July 19, 2008: Ottawa, Ontario

We did not move the boat today from its mooring near the MacKenzie King Bridge in downtown Ottawa. Instead, we had a day to visit the city. We rode our bikes down the Colonel By Drive along the Rideau Canal for several miles. Colonel By was the chief engineer of the Ottawa locks and the Rideau canal and we have seen his name various places. The city itself was called By Town before the name was changed to Ottawa. We reached the Lansdowne Park, their multi decked athletic stadium, which used to be used for Canadian football. On the news this afternoon, we heard they were going to implode part of the stadium because it is no longer safe. Then when we found a bridge we circled back to town on the other side of the canal. We have discovered First Baptist Church of Ottawa which is just a few blocks from the boat. It is close enough that we will be able to walk there tomorrow. It was catty cornered from Confederation Park where we sat for a few minutes by a fountain that had been brought to Canada from its original location in Trafalgar Square in London.

This afternoon we took a ride in the opposite direction. The path took us across the lock doors on our way to cross the Alexander Bridge to the Canadian National Museum of Society. The huge museum building was designed with modern layers of curves and waterfalls; a beautiful piece of art. There was an interesting exhibition comparing Jamestown (founded in 1607), Quebec City (1608) and Santa Fe (1609) each one as part of the race of the Europeans to get a portion of the New World. We also saw the 3rd floor which was a progression of Canadian history starting with the Norsemen from 1000 and then the conflicting interests between New France and the British. There was a really cool performance by four actors portraying a trial during the early days, and an area where you walked through life sized scenes from history. One of these was a logging shanty where a fire would have burned all day and the weary lumberjacks came to eat and sleep. There was also a ship building shop and an array of buildings as though they were on a street outside. It was a wonderful museum and we were glad we had the chance to visit. Outside, there was a festival going on with live music for a city parks event, and there were also a couple of weddings parties celebrating. We sat by the reflecting pool overlooking the water briefly just to drink in all the happiness. On our way home, we stopped by the market to buy some basil... and it came with roots... wonder if it would grow if I planted it?