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!
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.
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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!
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..jpg)
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.
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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. .jpg)
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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 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 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 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."
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If you are familiar with college logos, you will recognize that the rotunda building shown in this photo, is an integral part of the marketing brand of the University of Virginia ( 
The rotunda is flanked on both the east and west sides with a long succession of red brick buildings, called the East Range and West Range.
The inside of the rotunda is three stories, and this photo shows the symmetrical stairways leading to the top floor. I was touring the campus with these folks, as a part of a week-long Road Scholar ( 
This photo of me in front of the Rotunda gives an idea of the spaciousness and openness, of this part of the campus. It is said that Road Scholar programs are for "students of life-long learning", so perhaps now I can truthfully say, "I studied at the University of Virginia"!
Students much more famous and talented than I, have attended the University of Virginia. This plaque above the door of West Range Room #13 pays tribute to famous poet Edgar Allen Poe, who lived here the same year of Thomas Jefferson's death.
The University of Virginia Raven Society (named after Poe's most famous poem) continues to maintain #13 West Range, the room Poe inhabited during the single semester he attended the university. 
There are placards around the campus (as well as a phone app), for people who want to learn about the history of the campus, and do not have the benefit of a very knowledgeable Road Scholar guide to give them a tour.
One item our guide had told us to keep an eye out for, was what he called a "Bathrobe Alert". He went on to explain that 54 students are selected to live on The Lawn during their final year. It is considered a great honor to be invited to live on The Lawn, and these 54 students join ten members of the faculty, who permanently live and teach in the Pavilions there. The drawback to being selected for this honor, is that the student housing on The Lawn does not have any shower or bathroom facilities. Thus these students are often seen in their robes, going and coming from the group restrooms. And sure enough, we encountered a fourth-year student in his bath robe!
The interior of The Rotunda has been updated to make it more user friendly for today's high-tech students. 
Although a chapel was not originally part of Jefferson's plan for his "Academical Village", one was added after his death. The Chapel was built in 1889, on the east side of The Rotunda. It was designed by Charles Cassell, who had been a University of Virginia student. Since Cassell had been a student at the U of V, perhaps he knew of its history of brawling and rioting, including the murder of the Chairman of the Faculty in 1840. With this in mind, plus a rise in religious affiliation in society in general, it became apparent that ignoring the spiritual development of students, was not the utopia Jefferson had envisioned. 
This photo, taken on the south end of The Lawn, shows the wide , grassy terraces that separate the 5 pavilions on the West Range, from the 5 pavilions on the East Range. These residential and academic buildings had walled gardens behind them, and the larger campus extends beyond them. The pavilions are all different, and provide examples of various types of classical architecture.
One can only speculate if the busy schedules of today's students and faculty, allow for much front-porch rocking chair time. While I was there, I did not see anyone using these, although it would have made a great photo caption for someone in our group---"Rockin' out at the University of Virginia"!
This closeup of one entrance gives you a clue to their Texas heritage, and also to the fact that the residences still contain WORKING fireplaces! 
The south end of The Lawn has now been enclosed by more campus buildings, which is another change from what Jefferson imagined. He wanted The South Lawn to look out over beautiful cultivated fields, with the mountains in the background. Now the campus is essentially a "quadrangle" instead of an open "U" shape. 
Unlike the open-to-the-sky rotunda I visited at the Vicksburg Military Park, the top of the U of V rotunda is made of glass. It is half the width and height of the Pantheon in Rome, which was the primary inspiration for the building. Jefferson wanted The Rotunda to symbolize knowledge, and show its hierarchy. It was to be the "Temple of Knowledge" and house the university library. 
The bottom floor of The Rotunda leads through this series of arches, and onto the other parts of the campus. 
This photo shows the "Jeffersonian Serpentine Walls". The walls are called serpentine because they run a sinusoidal course, one that lends strength to the wall and allows for the wall to be only one brick thick. Our guide told us the design also creates a type of "micro climate" in the indentations, leading to some unexpected growing conditions for decorative plants. 
This symbol of a Christian cross on top of the chapel, is a visual aid for my First Place 4 Health (
I recently had the pleasure of visiting Monticello, as part of a week-long Road Scholar ( 
Monticello was the primary plantation of Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States. This pond that shows the reflection of Monticello in this photo, was actually stocked with fish to be used for meals; it was a very useful source of variety for their diets, in the days before refrigeration. It is said to be one of many innovative features that Thomas Jefferson designed into his plantation . 
