Ottawa June 30 - July 3

The first thing we did in Ottawa was to go see the changing of the guard at the Parliament Building. This is a summer activity (primarily for tourists) but it is great showmanship. The units and band march up the street, onto and around the field. There are some maneuvers, manual of arms, inspection by the officers and other things I didn't understand. There may have been a changing of bayonets and a key also. Anyway after they had done enough "pomp" they changed their "circumstance" and marched away to the blaring of the horns and bagpipes.

It is now July 1st - Canada Day. Since I had seen the changing of the guard the day before I knew roughly how that worked but today there was to be a performance of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Musical Ride which was first performed in 1876. I thought I had picked a spot to see it but I picked the wrong side of the field and by the time I worked my way over to the side the Mounties were performing on I was 7-8 people back from the fence. Being tall I was able to hold my camera up high and get a few decent pictures. It was impressive to watch the riders maneuver their horses.

This is a view of the crowd. Red and maple leafs was the uniform of the day.

The crowd in front of the Parliament Building was waiting to see the Prime Minister and later the free entertainment.

This is a fly over of who I think is the SnowBird Canadian Air Force aerobatic team.

During Canada Day many museums are open for free, three stages with entertainment and some other free venues. We elected to take in a performance of the Ottawa Orchestra and a combined choir of children from though out Canada. The Performing Arts theater was completely full for the 2:00 PM performance and it was excellent. Plus we missed an afternoon shower that cooled things off outside a little.

Everyone wanted to take a picture with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. This guy was right out of central casting. He had the chiseled jaw and broad shoulders that just says "Mountie!"

At the end of the day we decided to brave the crowds over at Majors Point, which is on the bluff opposite the Parliament Hill. There was a musical performance stage set up at the park there. At 10:00 pm the fireworks started and they were impressive. It was shoulder to shoulder getting out of the park afterwords. When we arrived at our boat our NJ neighbors said that a young man had expressed disgust at the US flag on the stern of our boat. Before the neighbors could react he had "liberated" our staff and flag and run off down the street. Apparently after the fireworks the crowds were thick going down the road and walkway past our boat and one probably drunk fellow was the thief. Mr NJ then told me that they woke up during the night before and found three young men in the cockpit of our boat. When he opened the door of his boat they jumped off and said they weren't hurting anything. So he and I decided to stay up and watch our boats until the crowds thinned out which turned out to be about 1:30 AM.

The next day we took a local Trolley Tour that allowed us to hop off and hop on. In the town of Hull, Quebec, just across the river from Ottawa is the Canadian Museum of Civilization. It covers history and nature and had one of the largest displays of totem poles in the world.

One of the highlight of Ottawa was the Canadian War Museum (opened in 2005.) It is in the modern style like the Marine Corp Museum near Quantico or the Special Forces Museum in Fayetteville, NC. In these rather than big rooms of artifacts, you wind through a labyrinth of displays with the path sometimes leading you through an actual mock up display. The Canadian War Museum was a fantastic museum. There were displays of uniforms and equipment of a period but done realistically (see picture.) There were models like the mock up of a typical WWI trench (picture) and there were even actual tanks and artillery weapons.

I learned a lot about Canada's military history. Before taking this trip, I hadn't thought about how much Canada feared an invasion and defeat from the US. The US had attacked in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and some ex-Civil War Irish Brigades attacked in the year after the end of the Civil War. They thought that if they could capture Canada that they could bargain with the British and trade Canada for a "Brit-free" Ireland. There was also fear during the many US-Canada disagreements like over the Oregon border. This fear of the US was the main reason the Rideau Canal was built. Britain wanted to assure movement of goods and troops if the US captured the St. Lawrence river.

I also learned about the honesty of this museum. It covered some embarrassing events in Canadian military history including the Ross Rifle that was defective and cost many lives in WWI, the internment of Italians and German residents of Canada during WWI, and the internment of Japanese-Canadians during WWII (the same action the US took.)

I also learned that "Scotty" of the Star Trek TV show was a WWII Canadian soldier who landed on Juno Beach Normandy on D-Day June 6, 1944 as a Lieutenant with the Royal Canadian Artillery. He suffered multiple wounds that day including a bullet that nearly hit his heart but was reflected off a cigarette case, a gun shot to the leg, and a third that took off a finger. In early Star Trek TV shows, skillful camera work avoided showing his hand.