Alexa and Francois joined us on our outings today, and it was a whole different experience to travel about the city with someone who knew it. Our goal was to get to the Nature Museum, but we took a bit of a winding path on the way so that we could go past Rideau Hall, or the governor general's residence. The gates were open and the guards were doing their stomp back and forth, so we found parking and went in closer. Am I ever glad we did!
i wonder what these guys do in the event of a real 'situation'
the rule is to stand away from the bayonet side
not everyone can wear buttons like that!
The gates were open and we decided to go for a stroll on the grounds. There is no watering in Gatineau or Ottawa (I think Ottawa is included in the ban), but if you are GG you operate with different standards, of course. The grounds were lush and cool. Many of the trees had plaques under them telling who planted it and when- what a neat record! The sprinklers were going, and of course Avery dashed through those! There were tours into the house, but we decided to move along.
i saw a totem pole mom, and it was thiiiiiis big!
le hall, with le guards and les tourists
sprinklers: for grownups to go around and children to dash through
while we were strolling the grounds a bagpiper went with some more furry hat fellows to the front gate. he came back with then all nicely in a row and organized...
a nice place to hang out...
From there we made a quick stop at the scone witch shop for breakfast scones, then headed off to the museum. The museum was full of animal things, nature things, and more iMax movies. We didn't really give the place it's due, again cruising through a few galleries and not even entering some others.
We did get to see the million dollar coin we heard about at the mint. It was smaller than seemed right for something so valuable, but was impressive all the same.
Mark took a picture of a tarantula just to torture me.
guess who is warm and who is cold?
i learned that polar bears are descended from grizzlies. i didn't learn if they hibernate
Avery crawled into a blue whales heart- or at least a life-sized plastic version of one. Blue whale babies are 7m long!!!!
when the parliament buildings burnt down in ???, the museum building housed the government until it was rebuilt
We headed for the Byward market next. Avery wanted pasta for her birthday dinner, and Alexa and Francois knew of a good place there. But first, Alexa brought Avery to a bead store for a little something special for her birthday. Holy bead heaven!!!! Avery spent a long time choosing the beads for her most colourful bracelet and then stringing them together. Alexa said this was a place that she used to take her daughter to when she still lived at home. It was very special to stop in here, and Avery loves her creation.
Then on to Mama Grazzi's for supper! Very delicious and a treat to sit out on the patio for dinner.
And so ended a perfect finale to our Ottawa/Gatineau leg of the trip! Next stop... Montreal!
Happy Birthday Avery!
ReplyDeleteLooks like you had another wonderful day seeing some very special things.