When my friend Heather told me she was coming to visit one of the first things I asked was if she wanted to go to Canada while she was here. Of course, her answer was yes. So, I started looking at 3 cities that I knew were relatively close to me and could be a day trip. The first was Montreal which, if Josh was home and able to watch Bolt, we probably would have done. However, I had no one to watch him and I knew Heather wouldn't want to be in the car that long again after driving 6 hours. So, unless we could stay overnight it wouldn't be worth it. Next was Kingston which is a short hour-ish drive from me. We didn't go with Kingston because I couldn't find much about it online so I wasn't sure if it would be worth visiting. So, that left Ottawa. Ottawa is the capitol of Canada and has the beautiful Parliament building which was enough to convince us. And it was a good distance compromise at 2 hours from me. I'm so happy with that choice! I really enjoyed Ottawa and can't wait to go back and do some more exploring.
Our first stop in Ottawa was Nate's Deli for lunch. We ended up there because it looked good and we were starving! We ended up having a pretty good meal, so I can't complain. After eating, we headed straight to Parliament Hill to see the beautiful Parliament Building. We were a little disappointed when we walked up and there was a huge stage being built right in front of the building. Canada's 150th anniversary was on July 1st so they were setting up for that all over the city. We also made the mistake of not getting tickets for a tour beforehand, so we didn't get to tour the Parliament Building. We were able to get tickets to go up to the Peace Tower and see Ottawa from above, but our tickets were not until 3 to 4pm (we were allowed to go at any time during that hour).
The first thing we did after securing our Peace Tower tickets was to walk over to Major's Hill Park to get a great view of the back of the Parliament Building, which is just beautiful! After exploring Ottawa (which I'll be writing about over the next few days), we went back to the Parliament building around 3:30pm for our tour. The tour of the Peace Tower isn't really much of a tour. You go up a few floors by stairs, then to an elevator that takes you to the top of the tower. On the ride up, the attendant gives a little bit of information about the tower, then lets you off to explore on your own. Although there isn't much to this tour, I really enjoyed seeing Ottawa from above and it's definitely worth a visit.
For my next visit to Ottawa, I'll be sure to secure tickets to tour the rest of the building way ahead of time! What we saw on our journey up to the Peace Tower was beautiful so I can't imagine what the rest of it looks like!
Our first stop in Ottawa was Nate's Deli for lunch. We ended up there because it looked good and we were starving! We ended up having a pretty good meal, so I can't complain. After eating, we headed straight to Parliament Hill to see the beautiful Parliament Building. We were a little disappointed when we walked up and there was a huge stage being built right in front of the building. Canada's 150th anniversary was on July 1st so they were setting up for that all over the city. We also made the mistake of not getting tickets for a tour beforehand, so we didn't get to tour the Parliament Building. We were able to get tickets to go up to the Peace Tower and see Ottawa from above, but our tickets were not until 3 to 4pm (we were allowed to go at any time during that hour).
The first thing we did after securing our Peace Tower tickets was to walk over to Major's Hill Park to get a great view of the back of the Parliament Building, which is just beautiful! After exploring Ottawa (which I'll be writing about over the next few days), we went back to the Parliament building around 3:30pm for our tour. The tour of the Peace Tower isn't really much of a tour. You go up a few floors by stairs, then to an elevator that takes you to the top of the tower. On the ride up, the attendant gives a little bit of information about the tower, then lets you off to explore on your own. Although there isn't much to this tour, I really enjoyed seeing Ottawa from above and it's definitely worth a visit.
For my next visit to Ottawa, I'll be sure to secure tickets to tour the rest of the building way ahead of time! What we saw on our journey up to the Peace Tower was beautiful so I can't imagine what the rest of it looks like!
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