April 16, 2012 - OTTAWA

This past weekend we had the pleasure of travelling to our nation's capitol. DH's U14 girl's basketball team was playing in the OBA championship there, so we decided to tag along.

We left Friday morning around 9:30 and made excellent time with a quick lunch stop in Odessa. We arrived in Ottawa around 2pm and quickly checked into our hotel so we could have a couple hours to walk around before the first game.

Our first stop was to Parliament Hill. I have never been to Ottawa so this was a bit of an exciting trip for me and the kids. According to Wikepedia, Parliament Hill attracts approximately 3 million visitors each year. The kids were so excited to see the large buildings with their pretty green roofs.

Buddaroo's favourite part of the buildings was the beautiful Peace Tower. Although we were disappointed that we missed the last tour of the tour, we were able to hear the pretty bell sounds while we were there. We spent a little bit more time wandering the grounds before heading downtown to Byward Market.

Byward Market is one of Canada's oldest and largest public markets. It offers something for every one - restaurants, night life & entertainment venues, galleries, shops, salons, and of course the farmers market with local vendors and artisans. But the highlight of visiting the market was trying our very first Beaver Tail.

I had no idea what a beaver tail was - DH assured me that it would be amazing. So off we went to find the Beaver Tail stand...we ordered some with brown sugar and cinnamon and one with nutella and Reese's Pieces for the kids. OH EM GEE! It WAS amazing. For something so simple, it was deeelish! It was really too bad that we didn't have a ton of time to go back down there and get another before we headed home.

Saturday morning was spent at the Museum of Civilization.

We visited the famous Children's museum, which I would HIGHLY recommend. We had a blast inside. It has been developed around a central theme - The Great Adventure - and gives children an opportunity to travel the world. The kids loved stamping their passports at each stop around the world. From there, we headed to the IMAX theatre to watch Rocky Mountain Express. The kids loved seeing the large steam engines...we did, too - but sure loved seeing all of Canada's beautiful scenery! Gosh, Canada is gorgeous, isn't it?

Later in the afternoon, Buddaroo came down with the wicked stomach bug that HoneyPie had a few days earlier. It was awful. There's nothing worse than a pukey kid 6 hours from home...stuck in a hotel. Poor buddy.

I will create a different post about the actual OBA tournament as this one is getting quite lengthy...we were home Sunday night around 9:40...it was an amazing weekend, despite some tummy woes, I love spending time with my family...seeing new things. It really was a great experience.

Have you been to Ottawa? Any recommendations for a future visit? I'd love to head back with DH sans kids...so much more to explore!