I’m going to list a few things that are upcoming that require ticket buying, so if you are interested, you can snap some up before they sell out.

So, let’s talk Victoria Day Weekend fun!

Friday, May 18 is International Museum Day, but I am disappointed to see that most of Ottawa’s museums aren’t doing anything special. The Museum of Nature has free admission, but only to their permanent exhibits – you’ll still have to pay to see the movies or Whales Tohora. The Art Gallery is having some special tours, events, and draws. School groups can book a tour of the back room archives at the Museum of Science and Tech – for a fee. The Museum of Civilization isn’t doing anything special, but it is the opening day of their new exhibit MAYA, which explores the Mayans and their apparent end-of-the-world prediction for 2012.

Also Friday the 18th is the One World Art Exhibit. It showcases art created by kids in their program over the past six months, and also features slam poetry, dancing, musicians, and other entertainments. They’ll also be doing some performances the following day at the Lowertown Summer Festival, a big party all day long in Jules Morin Park.

Saturday is day one of the annual Sheep Shearing Festival at the Museum of Agriculture. You can see sheep being sheared, watch totally awesome sheepdog agility competition, and of course, visit with new lambs (aw!). You can also make felt, card wool, and make a sheep craft from cotton balls (double aw!). The festival runs all three days of the long weekend, regular museum admission applies.

If you happen to be at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum on Saturday the 19th, there’s a cool magic show on – Sky High Magic, included with admission.

Sunday May 20 is the first Sunday for the Alcatel-Lucent Sunday Bikedays, which in my opinion are one of the things that make summer in Ottawa really, really great. This year there are several different paths and streets that will be closed on Sunday mornings for bikers, skateboarders, and rollerbladers. The traditional family ride is along the Ottawa River Parkway, and if you don’t feel like carting all your bikes in from the burbs, you can just throw the kids’ bikes in the back of the van then rent adult wheels at the Bixi bike rental kiosk at Booth and Vimy.

Fairfields at the Nepean Museum is opening their summer season on May 20 with a traditional Victoria Day Tea, featuring activities for the whole family, for the cost of a nominal donation.

The Ottawa Fat Cats – that’s baseball for y’all who normally only care about hockey – open their season at home on the long weekend, and there are afternoon games at 1:05 p.m. on both Sunday and Monday. Tickets are $12 for adults, $6 for kids, and free for children under 6.

And lastly, if your kids are up for a nap then you might be able to take them out to celebrate the long weekend fireworks. There are fireworks on Sunday night as part of the Tulip Festival, at 9:30 p.m. at Dow’s Lake. Then the official city fireworks are on Monday as part of the Victoria Day Festival, at 10 p.m. in Juliana Park (near Prince of Wales and Preston).

Whew!

Upcoming stuff that requires tickets that you might want to consider:
May 25 – The King and I at St. Paul’s High School
May 25/26 – Young Frankenstein at Centrepointe Theatre
May 26 – Monster Truck Spectatular at Scotiabank Place
May 30-June 3 – many shows and performances at the Ottawa International Children’s Festival