~Ottawa, Ontario~

We spent a wonderful day in our nation's capital – Ottawa. These are Canada's Parliament Buildings high above the Ottawa River. They comprise of three buildings. In the Centre Block is the Peace Tower which has 53 bells and rises 93 metres into the sky.

The Centennial Flame is located at the entrance to the Parliament Buildings. It commemorates Canada's 100^th Anniversary as a Confederation.

We went on an amazing and very informative tour of the Parliament Buildings. We were able to see inside the incredible Library of Parliament, the Senate and the House of Commons. We were able to sit in on some parliamentary proceedings from the Commons gallery – VERY cool !

This is one of the ceilings.   Each hexagon with a name represented a past speaker of the House.

We found "B.C."

This is the Senate Chamber.  This is where senators meet when Parliament in is session.  They help to make the laws that we live by.  No bill can become law in Canada without Senate approval.

 We were able to go up to the top of the Peace Tower - WOW - this was the beautiful view of Ottawa that we were able to see from the top.

This is us looking up through the glass at the very top of the Peace Tower.   This is the clock - take a look at the first photo and you will see how high we were!!!

The glass windows underneath the clock is where we were standing.

 Next we went on to see the National War Memorial - a monument on Confederation Square which honours all Canadian war veterans.

This is the Garden of Provinces where the provincial flags fly above bronze plaques depicting the provincial flowers.  The kids are all looking up at the B.C. flag.

This is the beautiful Chateau Laurier which is celebrating 100 years of history.  It is named after Canada's 7th Prime Minister.

 There are several locks along the Rideau Canal - so cool !

 The Rideau Canal is 8 kms long and in the winter becomes the world's longest skating rink.  SO beautiful.

We stopped by the Byward Market which dates back to the 1830's.

Look at these cool cookies.

 After the market we headed to the Royal Canadian Mint where we enjoyed a great tour.  This mint produces millions of coins and specializes in collector coins.   They made the 2010 Vancouver Olympic medals here and we were able to see them all.

That is a LOT of gold !!!!!!

Rideau Falls

On our way out of town we caught a quick "glimpse" of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's house.

The fall colours are still SO amazing and we are seeing it all "again" as we are travelling west at the moment .  We are warmer here than in the east so the fall comes a little later.

"OUR HOME AND NATIVE LAND"