The first thing that struck me about Ottawa is that it is very clean. The buildings are all in great shape and it's very nice to walk around and smell the fresh air. Toronto could learn a lot. First up, we strolled on by the Parliament buildings. The center building with the Peace Tower (By the way, it's illegal for any building in Ottawa to be taller than the peace tower) burned down in 1916. They rebuilt the building that is there now in 1920.
Also on the field of parliament hill there is a re-enactment of the "Changing of the Guard". I believe what is happening is that the guards that are protecting the Governor General at Rideau Hall are switching shifts. The Governor General is the Queens representitive in Canada but the position is purely ceramonial now.
Speaking of Rideau, This is the Rideau Canal Waterway that connects the Ottawa to Kingston by a series of lakes and rivers. Boaters can take this lock system to bypass the rapids at the mouth of the Rideau and the Ottawa River. The Rideau Canal is the worlds largest naturally frozen ice rink (Guiness Book of World Records). I have some friends who go to Carelton and they can acutally ice skate to school in the winter time.
After getting some world renound Beaver Tails which are a magical mixture of fried dough and powdered sugar/cinnamon or chocolate sauce we headed over to the National Art Gallary. Watch out Michelle, that Spider is going to get you.
There are many great exhibits here at the National Art Gallary and I definitely recommend visiting it. I was very suprised to stumbled over two of my cousin Scott McFarland's works. Below I am standing in between them. On The Right (my left) there is "Orchard View" and on the left (my right) there is Boathouse Exterior. It was pretty cool to see them here.
After walking past the US embassy which looked like Camp X-Ray we walked across the bridge into Quebec to visit a few more museums. We went to the Canadian Museum of Civilization. It was very interesting and we watched an excellent IMAX on Greece. We actually ran out of time for the War Museum. If you looked across the Ottawa River you can see Parliament Hill.
You can see at the rear of Parliament hill that there is a circular building. This is the library. This is the only part of the Parliament that was not burned down in 1916. Therefore, it is still the original. The reason it didn't burn down is because the huge iron doors seperating it form the rest of the building kept the fire out.
Ofcourse we had to Visit Pub Italia which has over 200 beers. you can see Geoff carrying the Duvel Bottles. It was good. I think I drank to much and Jeff is flashing a light at me to get my attention.
This was a great weekend trip. Thanks Geoff for hosting us, we had a great time.
