The Peace Tower and Byward Market

We headed off with good intentions to go up in the Peace Tower this morning. What a beautiful day! We walked by the Confederation Building which has offices for many MPs and Ministers.


The line up was short, but still supposed to be about an hour. We are waiting here for the elevator.

For some reason, many people felt the need to rub the lion on the way by. Because it's there, I guess...

What is a carillon? A percussion instrument of tower bells which is played from a large keyboard. Hmmm...I had never really thought about how it was played!

The East Block with the Chateau Laurier in the background. It is one of two buildings on Parliament Hill to have survived mostly intact since its construction.

Looking towards the Centennial Flame...

These were cute!

The Library with its magnificent roof...

The National Gallery in the background...

Oooohhh...the Peace Tower has a time capsule which was laid in a cornerstone in 1919. That would be fun to open!

The elevator has a glass panel so that you can see the bells of the carillon as you are travelling by them...

You can see the roof of the Library in this old photo...

The Museum of Civilization...if you have a chance to go, don't miss it!

How many Canadian flags can you spot? I gave up at 10, quite a bit short of the 15 you are supposed to find.

The West Block is in critical need of repairs. The tower on the right has been covered in plastic while renovations are undertaken.

Ottawa is a beautiful city with lots of greenspace.

In the Memorial Chamber...

In Flanders Fields...

One of the seven Books of Remembrance...

Dunkirk in remembrance of "Grandpa" Lovegrove...

One of several beautiful stained glass windows...

The War Memorial...

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier...the unidentified soldier was selected from a cemetery near Vimy Ridge in France to honour all Canadians who have died or may die for their country.

The Memorial features 23 bronze figures who are moving from war into peace...

The Chateau Laurier opened in 1912...

There are many statues around Confederation Square. Laura Secord is shown here...

These tulips are still going strong!

We headed over to the Byward Market...

Ooohhhh...our aching dogs! We were happy to find a place in the sun to have lunch.

Well, at least Jim was in the sun. I was happy to be in the shade!

The Irish pub across from us was doing a booming business as well.

Sugar Mountain?? I was already plotting a trip inside, but thankfully we were full after lunch!

The old market...Jim remembers coming to the market with his Uncle Howard. He would back his truck up to the building and would sell tomatoes, cucumbers, raspberries and other fresh produce. This was all from the farm that we visited a couple of days ago. Good memories for Jim...

Lots of beautiful flowers...almost made me wish I had a garden. Almost!

It was a busy Sunday...


We got up the next day and couldn't decide where to go from there, so we went home! It was a great visit...

Next trip...Newfoundland in June.

Finding Lost Relatives!

It was a beautiful day and we decided to walk to Parliament Hill. On the way, we saw all these crowds. We wondered what was going on...


A Girl Guide rally...the people at the front of the line were dressed in the uniforms of the past. It's the 100th anniversary of Guiding...

It's a picture perfect day...

The parlimentary buildings are pretty impressive, aren't they? The tower in the center is the Peace Tower. You can go up to the viewing platform which is under the clock for panoramic views of the city.

Here come the Guides singing "We are the Girl Guides, mighty, mighty Girl Guides."

They have packs from all over the region. I think rallies are being held across Canada today in honour of the anniversary.

We decided to take a walk around before heading inside. Ummm...mistake!!

The Stray Cats of the Hill...the cats have been around Parliament Hill since the 1970s. They have been neutered and are obviously well fed.

One cat came strolling out and hardly looked at this squirrel eating the food. Bah...why chase a squirrel when you get easy cat food!

The building on the left is the Library of Parliament which opened in 1876.

The Canadian Police and Peace Officers Memorial Honour Roll...

The Ottawa River...

I thought this statue was quite interesting. George Brown was a Scottish born Canadian journalist who was the founder and editor of the Toronto Globe. Now I know where George Brown College came from!

Beautiful architectural details...

A gaggle of Girl Guides! Around noon hour, we decided it would be a good time to go up to the top of the Peace Tower. The wait to get in was well over an hour. So after waiting for about 15 minutes and finally getting to the sign that said it was at least another hour, we bailed. Hungry Kim + long lineup = Grumpy Kim! We'll come back earlier tomorrow.

The Centennial Flame was lit on New Year's Eve in 1966 by Lester B. Pearson. It isn't an eternal flame as it is extinguished during bad weather or for cleaning.

We went for lunch and then decided to go to Aylmer to visit the cemetery where some of Jim's mother's family are buried. The last time we went to the farm to see Aunt Jean, we could tell that the farmhouse was not being lived in. We went to Jean's son's house next door, but no one was home. We went to the cemetery (a sad way to look for people!) but could not find any evidence that she had passed away. We wondered what had happened to Aunt Jean.

This time we decided to start at the cemetery. We found cousin Keith's grave and noticed that his wife had passed away. Keith is buried next to his mom, Edith. We went to her 100th birthday party in 1999. Keith had quite an illustrious career, complete with his own wikipedia page...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_William_MacLellan

And then we got to Uncle Howard's grave and saw fresh flowers on it. Obviously, Aunt Jean had passed away fairly recently.

Jim's grandparents...

Jim's mother's sister, Sadie, and her brother, Alex..

We decided to head out to the farm. One of Jim's aunts married a Pink and they opened a very successful gardening business. They have long since passed away, but the name is carried on by the current owners.

Meanwhile, back at the farm...this was our first indication last time that Aunt Jean wasn't living there as the farmhouse is being overtaken by the trees around it.

We were just leaving when Jim saw someone mowing the lawn at his cousin's house next door. We pulled in the driveway and sure enough...cousin Stephen. They hadn't seen each other in about 50 years! We had a great visit. It turns out that Aunt Jean had been living in a retirement home for five years and passed away in December. They just had the burial service a few days ago. She was a wonderful lady...

So we didn't get up in the Peace Tower, but had a great unexpected visit instead. We'll head back to the Peace Tower tomorrow...