Ottawa Trip - Thursday June 29th

Thursday we had a busy day planned in the city of Hull, Quebec. We left the house around lunch..after eating Karine's delicious pancake breakfast. We planned to spend the afternoon at the Canadian War Museum, and then grab a bite to eat before meeting Brian at the Imax Theatre at 6:00. So, we got to the War Museum, and found a free parking space for 2 hours, which we figured would be lots of time. Little did we know, that place is HUGE..and all the displays have lots of reading. It would take about 5 hours to go through it properly, so we were a bit rushed. We managed to get free admission inside, because Karine agreed to fill out a survey beforehand, that saved us $50..woo hoo..good job Karine! Anyway, the museum was totally amazing, lots of interesting things, but overall there was a feeling of sadness. Which is understandable, considering it is a War Museum. Anyway, I'm only putting in a couple of pics from there, we have lots, but these are my favorite ones..this is Adolf Hitler's actual car, it gave me the chills to be standing beside it, very creepy..And this is a place they have to simulate the trenches in World War I, you walk through and there are soldiers lying on the ground, guns laying around, really creepy, Mitchell jumped in the picture and he stands out like a sore thumb, so bright in the dreary background..
So we rushed out of there just under our two hour time limit, and headed off on the great search for a place to eat in Quebec. We were all very hungry by this point and couldn't find a place to eat. We stopped at one place, which was only a cafe, left there to go to Henri Burger, it was closed. Then we got stuck in extremely slow traffic, and tempers were flaring. That's when we saw a "Mike's" Restaurant, and after waiting about 20 minutes in traffic finally got there. We all had a great meal, and had lots of time to make it back to the Civilization Museum which is where the Imax is. Of course we had to make a stop at a gas station to buy some cheap Quebec beer first, and then we were off.

The Civilization Museum is a beautiful place! It's directly across the river from the Parliament Buildings, and the building itself is very unique. The have gorgeous scenery, a zen garden, water fountain, parks, the museum..so much to look at. We parked in the underground garage and then went inside to find Brian. We didn't see him right away so went outside to get some pics..Darcy and I by the water fountain with the Parliament Buildings in the backdrop.This pic was taken inside of the museum, it's the ticket booth for the Imax, but just look at the size of that canoe!
This is taken outside the building..the architecture is so gorgeous! So after wandering around for a while, we finally found Brian and he brought Brent with him! That was cool because we hadn't seen Brent in four or five years, a really long time, and it was great to see him again.

We soon discovered that the show we had planned on seeing, "Kilamanjaro" (I think I'm spelling that wrong, oh well), in the dome, was not playing till 8:00pm, and it was only 6:00pm. There was another show playing in the Imax, but not the dome, it was called "Greece", and it was starting at 7:00pm. After lots of discussion, and Darcy blaming the showtime dilemma on Brian , and Brian blaming Darcy for wanting to drink cheap Quebec beer...we decided to see the earlier show. Mitch was not too impressed, he really wanted to see the dome, so did I..but oh well! We were all pretty tired out from our long day, and the thought of two more hours of waiting seemed unbearable to some. Especially those who felt like drinking beer (right Darcy)! Anyway, the show was pretty cool, I felt a bit sick during certain points..it's so freaky! All I had to do was close my eyes, and take a deep breath..then the sickening feeling would pass. Very cool experience overall, next time I want to see the dome though!


After the show, Brent and Brian decided to come over to Matt and Karine's for a couple of beers. They both had to work the next day, so it was an early night, they left around 11:30, the rest of us hit the hay by 12:00. Read on...

Lissy