OTTAWA, CANADA EXPEDITION!

I first heard about the Rideau Canal when I attended a tourism meeting in 2015, called BeinvenueQuebec (www.bienvenueqc.com).  On a more recent visit to Ottawa, Canada,  I was very thankful to "accidentally" come across the lower section of the Rideau Canal,  that leads into the Ottawa River, as I was coming off of Parliament Hill, and walking on the sidewalk of the Plaza Bridge.  The locks were right below me!

After scanning the landscape to see how to walk down beside it, I saw the sign near some  steps that led downwards, to a pedestrian area beside the canal.  After observing a person actually walk across the canal on top of one of the locks, my curious nature inspired me to do the same.  After a quick camera exchange with some other ladies venturing across, we snapped photos to prove we had been on the "cat walk" above the water.  Such a moment deserves to be remembered with arms uplifted to heaven, in gratitude!

We also took photos where we pretended to be working the hand crank, that operates the gates of the locks. 

The canal was an engineering "miracle" when it was completed over one hundred years ago, and as such, qualified to be named a World Heritage Site. 

The end of these canal locks empty into the Ottawa River

When one is at the bottom looking upward, you can see the famous Fairmont hotel, called Chateau Laurier on the left, and the Rideau Canal Museum, on the right.

The Chateau Laurier Hotel (shown below) is one of several built over a century ago, by railroad companies, with the goal of increasing use of their railway cars by tourists, taking the train to visit previously "hard to reach" scenic areas.  I have had the wonderful blessing of getting to visit several of these hotels across Canada.  My first was the Banff Springs Hotel, which my son and I visited when we attended the 1988 winter Olympics in the Calgary area.  A decade later, my husband and I enjoyed a Mother's Day Tea at Banff Springs Hotel.  The other historic, transportation-connected properties seen by me in person include: The Empress in Victoria, British Columbia; Chateau Lake Louise; Prince of Wales Hotel near Glacier National Park; Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City; Le Manor Richelier overlooking the St.

Lawrence River, and The Algonquin in New Brunswick,Canada.  I can imagine a future where transportation companies that want to encourage travel in outer space, will build magnificent, interstellar resorts to encourage space travel to "a galaxy far, far away" (as the famous Star Wars quote references)!!??  

For those interested in boat rides on waterways of Ottawa, several are available, as evidenced by the Captain's Wheel billboard beside the steps leading down to the water.   Imagine you were transported by a time machine, back one hundred years, and see this same billboard.  You know both the English and French languages, but the white squares with black scribbles in them would be very puzzling!  You can read the part of the sign that says "Scan", so you scan the entire sign with your eyes and full concentration, but still know very little about what the billboard is trying to communicate!

 

Fortunately, a walk beside the canal revealed the docking location of the two types of boats available, making it easier for a "time traveler" (or anyone else without a smart phone) to discern the ticket purchasing procedures/costs.

If a visitor is more inclined to include burning calories with their sightseeing, both kayaks and two-person foot-pedal boats are readily available for rental.  

 

Another way to navigate the Ottawa waters (as well as the city streets!) is the Amphibus (www.ladydive,com).   In 2015, at the BienvenueQuebec tourism conference, I visited at length with the lady involved in developing the Amphibus tours in Ottawa.  There were many "hoops to jump through" for approval, but any tourist in Ottawa will probably see their bright red vehicles around the city.

Earlier in the day, our group had started their Ottawa tour in a most appropriate way---inside a beautiful house of worship, called Notre-Dame Cathedral/Ottawa (www.notredameottawa.com).  It has a convenient location across from the National Gallery.  While there, it was a time to pray and reflect and give thanks, for the safe travel and magnificent weather, our group had experienced in Canada. 

From the Cathedral,  we continued a short distance to the beautiful grounds of Rideau Hall, where this familiar-looking "rock sculpture" was located. 

The photo above does not indicate its size, so photo below shows an actual human being, standing beside the structure. 

I had become familiar with design, because it was also the logo for the 2010 Olympics I attended in Vancouver, Canada.  The placard below describes in several ("languages"), that the Inuckshuk, represent the "Silent messengers of the Arctic."

A red maple leaf is the prominent feature of the Canadian national flag, so it is not surprising that the gardens of Rideau Hall had numerous maple trees (some even planted by U.S. government officials).  One of the maple leaves even "posed" for its photograph!

From our motorcoach I snapped this photo of the War Memorial Museum (www.warmuseum.ca) in Ottawa.  The windows on the side of the building represent the dots and dashes of the Morse Code, with a phrase to say, "Lest we forget".

Originally, Ottawa was named after Colonel John By, and the Byward Cafe is a reference to his name.

