Our home away from home

We love our location. We are a few blocks from the Byward Market in one direction and Parliament Hill in another. Turns out we have another perk we didn't plan for. The lot beside our hotel is a construction site: the location of a new multi-story Ottawa Art Gallery. Turns out it is interesting. We run to the window when we hear three whistles to watch the blasts lift the enormous tire mats off the ground. We have also learned more than we thought possible about the skills of being an excavator on a huge construction site. Btw. Bylaws insist that no noise can be made until after 7:00 am. Good thing, eh????

Probably 15 feet of bedrock has been carefully blasted and removed (about 1/3 of it while we stayed here!)

View off our patio - storm clouds gathering.

What do you do on a rainy afternoon?

The skies were threatening so we ducked into the recommended Zak's Diner for an old-fashioned milkshake!

A relaxing day in Ottawa

Our pace has slowed and we are enjoying this beautiful city and our convenient location. Our only specific goal for the day was to visit the Memorial for Commonwealth Airmen with no known graves. Dad's brother, William Hugh Molyneux, (Uncle Billy) is commemorated on the memorial.

The memorial is located on Sussex Drive across from the old city hall which is now the John D. Diefenbaker building - a controversial building redesigned by architect Moshe Safdie.

The rain stopped so we continued walking along the Ottawa River to take in the amazing views of the Parliament Buildings and the Museum of History in Gatineau. The trees are still colourful here - just beautiful. 

Oxtongue River and Whiskey Creek Rapids

Algonquin Park was clogged with traffic - the word had gone out that the leaves were at their peak and the people came in busloads. We passed a seven-kilometer lineup on our way through on Saturday but only had about a 20 minute wait today. Once we had our pass we made our way through the park looking for a hiking trail that wasn't overcrowded. We found two. One was a quiet hike along a river down to the rapids, the other a hike up to the lookout over Jack Lake. The leaves are falling, the smell of autumn was in the air and the colour and light was amazing. We've more than accomplished our goal of experiencing the colour of fall in Eastern Canada and hope we can recall some of what we saw once we are back home.
We are now back in the hotel in Ottawa. Two more days and we leave. Rain is predicted and much cooler weather in the next few days.

Thanks for the weekend!

We enjoyed our Thanksgiving weekend at Horseshoe Lake. It began with a five-hour drive from Ottawa which took us through Algonquin Park. We didn't stop but enjoyed the incredible colour and planned stops on our return trip.
We spent two days at Susan and Todd's and had so much fun with the family as well as being treated to a beautiful turkey dinner. The days included an afternoon boat ride on their pontoon boat, lots of chat, watching four cats (mis)behave as only cats can, carefully holding a harrumphing hedgehog, and cheering our way through a baseball game.
We timed our visit perfectly. The leaves were a brilliant colour coming in but were already falling as we left. Plans for putting all the outdoor toys to bed were underway when we left - boats in and tarped, trampoline down, rakes ready for the leaf-raking and snowmobiles tuned up. All must be ready for the massive drifts of snow sure to come before too long. It was a wonderful stay.

A few pictures from today.

From yesterday - Museum of Nature. I just love this ferocious feathered raptor. 

Construction everywhere in Ottawa. Looks like a new rapid transit station/line? is going in. The blocks around our hotel are crazy - detours everywhere. That along with a lot of one-ways makes for nerve-wracking drives. 

It's fall in Byward Market.

A huge hole is beside our hotel. We have spent a surprising amount of time looking out our kitchen window to watch master excavators dig out tons of soil. We both come running when the warning whistle blows. Then one sharp bang followed by a whump as the tire mats lift off the ground. First sound is at the allowed 7:00 am. First explosion at 8:00!

Governor General's. Turns out the tours are now only on weekends. We walked the beautiful grounds.

Hogs head locks on the Rideau Canal. Not sure this machinery is still used. Beautiful in its own way.

Hogs Head locks. It was raining today but that fact was lost in the mist of the falls. The Rideau canal is gorgeous right now. We'll walk it when the weather improves. 

Yesterday's Ottawa in pictures

Extra seating in foyer of Supreme Court

Dramatic entrance to Supreme Court

Renovation of the West Block continues - the replaced copper roof glows in the sun.

Museum of Nature with "Queen's Lantern" replacing unstable tower.

Catching up in Ottawa

We moved rooms this morning and now have a one-bedroom suite with full kitchen and laundry. We are here until our return to Victoria. Byward Market is three blocks away and the Parliament buildings a few blocks from there. Perfect location.
We spent the morning in the market, having coffee, browsing the stalls and visiting the best French book store we've seen anywhere. Then off to see the Supreme Court. We only had access to the foyer and one room featuring pictures of past Supreme Court judges but while there we learned about a tour today at 4:00 so will return for it. The court is in session and chairs were set up outside the court room with a video screen for the overflow. We could have come early this morning to line up to get inside the court room but decided against. The trial is Bell vs a small town in Quebec - something about a tower? - that was all we got from the security officers.
The foyer is as awesome as it should be considering the importance of the institution - all marble and space. Voices echo. It felt very special to be there.

