July 17, 2013 Vaca Day 4

Today was all about what's downtown in Ottawa.  We wandered around, found the visitors center and set out on foot to get where we needed to go.  We pretty much already had it planned out cause Kev & Alicia lined out what was on the agenda last night.  

We've had good luck with bus tours so we decided to do one again.  We did the Amphibus which is a bus & a boat!!!

But first a quick lunch from the corner hot dog vendor.  

Do you know what the Ottawa Locks are?  Well I had no clue.  It is a canal system that is basically like stairs of water.  Each stair has to be hand cranked to drain or add water to each level so that boats can travel through the canal.  It was really interesting to me and amazing how it all works.  This first pic is from the boat and you can see on the right the different levels I am talking about.  

This is a picture of the Locks looking at them from the bridge they go under.  

Now the bus tour wasn't as fun as our one in Seattle, but it was a good ride and full of information and sights we enjoyed seeing.  We had some of the places we saw on the tour already on our agenda for the day so there were a few we went back and checked out in more detail. 

One of the first was the Notre Dame Cathedral.  It was really beautiful and had all kinds of amazing woodwork and stained glass work throughout.  

We were also going to do a tour at the Parliament but had some time to kill.  Our tour bus driver said that if we were visiting Ottawa we had to go to the street market.  So we did, figuring this would  kill some of our time.  She also told us that there were enough restaurants in the few blocks of the street market to eat at a different place every day for 3 months.  

We didn't have time for a meal but we did have time for a small snack....

That's right, another Beaver Tail.  I couldn't decide which new one to try so I got the one I knew I really liked, the cinnamon sugar.  Good thing we're doing alot of walking!!!

Now on to Parliament Hill.  More old buildings that are just so beautiful and I love to look at. 

This is the front side of Parliament.  

This is the backside taken on the bus/boat tour from the river.  

The tour was for inside and we were allowed to take some pics in there in some of the different rooms.  There was more of the really cool and detailed woodwork that makes these old buildings stands out.  

After our tour we decided it was a pizza and beer night.  We ordered a pizza and Kev picked up some beer at The Beer Store, that's really what it's called.  Once we got back to the room, check out Kev's excitement when he found a hat inside his 18 pack!!!

So the plans for tomorrow are done.  We are headed back to Parliament Hill for a big ceremony they are having for the change of command.  It only happens every 4 years.  Then we're headed down to Toronto for a few days.  We'll probably make a stop on the way to break the drive up.  Day 4 in the books, Day 5 to come. 

July 16, 2013 Vaca Day 3

We decided that we didn't want to do the boat tour out of Kingston.  One of the main things that Kev had read about for us to see on the 1000 Islands Tour is seeing the Boldt Castle, and none of the boats from Kingston even go by it.  So with some further research Kev found a town called Rockport that we could get the boat tour at.  Plus not only would we go by the castle but we would get off on the Island and would be able to explore the island and castle for 2 hours.  This was the tour for us!! 

We got up and hit the road.  We were heading to Ottawa for the next couple days and this was on the way.  We got there around 10 for the 10:30 cruise but it was sold out. So we bought our tickets for the 12:30 cruise and decided to just hang around by the dock.  You're not going to believe what we found.  

Another pub!!!! We sat and had a small lunch, and Kev and Sisser had a couple beers.  I was thrilled they had fountain diet coke.  

Have I said anything about the weather yet?  Well Canada is having a heat wave so it's been hot...even for us.  All three of us actually packed a long sleeve shirt and sweatshirt hoping for some cooler weather.  But it's only Tuesday so maybe we'll get a break later in the week.  

So it's time for our boat cruise.  We are headed to Heart Island where we will get to wander around and see the Boldt Castle. 

Here's the story of the castle: 

Construction began on Boldt Castle in 1900 at the bidding of millionaire hotel magnate George C. Boldt as a tribute to his beloved wife Louise. Boldt Castle was designed as their summer dream home on the St. Lawrence River, in the heart of the 1000 Islands. However it was not to be, Mrs. Boldt passed away suddenly just months before the completion of the castle. Mr. Boldt was inconsolable and immediately stopped all construction on Heart Island, leaving the property vacant for over seventy years…

The entire island is gorgeous.  All the landscaping and cobblestone walkways are beautiful.  The castle has had some renovations but most of it is original.  We could walk from room to room and all the floors and balconies.  It was really cool.  Plus all through the castle it had all the stories of building it and which room was supposed to be what.  I took all kinds of pictures, so here's a mini tour for you.  

These first set of pictures are the outside of the castle, some taken from the boat and others on the island.  

That's Kev & Alicia on the balcony.  

Doing their royalty wave.  

These next ones are from when we were exploring inside the different rooms and architecture.  

This stain glass is all the way up 5 floors in the center of the foyer.

Here's a close up of the stained glass.  

Here's a close up of the stained glass.  

This is a shot of the brick which is actually in a few of the hallways on the ceiling. 

This is the tile from the entryway of the castle.  

