Ottawa 2019

Actual border between Canada and the US

!000 Islands view

As I mentioned in my last post, we drove from Syracuse to Ottawa on Friday. It was pretty uneventful, but it was a little nerve-wracking for me to drive while going through the border, as I always feel that border guards are scarier than the ones in the airports for some reason, and also because we ended up having to go over this really high-arched bridge as we drove through the 1000 islands region. I have a fear of heights, and it is coupled with the fear of being on a bridge when it collapses, so it was not fun to drive that part. However, it is also good to conquer your fears or to at least keep on going in spite of them, and that is what I did. The scenery is beautiful in that region, though, and while I was too scared to look out on that bridge, I had a chance to snap a couple of photos once my husband took over driving on the Canada side, not only to give me a break from driving but also because he is more familiar with Ottawa than I am.

Our primary focus since arrival has been to set up my husband's place where he will stay for the year, but we wanted to do some sightseeing together as well. We went to the War Museum yesterday, which I enjoyed, but I did not take any photos there because it isn't really a place where you can take a lot of photos since the lighting is poor, and much of it is just artifacts of war and military stuff. The only photo I did take was of the game True Dough Mania, which I proudly own. It's a hilarious game made by some serious non-Trudeau supporters. I was too young to have an opinion about the senior Trudeau, so I really don't have an opinion about him, but I like the game because it's just comical. In any case, I wish we had a museum like that at home as it would be a great resource for social studies being able to take students there in a more interactive way to learn about the world wars and Canada's military.

On Saturday, we went to Parliament Hill, stopping at the War Memorial along the way. We happened to arrive shortly before the changing of the guard, so it was neat to be there for that ceremony. It isn't as extensive as the changing of the guard along the India-Pakistan border nor at Buckingham Palace in London--neither of which I've seen but have heard about from others, but it is still interesting to see. There are also only 2 guards as compared to all the other guards at these other locations, so it only makes sense that the ceremony would not be as extensive. We continued on to Parliament Hill, which I was very excited about, because I wanted to get some really good close-up shots of the details and gargoyles on the building now that I have a camera with a much better zoom lens. The Parliament buildings are really beautiful, and most people would focus on the entire thing, but I like seeing details that most other people can't see or would notice. I discovered, for example, that there are beavers carved all over the the place. It almost became a game for me to see how many beavers I could find. I also took a photo of the scenery from the main entrance of the building. It's one of the things I like to do when I travel is to see what everyone is missing when they're focusing on the big thing in front of them. Sometimes you can end up missing something beautiful in its own right. Since I took enough photos, I ended up putting them in an album.

These are my travels! I don't know when I will make my next post, as it will depend on when I travel again, but I hope you've enjoyed my little journey. I may make one about our little trip to Gatineau park today if we return tomorrow for me to go on my birding tour. We got rained out today, so doing the walk was unfeasible. 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/EzRxh7cnjRCJssvD8

Chicago, Day 2

Today was a little more low-key in the sense that we didn't do as much as we did yesterday. We walked the Magnificent Mile just to see it, and sure enough, we saw many of the designer and brand name stores that make up that street as well as walked back to the area where The Bean is as well as the Art Institute of Chicago. Pictured here is the Burberry Store, which looked different in the morning light than in the afternoon light when we returned to the hotel, and the store was completely black. The morning light gives it the warm, caramel appearance the patterns of their purses and scarves remind me of. I thought that was interesting. Our purpose for walking back up to the Art Institute was to visit it today. Chicago had never really interested me before, so any visit here was just a bonus to my life, but once I found out that there were van Gogh paintings at the Institute, I needed to go! We found out when we got in that there was a Manet exhibit as well, so we paid the extra fee to see that since it was a special exhibit. For those of you that have followed my blog since the beginning (in 2006!), you might remember that I love Impressionism in general, but my favourite artist is Vincent van Gogh. There was a whole impressionist section of the museum, and my heart swelled just being there. I have to admit that I even got teary at times, especially when seeing the van Goghs in person. There were actually quite a number of them, too.

We also saw some more modern art, as in, post-Impressionism, a small Islamic art exhibit, and a contemporary art section that included Andy Warhol. There was also a beautiful set of Marc Chagall windows that I loved. I am mostly not into modern art, but I do love Chagall's stuff.

