Saturday June 24: Last Day in Ottawa

Yesterday was rainy and overcast so it was a day to catch up on boat stuff. Steve was working on why raising and lowering of the outdrive isn't working correctly. Goes up but not down.

Finally tracked it to a broken wire – somewhere from the control panel to the back of the motor in the engine compartment. Time to run a new wire another day ….. but he still made a couple of trips to various stores.

It's been a nice opportunity for people watching sitting along the canal here.

Graduations happening at the University of Ottawa – I suspect Guppy is in the background of a number of graduates pictures!

Even a bride and groom across the canal.

Guppy is even closer than ever to the bridge over the canal. Makes it closer to go to the hop on bus, breakfast or the market in Bytown.

And a plus? An open wifi from the cafe across the canal!

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is on the way to the hop on bus. The guards there stand a one hour watch over the tomb. Very similar to the US tomb of the Unknown Soldier in DC.

We did not see the change of guard there though.

We were again on the top level – nice and sunny as it's still somewhat cooler than usual. Karen and I are sitting in the front two seats while Steve and Craig are taking pictures!

First stop for the day was the War Museum. We stayed about an hour – I read in the lobby while Steve checked out some of the exhibits. He thought I would like the tank :-)

And an interesting exhibit about a distraction intended to free Ireland from British rule but which helped create Canada instead!

The Vikings landed in what would be Canada but had some difficulties with the First Peoples living in the area :-)

Next stop was the Museum of History. 

Remember to click on a picture that you want to see larger.

One of the main galleries contained the largest indoor collection of totem poles along with the coolest plaster cast sculpture.

And so we are officially museumed out :-) Way more stuff with tons of reading that was sort of skimmed over - otherwise we would have needed another 3 days here!

One last look from the bridge toward the 8 remaining locks (flight locks) on the Rideau Canal. This would lead to the Ottawa River and eventually to Lake Champlain.

We have opted to turn back at this point - and after a more leisurely trip back to Kingston - will head west on Lake Ontario to the Trent Canal!

Off tomorrow about 9.