Ottawa Visit Part 1....Parc Omega

We had a long weekend and as you do, decided to head somewhere for it.  Ottawa is about two hours away and the perfect spot to visit.  Ottawa is the capital and sits in a beautiful part of the country...who am I kidding its all beautiful! 

There are lakes everywhere and I mean everywhere.  People have little weekender cabins, retirement homes, fishing shacks, boats, canoes, float planes, lake living is a whole nother way of life, which I think I would like. 

Friends had told us that on the way was a place called Parc Omega and we would all love it, they also warned us to take lots of carrots.  Actually two families told us that!

So we packed the car up (this time a Ford SUV, no Dodge Caravan :-( ) cleaned the fridge out of fruit and veg, grabbed a huge bag of carrots and headed off.

 

Just after the entry (cost about $70 for our family of five), which was staffed by a really friendly lady who told us all about the park and asked us what we were doing and where we were from, is the main rest area.   

We had been driving for awhile and decided to grab a quick lunch here.  The food was pretty good for a tourist attraction.  The grown ups had burgers and the kids had hot dogs and fries

There is also a pretty cute gift shop here and rest rooms.

Around the entry doors they have been putting up the antlers that are shed each winter. 

Looks really amazing. 

A bit of bear love.

 

You can sit inside or outside on the deck that overlooks the lake. There are several really intricate bird houses, built like mini log cabins and  some small animal pen with foxes, raccoons etc. 

Then you drive through the main gates/grid and this is what you get!

Eww deer drool!  Good thing it was a hire car!!!!

At this stage I will pint out the kid who was freaking out was the first one shoving carrots down large wapitis gobs.  They are the giant deer.



Little cutie pies

I could have bundled one of these up and taken it home.

You will have trouble keeping them in their seats!

#superexciterment!

I am still killing myself laughing at this.  You should have heard them screaming!

Now what do you do if you get stopped by one of these things?

Big Beautiful Bison!

There are also wolves, black bears, ibex, lots of types of deer... a moose that was raised from hand (and I hear they have some new orphan moosies).  Would we go again, you bet!  We had so much fun. 

Faces...These things are Everywhere

Everywhere we go there are these things....

From the aviation and space museum in Ottawa.

Biodome

Outside the RCMP shop in Niagara Falls.

Ben and Jerry's in Vermont

Summer in Mont Tremblant.

So we did what you have to do, lined up and took silly photos!

Day 5....Glacier Bay National Park....Sunday July 15th

This was the day I had been waiting for.  Bella and I were up early for our now standard two dippy eggs, toast and bacon.  She has been eating really well this trip.  They had told us that early in the morning you might see Humpback whales then a little further on orcas as well as sea otters and seals.  Bella notice some dolphins and ea otters playing while we were eating.  Headed out on deck to see what we could see (no bear yet Mum!).

It was a little grey but the cloud had started to lift and you could see little glimpses of the sun, it was just magical.

Eventually we were joined by the boys team, who finally got out of bed. They fuelled up on Vegemite toast (got to love that they had Vegemite on the boat), pancakes and a big breaky for Daddy, the kids decided they wanted to go to Club Hal. John and I got to go up on deck and take it all in.

Then they said that a bear was sighted on the shore near the sail boat.

Sure there is a bear, ita the black blob and I am running with that!

 

Anyway this started to make up for the bear!

Other people looking, they served pea and ham soup on deck for the glacier spotting.

 

Icebergs, Rhys asked when we saw him at breakfast if we had seen any icebergs. Hadn't then but we started to now.  He had learnt about Titanic, (did I tell you a family two streets over, from where we live,  were lost in the sinking?), and was worried we might sink.

Getting bigger.....

Me and pink blankie.

Oooohhhhh

More to come, bit slow on the upload..............that's the computer not me!

Breakfast in the Lido

This is our new morning ritual, just me and Miss B.

Kind of strange just having one kid to worry about. 

Its so much easier and less stress full and my coffee doesn't get cold.

She is having 2 fried eggs, bacon, toast and a hot chocolate.

We are still working on manners.

Vancouver Aquarium

Everything you read about Vancouver and kids say to go here.  Its at Stanley Park, which is huge and incredibly beautiful.  When you walk in, there are all these display tanks with different marine life.

Pretty cool jellyfish.

Bubble Boy!

Nurse Bella

Serious business this fixing seals.  Apron goes well with the sparkle shoes.

Now what do we have to do?

Nope cant hear anything.

Two seals...

Beluga

Fishing game.

I'll admit I was a little disappointed with some of the animal displays, they were pretty small and I kept thinking about seaworld on the Gold Coast.  Which is a really bad thing to do when you are trying to experience something different....

Then we stumbled across the downstairs viewing area for the beluga show.  There are three belugas we saw.

This one saw Bella and came back for a closer look.

and again.. It did it several times and even pressed its head up against the window to get close.  Guess it liked Bella and all we heard for the next day was Beluga, Beluga....and I thought it was great.  Sometimes its more about the experience and the moment than the size or cost.