Ottawa

The name comes from the Algonquin native "Adawe" meaning 'To Trade'.

Taking a breather...

Of course the city is the Capital center of Canada, where our parliament and National heart are located.  Sitting across the Ottawa river on one bank opposite the city of Hull which by the way... is located in the province of Quebec, it's home to over a million people of which 900,000 must work for the various levels of government! 

The streets and hills contain embassies from around the world...

These 'lectric bikes are everywhere.

You'll find a trendy downtown that has boutique stores and homeless shelters within a few blocks of one another. 

It was Queen Victoria herself that proclaimed the city as the capital of Canada.

Brenda was attending the national conference of Fairvote Canada, of which she is one of two volunteer VP's while Anna and I sparred as we normally do.  I was hoping to visit the National Aviation and Aerospace Museum, you know that I am just about as keen on aircraft as I am on motorcycles!  Unfortunately the arranged respite helper cancelled just about the time we drove into the downtown core!

Ahhh, our ship has finally come in...

The skipper..."three hour tour, no problem!"

Disappointed as I was, we did however take a very leisurely and informative boat cruise of the Ottawa river with our bilingual young tour guide filling us on the the sights.

Gilligan?

Of course there is the Parliament buildings on the south bank, the National Research Counsel building and let's not forget 24 Sussex Driv, residence of the PM and family hidden by trees among other famous Ottawa landmarks.

In edition, from our base of operations on the 14th floor of the University of Ottawa residences, we walked the lovely and romantic Rideau Canal built in 1826, as well as the downtown core.

The University residences from the canal.

Ottawa is home to trendy restaurants, tourist attractions, the CFL football team known as the Ottawa Red Blacks ( a name which confuses me) and construction... lots of construction.  In fact the day after I left the city a MAJOR sink hole opened up in the core, streets which we had walked a number of times over the 4 days we were there!

Not a clue...

Although the first actual settlement didn't happen till 1800, the indigenous people trapped and fished the area much longer than any politicians memory... the first European was not Samuel Champlain as some history books incorrectly pointed out but rather Etienne Brule in 1610, followed by the more famous Champlain in 1613.

A different view of the Parliament buildings and the Laurier

When the treaty of Paris officially ended the 100 years war between France and Britain after the defeat of General Montcalm on the Plains of Abraham high on the bluffs above the Saint Lawrence in Quebec City, France lost it's foothold in the New World and the British took control of the huge new dominion that later was to become... Canada.

Museum of Civilization... Hull PQ

Looking towards the pedestrian overpass to the south.

Of course French Canadians struggle to keep their province unique and in some ways punish English speaking Canadians by what I and many would call, unfair practices forcing business' and of course literally every product sold in Canada to be identified in both official langauges!

Super expensive Chateau Laurier where an Executive suite will set you back a cool $1699/night... two years from now!

As a young man I attended a session of parliament in 1975.  I was on my return to western Canada after a month long motorcycle ride to the east coast, when to my absolute horror I witnessed grown (?) men and women behaving like delinquent school kids, hissing and booing and throwing tantrums and other items across the floor of the house of commons!  I remember thinking, "these are the people running the country!?" 

But I digress...

Being the capital of this country, it is certainly worth a visit, you might even bump into someone famous, like Mike Duffy or Pamela Wallin or the PM hisself, Justin Trudeau! Remember though, if you bump into any of these people with the grill of your Ford F 150, you could possibly be arrested!

After a thrilling weekend, Brenda drove me to the airport in the wee hours of Monday morning, June 6th amid remembrance of the D-Day landings in northern France, 1944 from where I continued to Calgary for a visit with my girls Holly and Lisa and their spouses and of course... for an introduction to William, my first born grand baby!



Onward and westward!

The Rideau Canal looking north to downtown Ottawa at dusk.