I'm Getting Lost Here

living.boondockingmexico@yahoo.com

I'm getting lost here and I am forgetting what we have done and what I have posted.  I had to go back and read what we did.  Monday we went to Ottawa.  I received an email from a reader in Gatineau just across the river from Ottawa in Quebec.   Unfortunately, we had planned on a biking trip on Wednesday (today) with David and Marina.  Monday came about and there was a need for Marina to visit her daughter and granddaughter so we decided at the last minute it was a good day to go.

What a whirlwind.  We packed into the car and off we went to the big city.   We missed some of the heavy traffic and made our first stop at an IKEA store where Marina made a return.   I have never seen an IKEA store so it was a true adventure for me.

Once we arrived at Melissa's house we went our separate ways.   We took the bus from Gatineau to Ottawa.  The bus driver didn't speak English and he wasn't very friendly.   Juan is fluent in French so once we got underway the driver told us it was $7.80 for two persons.  Another culture shock just as public transit in other parts of Canada and the U.S.   Monterrey charges .85 U.S. and that is for a bus with air conditioning and wifi.   Yikes!

Our first stop was the market downtown.  Lots of fresh produce and many foreigners selling goods and speaking many different languages.  We walked around and took some pics before heading over to the river.  There, we saw a now familiar sight.  The locks that run up the river are under operation and again they are manual.  I believe there are seven to nine locks in this one section in Ottawa.  You couldn't pry me away from it.   There were boats as well as canoers and they went up, up and up until they reached the top.  Amazing.

We scheduled a tour of the Parliament building and also had the trip up the Peace Tower.   I had wanted to write a blog just about that trip in particular and title it, "Canada, Lest We Forget".  Too many Americans fail to remember Canada as an ally and all of the lives that have been lost in great wars fighting along side many countries.  It isn't just about American soldiers or American lives.  The Peace Tower is filled with books from each war that have the name of each Canadian who gave their lives for peace.   We counted over 116,000 with the help of the tour guide who knew how many soldiers had fallen in each book.

We had lunch at a Mexican restaurant at the market during our walk around town, El Corazon de Maiz.   It was good but not like home.   I'm getting homesick again!

There is more to tell and I will do it with pictures.  I have some important news I had posted on Facebook two weeks ago but failed to mention here on the blog.  Our road trip ends here and we are heading home from Perth on the 18th.  But wait, we are flying to Nova Scotia tomorrow morning and staying for a week before returning to Perth.  Several reasons but one is we will shave 3000 miles off our trip and save over $1000 in fuel.  The tickets were a great giveaway and we couldn't pass it up.

We want to visit my older brother in Cincinnati and if we didn't do this, we would miss them as they have had a year-long standing engagement the following week.   So, all of this is working out well and we still get to see the East coast.