Part of the reason that this was all we did today is that it takes one that long just to see it. We still didn't see all of the museum. You would have to have a lot of stamina to see the whole thing in one day, but I don't know if these places are meant for one to see the entire thing. You usually focus on what you want to see. At least that has been my strategy in other large museums. We ate lunch at the museum so that we could see the remainder of the exhibits that we wanted to see and then finished up there around 2:30 or so.

The quote carved into this building is from the poem
"A Psalm of Life" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Art is long and time is fleeting

We only saw a tiny fraction of all there is to see and do here, but we did at least get to enjoy the things we most wanted to see and do, so that was important. Maybe once day we will return--but we will likely travel by plane than by road. My general impression of Chicago is that people seem to be really friendly, and the city is really clean. They seem to even wash the streets at night, at least in the downtown area. We had sat outside to have our coffee on our second day here, and the sidewalks were wet despite not having rained. It was really surprising. One thing I will be happy to leave is all the cigarette smoke. I don't know if it's because it's just more crowded here or if that more people smoke, but it seems to be everywhere, and I hate breathing it in and smelling it. Tomorrow, we are back on the road. For now, my Chicago album and Art Institute of Chicago album are below.

Downtown Chicago in general: https://photos.app.goo.gl/rB15qF6W4m8dmZhU6

Art Institute of Chicago: https://photos.app.goo.gl/6xv2Krud6ecSbUty5

Chicago, Day 1

And a full day it was. We are only spending two days here, so we are trying to balance seeing and doing as much as possible without tiring ourselves out too much. It is easier said than done when we are on foot, walking around everywhere in the heat (31C) and humidity at 51%. But I think we did well today.

Our first stop was the Willis Tower (formerly known as the Sears Tower). Apparently, Sears Roebuck and Company only used the building for the first 18 years after it was built, starting in 1973, but the company that bought it, Willis Group Holdings, didn't rename it until 2009. Perhaps they thought its iconic association with Chicago shouldn't be messed with at one point, I'm not sure. Anyway, we went up to the 103rd floor to see the view, which was pretty incredible, and I have some great photos that I will share in an album as well as the one you see here. The elevator is quite speedy, too. I think it was only a 2 or 3 minute trip to get up. I'd hate to be at the top if a fire broke out, though! The only thing we didn't do was the ledge, the glass-bottomed part where you can look down. I was going to wait for my husband to do it himself, due to my fear of heights, but the wait was anywhere from 25 minutes to an hour and didn't seem worth the wait, especially when you want to maximise your time in a city. One thing that surprised me was seeing all the spiders, specifically orb-weavers, outside the top floor. They have webs all over the place! And I wonder how long it takes them to walk up the building.

After we finished at the tower, we left to go find lunch and decided to try a Chicago style hot dog from a food truck we had seen on our walk to the Willis Tower. They were really tasty, made with sweet relish, hot pickled peppers, mustard, a dill pickle, and celery salt. The wiener itself is an all-beef one, which made me happy since pork products tend not to agree with my stomach. The bun must also be a poppy seed bun.

Once we had eaten lunch and stopped for a coffee, we headed over to see The Bean. It's a huge bean-shaped mirror-type structure--a sculpture, that is. From there, it was time to go back to the hotel to recuperate. We are lucky to be staying at a hotel downtown, which makes all of these places very close to walk to.

City skyline at sunset

In the evening, we decided to do an architecture river tour, which takes you down the 3 branches of the Chicago River and tells you about some of the history of the city and its archicture. For someone like me, who doesn't really understand or appreciate a lot about most architecture, it was interesting and enlightening in a way that leaves me with information that I will probably use to see other buildings I come across in a new light. It is something I can do with art, having taken some art history, but I have never learned about architecture or what it all means, why buildings are designed as they are. I have an appreciation for something I didn't have before, and that's part of the joy of travelling, is when you can take away new information that makes you know more about the world and appreciate it more.  One thing I forgot to ask the tour guide was about bird deaths with all these glass-sided buildings. Toronto has actually changed its building codes for skyrises where companies actually have to design buildings to prevent bird deaths. So I just looked up this information, and according to this article in the Chcago Tribune, Chicago has one of the most dangerous skylines in the US when it comes to bird deaths. As a birder, that makes me a little sad. It sounds like there are at least some bird conservation groups that are trying to do something about it. Here is a link to the river tour album (the rest of Chicago, I will post later in another album): https://photos.app.goo.gl/2eeN3yqGokuuqCWu8