Our Nations Capital
September 20 2017
90 degrees F, Sunny
Erika gave me a bunch of places to explore in Ottawa, where to park and went to see. Ottawa is really beautiful. First I went to this outdoor market, some local food, artisans were all set up to sell their items. I am mediately was an all of this man who did carvings in maple leafs! Like cutting out the actual leaf to create an image inside the centre of the leaf. He had a butterfly and a dragonfly, so I asked if there was possible for him to do a ladybug. That meant that all three of my little girls could have a maple leaf that represented the images that I always thought of them since they were babies, he said yes, but I asked if I could come back in an hour or so. And there was a man making beautiful custom name bracelets, I forget what kind of alloy it was made out of. Obviously, he didn't have my girls names, since they're super uncommon, but he said he could make them for me. I walked around the market core and just photographed and chatted and enjoy the sights. Then I walked about eight minutes and was at the Ottawa Locks. I've never seen anything like that! It's amazing to watch the waterway and watch these boats go from the top all the way through the bottom, as if going downstairs or an escalator. From there, I could also see parliament, and it was only a few more minutes away, and lots and lots of stairs! It was so bloody hot. Thankfully, I was wearing a dress to keep a little cool.
Parliament is unbelievable. The sheer size of the building is so astounding. There was a rally at the base of the stairs in front and a giant petition signing for the band of nuclear weapons treaty. It was getting so hot so I started back to the locks there are ads for Boat and bus tours I wanted to do, but I couldn't find them! So I walked down to the bottom of the locks and then started the truck back up. Each section had a little bridge on the doors that would be open … it was scary! Rushing, water higher up, and the railing went down about mid thigh! I could just fall over! But I did it! Hoping it up all the stairs wasn't terrible example about how hot it was. But at the top there was a personal boat, waiting to go down the lock, so I just watched. I was like shocked to see the locks are only manually opened by three guys turning large cranks. I had assumed to be mechanical and driven by some power motor. It took about four minutes to get through each lock and there's 6 to 8 of them! So much work! From there I began to hike back to my car. The heat was making me miserable. Ottawa seems like a more beautiful downtown Toronto and everyone seemed to be running or exercising. I've never seen anything like it!
I left Ottawa to go to Gatineau Quebec to the Gatineau park and the pink lake. It was stunning!! Crystal clear glass water. Apparently, the first top of the water is like that, then a layer of thick, pink bacteria, then the water below has zero oxygen, so no lifeforms can survive except the bacteria! It's one of the rarest lakes in the world. So I hiked about a third of the way around… Damn, I better have smaller legs when I return home!
