Dad Wants To Be The Governor General When He Grows Up

À voilà, Saturday. Today we decided to do Rideau Hall and the Amphibus tour, which are a lot like the Ducky Tours in Pittsburgh. Unfortunately, the time for the tour was at 2:05, so that didn’t give us enough time to go to Rideau before it, but it meant a long wait. Fortunately there was a ceremony happening across the street at the war memorial and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which ended up being the celebration of the end of World War II, seventy years earlier. The veterans talked specifically about the war against Japan, specifically the defence of Hong Kong and the battles in Burma, which you don’t really hear about, but was a very bloody part of the war. One of the veterans called Burma the

forgotten war. After we left, right before the laying of the wreaths, we ended up going down to the locks on Rideau canal and then wandering around for an hour trying to find lunch before giving up and having a rather crappy lunch at a patio outside. Then it was time for the tour, which was much the same as the hop on hop off one, except we went in the water, right past the locks, and the tour guide

had a fabulous sense of humour. Then, we got on the hop on hop off tour and took it down to Rideau Hall. There was a self guided tour of a few rooms inside, including the dining hall, the reception room and the ballroom. We entered in the front foyer. Apparently tours are held all the time, even when the Governor General’s in residence. One employee told us that when they were holding guided tours the one time, they were held back forty-five minutes because the His Excellency was having a meeting with Stephen Harper in the ballroom. We walked around

the rather large grounds for a while too, and took some pictures with the guards, who looked like they were dying in their uniforms, which look a lot like the uniforms of the Royal Guard at Buckingham Palace. After taking the bus, whose guide was really funny and seemed to have a friendly rivalry with the bus driver, Ron, back to our point de départ, we headed back home. Later that night, the boys and I went down to Jaques Cartier Park for some fireworks, put on by Greece, for the international fireworks going on. They were really good, and they were also set in synch to music, the theme of which was time. That was fun, despite having a really hard time finding parking. I also finished my book after we got back. A good day it was. Peace out m8s.

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