We last visited Ottawa with our children in 2004.  It was impressive then and we knew we had to return one day.  I don’t think we ever thought that return would take 14 years to happen, but honestly it was so worth the wait.

Ottawa is the capital city of Canada.  It is full of history, art, entertainment, culture, food – basically it has everything.  In size and population it reminds us very much of Halifax, which is close to where we live in Nova Scotia and is where I grew up.  We have both said it is probably the only other city in Canada we would consider living in.

We prepared for this trip more than we have for any other.  There are so many things to see and do.  We crammed as much into 4 days as we could but at the end decided that we will have to return as we just couldn’t fit everything in.  From start to finish it was a fantastic trip!

We flew from Halifax to Ottawa with Porter.  Porter uses prop planes.  I am petrified of prop planes.  I was having anxiety attacks for days before we left.  I have to say though, compared to my last experience on this type of plane Porter was great.

We arrived early in the morning, fortunately our room was ready.  Our room was on the 21st floor of the Westin Ottawa  The view was spectacular!

On the first day we visited the Byward Market, Rideau Centre and re-connected with some very important folks.  Later in the evening we checked out the Lac-Leamy Casino in Gatineau.  We knew we had a big day ahead the next day so we didn’t stay out too late.

We were up early the next day to make sure we didn’t miss seeing the Changing of the Guard. We also wanted to visit the War Memorial, Sparks Street and we had a private tour of Parliament set up.  We were hoping to get all this in before supper time so we could do the canal cruise in the evening and than take in the Northern Lights Show after that.  Surprisingly we did get it all in!

By now we were pretty exhausted and knew we had another busy day ahead on Tuesday.  With the Notre Dame Basilica and the Museum of Nature on tap, we had a lot of walking to do!  If only we had known how much!