Going Downtown!

With so many activities still restricted I try to think of places to go with the dogs that are a different from the normal places we walk so twice recently I took them downtown. It's about a twenty minute drive and then you have to find parking but usually the walks are well worth it. 

The first time we went downtown we wanted to find the statue of LCol John McCrae who wrote In Flanders Fields. This location isn't actually right in the downtown core so I had never walked this area before, there's not much public parking on weekdays in the area or not that many tourist attractions either so not as many people around. I'd only ever been to that area once before. John McCrae's statue is across the road from the building that was once Ottawa's city hall; it now houses the School of the Public Service and I had been there on a course. 

John McCrae's statue is in a small park near a memorial to the fallen of the Royal Canadian Artillery. The park is right on the Rideau River and you can see the falls from one side of the park and even walk over pedestrian bridge over the falls.

On the other side of the road and around the back of the School of Public Service I found a bridge that led across the river to another park on Maple Island.  

The building on the left behind the bridge is Global Affairs Canada and the pyramid shape is the part of the roof line of the School of Public Service.  The white bridge is the one we walked over to get to this little park. It's only a one lane bridge for cars so they have to take turns with a pedestrian walkway on one side.

Above was a statue I found on the island suitably called Flight. Sadly as I walked around this area I found two encampments. It's probably not uncommon in most large cities but I had never seen any in Ottawa before. 

The next time we went downtown for a walk, it was to take the dogs to the Animals In War Memorial. I took Beckett and Keltic down on the day that the memorial was dedicated and one of the reporters said to me that they hadn't expected so many people to show up with their animals. It also was a good experience for both Teddy and Liam to be around so much hustle and bustle as we walked around the downtown core. The Animals in War Memorial is in Confederation Park as is the Indigenous Veterans Memorial. Initially Liam barked and barked at the dog statue while Teddy usually the reactive dog is like what's your problem. Once Liam figured things out we got a few photos of them with the war dog statue. 

We then walked up to Parliament Hill then over to the temporary Senate where the  Women are Persons statutes are currently located, then down to the canal locks and finally around the Chateau Laurier hotel to Major's Hill Park. This was the first time in all the years I've been in Ottawa that I had gone up to Major's Hill Park.  I was tired when we got home but I don't think Liam and Teddy were.

National War Memorial and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Eternal Flame on Parliament Hill

The canal locks looking toward the Chateau Laurier

Parliament Hill from walkway around the Chateau Laurier

Statue to John By in Major's Hill Park

Rideau Canal

We had a nice time exploring our city on both of our outings. Sometimes it's nice to be a tourist in your home town so if you haven't been in awhile maybe you should go downtown in your home town. You might be surprised with things you didn't notice before.

Lest We Forget

Ottawa is a city with many statues to heroes and historical figures, some well known and some lesser known. Some of these statues are in places where they are not often viewed as they are somewhat off the beaten track. Recently a friend posted a photo of one such statue. It's downtown but it's found along Sussex Drive where there is not a lot of parking and not many restaurants or tourist attractions to draw people to the area.  I decided I would take a drive downtown to walk around the area where this statue is located, luckily on Sunday I found that the visitors parking at the National Research Laboratory was open. 

The statue is that of Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae, the author of the poem In Flanders Fields.

I'm sure many of you have read or heard this poem before. And many of you wear a poppy in remembrance of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms. This year marks the centenary of using the poppy as a symbol of remembrance.

In Flanders Fields

    In Flanders Fields, the poppies blow

          Between the crosses, row on row,

       That mark our place; and in the sky

       The larks, still bravely singing, fly

    Scarce heard amid the guns below.

        We are the dead, short days ago

      We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

       Loved and were loved, and now we lie

             In Flanders fields.

    Take up our quarrel with the foe:

    To you from failing hands we throw

       The torch; be yours to hold it high.

       If ye break faith with us who die

    We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

             In Flanders fields.

–John McCrae

I hope on Remembrance Day you can take the time to remember our veterans especially those who gave their lives in battle or who served, came home but then struggled with battles unseen. 

I will remember especially friends, colleagues and my father who served their country at home or on deployed operations abroad. 

MCpl Daniel Stewart

Sgt Craig Gilliam

Maj Ray Ruckpaul

Maj Scott Foote

Col Marie Leloup

Lest We Forget!

Silent Sunday

 

Happy Halloween

Walktober

This year for Walktober I wanted to find a nice place for a walk that I had never been to before; it couldn't be too far away and had to allow dogs. I also didn't want the trail to be too long and I was looking for some place that had some views. Well, I found the W.E. Burton Conservation area. It's about an hours drive from my place and is on the banks of the Castor River. It's a narrow park bordered by the river on one side and Church street on the other. You're never out of hearing distance of traffic noise but with the sound of rushing water the traffic kind of fades into the background. There's only about three kilometers of trail in the conservation area, part of it is a linear trail starting at one end with a loop near the parking area at the other end. 

I would have rather gone during the week but you take the nice days when you get them so we went out on Saturday. This little conservation area is popular with families and dog walkers as the main trails are wide and level. Luckily, the woods are not really thick so I could get off the trail and onto a path through the woods whenever we saw other dogs. 

