Ottawa, Ontario - Random thoughts

But first -- a quick mention...
We recently went to California and Oregon to visit friends and family, so I have some more backposting to do... coming soon.

And now the random stuff:

Last night the cab door of the truck was sealed shut with ice from the freezing rain. I fought with it and got it open, only to accidentally shut it on some of the dislodged ice and completely jam it. I wrestled with it some more but it was pretty well stuck. Just then my Sis called from California. When I told her what I was doing, she was completely floored. Reminds me of a time when a Canadian friend of mine was living in L.A. gangland, all stressed out from dealing with neighbourhood watch meetings and working with police to get the gang problems under control. He called home and his buddies in Canada were making homemade jam, from organic strawberries they had picked themselves at a local farm. It's a different world up here.

Backposting update

Recently added:

NEW: Added a backpost for 6 June 2009
NEW: Finished a missing backpost for 3 June 2009
Backposts from 5 Jul 2008 to 4 June 2009

To do:

I might still have a bit more from Aug 2007 - I'll have to double-check

NEW: Hoo boy, I just discovered at least a full page of posts where I posted from my phone but forgot to put up the ones from the camera. A traveller's blog is never done...

Ottawa, Ontario - Tinkering

This is not really from our travels, but Nickie snapped this pic of me working on our laptops and really liked it. She says she loves how intense I look when I do this stuff.

Ottawa, Ontario - Parliament, the Supreme Court, and the national emblem

Many Canadian cities, including Ottawa, participate in an annual event known as Doors Open. These events originated in Scotland, where the public was invited to come to buildings of historical and/or architectural significance - often places where they normally aren't permitted entry, and take part in tours, presentations, etc. to learn about the heritage of their city. Click here for some more background on the Doors Open concept if you're curious.

This weekend is Doors Open Ottawa, and there are 108 locations - far too many to see in one weekend so you have to pick and choose. We chose Parliament and the Supreme Court.

Reflection of some Parliamentary office buildings


The Supreme Court of Canada


In the entryway


Where the big decisions get made


What the Supreme Court Justices wear. Yes, there's lots of pomp and circumstance left over from being associated with the British for so long. (Pardon the odd camera angle; it's the only one where light from the windows wasn't reflecting back into the camera.)


The Centre Block of Parliament. The tower in the middle is called the Peace Tower.


The East Block. There's a West Block too but I didn't snap a pic of that. The rooftops of all the Parliament Buildings, incidentally, are green because they are made out of copper.


Mountie and me. Mountie is short for Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or RCMP. It's Canada's answer to the USA's FBI. The fountain behind us has national and provincial symbols on it and the Centennial Flame in the middle. In the far background is the Centre Block and Peace Tower.


I know I'm really supposed to be looking at the statue of former Prime Minister John A. Macdonald above, but this statue underneath him really caught my eye. It's so graceful and majestic.


The detail is incredible. This photo doesn't do it justice.


View of the Ottawa River from Parliament Hill


The Library of Parliament


Inside the Centre Block - the architecture is stunning.




View from inside the Peace Tower


A Mari usque ad Mare ("From Sea to Sea"), Canada's motto, was derived from Psalm 72:8 in the Bible. The beaver is an emblem of Canada, and has had a greater impact on the history and exploration of Canada than any other animal or plant species. (more)


Speak of the devil...

Despite having previously lived in Beaverton, Oregon - a town named for the once-plentiful beavers in that area, we never saw even one until we came to Canada. Here, they're everywhere - from wilderness to public parks to large lawns in the middle of town.

Here, a mother beaver brings some food for her babies, to their home right on the Parliament lawn. This was a lucky shot - she was running fast.


She has some beautiful babies.


3 babies


Mom comes out to investigate us. Look how she uses her little hands to eat.




Uh-oh. Mom is really gonna check me out, now.


I was crouching to take their pictures. She got about a foot or so from me, and would have gotten even closer, but her sudden dash in my direction startled me and I almost fell backward. (Do these things bite?) What a beautiful creature she is.

Ottawa, Ontario - Wild rabbit

If you like wildlife, Canada is for you. The population is tiny in comparison to the huge land mass, so you're never far from the bush. In addition, Canadian cities seem to be much better planned than most American cities, with greenbelts and parkland distributed around town to make nature even more accessible. So even if you are in a metropolitan area, it's still common to see animals around. We've seen beavers, rabbits, Canada Geese, ducks, ospreys, robins, bluejays, lots of other birds, and tons of squirrels - all in metro areas.

