Reunion Voyage: Ottawa Sightseeing

July 24, 2014

What a day! There is so much to see and do in Ottawa, and it is all in the central area. First thing this morning we headed over to watch the changing of the guard in front of Parliament. A bagpipe and drum band led off, and then a full marching military band came down the main street and entered the Parliament grounds. There were large groups of soldiers (regiments? platoons? Sorry, I don’t speak military). They were in full ceremonial regalia and the event lasted exactly 30 minutes. We were completely impressed.

Then we headed down the hill to catch a water taxi across the Ottawa River to the Canadian Museum of Civilization. Depicting 1,000 years of Canadian history, this is the most visited museum in Canada. We stayed almost 6 hours and learned more than we could have learned in any class. The building itself was designed by an architect with a First Nations heritage and it represents the glaciation of Canada. See the photos to understand the round top glacier, and the flattened off mountain-tops. The grounds were so beautiful – it would have been worth seeing, even if the museum were empty. One floor was a complete history of Canada. Another floor had an exhibit about the Canadian culture adapting to snow - and Bombardier company was mentioned repeatedly as being instrumental in modernizing the way people move in snow. The original owner of Bombardier lost a two-year old son because they couldn’t get him to a hospital during a snowstorm – and he was motivated to create the first snowmobile type of vehicles.

Another exhibit showed the sinking of the ship “Empress of Ireland” in 1914 in the St. Lawrence Seaway. The ship was cut almost in half by a moving coal carrier in a fog bank, and it sank in less than 15 minutes and over 1000 people died. It never became as famous as the Titanic because the advent of WWI took over the news right after. Finally, there was a large exhibit of First Nations totem poles and Inuit sculpture.

We came back to the boat for a leisurely supper and a passing gentleman, named Dan, stopped to visit about boats. We asked him where to buy milk and then we all walked together to the ByMarket neighborhood. We found milk in a drugstore, and then decided on stopping for a beer. He took us to a pub near his house and we were greeted like royalty. The owner/hostess was a woman named Franze and she was bold and crazy and proceeded to buy us all drinks and finally sat down to party with us. I think wherever Franze is, a party follows. We had to sample the new ice cream dessert on the menu, and we had to have another drink…. And we just had a most fun and memorable evening to close out our stay in Ottawa.