This is the tile from the entryway of the castle.  

Two buildings that are also part of the Boldt family are not located on the Heart Island.  One is the Yatch house, which is across the water channel from the island.  

The other is the mother in law's house.  Compared to the castle and the size of the island it is on, this is really sad don't you think?  It's also across the waterway from the castle.  I guess it says how he felt about the MIL. 

Once we left the Castle the boat tour took us through what is called "millionaires row."  We saw some really awesome summer homes all along the St Lawrence River.  You can only get to these places by boat cause they are on islands.  We didn't count 1000, but there are alot all through this waterway.  This was a cool one cause it is actually half on the Canadian side and half the US side.  

This bridge links the two sides together.  

Here are a few pictures of some of the amazing "summer" homes we cruised by.  

This slide looked so inviting.  Shouldn't everyone have a slide into the water from their island?  

Ok if no slide, how about a few hammocks right next to the water? 

Ok if no slide, how about a few hammocks right next to the water? 

It was a great boat tour.  So worth the time and we all agreed it was much better then the one we almost went on.  

After getting back to the dock, we headed north and found our home for the next couple of days, which is in Ottawa.  Kev and Alicia have the tour worked out for tomorrow.  I tried to help but got quickly replaced.  It wasn't my fault, but there were a few words exchanged trying to find our way from Rockport to Ottawa.  Up until then, I had been sitting in the back seat and leaving the navigating to Alicia and Siri.  Well, Alicia was going to take a short nap so I sat in the front and Siri kept messing up.  She was giving wrong directions and then stopped working so we just about missed our turn and yeah....it was my fault.  But it's all good, my plan worked lol and I am retrieving to the back seat again.  You know when Janet traveled with us she always sat in the back, and now I know why she was so happy back there.  So much less stress and way more relaxing.  

Tomorrow brings on some new sights.  Day 4 to come!!! 

More Day 2

We headed north to a town called Kingston.  Kev had read about going on a boat tour called The 1000 Islands.  When we got into town we went straight to the dock to check it out.  We got some information about times etc.  but just outside the information booth was this food truck called Beaver Tails.  I had seen a picture of one in one of the brochures we had and I had that...I gotta have one of those feelings.  I asked the girls in the booth about them and got the reply....OMG they are sooooo good.  When I came out of the booth Alicia was already at the truck checking them out.  

So they are this pastry thing that is deep fried and then you can get any of these different toppings on them.  She got one called the Trip 3 I think, or something like that, and it had chocolate and peanut butter on it then Reese's pieces.  She dove into it before I could get a picture.  And then I got a cinnamon sugar one.  

And OMG......amazing!!!!! It was so yummy.  I liked mine a little better then hers but oh it was good.  What a treat.  I'll make sure I have another one before we leave Canada, and try a different topping.  I'd like to try them all but I can't even imagine how many calories they are.  Deep fried goodness....oh yeah!!! 

Ok, back to Kingston LOL. We found our hotel and worked out what our plan was going to be for the rest of the day.  Kev had picked up some other brochures, one being a tour around town.  So between him driving and Alicia navigating we followed the things to see on the bus tour on our own.  First stop was Clergy St.  This street had some old but beautiful church buildings.  We walked the few blocks between them and checked them out,

Unfortunately St Mary's was all locked up but I'm sure the inside was gorgeous, you could tell from the outside it had all these beautiful stained glass windows.  We did get to go in St James Chapel.  

I didn't want to take a bunch of pictures, cause there were some people inside praying.  But it was real old, but pretty Inside.  We came across some other old buildings as well which are just so cool to see.  I love all the artwork and architecture that goes into them.  

We continued the Alicia guided tour over the bridge to Fort Henry.

Fort Henry is right next to a military training school so they were both part of the over the bridge tour.  We drove through the school grounds and checked it all out and then went up to the Fort and got out and walked around.  For these two stops I used my camera for photos so I can't share those with you since I am doing my blog update off my phone.  (Note to self, take blog pictures with phone so I can share them right away.)

We got a few more drive bys for other parts of the tour then decided to park and walk.  We headed towards a few streets that seemed to have all what we wanted on them....some place to eat.  We picked a cute pub with outside seating and had a great meal.  Two years ago when Janet was on vacation with us we joked about how we kept winding up at pubs when it was time to eat.  Kev figured we couldn't go wrong.

 Special of the day was a pint and a pie.  I got a chicken pot pie and Alicia had my pint.  

After dinner we walked around by the dock and made some plans for Day 3.  It's hard to believe these next few photos from the dock were taken around 8:30pm,  it's awesome how it stays so light so long in the summer.  

After our walk we went back to our hotel and did one more exciting thing....we geocached!!!! Alicia found one right by the hotel in the neighborhood behind us. There was a gate that we walked thru and we wandered a little bit and I found the cache in some bushes.  Alicia wrote a note we were here from Arizona and left a couple of US coins inside.  We'll probably try and find a few more during the week.