 

 

I happened to be in Ottawa on Orange Shirt Day (www.orangeshirtday.org), also called "National Day for Truth and Reconciliation", which is a national holiday in Canada.                                                               

In 2024, there was a special emphasis on remembering the children of First Nations people who had been sent away to boarding schools, but never returned home.

I was able to meet one of the First Nations government representatives, and have my photo made with her.

The event where I met her had several gourmet foods available, all with the goal of being a nod or tribute to the indigenous foods of the First Nations peoples.  

The squash cake was delicious.  The card beside it tells about its history.

The building below is on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.  I read its design is called "civic gothic architecture".

The sacred fire is a custom among indigenous people of Canada.

Often when I am out doing photography, I am looking for images that will help me remember one of the memory verses for a healthy living program I participate in called First Place 4 Health (www.FirstPlace4Health.com).  In Ottawa, I saw a bronze war memorial sculpture that included both old and new army weapons, and at the time I saw it, was framed by a metal fence, with a spear-point design.  That is the photo I am using for my memory verse from I Samuel 17:45, that says, David said to the Philistine, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied." 

War memorials can be seen, not just in the city of Ottawa, but in locations across the globe, and usually express a hope, for peace in the time going forward.  The source of true, inner peace can be found on the pages of the Holy Bible.  Knowing how "HIS"story ends gives me a "MILES OF SMILES"!!  Tricia

2022 CANOECOPIA EXPEDITION!

 There was a group of kayakers who left Baxter County, Arkansas and traveled to Madison, Wisconsin, in mid-March of 2020.  Their goal was to attend the world's largest paddle sports tradeshow (called Canoecopia--www.Canoecopia.com), being held in the Alliant Center in Madison.  However, after the group had already left Arkansas, the reports on social media showed that the Canoecopia event had been cancelled, by government order, due to the emergence of a novel Corona virus strain.  This was just the beginning of a world-wide phenomena called the COVID19 Pandemic.  When we finally got to Madison, we drove through the desolate parking lot of the Alliant Center, and then decided to go by the retail store that was sponsoring Canoecopia, which is called Rutabaga Paddling Center ( www.rutabaga.com  ).  The store was closed to the public, but undaunted, we started conversations with the workers who were unloading trucks outside, which eventually enabled us to go inside and meet the owner of Rutabaga, Mr. Darren Bush.  To say he was devastated, is not an overstatement.  Yet, he took the time to give us a personal tour of his store, and planned out an alternate itinerary for us, of hiking trips in the area.  He even managed a smile, for the selfie he took with us!  He encouraged us to come back, and said he would honor the wristbands we had, to attend 2020, for the next in-person event.

 

We were determined to go to the in-person event, held two years later in 2022, and set out for Wisconsin on Thursday, March 10, with a planned overnight in Ottawa, Illinois ( www.pickusottawail.com ).  We found a fun restaurant for supper in downtown Ottawa, and also a different restaurant in the same town for lunch the next day.  These two establishments were the only two restaurants we used during our five-day trip.  The remainder of our meals were the delicious WHOyaker potlucks.

The next day, we woke up to see that snow had blanketed the parking lot and the vehicles we traveled in:

The snow did not keep us from going to visit the historical event that Ottawa is famous for---location of the 1858 debate, between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas, in front of the Reddick Mansion (www.reddickmansion.org ).  Ottawa, Illinois is famous for its murals, so we took a "windshield tour" to see as many murals as possible in the downtown area.

From downtown Ottawa, we drove the recently snow-plowed highway,  to Starved Rock State Park ( www.starvedrockstatepark.org/ ).  The 2,630 acre state park,  that is situated on wooded bluffland,  above the Illinois River, has a fantastic visitor center, where we stopped to view the exhibits and use their spacious restroom facilities.

We then crossed the river to the Illinois Waterway Visitors Center ( www.mvr.usace.army.mil ) above the lock and dam, and we were able to observe a tugboat with a cargo of benzene being floated through the lock.  The visitor center is famous for being an outstanding location for viewing eagles.  In fact, they had their telescope set up so we could get a "birds eye view" of a nesting eagle, so well focused, that we could actually get a closeup "view of the eye of the bird"!

From that location, we drove the remainder of the distance to Madison, Wisconsin, in time to make it for the official Canoecopia  startup time of 3:30 pm on Friday.  FINALLY, we were able to see the world's largest paddlesports trade show/symposium in person!

There were numerous seminars going on simultaneously, and this is a photo of one wall screen, for a class called "Essentials for a pocket survival kit"

Another class was by Dr. Neal Schroeter, about emergency procedures in the wilderness:

Another class was on how to choose the perfect paddle for your needs:

One of the seminars was about paddling the Buffalo National River, so these gals made quite the statement with their matching BNR tee shirts!

