“That is it! I can not take all of this English speaking any more: we are WALKING to Quebec...LOL”
At the end of the school year we had the opportunity to take a quick trip to Ottawa. This was fantastic timing after having just been in France and England. It gave us the chance to tie up the history of Canada in nice little bow by seeing our nation’s capital. So with that opportunity before us, we had to seize the day.
The LittleJ’s and I flew out to Ottawa on a Tuesday evening after school. It was a very pleasant flight with a lovely crew on Air Canada. I must say that this year we have been very lucky to have nothing but great experiences in flying. The staff we have interacted with in the airports, on flights and through security have all been extremely pleasant. Our flight was very uneventful and we arrived at one in the morning. Thankfully, DaddyJ met us at the airport with TimBits!
While we were in Ottawa, we stayed at the Ottawa Marriott. https://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/yowmc-ottawa-marriott-hotel/This is a wonderful location for staying at to see the highlights of the nation’s capital. You are two minute walk from Parliament, on Rue Sparks with quick access to lots of restaurants, only a fifteen minute walk to the Byward Market and the hotel has two kids games rooms, a large pool and a gorgeous Concierge Lounge. One can get great value for the money spent staying a this downtown location as the proximity to so many of the sights saves you quite a bit of money in transportation costs, in addition to all of the amenities.
On our first day in Ottawa, we walked to the Parliament to watch thousands of people doing yoga on the lawn. It is quite interesting to see so many people gathered to do yoga outside at lunch with such an impressive backdrop! We then toured the magnificent structure, stopping to read about all of the statues that surround Parliament. I must confess, it was a great reminder for me as I had forgotten what the contributions of several of the people were to the building of our nation. As has been the theme of 2012 so far, the Queen Victoria statue was a highlight second only to rubbing Lester B Pearson’s right shoe for good luck.
After visiting Parliament, we were off for a quick lunch at the Cock and Lion which had GREAT food, good service and a nice patio on Sparks Street. From there we headed to the Bank of Canada to tour their currency museum. This was a great way to see the world history of currency and of our history of money in Canada. It was the first time that I had ever seen a Bank of Montreal Buck. The banks really have been printing cash since their inception here in Canada LOL. Not to mention that CubJ and I were able to use our knowledge of the Canadian fur trade from our trip to the Glenbow Museum early this year to correctly answer several questions. One of the highlights for the kids was the movie on Counterfeiting and its Consequences.
That evening we went to a delicious old school diner called Zak’s that had massive burgers, great poutine and amazing milk shakes! It was delicious. http://zaksdiner.com/
Day two on Ottawa, we visited the Royal Canadian Mint where we learned a great deal about how our coins are manufactured in addition to all of the other countries that we produce coinage for. The tour is very informative with one learning about how Canada is on the leading edge of creating coins for collecting,how the VanOC medals were created and just how important that fifth nine is to the world markets when creating gold coins. While we were there, the kids got to hold the gold brick which was heavy enough to make SparkJ’s feet fly up off the stool the first time she tried to hold it! Additionally, on our tour we learned about the Barrick Gold 100kg gold coin which would take us to the Canadian Museum of Nature to view it.
After visiting the Royal Canadian Mint, I would announce to the kids “That is it! I can not take all of this English speaking any more: we are WALKING to Quebec...LOL” and we would walk the bridge to the Museum of Civilization. This is an AMAZING museum. We loved the children’s museum, the Canadian Postal museum, really enjoyed learning about why the Mayan’s think that the world is going to end this December with a special exhibit, toured a great exhibit about world religions, learned quite a bit about Canadian history and saw the Imax movie Journey to the Arctic. I must say that I was profoundly impressed with this museum, it was on par with the British Museum and really is a world class institution.
Day three, we went to the Supreme Court of Canada where we had our own personal tour of the building with a very good tour guide who is a Law student at the U of O! He was great with this LittleJ’s making the tour both informative with information presented in a way that was both meaningful and understandable to both a seven and ten year old. The highlight for the kids would have been sitting up in the Judges chairs! I would highly recommend a tour of the Supreme Court of Canada to anyone visiting Ottawa.
After that visit, we were off to the National Art Gallery where we took in the traveling Van Gogh exhibit. The displays of his work are well done. They presented some interesting information about Van Gogh’s career and had a variety of his works on display. I must say that the thing that I liked most about the display was that they brought works that I had not previously focused on when visiting the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Both LittleJ’s found some pieces that they really liked.
After the special exhibit, we toured the museum. There were some great works of art, lovely sculptures, a fantastic Calder mobile, a peaceful indoor garden and several pieces of art that I could neither relate to nor understand what made them art. It is always interesting to see what the kids are drawn too and have them explain to me why. One of our favourite games is to find the work in the small gallery that we are in that you most like or least like and be able to tell the rest of us why.
Following our trip through the National Gallery, we were off to the Canadian Museum of Nature to see the Barrick Gold 100kg gold coin. While there we took in a special exhibit on whales and their role in Polynesian culture. It was wonderful. Neither part disappointed. Being from west and having the Glenbow Museum, The Calgary Zoo and the Royal Tyrell Museum in our backyards, I can honestly say that the rest of the Museum of Nature is perfectly average. If you have access to other Natural history museums in your local area, I would not take the time to go to this particular Ottawa institution as there are so many other great things to see. That is unless you are going to see a special exhibit like that 100kg gold coin.
To end out culturally rich day, we went to the Byward Market with DaddyJ for a yummy supper at Tucker’s Marketplace where we sat on the patio to watch the street performers!
Prior to our evening flight home, on our last day in Ottawa, we went to the National Aviation Museum with DaddyJ. It was a great experience. There are a wide variety of planes on display with a great bit of information about the history of aviation in Canada. CubJ had a fantastic guide explain to him the intricate nature of how a 747 Rolls Royce engine works! There was even good display about the Canadian astronauts, flights final frontier. One of the other really neat parts about going to this museum was that we traveled past all of the foreign representatives’ houses and 24 Sussex Drive where the Prime Minister lives!
I must say that our trip to Ottawa was a lovely one. The weather was fantastically warm but not to humid. The sights that we saw did not disappoint and in fact really impressed which was no small feat after being in Europe earlier this spring. Our hotel stay was once again fantastic with us making good use of the facilities. It was extremely lucky to for CubJ and SparkJ to see where our Frnech and English histories come from and how they have come together become our amazing home here in Canada.
Despite the news of a sad loss for DaddyJ and a great deal of work for him at a conference, I think we all managed to have a very memorable time seeing the history of our country all come together. Thanks for making another trip possible DaddyJ, we really enjoyed eating those Beavertails while seeing the sights!
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