Ottawa

(Smiths Falls, Ontario, Canada) Hi 72 Lo 60 -- Today was gray and overcast, but we never did get any rain. We went to Sandra and Gordon’s about 12:30 to join them for a trip to Ottawa. We went to Sandra's sister's place to help celebrate her nephew's birthday. On the way we passed the Scotia Bank Centre, the home of the NHL Ottawa Senators.


We made a couple of stops on the way. The first stop was Andrew Hayden Park, which is on the Ottawa River.  (Click on any picture to make enlarge).

One section of the park has Keeley Falls.

Another stop was Hog's Back Park. The park is named after a rock formation that was there many years ago that was shaped like a hog's back. The rocks have since disappeared, but the name stuck.


There's lots of white water, and a waterfall on the river, caused by water rushing through a dam.

This cyclist seems to be admiring the view.

A short video is on youtube.

There’s so many little waterfalls around this area; it's gorgeous! We arrived at to Sandra’s sister's house around 3:30. It was great to meet her sister and her family. Along with celebrating her nephew's Nick's birthday, Sandra goes to spend some quality time with her 3 1/2 month old grand nephew Jack (Nick's baby).


After a couple of hours of socializing we left for a tour of downtown Ottawa. Gordon pointed out a lot of beautiful buildings, but there were too many to remember. I'll just post some pictures.






This cathedral was spectacular looking!


Ottawa is a beautiful city, so beautiful it's almost breathtaking! We took a short detour over the Ottawa River to Gatineau, Quebec, so we can say we were in two Canadian provinces. Quebec is primarily French speaking,  so as soon as you cross the bridge all the signs are in French only (unlike Ontario where they're in both English and French).

Elgin Street has many restaurants and outside cafes. And some places are both... the dining rooms are inside but there is no glass in the windows, so it's open to the street.


The tan building at the end of this street is the headquarters of Canada's Department of Defense, or as Gordon called it, Canada's Pentagon. This interested Jim, since he was in the military.


By this time we were really hungry, so we paid our second visit to Swiss Chalet for dinner (we had lunch at another Swiss Chalet a couple of days ago). Dinner was just as good as lunch was. Thanks Gordon for driving us around to show us the beautiful city of Ottawa, and thanks Sandra for being our tour guide.

For another perspective on our day, visit Sandra's blog. We got back to the park about 9:30.  It was a wonderful day in beautiful Canada.