Also we learned the proper way to grip your paddle:

Another class was on proper exercises for paddling strength, and we learned that uplifting the arms is a good stretch for strengthening your paddling:

Meanwhile, back at the large house we had rented in Madison for the weekend ( www.vrbo.com ) these ladies enjoyed some hydrotherapy in the hot tub:

The next morning, Helen gave her daughter a cold snow scrub,  in the hot tub.  The deck had been dusted in snow overnight, and the thermometer read six degrees! 

One night, after arriving back at the lodging after a full day of attending seminars, the ladies made a beautiful charcuterie board.

Then it was up early the next day to head back to the Alliant Center, for a different kind of "soak" than what one receives in the hot tub.  On the contrary, we were all trying to "soak up" as much knowledge as possible from the opportunities provided by Canoecopia.  There were demonstrations on knot tying:

There was also a place where you could practice tying various knots:

Out on the showroom floor, there were many different kinds of equipment on display, including one for making kayaking accessible for those in wheelchairs:

I also encountered Rutabaga owner, Darren Bush,  out on the show room floor, carrying his banjo, which he has only been playing for the last three years.  He was heading for one of several "arts and culture" seminars Canoecopia provides. 

On the final day, we took our charcuterie leftovers to the Alliant Center and had a WHOYAKER potluck lunch.  There was food service available for purchase at the Alliant Center, but we opted to take our meals in our backpacks, so we did not have to lose precious time waiting in line, for menu items to be prepared.   The photo shows there were eight ladies in our group, and I heard Rutabaga owner, Darren Bush, refer to us as the "Arkansas Posse"!  At one of the seminars where door prizes were being awarded for who came from the farthest away, he gave each member of the "Arkansas Posse" an outdoors-related door prize!  By having a variety of interests within the group, and splitting up based on our interests, we covered seminars on paddling the Ozark National Waterways Park, paddling the Boundary Waters, camping for folks over fifty, outdoor photography, preparing for wild animal/human encounters in the wilderness, Apostle Islands paddling, wilderness medical emergency guidelines, overcoming fear, leading groups in the outdoors, campfire culinary skills, kayaking with your dog, compass navigation, choosing the proper kayak for your outing, paddling the Mississippi, and many other seminars too numerous to mention!  After we returned to the lodging in the evening, we would share what we learned, and use "screen mirroring" from our smart phones, to put the images on the big screen television, at our rental VRBO. 

Many of us ended our time at Canoecopia by attending the live music concert (that included Darren the banjo man) playing songs related to paddling and the outdoors.  It was a high-spirited song-fest, that received a standing ovation, as an expression of gratitude for the countless hours of preparation that goes into staging "the world's largest paddlesports tradeshow/symposium"!

After Canoecopia ended on Sunday afternoon, we drove to a market the locals told us about, where we bought Wisconsin cheese (Afterall, we could not leave "The Dairy State" without savoring the delicacy that made them famous!).   Then we drove about half hour further down the road to visit  Devils Lake State Park.  At one pulloff, we observed an attractive couple doing a professional-looking photo shoot, of their shiny black sports car, against the contrasting white of the frozen lake.  So, of course, we asked them to take a photo of our group:

 

In March of 2020, Devils Lake State Park was the location where our group did extensive hiking on the Ice Age Trail (after learning indoor events were cancelled) and photos of that adventure is in the archives, in an article called "Canoecopia Expedition", dated July 2, 2020.

This photo of the still icy-looking road, explains why there were very few visitors at the park on this late afternoon day, even though it is one of Wisconsin's most visited state parks!

On the trip home, we were delighted to find lower gas prices in Rolla, Missouri, because it had been almost a dollar MORE per gallon in Wisconsin!

We offset the high price of gas by having a picnic of leftovers along the way home, instead of stopping at a restaurant:

However, since we saved money on lunch, we splurged at the ice cream store in Rolla, as a final treat before making it back home:

 After all the ladies in our group had left the store, except for Helen, the owner of the ice cream store asked Helen what type of group we were.  She told the owner that we were all her daughters.  When the owner commented that none of us looked alike, Helen's quick, (tongue-in-cheek) reply was, "Oh, they are all by different fathers!"   This reminded me of one of my First Place 4 Health ( www.FirstPlace4Health.com ) memory verses.  The paraphrase of Psalm 133:1 from The Message says, "How wonderful, how beautiful, when brothers and sisters get along!"   I can assure you that this trip with my "paddling sisters" was wonderful and beautiful!  It gave me "MILES OF SMILES"!!  Tricia