Ottawa: Nation’s capital

One long weekend in summer, we decided on a last-minute trip to Ottawa. This was our second trip to Canada’s capital. Grandma was in town and had not been there, so we figured this was a good destination. We started off early. We were done with breakfast and had gotten things into the car before we woke up the kids at 7am. The girls ate their breakfast in the car. We got to Ottawa just before noon, checked into our hotel and had fast food lunch at the nearby mall.

We planned to go to the Canadian Museum of Nature as this was one of the museums we did not get to visit in our prior trip. We had previously gone to the Canadian Children’s museum (which was great for DD#1) and the National Gallery of Canada (great for me and hubby). Since Grandma was not too interested in museums, we dropped her off at Casino du Lac Leamy (a casino, she said, that was as nice as, if not nicer, than some in Vegas!) before heading to the Canadian Museum of Nature.

The Canadian Museum of Nature was a hit with the kids. We saw the skeleton of a blue whale and the girls enjoyed the many hands-on activity centres. My favorite was the Mammal Gallery with the fantastic dioramas. The recreation of the habitats of the animals were so realistic, it felt like you were actually there!

We only had 3 or so hours before the museum closed, so we concentrated on galleries which were interesting for us.  We ended our visit at the Animalium which had a live collection of insects and bugs. The girls were fascinated with the Walking Sticks. These amazing insects blended perfectly amongst the foliage and twigs. The girls looked at all the bugs in awe. Whoever said bugs are for boys?

After picking up Grandma, we had dinner at the Fish Market restaurant at the Byward market. We had a wonderful fish n chips dinner of Halibut fillet coated in classic English style batter. After dinner, the girls wanted to go swimming at the hotel pool. And since we had some time before the 10:00 p.m. lights show at Parliament hill, we all took a dip for about an hour.

We were at the Parliament just in time for the show. The Mosaika Sound and Light show was spectacular! Beautiful images telling the story of the diverse cultures of Canada were projected onto the building. The kids were mesmerized with the lights and I took this opportunity to practice night-time photography. The show lasted about 30 minutes and is one I highly recommend.

I've heard  there are as many attractions in the winter as there are in the summer at Canada's capital. If we muster the courage to drive there in the winter, I'll be sure to post it.