Ottawa Or Bust

Our trip was a huge success. We all had a fantastic time, we saw a lot of different things, and got in a lot of visiting with Tina. She was our super-awesome tour guide and showed us all around the city.

Our first day there we went to ByWard Market, which is exactly like it sounds, a market place which is mostly outdoors. There were many tents set up selling everything from fresh produce to clothing and jewelry. The kids weren't all that interested of course. I bought some really excellent tea there, and some beads for my dreads.

Next we walked to The Rideau Canal, which recently became a World Heritage Site. They have skating there in the winter and a lot of boating in the summer. The lock system is so neat to see.

The National War Memorial was right there as well so we stopped for a look. It's a very large monument, and right in front of it is The Tomb Of The Unknown Soldier, which actually has human remains under it.

After spending some time there it was off to Parliament Hill. We took a lot of great pictures, and Tina had a lot of interesting tidbits to share about the buildings. We didn't take the tour this time, but perhaps on our next visit.

We walked all the way around the center and east blocks. There is a 'cat house' beside the center block where a man has built a shelter for all the homeless cats of the city. He also feeds them and has them fixed and immunized. We saw a couple of cats as well as a very fat raccoon and a ground hog.

The five of us wandered along the back of the building where they have a lot of statues and monuments. It was a great history lesson. We got to see the amazing recently-renovated Parliament Library.

It was getting to be time for supper so we called it a day and grabbed a bite to eat at The Elephant And Castle downtown.

The beds at our first hotel in Ottawa were terrible. The next morning we checked out and made a reservation at the Four Points Sheraton across the river in Gatineau, Quebec.

After grabbing breakfast and picking up Tina we went to The National Arts Center. The kids really loved the huge spider out in front of the gallery. They were mostly bored while we looked at all the paintings, but they LOVED the contemporary art displays. There were some very odd installations.

We spent a couple of hours there before we drove across the river into Quebec. We had lunch at this little bistro and the menu was all in French. Luckily both Jay and Tina can read it so they read everything off for me. It was sort of odd that many of the signs had no English on them.

Our new hotel was right across the street from The Museum Of Civilization. Tina had been telling us about the amazing Children's Museum they had, where kids could play and touch stuff while learning about different cultures. That sounded perfect. We went over and they had a ball! I didn't think we were ever going to get them out of there. Besides the huge indoor portion there was also lots of outdoor areas for play and learning. We stayed right until the museum closed, the kids didn't want to leave!

The five of us went for supper although the kids were both ready for bed. We dropped Tina off and spent a few minutes at her apartment so that the kids could play with her cat, whom they totally fell in love with (the cat is not totally used to kids and was a understandably annoyed by them chasing her).

We got a much better sleep at the Sheraton. The beds were awesome.

Monday morning we had breakfast and then stopped by Tina's to visit before we had to leave. We had such a great time in Ottawa, and we were so grateful for all of her help with touring around.

The drive home was long, but the kids managed pretty well. We got them home and then into bed. I think they were mostly exhausted from all of the fun.

I made a slide show of the trip. It's fairly long, there are lots of photos. I hope that everyone else had a great long weekend!