S and J's Big Adventure(s): This Week: Ottawa, the nation's capital!

On the road to Ottawa

We are off to Ottawa in a Ford Focus from Enterprise and MapQuest in hand. MapQuest says 2.5 hours - It's an easy and beautiful drive.

We arrive to our luxury hotel room at the Westin Ottawa ( a Starwood Preferred Guest hotel). John had just enough points accumulated for us to get the last room available at the Westin – a suite, which was at least the size of the condo we are living in in Montreal.

From the picture window in our room, we look to see what we might want to explore – the By Ward Market. It’s very colorful, charming and touristy – thought it was a cross between Marche Jean Talon and Vieux Port.

It looks like the storm is coming, so we go back to the hotel to take advantage of the gym and spa while the storm rushes through. Jacuzzi and swim for me – Jacuzzi and sauna for John. Then we go back to the room for showers and wine and window gazing.

Watching the storm coming our way

After showering, we watch the evening light up

We watch the lights of the city start going on while sipping on our California wine that we bought at the state liquor store. Then to dinner at the hotel restaurant.

Next day, to Starbucks for chai lattes and downloading John’s Kindle NYTimes (I got the wireless connection for my computer, but it wouldn’t work for the Kindle). Then to Parliament HIll for a tour and the rest of the day's touring.

Parliament Hill

Beautiful building and a very informative tour (the concierge said the tour was 20 minutes – it was more like an hour and a ¼.) After the tour, we viewed the city from the tower and then walked around the grounds.

Looking West from the tower

The Library Spire

Looking across to Gatineau
and the Museum of Civilization

From there we walked through a park to the bridge that took us to Gatineau for the Museum of Civilization. FABULOUS!

The First Nations exhibit takes up the whole 1st floor - it took us over an hour to walk through and still weren't able to take it all in.

First Nations Exhibit

Then to the visiting exhibit - Japanese Tradition and Innovation. It was a beautiful contrast between traditional customs and items that translate into modern day conveniences. From sedan chairs to motorized bicycles and smart cars, Inro storage boxes to lacquered cellphone covers. It was all there – “those clever Japanese!” – remembering tradition and applying it to today’s conveniences.

The next morning, we go back to Starbucks for lattes, NY Times and then to “Chapters” bookstore to see if they had the books available that John wanted for his Kindle. A beautiful morning of crisp wind and billowy clouds in the distance. We take a last stroll downtown, another long look from our room window and start back to Montreal.

Beautiful weather, beautiful city, lovey people and a very informative trip for Dr. Berteaux and myself.

The drive back to Montreal
filled with beautiful views of beautiful trees and billowy clouds

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The next day, when weare back in Montreal, I pack up my art stuff, take the bus to the other side of town and PRINT at Atelier Circulaire! I just did some embossing and chine colle. The pieces here are not really finished, but I thought they were worth showing.