Canada Science and Technology Museum

The Canada Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa has been fully renovated. When Boogs was younger, we visited this museum every time we were in Ottawa. It was closed for three years for renovation and reopened last year. We spent Christmas at home in Texas last year so this was our first opportunity to experience the new museum. GP and GM came with us.

The museum has added a video wall at the entrance of the museum. It was showing an underwater exploration video when we arrived and later showed a volcanic explosion.

The museum exhibits have almost completely changed. Boogs was happy to see that a couple of train engines were still housed in the museum. You are able to go up the stairs and sit in the conductor's seat.

 We found out how hard it is to climb onto a tall antique bicycle

The sound room, was Boogs' favorite exhibit area. This is a gigantic record player. You can choose from 6 songs. The "record" can be spun by hand. You can change the spend, change the direction, and even change songs while you spin it.

The Theremin is a unique instrument. You play it by moving your hands up and down in between two antenna. Daddy was able to make it sound the most like music.

 There were tons of electronic exhibits and buttons to push.

 Boogs was happy to see that they kept the crooked house.

This exhibit was kind of fun. You take a picture of yourself and it removes your eyes and mouth and turns them upside down.

Boogs must have moved while his picture was being taken. He ended up with a double mouth.

 Mine just looked plain creepy. It did not quite line up, either.

Boogs was able to defy gravity in the professor's lab.

 Daddy enjoyed exploring the museum.

Boogs was a little disappointed in our visit to the museum this year. He has always loved this museum so much. With the renovations, the museum claims to have made it more "interactive". Boogs would disagree. The old museum had lots of hands-on activities and vehicles to climb on, things to go inside, things to move and manipulate, etc. Now the majority of the "interactive" features are digital. Boogs said, he could practically do all that at home from his cozy chair with an internet connection. He said he enjoyed visiting it but not as much as the old one.

I enjoyed the museum. There were so many things to see. It was nice that Boogs is old enough for the adults to spend time looking at the exhibits instead of making sure he doesn't get lost. GM and GP said they enjoyed it, too.

Grandmaman let Boogs pick out a souvenir from the museum shop. Boogs picked out two miniature hockey sticks. Daddy and Boogs had fun playing with them in GM's basement.

Boogs is undecided on whether or not he will want to visit this museum in future years.

We had so much fun spending time with GP and GM during this holiday season. We already miss them terribly and are counting down the days until next Christmas.

Parliament Hill and Snowy Days

It snowed quite a bit during our two week visit to Ottawa. Boogs spent as much time as he possibly could outside in the snow. Daddy, Boogs, and I wanted to see the Christmas Lights Across Canada in downtown Ottawa. Every year, there is a multimedia projection show at Parliament Hill. We went downtown around 2 pm. The first thing on Boogs' agenda was a stop at BeaverTails Canada on the Byward Market. BeaverTails are a delicious pastry, kind of like a flattened out doughnut. They can be covered in all kinds of flavors. We like to stick with the traditional flavor of cinnamon and sugar with fresh lemon.

We explored many of the shops in the Byward Market. Boogs fell in love with this hat.

Boogs and I are standing on both sides of the center letter A.

We have a picture somewhere of Boogs standing in front of these steps as a 2-year-old. He is growing up too fast.

The snow was falling softly throughout the afternoon. The snowflakes in Daddy's hair were so perfectly formed, they looked fake.

Boogs wanted to catch some in his hair like Daddy.

The locks on the Rideau Canal look very different in the winter. There was only a small portion of the Canal open for ice skating. This is the first time the water has been frozen enough to have the canal open for skating during one of our visits. Unfortunately, we did not get a chance to skate.

We walked over to Parliament Hill to find out what time the light show would begin.

The Centennial Flame was first lit in 1967 in commemoration of Canada's 100 anniversary as a Confederation. The Confederation was the process of the British colonies of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick being united into one Dominion of Canada on July 1, 1867.

The snow was really coming down and we were getting a bit cold. We had about an hour to wait before the light show began.

We walked into the downtown area across from Parliament Hill and found a cozy little coffee shop to wait. The hot chocolate at Bridgehead Coffeehouse was not quite as good as Tim Horton's hot chocolate. We were happy to have a warm place to wait.

 The downtown area was pretty much deserted by 5:15.

 We walked back over to Parliament Hill for the light show.

It has been a few years since we last saw the light show. They have changed it up a bit. It is so beautiful to watch the scenes change and how perfectly the lights line up with the windows, doors, and architectural elements of the building. The music adds so much to the show.

We are so glad we were able to visit the lights again this year. It is a magical display.

Boogs loves being out in the snow whether it is on a hike, at a playground, walking around the city, etc. He spent a lot of time in the snow in GP's front yard.

He built a snow wall to knock down. I tried to get him to build an igloo with me, but he just wanted something to throw snowballs at.

We went to a couple of different playgrounds. We walked around the Perley in the snow. Boogs was storing up snow days because it will be at least a year before he sees snow again.

These are the last of our snowy pictures for this year's visit. I'm glad the weather cooperated enough for us to be outside almost every day of our trip.

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Mer Bleue Bog Hike

Another one of our favorite winter hikes in Ottawa is on the Mer Bleue Bog Trail. This trail has a wooden boardwalk over the bog. If you look closely, you can see areas where the snow looks like it is piled on a small hill. These are actually beaver lodges. You can see other evidence of the beavers by the gnawed tree trunks on the trail. Our first bog hike was just Daddy, Boogs, and me. GP and GM were worried about the trail being too icy, they came with us another day.

Boogs had fun knocking giant icicles off of the picnic pavillion. Most of the icicles broke when they hit the ground. Boogs is using this one as a snowman nose.

We had a beautiful, sunny day for a walk on the bog. It was cold, but we were bundled well.

There is so much open space, blue sky, and lovely scenery.

We did not spot any beaver tracks, but we did see these tracks. They look like rabbit tracks.

The trail was a little busy this day. We had people walking in front and behind us for a while.

We left the boardwalk and explored the longer trail back to our car at P22. Boogs had to cross this fallen tree trunk over a small ravine.

Daddy and Boogs had a karate chopping snow fight.

There was a beautiful spot on the trail where we could hear chickadees in the trees. Luckily, I had our bag of seeds in my coat pocket.

The same few birds kept coming back to our hands again and again. The little bird I am holding only had one leg. When it landed on your hand, it would rest its soft little belly against your skin. It came back and got seeds from our hands at least a dozen times.

Before heading back to the parking lot, we took the trail leading to another parking lot. I forgot to wear my knee brace that day, so we had to turn back after about 20 minutes.

The woods are simply magical this time of year with all of the snow.

A few days later, GP and GM joined us on another tour of the Mer Bleue Bog trail.

It was nice to be on an outdoor adventure all together.

This hike was colder. The sun was hiding behind the clouds.

Boogs and Daddy had an epic snowball fight and chase all along the boardwalk trail.

They were throwing snowballs over GP and GM to attack each other. GP and GM were really good sports about it.

 There were less people on the trail this day. It was so quiet and peaceful.

By the  time we reached the place we had fed the birds on our last hike, it was starting to get dark. There were no more birds to feed.

Of course, we had to stop at Tim Horton's for hot chocolate after our hike. It is a family tradition.

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