Ottawa, Canada Part 1

During our third week of vacation, we spent some time in Canada. We were in northern Michigan, so we thought it would be fun to pop up into Canada for a little bit. The kids have never been to a different country, so we thought it would be fun for everybody to experience and it was!!!

We went into Ottawa for a day. This is the capital of Canada, which would be equivalent to our Washington, DC. We wanted to go on a tour of the capital and we heard that you had to be there early to stand in line to get tour tickets, so we were there pretty early. Megan, Christian, Micah, and I stood in line while Matt went and parked in a city across the river. It took him 30 minutes to walk to us!

This was our view while we were in line. This is the capital building of Canada!

We stood in line about 45 minutes and we had to go into this building.  The tickets were free, but you just had to have one. You got to pick your time that you wanted to go on tour. I believe ours were for 1 pm or so.

We got our tickets about 9:15-9:30 and at 10 am, they had a changing of the guard ceremony. We were able to watch this. This police man was keeping the crowd in order. I told Christian not to mess with him- he had a gun!!

Here comes the parade from one end.

Here comes the marching band from the other end.

They marched right in front of us.

Changing of the guard ceremony on the parade grounds. I never quite knew what was going on!

Matt and the kids back on the sidewalk. They didn't want to get involved in the crowd of people like Megan and I were! We were busy taking pictures of it all.

More marching on the grounds. Notice the Canadian flag in the background!

After the ceremony was over, they marched back out.

They marched back on the street.  Christian thought it was pretty neat!

Matt and I watched a changing of the guard ceremony in London when we were there on our honeymoon quite a few years ago. They looked very similar!