47. Spend a day in Ottawa’s Parliament

Completed: September 1, 2011

When I was making my list, I always imagined what it would be like to complete each of the items on my list and it seems that they never go the way I anticipated. This particular goal was so different because I had been living in the Ottawa area for 3 months, and I had not gone into the Parliament or even to the grounds until late July. I must say, once I had been, I fell in love with the beauty of Parliament Hill. Seeing it and walking the grounds made me feel so patriotic.

I had gone to Mosaika with Jenna for her birthday and my mind was absolutely blown. I felt SO proud to be Canadian, they displayed our history in such an amazing way that could be appreciated by all ages. I'm going to post a video so you can understand how amazing this was...

After I had gone to Mosaika, I knew it was time to go inside the parliament buildings and do a walk through. But when? I worked every day. So, I decided to meet up with, Jenna, who is going to school at OttawaU and go there with her and my brother on my moving day. This was a very bad idea.

I spent the entire morning packing all of my stuff into the car at my grandparents' house. Then I drove the 45 minutes to downtown Ottawa, met up with Jenna, walked to Parliament. It had already been a long day. I was sleepy just driving to Ottawa. But as we toured the building, I got really excited!  We went around the back of the building first to look at the bridge and the look off I went to with Jenna the last time I was there.

You can barely see it, but to the right of the bridge above the cliff looking thing, there's a statue. You can walk there and look at the parliament buildings from behind. Absolutely magical at night.  

I went to put my arm around Jenna for a photo and ripped skin right off my arm! OUCH!

We're cute. :)

We only went to the Peace Tower and the Memorial Chamber. Going to the top of the Peace Tower was so nice, just because when you get to the top you can see the entire surrounding area. I learned a lot going into the Memorial Chamber. I love history, so this was exactly the sort of thing I love. The Memorial Chamber is for any soldier who has ever died in the service of our country. They have all of their names beautifully inscribed in books and each page is displayed at least once a year. They had a book for each war that Canada has been involved in. It's basically the paper equivalent of Arlington Cemetery. They had beautiful quotes and inscriptions on the walls, with stained windows. There is definitely a special spirit in the Memorial Chamber.

It was originally made for the soldiers lost in World War I, but as time passed, there were more wars and more men and women lost. They've assembled books for each of these.

The names are all hand written... I need to work on my handwriting.  

The WWI Memorial, which was placed in the centre of the room.

At the entry of the Memorial Chamber, there are sculptures on the arch of the animals who helped in the wars who would often help our soldiers by carrying the soldiers, their belongings, going to see if the area was safe, etc. Most of the animals would die in service. It made me smile that our government took the time to remember the service rendered to us by animals.

Reindeers, donkeys, pigeons, horses and dogs.

All in all, it was a great day. As we were leaving the Parliament buildings, we stopped by the boutique. We really weren't planning on buying anything but Colin and I decided to splurge on matching rugby sweaters. Which have proven to be great purchases.

We're huge losers... But it was so much fun being a tourist in downtown Ottawa. I want to go again and go to all the museums there!