My Trip to Ottawa

As I sit down to blog, getting ready for bed, I reflect on the amazing day in Ottawa I just had

After a wonderful brunch at Eric and Lana's (see yesterday's post), we got ready to go out on the town for the day.  Of course with the knowledge of cold weather, and wanting to stay warm, Eric and I got the longjohn's on and had to pose.

We then went to Parliament to look around and take pictures.

Just by chance, we thought to go see if any tours were available (these are normally all booked up by 10am).  Due to the snowy/slushy weather today, it was considerably less busy, and we got to tour the inside of parliament!  Learning history in school was boring, but walking around and seeing some historic artifacts was quite neat.  Along with going to the top of the peace tower (the middle portion of the building above), we also got to peek inside the House of Commons:

And Parliament's Library

We continued to walk the city, and I continued to snap some pictures of memorial statues

After the touring and walking, we stopped for a pint, and then got to the main event (at least for me).  We pulled out our skates and went onto the Rideau Canal.  The Rideau Canal, for those unaware, is a 7.9km stretch of water that freezes over in the winter and then you can go skating on the surface.  There are usually shops and food on the canal, but today was the first day that it was open, and only 2.4kms were deemed safe for skating.  The ice was super choppy, and covered in snow, but there was no way I was going to miss out on having my beavertails while skating on the Rideau!

All in all, a great trip.  Tomorrow, back home to my lovely wife and hyper-active dog.