This beautiful wild rabbit was in the greenbelt only about 4 metres (12 feet) from a major thoroughfare. Unfortunately I only had my camera phone with me, so these aren't the best quality, but worth sharing nonetheless.

Ottawa, Ontario - Richard Stallman speaks at Parliament Hill

If you don't know who Richard M. Stallman (a.k.a. RMS) is, and why I was so thrilled to meet him and hear him speak at Parliament Hill today, it's worth checking out what he's all about. In short, he is a champion of free computer software (free as in freedom) and he fights for computer users' rights. He also wrote the GNU General Public License, commonly known as the GPL. If you are used to using proprietary software like Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer, and Adobe Photoshop, to name a few examples, you may not even realize the rights you've signed away in order to use them and the way it can cause big problems later on. Here are a few websites on the subject:

What is free software and why is is so important for society?

The philosophy behind free software

Free Software Foundation - Founded by Richard Stallman, the FSF fights for essential rights for computer users

GNU - used with the Linux kernel to make a completely free operating system

On to my pics:

Stallman (at left) prepares for his speech


Speaking on the steps of Parliament


Stallman's tongue-in-cheek persona: a saint in the Church of Emacs---Saint IGNUcius. This is his way of not taking himself too seriously. It's actually pretty cute. (There's a better pic here. More about this character here.)


All this, and I didn't even get an autograph. {mentally kicking self} Oh well, next time.

Ottawa, Ontario - A gaggle of geese

We took another walk today on the path by our home and were treated to a veritable herd of beautiful goslings. The Canada Geese are back home from wintering in the southern U.S. and busy raising babies.

When we approached on the path, a couple of adults started walking toward us. This is the part where we get hissed at and bitten, I thought. They will often attack pretty ferociously, people included, if they feel they or their babies are threatened. It turns out these were not aggressive, and had probably been fed by people before, but they watched our every move just in case.

We saw that 4 adults guarded no less than 65 (by Nickie's count) little goslings. Canada Geese only lay about 3 to 8 eggs at a time, so these are obviously the combined offspring of the whole flock and these 4 adults are on babysitting shift. (If you look by the river and trees in the background, you'll see some other adults resting and watching.) We had brought some unsalted peanuts for the squirrels, but we just couldn't resist these cuties so we cracked open the shells and fed them. Interestingly, 3 of the babysitters examined the peanuts but wouldn't eat, letting the babies snap them up. The 4th did eat one and was immediately bitten and chased by one of the other babysitters for it. Apparently the babysitters are expected to leave all the food for the babies, and will get a nasty reminder if they do otherwise. Yes, there is a social order, and you'd better follow it mister!

Ottawa, Ontario - Scary weather

Recently, the wind kicked up like we'd never seen or heard before. First it started howling and wailing and then suddenly it got even more violent until we were afraid the windows were going to shatter. It was terrifying, actually. I was online so I quickly looked up weatheroffice.gc.ca to see what was going on. It said there was a severe thunderstorm watch, and that such conditions can lead to tornadoes so be alert to local conditions. The sudden winds died down somewhat, and we were convinced that if that wasn't a tornado, it was something close to it.

We live on a street with a few other large apartment buildings, so when I looked out the window before all this happened and noticed that the streets were deserted, it struck me as more than a little weird. It looked like a ghost town. Apparently, Canucks watch the weather reports very closely and knew to stay inside. I can see we're going to have to develop this habit too.

Well, we found out a couple of days later that indeed, no less than three waterspouts (tornadoes over water) formed over the Ottawa River nearby. One jumped onto land as a very strong F0 tornado (not quite an F1 on the Fujita scale) just west of us, travelled southeast (south of us), and ripped the roof off a building, amongst other things, before petering out. We thought that one must be the explanation for all that we experienced. But we discovered that there apparently was another tornado that didn't make the news, which hit the parkland between us and the river - a close call indeed - and ripped out several large trees by the roots in a neat path. The roots came out with big chunks of earth still attached, up to around 8 feet high. Even experiencing the violence of this storm didn't prepare us for what we saw here, and it was hard to imagine the force it must have taken to wreak this kind of damage. It's one thing to be in California and hear about tornadoes from afar; it's quite another to experience such powerful forces for yourself. We were awestruck.

This is a panoramic "stitch" of 2 photos. The damage continues off to the right.


Nickie standing next to one of the root masses gives you an idea just how big these trees are.


The trees fell almost like dominoes. This one, like several others, fell and broke on top of the ripped-out roots of the next tree.


A closer view

Ottawa, Ontario - Make tracks!

A squirrel made tracks by our car. Now those are cute!!