Our next stop was the Museum of Nature. It is the oldest museum in Canada and the building is an edifice. The original tower at the front was found to be unstable and recently replaced by the "Queen's Lantern" a glass tower intended to reflect the original shape. It currently features a giant jelly fish.
This building served as House of Commons and Senate for a few years following the disastrous fire at the Parliament buildings but is now a vast collection with up-to-date interactive displays and active research. We toured every room of the four floors including an actual blue whale skeleton and a fabulous dinosaur collection. We were lucky to get two of the last five tickets for an evening presentation by Ryan Harris, the lead underwater archeologist whose team discovered the Erebus, Franklin's ship. Fabulous.

Today it is raining but our plan is a drive along the Rideau Canal,  a visit to Rideau House and back to the Supreme Court.

Family heritage

We moved cities today - from Montreal to Ottawa. We arrived in time to drive out to Gatineau Park, the location of Kingsmere. We had an interesting visit to the site of The Farm where Dad's mother, Edith Annie May, grew up. It is now in the hands of the National Capital Commission as bequeathed by Wm Lyon Mackenzie King, the Prime Minister who bought and renovated the farm to add to his other properties around the lake. We are not able to visit The Farm - it is the home of The Speaker of the House and not open to the public. But we did visit the other buildings King either built or bought and renovated. We sat on the deck of Moorside, one of the houses, and had tea. Gatineau Park is in full fall colour - mostly yellows. Beautiful.

Tea on the deck of Moorside

Moorside. King spent his summers here. 

Garden at Moorside

A Taste of the "Towards Moderism" wing

PS Did you know if you double-click on the picture, it will enlarge on your screen? Worth it for these masterpieces.... (Then click on 'x' on top right to go back) Okay, class is over....

Emily Carr - Indian War Canoe (Alert Bay)

Adriene Hebert - Corner of Peel and Sainte-Catherine

Lawren Harris, Morning on Lake Superior
Painting glows across the long room

Marc-Aurele Fortin - Sainte-Simeon

And finally, Musee des Beaux Arts

I had read about a special exhibit of George Zimmel's photographs at the Fine Arts Museum while in Fredericton so that was on my list. I also spent time with Group of Seven artists and another Emily Carr. I love the opportunity to have your nose an inch from the paint and to be able to photograph them to savour later. See next post for pics.

The famous, Marilyn Munro over the steam grate was there but I really loved this one. His T-shirt has Davy Crockett on it. Don't you hope he catches it?

Montreal Next stop.

Back to Schwartz's for a smoked meat sandwich. Once a week seems about right for a visit. Mouth-watering as before. Then on to The Word. A second-hand and rare book shop on Rue Milton around the corner from St. Urbain's. Where else would you buy Mordecai Richler? Or a Mavis Gallant?

The Word on Rue Milton

Montreal - a reprise. First stop

So we have the luxury of being in Montreal again! A chance to do anything we missed and to redo what we liked the first time.
We are going at a slower pace and like that too.

Like a giant game of chess from a distance

We started with a drive up to Mont Royal and stopped in the Cimetiere Notre Dame des Neiges. This is the oldest and largest cemetery in Montreal (Canada?) It has 1 million "residents". It is the Catholic cemetery which started in old town in the seventeenth century but was moved up to Mont Royal in the mid-1800's when the need for space became evident. The cemetery is paired with parkland and is used by Montreal living residents as well. It is beautiful and interesting - has "neighbourhoods" not much different from the city outside the gates - difference cultures and socio-economic groups clustered together.
Another living guest surprised us. This little marmot ignored us and continued to eat the flowers. Its den can be seen under the stairs. One of the private funeral home sites advertises the presence of marmots as a bonus for choosing to be buried here - 'a serene place of natural beauty'.....

Okay, we can go home now.

Just kidding but today's visit through the St. Laurentian Mountains was pretty fabulous in terms of colour. Unfortunately, you're going to have to just believe me because it was overcast and the pictures simply do not reveal the incredible shimmering iridescence of the hillsides. We are in the Charleboix region and it is another UNESCO site - chosen for the boreal forest.

Early in the morning as we set out - not so much colour but a perfectly calm lake

First sighting of the Laurentians

Lentement, s'il vous plait!

We are in Saint-Simeon, Quebec. It is on the north side of the St.Lawrence. We travelled from Fredericton, NB to Riviere du Loup today and took the ferry over. We gained an hour moving from Atlantic to Eastern daylight time so were in good time for the 4:00 ferry. It takes 1 hour and 30 minutes to travel across the river at this point and the river widens dramatically from here.
We are immersed in French again and find it fun. A bit more challenging than our only bi-lingual province (New Brunswick) where signs are in English too.
Here in Saint-Simeon, the people we've encountered so far have very little English. Registering at the hotel was a game of guesswork and charades but laughter accompanied it all.

Riviere du Loup from ferry

Coming up to Saint-Simeon on the other side of the river.