Sunday, July 18th

Today was Ottawa Day. Ottawa, Ontario is the beautiful capital city of Canada.

Our hotel in Ottawa, the Radisson.

We left the hotel early to do sightseeing. Before we left, we packed everything up and checked out, although the hotel allowed us to keep our car in the garage until late afternoon.

This strip club was just down the street from our hotel. Unfortunately we were too busy seeing the city to avail ourselves of its services.

In Ottawa, most writing is in both English and French, such as this veteran's monument.

We were in good spirits as the day began.

Looking a little more normal.

Parliament becomes visible in between the buildings.

Parliament in all its glory.

Our first stop was Parliament, the seat of Canada's national government. Pictured above is the main building, with the Peace Tower extending high into the sky. There is also an East building and a West building. The buildings are very impressive and dominate this part of the city. There is a large grassy area in between the buildings where the Changing of the Guard occurs each morning. Also, there are monuments scattered throughout the grounds commemorating many of Canada's important historical figures.

Mom and I peruse the map.

The strangest part of visiting Parliament was the Cat Sanctuary located on the grounds. Apparently Ottawa once had a stray cat problem, so this cat sanctuary was set up as a place for them to live and be taken care of.

Here, kitty kitty!

Before touring Parliament, we watched the Changing of the Guard.

Some of the spectators had a nice vantage point!

A chipmunk makes its way toward the festivities.

Chippy the Cheerful Chipmunk.

Next, we toured Parliament. Our tour guide was a college student from British Columbia, and he was excellent.

An actor portrayed Sir Wilfred Laurier, a Canadian Prime Minister from the early 20th century.

Did you know that the official head of Canadian government is Queen Elizabeth II? We didn't until now.

Next, Beth and I took a trip to the top of the Peace Tower.

The view to the north. The city pictured is Hull, Ottawa's neighbor to the north.

The view to the northeast.

The view to the southeast.

The view to the west.

The ceiling was very interesting. It looked like rectangular pieces of gold foil hanging.

We learned the gargoyle on this plaque is an element of neo-Gothic architecture, which was popular around the time the Parliament buildings were designed.

This room had pictures commemorating each of the Canadian provinces, including the birthplace of our great grandmother. Also, we learned that there is a new province called Nunavut.

Another good view of Parliament.

Eventually we left Parliament and walked around the city. One thing we noticed about churches in Canada is that many of them have twin spires.

We found an outdoor market and spent some time there looking at the wares. Beth looked for a necklace. Mom made the mistake of saying "Bonjour" to one of the merchants, who replied "Ca va?" at which point Mom was lost. We found that Canadians would greet us with "Bonjour". When we would reply in English, they knew we did not speak Francais. If we had replied in French, this would signal to them that the conversation would be conducted in French. Mom learned this lesson the hard way.

We walked past a canal and a park. At the park, we got some ice cream cones at a Nestle vendor. There were a lot of these in Canada... apparently Nestle is a pretty big company up there. We ate a lot of Drumsticks during our trip. We relaxed in a park and watched some guys playing frisbee.

In the park, we came across a unique structure called the Whispering Wall. It is probably about 15-20 feet long. A person stands at each end and they whisper to each other, and the whisper carries along the wall! It was pretty amazing!

We started to head back to the hotel to pick up our car. We stopped at Yesterday's to eat lunch. They had an outdoor seating area that was packed, but inside the place was almost empty. We ate inside in peace and had a nice meal. We also stopped at Tim Horton's for a drink. Tim Horton's is Canada's version of Dunkin' Donuts or Au Bon Pain or Starbucks. They also have them in Rhode Island where they have taken over Bess Eaton. Anyhoo, I had a sip of Mom's Iced Capuccino, and it was delixious! I am not a coffee person, but this concoction tasted more like coffee ice cream than coffee, which is why I liked it so much.

We hopped in the car and took off for Montreal. As we approached the city, threatening storm clouds covered the city, but luckily we didn't have to drive through too much bad weather. Once we got downtown, we noticed two things about Montreal's streets. First, at some intersections there were blinking green lights. Second, there were signs with arrows on them. Thanks to my Montreal and Quebec City for Dummies book, we learned that the blinking green means you have the right of way for turns (similar to a green arrow in the states), and the signs with green arrows demonstrate which turns can legally be made at that intersection. Unfortunately, our directions wanted us to turn left onto a street with a straight arrow and a right arrow, so it was a little trickier to get to our hotel than it should have been, but we made it to the Omni Mont Royal.

Our first project upon arrival at our hotel was parking. I talked to the clerk at the desk, and she explained the options. We could park at a parking garage down the street for cheap (well, relatively) and not have guaranteed access to our car, or we could have the hotel valet park it for a higher cost, and have access to it whenever we want. We weren't sure how often we would need the car, but Mom wanted the peace of mind, so we went with the valet parking option. Which leads us to our second project:

Tipping. Starting with the valet, we had to start tipping people left and right. And how much are we supposed to tip? We had no idea so we just winged it and hoped for the best. That's what you get when Motel 6 people start staying at fancy schmancy places like the Omni. So all of a sudden, guaranteed access to our car didn't sound so nice knowing we would have to tip the valet when he brought the car, then again when we turned it back over to him. This would come into play later tonight, when we realized how much stuff we had forgotten in the car. Lest we go through the hassle of contacting the valet and tipping him up the wazoo, that stuff would remain in the car all week.