Conservation area trails

There are plenty of views of the river but not many places where you can actually access the shoreline. Near the dam, the shoreline is fenced off, good thing as Teddy tried to outbark the sound of the rushing water.

Falls at the Dam

Past the dam was a marsh area, I had hoped the trail would afford better views of the marsh but it actually just headed alongside the road that borders the park, coming out at the other end of the conservation area. We backtracked here, heading back to the parking lot and then did the other half of the loop that we hadn't done.

Marsh View

Church Street

On other half of the loop, we saw a small stream and had better access to river views.  I think it would be nice to have a riverside home as long as there's not too much flooding.

Little stream

Trail with Church Street ahead

River view

Castor River

We did find one place where I could get the dogs to the shoreline so of course there had to be a photo op.

This was a nice little park, if I lived closer I'm sure I would go there quite often. Hopefully we'll have some more nice days before winter really hits; I find it so hard to get out and about when we have a ton of snow and it's really cold outside. 

Last RPod Adventure - Ivy Lea

So we went on our last RPod adventure to another of the St Lawrence Parks, this one called Ivy Lea. It's right at the base of the Thousand Islands Bridge. You actually go under the bridge to get to some of the unserviced campsites and the beach. We thought we would hear a lot of traffic noise from the trucks but either they close the bridge or the border at night because it was actually quite quiet, during the day you would hear the trucks especially when they left the bridge decking and hit the road.  It was a nice little park, very close to the City of Gananoque, many of the unserviced sites have beautiful views of the St Lawrence. It was the last weekend that the park was open. We arrived on Wednesday and it seemed as if we very nearly had the park to ourselves, but by Friday the park was pretty packed. Many of the seasonal campers had fairly large family gatherings on the Saturday and Sunday what with it being Canadian Thanksgiving.

My site, there's a loop of unserviced sites behind this site.

Thousand Islands Bridge

View from a walk-in campsite

View from an unserviced campsite

We drove into Gananoque one day to go to Confederation Park as I had read online that it had a sculpture garden. It was only about a half and hour away on the Thousand Islands Parkway.

See Rockett?

The park is right on the main street of Gananoque right by the town hall and Visitor's Centre.  There are a number of walking trails that you can do right from the downtown (or very close by) too.

Cross walk from the library

City Hall

War memorial

On the way back to the campground I stopped at the Landon Bay pullout. Not much there in the way of amenities but there was a short trail down to the river with some nice views. There were a number of people who had stopped there to have picnics.

We also hiked up the escarpment at Landon Bay, the trailhead is on the other side of the parkway from the pullout. We took the wrong trail to get to the lookout but we had a nicer hike around the shoreline of the bay. It was rather rocky but in the end we did make it up to the lookout as the trails cross. 

Trail head. 

Landon Bay and the Thousand Islands Parkway

Liam wondering why I can't walk faster!

We also did a few walks around the campground especially before it got too crowded. It seems like everyone who was camping had dogs. Most of the flowers were past bloom but the mushrooms were everywhere. Liam was really afraid of the huge puffball and barked and barked at it while I tried to get a picture. This puffball was larger than a soccer ball. 

Huge Puffball

The park also has a seasonal and a temporary dock. We didn't walk down to the seasonal dock but did walk down to the temporary dock. It's on a nice little inlet, the water was incredibly blue and clear. I think in the summer it would be a nice place for a quick dip. The park also has a little beach that even has an area for divers. Three people were going in diving when I walked down to see the beach.

Inlet near the temporary dock

Ivy Lea Beach with a diver in the water (on the right)

There were a great many chipmunks, squirrels and birds but I had one little visitor I didn't expect, a stick insect. I'd only ever seen them in zoos or museums before. He was on the shoe container in my side tent. He seemed rather hesitant walking on the opaque plastic, I picked him up and put him on the ground and he quickly found a tree. I was lucky to find him again for another picture and video.

Stick Insect

Can you see him?

On our last day camping, my sisters and I went to the Thousand Island Sky Tower.  We booked online thinking it would be busy and many places right now require advance booking so they can control the numbers. We were lucky and there was only a few other people when we were there. A larger group was arriving as we were leaving.

US Border, only 1 kilometer (0.6 of a mile) from the tower.

Some of the Thousand Islands 

So our last camping trip of the season was coming to an end, we were lucky to have great fall weather on this trip. It was warm enough I could have brought shorts, although I was glad for my fleece jacket in the evenings and even my winter vest on the first night.  We only ate inside for one breakfast and had a fire every night.  I think Liam and Teddy enjoyed themselves although they find it a bit hard to wrestle and run around on their tie out chains. I had one package of the chemicals to make the fire coloured so we used that in our last campfire.  The coloured fire doesn't photograph all that well but it was pretty, blue and green with some purple.

Last fire of the 2021 camping season

So that closes off the 2021 camping season, hopefully 2022 will be more normal. I'm hoping to travel west.  I had one more nice day to clean out Podrick and took him back to his winter home a few days ago.

COVID vacation selfie

Podrick backed into his winter home.