Ottawa

We travelled to Ottawa for a weekend to run the Army Run Half Marathon there.  Stephen clocked his fastest timed run of 87 minutes (for the 21.1km race).  I was struggling with ITBS in my knee and had to walk after the 11km mark, but still made it in under 2:30.

Once again, I don't have great photos - only a few taken with my camera phone.

Ottawa was grey and raining on our first day there - not particularly welcoming.  We went to see the parliament building, which I unfortunately neglected to take a photo of the outside of.

Inside their House of Commons.  They use the same system as Australia and England.  Interestingly, the tour guide told us that the Queen isn't actually allowed into this room at all - she can't go past the entrance door.

Inside the Senate.  That's the Queen and Prince Phillip's chairs up there.

Inside the library.  Apparently at one stage the whole of the Canadian parliament building was finished like this in wood - but there was a huge fire and the whole parliament building burned down except for this room (because someone remembered to shut the huge solid iron safety doors).  The rest of the building is made of stone now.

The Rideau Canal.

Chateau Laurier - it's apparently a hotel.  Love the architecture though.

Stephen with a giant polar bear.

After the run, we needed to refuel with some calories, so we accompanied some local friends to a poutinerie in Gatineau.  Ottawa-Gatineau is a dual town sitting across two provinces (like Albury-Wodonga) - Ottawa on the Ontario side and Gatineau on the Quebec side.  Apparently you can only get good poutine in Quebec.  This was pretty good poutine, although I am pretty sure it was big enough to cause multiple heart attacks.  We manged to finish most of it!