My mom never knows what to get me for my birthday, and since
she doesn’t actually shop, the choices are limited. This year, I knew just what I wanted. I wanted her to agree to come with me to Ottawa. Why Ottawa? Well, for one, it’s there and I haven’t seen
it, and if that’s not enough reason, well then it’s also only 4 hours from her
house, making it an easy car trip. But
honestly, it’s Canada
and I’ve had a love affair with that nation since around 1982 when I first read
Anne of Green Gables.
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| Crossing the St. Lawrence |
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| When we first arrived |
The birthday present had numerous delays including waiting
out Victoria Day (which some Canadians call “two-four” and is the summer season
kick off) and the US Memorial Day. We
finally left June 2 and headed north. We
made great time and before we knew it we’re crossing the 1,000
Island Bridge. Customs was, well the typical, except, then
it wasn’t. We’re going through, all
normal and all and the agent hands me a little yellow paper and says something
that I think was: “We’re conducting a
blitz”. So we had to go to the building,
and there’s a bunch of people milling about confused and unorganized. After briefly asking one guy if he was in
line and hearing no, I got lucky and caught the eye of the agent. I think I may have gone to the head of the
line, but hey! He who hesitates is lost.
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| Always Fresh! |
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| Mom in front of the Post Office Building, Wellington St. |
Don’t ask me? Was it
a drill or a targeted sweep? Beats
me. All I know if that the agent
disappeared for like 5 minutes and returned and asked the same stupid questions
they had asked at the booth. Then we
were on our way.
About 30 minutes in and we decided to find an ATM. Of course, we also found our first Tim
Horton’s. Ahhhh, real Tim Horton’s
coffee. We were in Kemptville, just off
Rt. 416. I really pictured the Canadian
Highways south of Ottawa
to be crowded expressways.
They were
more like the Interstates you find in areas that are more geographically spread
out, like western New York or maybe western Virginia. In fact, traffic was no issue at any point
that weekend. Ottawa,
itself was no more confusing than driving in Albany.
In fact, all of it was pretty rural.
The area between the St. Lawrence and the Ottawa
River is not all that developed and still contains a plethora of
farmland. Yes, there were some created
communities sprouting up, but not to the extent I would have guessed.
It seemed more populated east of Ottawa where we headed first. Yes, we had to stop at a Gas Up for gas in
litres, lottery tickets, snacks, and general gawking at the bilingual
packaging. But what caught our eyes was
MILK IN A BAG! Seems in Ontario and
Quebec, 4 litres of milk is sold in a bag.
Within the bag are three smaller sacks that you place into a pitcher so
you are able to pour it easily.
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| $5.72 for four litres~ WOW ! |
We drove around a lot, not really knowing exactly where we
were going (east of Ottawa for the view).
Finally, we got turned around, went to our hotel and then out site
seeing on foot. The hotel we stayed at
was Hotel Indigo on Metcalfe. Very
clean, very modern, and the most perfect location for walking. It has underground parking. When we pulled up and the door opened, you
could no longer see the driveway. It was
like a leap of faith to drive the car down into this abyss, but once inside it
was fantastically safe. In fact, the
whole time we were in Ottawa we never heard sirens! Why, I do not know?
We went to the Parliament buildings first thing. They are impressively designed and built. The stone and iron work is detailed and my photos do it no justice. Here, there were crowds, but not any major amount of people. The view from Parliament Hill is enjoyable. We could see across the river to Quebec. From there we walked to the touristy Byward Market. Lots of little shops. We had dinner at a diner called Zaks. It had that 1950’s look. For desert we had the best piece of pie ever. Yes, it was apple, but it was all fruit and not sweet at all.
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| View of the Cathedral |
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| Library of Parliament |
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| Clock Tower with weird gargoyles |
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| Had beautiful iron work |
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| England |
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| France |
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| View of the River |
Everything closed at 6PM so we were forced to meander back
towards our hotel which was good because our feet were tired.
Sunday was all rainy, but it was the car day anyhow. We checked out the Cathedral de Nortre Dame,
but they were having Mass so we didn’t enter.
Then we drove into Quebec where all the signs are in French. I was in my glory being able to read them. My favorite was at the roundabout. “Vous n’avez pas le droit de passage”. At the Loblaws I missed my great chance to
speak French, because frankly there are two things that scare me to death: customs agents and speaking French to a
native speaker. So when the cashier
asked: “Vous voulez un sac?” I spoke in English! I’m such a chicken!!!!
Gas was $1.22 a litre, in translation that’s about 80 cents
more than in NY.
Finally we headed to the border, but we had fruit from the
Loblaws. Could we cross with fruit? We did not know. So we decide to eat it. Then there is just a little left in the
container and the container is on the backseat floor when I pound on the brakes
and it slides under the seat. We stop to
retrieve it and have a total Lucille Ball moment when my mom is sticking her
butt up trying to reach this forbidden fruit under the seat while we are parked
in someone’s driveway (well it was a large driveway, like at a business).
We crossed at Ogdensburg.
There was no line. Goodbye to
Ontario! Hope to see you soon. I was so happy to have made those memoires
with my mom and she had a wonderful time too.
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| Pay Phone at the diner. There were pay phones all over the city. |
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| Eternal Flame |
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| Loblaws |
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| Loblaws |
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| View down Metcalfe Street |
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| Military Students on a visit |
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| Mom at the flame |
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| Mom across the street from the anthropology museum |