Ottawa, Ontario - Winter weirdness

The snow has started melting, but only so far before refreezing in another cold snap. So it formed this waxy-looking coat of ice across everything. (The first 2 photos are from Feb 17.)

The curb on our street




At a nearby parking lot - it only looks wet; it's actually frozen solid

Ottawa, Ontario - Winterlude or Bal de Neige

Every winter, the city of Ottawa holds its winter festival, known as Winterlude in English or Bal de Neige (Snow Ball - get it?) in French. They have music, cultural presentations from the Inuit (formerly known as Eskimos, which is now a defunct and improper term) and First Nations (the Canadian equivalent of Native Americans), sound and light shows, ice fishing, dogsled rides, skating on the Rideau Canal (the world's largest skating rink), free skating and skiing lessons, a giant sledding hill, community ice carving, and an international ice carving competition where renowned ice-carvers from all over the world come and work their magic in the ice. It's truly an event not to be missed. Despite still having some difficulty with our health, we managed to make it out there for a few hours and it was soooooo worth it.

Keep in mind, we had not one but two warm spells during this 3-week event, so by the time we went some of the detail had been lost from the sculptures pictured here. They were still amazing despite the setback.





I thought this one in a First Nations booth was extra gorgeous, with its intricate design and ice "feathers" embedded in the ice bricks. The white design is not paint; it's ice too. Curiosity got the best of me, as it usually does, and I just had to snap a closeup. Next to it a Native artist was carving a totem pole.






This is... I dunno... at least 10 feet high.


If you look, this ice carver has a teeny little pink pig model sitting on top of the ice pig he's carving.


Something for the kidlets. Little figurines are frozen into a chunk of ice, and kids can don a pair of safety goggles, grab a mallet and pick, and dig 'em out. What fun! :-)


These next two are community ice carving - that is, if you want to give it a whirl, just sign in and they'll hook you up. Notice the sculptures all the way around the fountain.


It really is incredible what some people can do.


Yes, this Blackberry is really made of ice - buttons and lettering and all. For the black and red logos they cheated and added dye, but that's it. Naturally I had to touch it and check it out because I just couldn't believe it!


Canadian Space Agency - Agence spatiale canadienne
The CSA-ASC highlighted the missions of two astronauts, scheduled to fly this May. These are replicas of the space shuttle (left) and Russia's Soyuz spacecraft (right), which will be carrying them, and in the middle is the International Space Station with Earth in the background. Absolutely incredible, isn't it? There were also talks on working and living in space.


Plaque reads: "Before Midnight" by Master Ice Carver Junichi Nakamura of Obihiro, Japan. In Japan, he is a farmer, but to the rest of the world, he is one of the world's best ice carvers. An ice carver since 1982, Junichi Nakamura has competed in numerous ice-carving competitions in Canada, Europe, the United States, China and Japan. He is the recipient of many top honours and awards, including a silver medal at the Winter Olympic Ice Carving Competitions in Turin, Italy, and gold medals in Nagano, Japan, in 1998 and Lillehammer, Norway, in 1994. Junichi Nakamura is assisted by Suguru Kanbayashi, member of the Canadian Ice Carvers' Society.




These next two are "The Story of Jack Frost."




The official Winterlude/Bal de Neige photo-op. I bugged Nickie to be in the photo with me, but she was more content taking the photos than being in them. Awww.


The "Crystal Lounge" with ice walls, ice shelves complete with ice knickknacks, an ice sectional couch, and an ice coffee table. Yes, those are cell phones frozen inside the wall and table. Okay, this was completely awesome. (And sitting here is not as cold as you'd think.)


The Rideau Canal - the world's largest skating rink. This skateway is almost 5 miles long.


View down the canal


I'd say this is the way to travel. Lots of skating parents pulled their youngsters behind them on sleds. Others parents pushed strollers as they skated (obviously, strollers under these conditions were sliding, not rolling, but it works). They also have special metal "trainers" for kids who are learning to skate - these look like a walker but without wheels, and keep them from falling while they learn.


There are two of these delightful places that I know of. They take Canadian maple syrup, throw it in snow, and quickly insert a popsicle stick. The syrup hardens into a cold blob on the stick and they leave it there in the snow until you buy it. Then you pick it up and eat it before it softens and oozes off the stick. The cold blob melts in your mouth, releasing an explosion of the richest maple flavour you've ever tasted. GASP!! Heaven, I'm in heaven...


Look at all that maple goo hardening in the snow. MmmmMMMMMmmmm yummy...


Winterlude was fascinating, strikingly beautiful, awe-inspiring, educational, tremendous fun, and blissfully delicious. We can see ourselves coming back year after year!