A few days after celebrating Mom’s life, we took my niece back to her summer job in Ottawa, where we spent a few more days. We did everything quintessentially Canadian.
We saw the changing of the guards on Parliament Hill while we waited in the ticket line for tours of Parliament.
We then ran a family errand: searching for a window air conditioner for my nieces apartment in a city that just went through a heat wave. We finally found what we wanted at the 4th store, then returned for our tours of Parliament.
The tours are free, but they limit the number of people per tour, so You have to get tickets for a specific time. We got tickets for two tours – the East Block and the Central Block.
The East Block tour focused on the history of Canada. We got to see the office of Lord Dufferin, Sir John A. Macdonald, and Sir Georges-Étienne Cartier, learning how they each helped build Canada.
We also got to go into the original Privy Council office.
On the Central Tour, we went right into the House of Commons and the Senate.
Then we got to visit the library.
We had to be silent. Fortunately, no on got shushed. The library is as modern and up-to-date as any library. I love though, that they didn’t remove the built in card catalogue.
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