Ontario, Canada

[Eastern Canada, continued]

Ottawa, Ontario

Canada's national Parliament Buliding.

Ottawa is Canada's national capital. We visited Parliament Hill and got a tour of the 1870s offices of the Prime Minister and the Privy Council Chamber and a tour of the grounds and some of its statues. We found it interesting that such a lot of respect is paid to the Loyalists that left the U.S. after the revolution and settled in Canada [Descendants of Loyalists in Canada can use the letters 'U.E.L.' (United Empire Loyalist) after their name identifying them as such; it is the only hereditary designation in Canada.], yet about 75 years after the American Revolution, Canada has its 'Rebellion' and shook of the yoke of British colonial rule.

As the weekend we were in Ottawa was the Civic Day Weekend, there were festivities and lots of people. We watched several street performers, known as 'buskers.' What a coincidence, it was also 'Buskers Day.' We also wandered the historic market area which is about 16 square blocks, but the actual market is only about two blocks. There are a lot of shops and restaurants. Just what we need; our trunk is pretty full.

A museum that is only open for the summer, can be seen in less that an hour, and is free: Canada and the World Pavilion. It displays the contributions of Canadians to the arts, culture, sciences, and sports. From here one can get a good look at Rideau Falls; it's not big either.

The building which houses the Canadian Museum of Nature

is the first structure built in Canada to house a major museum. It is large, but half closed due to ongoing renovations. Maybe they do it every century. The dinosaurs room is being redone, so there is only one skeleton is on display. They have more. The exhibit that opened this month is about Ice Age Mammals. I think that they've designed it to travel, so it may some day come to a museum near you. I enjoyed seeing it and learned a thing or two. Sarah enjoyed being here, too. That's more than I can say for the next two museums that we visited.

Alexander Graham Bell worked on aeroplanes at the same time as the Wright brothers, but somewhere else. Working independently with Glenn Curtis and others, they came up with a remarkably similar air craft, a few days too late to be first.

The Canada Aviation Museum has a lot of historic airplanes. Sarah considers visiting an air museum to be as much fun as visiting a hardware store with the added chance of having something really heavy fall on her head. The Canada Science and Technology Museum was large enough to have many exhibits, all on one floor. Lots of old electric stuff, cars, locomotives. Also, a lot of new stuff: computers, rockets, recording devices.

On the way out of Ottawa, we visited the Canada Museum of Agriculture.

Sarah examines the dairy cows at the Agriculture museum. Some produce 10 gallons of milk per day.

It was very small, but it had all of the necessary parts: dairy barn, horse barn, sheep and goats in a small field, and some displays of farm machinery. We attended a demonstration and now know how to make cheese and butter.

Toronto

Of course we visited the Ontario Science Centre. It's still the best of its kind that we've seen. They've added a few things since our last visit about five years and taken some of the dated displays out of service. A section is currently closed for renovations. It's always fun to be here. It was very crowded. Summer camps and vacationers filled the place, but most were orderly.

Allen ignores the 'Nausea Alert' warning at this Ontario Science Centre contraption, but came out all right.

Kids often can't resist pushing lighted buttons. It's annoying when I'm in the middle of something and a kid runs up, pushed a reset button, and runs off. I've learned to keep my hands over the buttons. Then it's amusing to see the kids try to reset a display by pushing on the screen.

Markham

Markham is a suburb of Toronto. We're staying not far from there. We took the opportunity to visit The Markham Museum. It is a small village cobbled together from old homes, etc. from the area; some were old when we were young. Of particular interest was the railroad car 'Acadian' that was built in the 1920s for Canadian-Pacific executives to go on railroad business. The car was also used by two Canadian Prime Ministers and by Princess Anne on her 1958 tour across Canada.

Hamilton

The city of Hamilton is situated about half way between Toronto and Niagara Falls. We've stopped here before, but only to visit the Royal Botanical Garden. This trip, we discovered that there is a lot more to Hamilton than one can see at first glance. During the heyday of canal-building, the small lake here was connected to Lake Ontario and a city, Port Hamilton, developed. Later in the 19^th century, Hamilton, which was platted from a large farm after the War of 1812, and Port Hamilton merged. There is a surprisingly rich variety of 19^th century houses in the streets up from the bay; just driving the streets is a tour in itself.

On an escarpment above Burlington Bay overlooking Lake Ontario sits Dundurn Castle. Built in the 1800s for Allan MacNab, one of Canada's first premiers and a well known (in Canada) rich guy, it has 40 rooms on three floors. The costumed guides took us through the castle showing us how it looked when the MacNabs were in residence.

The Royal Botanical Garden is in separate units. One can drive or take their shuttle between sections. We wandered the main section with its formal, herb, and rose gardens and small exhibit rooms, then on to the rock garden where we got out of the hot, humid sunshine and into the hot, humid shade. As were several rock gardens that we have visited recently, this one, too, is a former quarry. The architect did a good job in hiding that fact and the park looked natural filled with bright summer flowers and reflective ponds.

Sarah at the Rock Garden of the RBG.

I was pleased to see that their medicinal herb garden had a disclaimer that not only should one get qualified advice for ailments, but that claims made for any herb is based on traditional use which has not been scientifically verified.

I know from visiting many areas where there are traditions of herbal healing; a plant that has been used for headaches by one tribe, may be used for stomach ailments by another tribe, and used to treat muscle cramps by a third. [There may be more than 100 tribes using the same herb to treat 100 different ailments; if medical research show that one of those treatments is valid, herbalists say, “See, the Indians were right,” and use that to push every unsubstantiated claim as equally valid.]

Between seasons in RBG's Perennial Graden: We're late for the field of irises (in the background) but otherwise nice, if somewhat small.

Hamilton has a weekend long Mardi Gras Celebration in August including a Caribbean-style parade. Lots of island people participate.

Sarah with a Carnival Queen.

Niagara Falls

We spent a day and a night in Niagara Falls, Ontario before crossing the Rainbow Bridge into New York. The falls are still falling and still attracting a lot of visitors. The Niagara Parks, too, are enjoyable with bright summer flowers and well tended lawns. We watched the falls by day illuminated by the bright sunshine and at night illuminated by coloured lights. At ten p.m. we watched the fireworks. While not equal to NYC's 4^th of July spectacular, but it was as good as Coney Island's summer night shows.

The main street leading up the hill away from the falls has become Canada's 'midway.' Rides, arcades, wax museums, etc line both sides of the street which are ablaze with coloured lights and illuminated fantastical creatures. These sights are photographed as much as the falls.

Our border crossing didn't take too long, we reverted our speedometer back to MPH, and were on our way.

To see the next part of our trip, New York, click here----> New York