A day in the Capital

The Canal
National Gallery
At the Mint
Jacky on the Canal
View from behind Parliament
Notre Dame
Parliament

On the grounds
House of Commons
View from the Peace Tower

Got up and realized how much the beds sucked in our hotel room. Jacky straighted my hair for me since, there was no hairdryer. After that we headed staight for Parliament Hill. Found parking without too much difficulty - $18!!! Then we walked to Parliament. Took a few pics and got tour tickets. The tour was pretty good, got to see the House of Commons and the Senate. Didn't see Stephen Harper though. Too bad. :) The prettiest part was the libaray, but you weren't allowed to take pics. After the tour we went up the peace tower and took more pics. Great view from up there!! After that we had lunch on Sparks St. and walked down Sussex Drive. Took more pics, went in Notre Dame and arrived at the Mint for a tour. Too bad we were too late!! We arrived at 3:15 and production stops at 3. So we opted to go to the gift shop instead. They also had a little gallery and we found out we're worth $1.7 million in gold!! Left the mint and walked back down Sussex to the Rideau Canals, where Jacky was brave and walked across. I couldn't do it. :) From there we headed to Tims for a coffee and back to the car. Drove down Sussex to see the Prime Minister's house, but it was a lot of traffic and everything's pretty gated. So we headed back to Montreal.

A day in the Capital

The Canal
National Gallery
At the Mint
Jacky on the Canal
View from behind Parliament
Notre Dame
Parliament

On the grounds
House of Commons
View from the Peace Tower

Got up and realized how much the beds sucked in our hotel room. Jacky straighted my hair for me since, there was no hairdryer. After that we headed staight for Parliament Hill. Found parking without too much difficulty - $18!!! Then we walked to Parliament. Took a few pics and got tour tickets. The tour was pretty good, got to see the House of Commons and the Senate. Didn't see Stephen Harper though. Too bad. :) The prettiest part was the libaray, but you weren't allowed to take pics. After the tour we went up the peace tower and took more pics. Great view from up there!! After that we had lunch on Sparks St. and walked down Sussex Drive. Took more pics, went in Notre Dame and arrived at the Mint for a tour. Too bad we were too late!! We arrived at 3:15 and production stops at 3. So we opted to go to the gift shop instead. They also had a little gallery and we found out we're worth $1.7 million in gold!! Left the mint and walked back down Sussex to the Rideau Canals, where Jacky was brave and walked across. I couldn't do it. :) From there we headed to Tims for a coffee and back to the car. Drove down Sussex to see the Prime Minister's house, but it was a lot of traffic and everything's pretty gated. So we headed back to Montreal.

Day 9 - One last trip to the falls and off to Ottawa

Behind the falls
From the top of the Incline Railway

Niagara-on-the-Lake

Started out with another fantastic shower and checked out of our hotel. The staff was nice and let us leave the car there while we trekked down to the falls one last time. We took even more photos and then headed to Journey behind the falls. Got much more wet there than on the Maid of the Mist, but it was pretty cool. If I'd known better I wouldn't have worn Crocs, as I almost slipped on the wet rock. Came out from there and took a few more pics before discoving the incline railway that takes you to the top was only $2. Sweet!! Drove down the falls parkway to Niagara-on-the-lake. Didn't stop in the town as it looked pretty busy, but we took some pics. From there we headed straight to Ottawa. Got there around 9 and found out the Dept. of National Defense was in town and most rooms were booked. We found a room at the Webb Hotel which was not too pricey, but the beds were like ROCKS and there was no hairdryer! My poor hair!! Had some pizza for dinner and headed to bed after we found out the internet didn't work.

Everyone loves Marineland - except Jacky!!

"oh, oh Please!"
Jacky's new friend
Nancy on the Sky Screamer!
The falls - both sides

The ferris wheel
Jacky and a Beluga
Maid of the Mist
From the boat
Nancy feeding a Beluga!!