Monticello is the iconic symbol on the U.S. nickel (five cent piece), and is the only private home in the United States, that has the designation of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. You can read more about the many other awards this property has received, on their official website at 
The plantation was originally about 5,000 acres, and as such, you can imagine that the grounds surrounding the house are vast. This is one of the many trails around the property, and is located between the main house and the Monticello cemetery.
Jefferson designed the main house using neoclassical design principles, described by Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio. After Jefferson's time in France, serving as Minister of the United States to France, he returned to Monticello, and continued to remodel and add on to the property. Some experts says he was very much influenced by the historic buildings he saw while living in France. In fact, when he first built the house, it did not have the prominent dome you can see in this photo. 
Tourists today enter through the east portico. Before you go inside, the tour guide will point out the medallion on the ceiling, which is connected to a weather vane on the roof, indicating the wind direction. Another novel feature is that the clock above the door connects through the wall to the "Great Clock" inside the entry foyer. The clock on the outside only has an hour hand, and not a minute hand.
This photo shows a lose-up of the ceiling medallion (wind plate), which is connected to a weather vane on the roof, that indicates wind direction.
I was amused at the title of this exhibit called "Count the Miles", because that it something that we do in the health and nutrition field, to try to get folks to increase their physical activity. The exhibit tells us that Jefferson was fastidious about measuring things---miles, temperature, wind direction, rainfall, etc. He devised a way to measure the distances he traveled in his horse-drawn carriage, by counting the number of rotations of the wheels, and then multiplying it by the distance traveled with one wheel turn. Using this system, he developed maps that would tell the distance between his home, and various other locations in the area.
There is a gift shop located "beneath the house", in something like a "walk-out basement", where one can buy agricultural products that have actually been grown at, or around Monticello. As such, they make a great souvenir of your visit to this still-working plantation 
This photo shows the garden where that produce is grown and harvested. At its prime, Jefferson grew 330 vegetable varieties in Monticello's 1000-foot-long garden terrace. Since I was there in late March, it was too early to see many of the crops that would be harvested.
Just above the garden plot, is an area called Mulberry Row. This was the site of some of Jefferson's slave quarters. It was also the location of some service and industrial structures. The slave cabins were occupied by the slaves who worked in the mansion or in Jefferson's manufacturing ventures, and not by those who labored in the fields. 
This statue of Thomas Jefferson, with his "spy glass" in his hand, is the location of the shuttle pick up that will take you up the hill to the Monticello home.
The shuttle is in continuous operation throughout the operating hours of Monticello home tours. 
For those who prefer to walk to the top of the hill, there is a scenic (but somewhat steep) trail through the woods. If you are climbing UP the hill, you may think the home was mis-named, because Monticello means "little mountain". After huffing and puffing up the hill, it may not seem so little after all!
However, if hiking is something you enjoy, there is an even longer hike you can take, which starts a couple of miles below the Visitor's Center, just off the main highway. It is called the Saunders-Monticello Trail. Since I had purchased a souvenir hiking medallion to hammer into my wooden hiking stick, I wanted to walk the trail, in order to truly "earn" the medallion!
The trail will lead you to the Visitor's Center, where there are restrooms, theaters, children's museum, cafe, and gift shop. Before my visit, I had read that the gift shop gives its change in the form of two dollar bills, since the portrait of Thomas Jefferson graces each bill. You can also ask the clerk to stamp the bill with the "Monticello" logo. I got several for souvenirs! (The two dollar bill has special significance for my son, since its uniqueness helped solve a robbery that occurred at his home!)
The Saunders-Monticello Trail has several sections of nice boardwalk over the valleys, so that the walker does not have as much ascending/descending to do, if the trail had followed the exact contours of the landscape. 
This plaque at the Monticello Graveyard demonstrates how Jefferson fulfilled a promise he made to a schoolmate, as a young man.
It is interesting to note that the memorial stone to Thomas Jefferson does not indicate that he was once President of the United States! Rather, it mentions that he was the author of the Virginia Statutes on Religious Freedom. 