Back in May, we sporadically hopped in our car and headed to Ottawa for the last day of the tulip festival. The kids had no idea where we were going, just that it would take us a little longer to get there. I rather love getting to surprise the kids - they are pretty genuine in their surprise and appreciation of the time together and the adventure.
I enjoy the time to chat with everyone in the car the best, along with getting some time driving through country - sooooo nice for a little break from the city.
We had a lot of fun. We all loved the tulips and when we saw some pictures on display from The Netherlands, Atticus recognized them immediately. The kids also really liked checking out the river that was there. As an added bonus, they also got a distant glimpse of where Jason went to University. Pretty cool!
After checking out the main part of the festival, we headed over to Parliament to see the tulips there. We walked all around the building, admired the architecture, checked out the great view of the river then sat ourselves down to enjoy a picnic lunch that we had brought along. It was pretty neat to check out parliament. Maybe one day we'll make it back and get to do the inside tour; that would be fun. The kids loved getting some extra running time in before we headed back to the car. Jason attempted to take us to the Prime Minister's residence but couldn't quite seem to locate it. Oh well!
Milayla was very insistent that she wanted to see the church building there. How could we deny her that little request? Well, we set out to go to it on our way out of the city (thankfully Jason knew his way there from his university days) and after sitting in all that tulip festival traffic we finally made it and Milayla was disappointed that we wouldn't get to go to church that day! A picture of the building seemed to help lull her disappointment but she certainly would have preferred if we had gotten to go inside and attend a sacrament meeting.
Then it was back on the road for home. We liked Ottawa. It has more of a small town feeling than Montreal and seems a lot more bike friendly. And we love our bikes :). Hoping to make it back at some point to check out some of those museums as well. And, as usual, absolutely loved seeing these kids explore something new and getting to explore it with them. It was great getting to chat about our favorite parts on our way home.
So, while the tulips weren't quite as plentiful as Holland, we sure loved the time together and getting to explore something new!
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| on our own little tulip stage! |
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| carefully checking out the water |
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| celebrating their triumphant climb to the top of the stairs! |
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| a little bit of Canadian history |
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| the millennial flame |
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| the kids and I are in there too! |
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| the local church building |
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| all smiles about the day! |
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| ready to head home! |
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