Got up and realized the hotel’s shower is AMAZING! Had breakfast in the restaurant downstairs and headed to Marineland. We had fun, but thought it was a little overpriced, for what you get. It wasn’t very busy, so there was no waiting. Watched a slightly disappointing splash show with Killer Whales. Then I petted and fed a Beluga Whale – which was pretty cool! Rode the “teacups” 2 times in a row!! We were the only people on the ride. Saw some very cute bears, which people were feeding, so we got AWESOME pictures. They were begging “oh, oh, please” just like Carter! Then I decided to be brave and ride the Sky Screamer ride. It was awesome, even though I was pretty scared. But the ride attendant went too, along with another guy, so I had some morale support. Jacky was too scared, but that was ok, cause she took pictures. The view of the falls was amazing, I wish I was able to take photos, but I was holding on too tight! We watched the dolphin/sealion/walrus show and headed back to the falls. Decided to do the Maid of the Mist, but it was getting late so we decided to drive. After circling the Clifton Hill area around the falls 3 times – we finally found a decent spot. Got on the last boat ride of the day. Didn’t get too wet under our free souviner ponchos, but we were very glad to have a waterproof camera. Can’t believe some people were using their digital cameras, when water was spraying everywhere. You get pretty close to the falls, so we got a lot of great photos, it was a very nice sunny day, so we even saw some rainbows. After the boat ride we looked around Clifton Hill, ate dinner, and went to the Hershey store. Then we went back to our car which was SURROUNDED by motorcycles. Luckily the drivers were more than happy to move their bikes for us. Otherwise Jacky would have had to have gotten ANGRY (you wouldn’t like her when she’s angry)!! Then we headed back to the hotel, where we are downloading the approximately 650 photos we took today. We are now debated whether our feet will carry us to the casino where we plan to win a combined $16500.

Again - pics to come.

Day 7 - Got a late start – but survived the 401 in rush hour

Started out from Montreal a little later than we hoped, mostly cause I was hanging with Mini C. We had just got on the highway when Jacky realized she forgot her glasses. So we ventured back to the Lausens. We FINALLY hit the road around 10:45. Then the GPS decided to tell us to go East instead of West. After we got straightened out, we drove straight through to Ontario, we were wishing the fall colours were pretty. Arrived in Niagara around 6PM, after drivning through Toronto during rush hour. Had supper and then walked down to see the falls. By that time it was almost time for the nightly illumination to start, which was very pretty. Took a couple hundred photos. J Hiked back up the long hill to our hotel and went to bed (the extremely comfy hotel bed!)
Pics to come!

Finally!!

getting pretty wet! "My hair!!"

Kinda misted, but it was still pretty nice out
400 hundredth anniversary

Citadel
Tiny doors!!

A church in old quebec
old quebec from above
the "small" part of the falls
First stop in Quebec
More old quebec

We're back in Montreal from our mini trip and we had NO internet access the entire time! :( So now come the updates. I'll be updating tomorrow morning with more pics and today's post, but here's some pics of Quebec City.

Drenched in Quebec City

So, Day 6 of our trip to Montreal and area, we decided to head to Quebec City. We knew that rain was in the forecast, but it did say rainy periods in the afternoon. We did not expect to get TOTALLY drenched!! It was little misty this morning, but a little mist gets you pretty wet after awhile. But we still had a good time. Saw Old Quebec and tried to see the Montmercery Falls, but they wanted to charge almost $10, so be opted to take pics from the highway.

Otherwise we haven't done too much touristy stuff so far, gone to all the local Scrapbook stores of course, which is a must! And we had the big SS crop which we attended on Friday and Saturday. Other than that we've pretty much just admired the cuteness of Carter. :)

Off to Niagara, we'll be posting from there and I'll add some pics of the trip so far tomorrow.

Road Rage - Nancy gets angry

Sunset at Liberty Lake - Kinda
Scenic Drive the GPS sent us on. :)

Well another road trip is almost over. We're heading out of town in a few minutes, hitting Walmart - the ever impressive supercenter - on our way out of town. Then it's back to Canada, hope the border lines aren't too long. Yesterday we went to Spokane where we went to 2 different shopping malls and 2 Joanns. Unfortunately the was something called "hoopfest" happening downtown, so after I tried to kill several pedestrians with my car accidently...on purpose. People were EVERYWHERE - paying no attention to the lights - , and much to Jacky's amusement, my road rage was REALLY coming out - "it says "DON'T WALK, people!!. Actually it was much more colourful than that. So we ventured out of the downtown core, before I had a meltdown. Without seeing the park or the alleged falls in the park. :( Guess we'll have to come back. Then on our way back to Coeur D'Alene, we decided to see if we could get some pics of the sunset on Liberty Lake. Unfortunately, it took too long to find a spot to take a photo, so it was a no go.