Day 33: Ottawa

Oh my goodness, my feetsies are about to fall off! It wasn’t even the highest meal king mileage day we’ve had this trip. Probably more the 13 hours that we were out and essentially standing the entire day. Oh, and it was really hot. Weather forecasting has been so off for so much of this trip. Was supposed to be sunny in the low 89s today. They got the sunny part right, but it was in the mid 90s. Pretty big difference. Anyway...

The light show at Parliament last night was pretty spectacular. It was a 30 minute overview of Canadian history. Lots of cool projections on the face of parliament, extremely well done. It ended with the Canadian national anthem and the flag projected on parliament. Very patriotic, uplifting, etc.

Found breakfast at a nice little place this morning, then headed over to parliament to get tour tickets. They start handing out tickets at 9, we got in line at 9:05, the line was already a full city block long. We weren’t sure we’d get tickets at all. It also became clear pretty quickly that the line was moving rather slowly and we wouldn’t be able to get tour tickets and watch the changing of the guard. So I sent mike and the boys to watch the ceremony and I waited in line. Got your tickets, made it back for a front row seat to watch the majority of the guard ceremony. A win for everyone.

We had some time before the parliament tour so we walked over to the Canadian mint to check that out. Right on time for that tour. They have a solid gold brick that weighs 28 pounds and is worth $650,000. The boys lifted it up for the obligatory photo op. The guard was none too pleased when Mike asked Ben how fast he could run. In fact she looked downright pissed. Did I mention that the gold brick was bolted to a steel shaft? Anyway, the mint was super cool. They don’t make circulation currency here, that is done in Winnipeg. This mint makes building coins for investments, collectors coins, and medals. Really fascinating process.

The parliament tour was really interesting. Though it took forever to get through security and get started. Made for a very late lunch. That was totally random. It’s late, i’m Tired.... the library in Parliament was easily the most beautiful library I have ever seen. All of parliament is a really beautiful building that will begin major renovations in January and be closed for 10+ years. Lucky we got in to see it today.

After that late lunch we crossed the bridge into Gatineau in the Québec province. There was a park we were going to visit. Turns out there was a massive mosaic flower sculpture exhibit. We almost passed it by, decided to check it out after all. Very glad we did. The lady at the exit said it took over 5.5 million flower plants to make the sculptures. Absolutely fantastic. Again, every sculpture tied to some part of Canada and it’s history.

Thursday’s happen to be free museum days from 5-8. That’s pretty cool. We took advantage of it by visiting a huge Canadian history museum in Gatineau. Again, fantastic museum. Learned a lot. Could have spent many more hours there.

Back across the bridge and to the area we are staying for a late dinner.

We could spend so much more time here. Ottawa is a really interesting city. As with the rest of our Canadian adventures it feels like we just got our toes wet here and it’s time to move on.

Tomorrow we head to Niagara Falls. Staying in the Canadian side, will have to walk to the US to catch the boat ride. We will be back on US soil for good on Sunday.

We also had to cancel our camping plans in Mammoth Cave - very high chance of rain when we are there. So close to the end of the trip, it’s a shame to do that. Would hate to take Home wet camping gear though and there’s won’t be any opportunity to dry things out after we leave there. Just 10 days left of the trip.