Sonya's Blog - Day 54 - The Lady Dive Tour and Rideau Hall

Sonya’s Blog - Day 54 - August 15th - The Lady Dive tour and Rideau Hall

We still had one day left on our hop on hop off bus tour and included in that tour was a land/boat tour. This is a vehicle that travels on land and in the water, much like the ducky boat tours. We had to book our time slot in advance so we headed off to Ottawa to do that. The first tour available to us was not until 2 PM, but there was a large ceremony going on at the War Memorial so we headed over there to check it out. Unbeknownst to us was that today was the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII, when Japan surrendered, today is Victory Japan Day. They had veterans present that had fought in the Pacific Theatre during WWII and many of them had been POW’s. It was referred to many times as the forgotten war, as so much emphasis is placed on the war being fought in Europe and many forget there was a whole other side to the war in the Pacific which was just as brutal. We had many soldiers that spent years in Japanese POW camps as they were stationed to defend Hong Kong and Hong Kong fell to the Japanese in WWII. There were also Canadians, mostly RCAF, in other parts of the Pacific often sat It was a very nice ceremony and we were lucky that we stumbled upon it and were able to pay our respects and remember.

Victory VJ Day at The Canadian War Memorial:

After the ceremony we still had a couple of hours until our bus tour. We headed over to Parliament Hill to do a walk around and check out the grounds. There are many statues around Parliament Hill. We first came upon William Lyon McKenzie King, then Sir John A. MacDonald, then Queen Elizabeth, the The Famous Five having a tea party celebrating Women being declared Persons. Picture here:

We walked to the front of the East Block and there was a statue of Wilfred Laurier there and then a statue to commemorate the fight for Canada. This depicts the various people who came together to fight for Canada in 1812 and ensure that we were not annexed by the Americans. The British, French, the Natives, etc. Picture here:

We then headed down the stairs and checked out the locks of the Rideau Canal and Blake explained how they worked to the kids. Here is a picture of them on one of the locks:

We were pretty hungry by this time and our tour was leaving in an hour, so we found somewhere for lunch. After lots of walking around we chose somewhere and ate. We then headed off to catch our bus/boat tour. Our tour guide was Bruno and he was very french. He was very informative and pretty funny to boot. We did a short land tour, but a lot of the stuff we had covered on the double decker bus tour. We then headed to the Ottawa River for the boat portion. We had some great views of the Parliament Buildings from the river as well as the Rideau Locks and the Rideau Falls. There were boats coming through the locks at this time so that was neat to see as well.

Pictures on the boat:

The Parliament Buildings from the Water:

After the tour we hopped on the double decker bus as we wanted to go to Rideau Hall. As we passed the war museum we learned a new fact. The windows in the top right hand corner of this photo are in morse cord and spell out Lest We Forget, I think in both English and French, but one of the languages for sure:

After a few more stops we were at Rideau Hall, which is right across the street from 24 Sussex Drive. Now you can tour Rideau Hall, but you cannot tour 24 Sussex Drive. The only time the Prime Minister’s residence is open to the public is on Halloween, and only to trick or treaters. First I snapped a picture of the kids with the guards in the background:

We then went to the Visitor’s Centre which had detailed information about the Governor General’s role in Canada and some details about our current Governor General and some of the past Governor Generals. After that we walked up the long driveway to Rideau Hall. They have an open doors tour, which means that it is self-guided but there are guides in every room to answer any questions you may have. You can tour all the “official rooms”. The front entrance, The reception Hall, The Tent Room, 2 other rooms and The Ballroom. Each room is used for a different purpose and they are all still used today for official events and ceremonies. The Tent Room was pretty cool, it is made to look like a circus tent and has portraits of past Governor Generals in it. It used to be an indoor tennis court/events room, but is now used for events.

Isaac in front of Rideau Hall:

We headed back out, grabbed a quick picture in front of the gates for 24 Sussex Drive and then our bus came. We took the bus back to the By Ward Market and then hopped off. We were done for the day, so we headed back to the truck and headed back to camp.

Kizmet was so excited to see us. I let her outside and she just ran and did loopy-de-loops between all four of us to show her excitement. After she had settled down, Blake took her for a long walk, Natasha grabbed the laptop and headed over to the park so that she could do some posting. Isaac continued writing up his blog from yesterday and today and I made my family’s favourite pasta salad for supper.

After supper Blake and the kids got ready to head back out. Greece is hosting the fireworks tonight and they wanted to go and check it out. I chose to stay behind and relax with Kizmet as I really didn’t care about the fireworks and I was tired out.

Our last day in Ottawa tomorrow and then we head to Montreal.

Sonya