Wednesday July 27: Ottawa Again

Our second day in Ottawa has gone well but it's still way too hot to be out in the sun for any length of time. Let's hear it for the bridge that provides us shade for a good part of the day. The picture left is an aerial view of downtown Ottawa. If you double click on it, you can see where our boat is docked relative to the Parliament buildings and downtown. Apparently the bridge we are partially under used to be the haven for the homeless until the city decided that just wasn't working. It's now a lovely place to stop. I also marked where the laser light show was held and where we were sitting. You can also see the 8 flight locks that connect the Rideau to the Ottawa River. Colonel By (statue of him facing the flight locks here in Ottawa) is mentioned everywhere as the one man force behind getting this canal built. Now he sounds like a genius - not so much in the days when the work was done though (guess that's how it always is, right?). Anyway, he discovered that lining the bottom of the locks with oak rather than the way more expensive stone worked well. Apparently, as long as oak is constantly underwater it takes decades to rot away. Of course we discovered that when we ran up on the stump! Anyway, the center picture is of the Parliament buildings looking from across the river. And the last picture is of the flight locks coming up yesterday. I think there are 6 of them in the picture but a total of eight altogether.

The boater behind us (he's here visiting his daughter that lives here in Ottawa) tipped us off to be sure to go to the laser light show at the Parliament. It didn't start until 10 pm but somehow we managed to stay awake! Wow - was it ever good. Unbelievable really. The Parliament building was the backdrop for the show. Basically it was the history of how Canada came to be. Really hard to describe but here's a few pictures which I know don't really convey how crazy good this was.

Overall, Ottawa is pretty biker friendly - including putting a little ramp in the middle of the stairs going up to the next level. Of course have you ever tried pushing a bike up something like this??? It's not fun (not that I would know - Steve took mine up :-)) There is a section of old Ottawa similar to the West Side Market in Cleveland or Pike's Market in Seattle. Many, many restaurants of every type - including the center picture of a place that features Pelee Island wines! I guess that makes sense since Pelee Island (in Lake Erie) is a part of Ontario. As you would probably think, there are many old and very unique buildings due to the French and British influence over the years. Canada became a country sometime in the late 1800's but had settlements long before that. This is a picture of the US Embassy - quite a bit more modern than most of the official buildings here.

Tomorrow we head out early to go through the 8 flight locks and then a short distance to a casino that provides docks/power/water at no charge - so we'll spend the dock money in the slot machines - sounds like a good trade off to me!