A Whirl-Wind Visit to Ottawa

I love Ottawa. I love the museums, the architecture and the shops. I dragged Don along with me on my visit. He chose Ottawa because he didn't want to drive all the way to Quebec City. Everywhere we went Don wore his Montreal Canadians hat and, of course, we got constant comments due to the Montreal-Ottawa rivalry.

We visited Parliament the first day. We went on a tour. I love the library there and all the wood. It is hard to believe it was the only part of the old building to survive the fire years ago. We saw the Senate but due to Parliament sitting we could not go into the House of Commons. We were able to sit in the house of Commons to watch the proceedings. We considered coming back for Question Period but didn't. Too bad we didn't because at the end of the Question Period the House voted on the war in Afghanistan. It would have been interesting to be there for the historic vote. Don and I watched the "Turning the Page" ceremony in the Memorial Chamber. In this chamber are housed the various books of Remembrances within which are hand written the names of all soldiers who have died in action during Canada's Wars. Every morning at 11 o'clock the next pages in each of the books is turned. Sounds so simple but it was was very moving. We also went to the War Memorial. I have seen the memorial before, but it now has the tomb of the unknown soldier. Some day I would like to be there on November 11th.

For Don, we went to the Currency Museum. It was very interesting since the audio tour had a focus on counterfeit money and how it was done through the ages. Even though we did not go to Florida this year, we did get the Florida feeling! Pretty good, eh Barbara?!

Don's way of dealing with Cathy and the camera.