My first full weekend in Ottawa consisted of the following:
A bike ride that accidentally went too far and ended up being about 20k long. Ouch. All I wanted to do was bike along the canal. I got to a stopping point, decided I wasn't tired and made the fateful decision to take another trail along the Ottawa River. By the time I decided I was tired -- I had to bike all the way back. Uphill. God bless the person who decided to open up a hamburger stand on the bike trail. It made a nice stopping point about 3/4 of the way through.
A 2k walk to the Museum of Civilization on Saturday after the 3 hour bike ride, then a tour of the Canadian history exhibits from Vikings to Pierre Trudeau.
A worship service at the First Baptist Church across the street from my hotel where I unexpectedly ran into someone I knew -- a friend from work who was part of the Stanley Cup watching party last week.
A walk to the War Museum and a tour through Canadian conflicts from the Boer War to the trenches of WWI (I actually walked in a trench--Ottawa museums are so interactive!!), WWII, Korea, the Cold War and peacekeeping missions of the 90s and present.
An unexpected walk through the Aboriginal People's festival in front of the War Museum. Native Canadians are known here as Aboriginals, First Peoples, and sometimes Mohawks. They were wearing some of the biggest feathered headdresses I have ever seen and I got to see part of a dance and hear the drums.
Groundhog sightings: 2
Chipmunk sightings: 1
Thank you Gator for asking follow-up questions. This blog is intended to be interactive. To answer your question about the weather, it's been sunny and very refreshingly temperate with highs in the upper 70s and lower 80s. In other words, the weather is ideal.
I LOVE Ottawa and am looking forward to showing my visitors around in the next two weeks!!
If you see a moose, I want pictures!
ReplyDeleteYay!! For 70's!! We topped 104 this week :) Pictures! Pictures! Pictures!! Chipmunks are the cutest! We had a cherry tree with nary a cherry thanks to those fat little fellas. They basked about in the sun on their obese little bellies. My kind of afternoon ;) The red and black squirrels were also impressive. Much cooler than our regular brown friends but a might more aggressive... I was chased from TWO separate hammocks... Once by a red squirrel an once a black. Apparently they frowned upon a lounging American in their hood. I'm totally impressed with your activity level. May I recommend ice and or a massage? ;) LOVE!
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