Saturday
May 31, 2014:
Today, we were to check out of the residence by 8:30
am (after breakfast), get our stuff loaded onto both buses and then leave
Carleton University by 9:00 am. The trip
home was to take about 5 to 6 hours, just as when we came to Ottawa. But, first we had one more tourist stop to
make – the Parliament buildings.
I went over to the cafeteria next door and had a
light breakfast and when I got back to the Parkinson coach, I immediately
apologized to Tim, our driver, as I had intended. I was still rankling from his somewhat
condescending attitude to me from the previous evening, but I did not feel good
about my reaction to it. After my sincere
apology was made to him, he accepted it and we acted again like nothing bad had
ever happened. He’s a nice guy, but his
manner was somewhat irritating to me at times.
Our last tourist attraction before we were to leave
Ottawa was Parliament Hill from 11:45 am till 12:45 pm, the time of our
scheduled tour. I had never been to see
the inside of the Parliament buildings before, only the outside. While we were walking around with our tour
guide, we saw the House of Commons, the Senate House, the media area and the
absolutely awesome Parliamentary Library!
This library was round in shape with several tiers, each of which had
balconies and held several thousand books of all kinds. The Members of Parliament (MPs) could come
there and do research in their spare time on the different issues they
wanted to present to the House of Commons during their debates.
After our tour of Parliament Hill was over, we had
lunch downtown. Again, as before,
everyone was on their own for an hour so that we could all eat. Some people went to nearby Sparks
Street Mall to eat, but some, like me, just grabbed a hot dog and a
drink from a nearby hot dog cart. Then, the
bus drivers came by to pick us all up and start for home.
Soon, both buses were on the road again going
westbound by about 1:00 pm, as scheduled, with no real attempt to keep up with
each other. It was intended that we
would be home by 6:00 pm at the latest, including our scheduled rest stop for
an hour at a place called the Big Apple.
The Big Apple was so named because it was a farm and
grocery store all in one that mostly sold apples in all its various forms. It was most famous for its apple pie, so I
decided to have a piece of pie when we arrived there. This place was at least three hours away from
Ottawa – actually closer to Bowmanville or Port Hope, I think.
Finally, we arrived at Albert Campbell where the
kids would be picked up by their parents.
The teachers would mostly drive themselves home, but I got picked by
Dave, my roommate, and we drove home to Ajax.
Overall, it was a good trip. I
learned a lot about Canadian history and developed a real appreciation for
Ottawa’s beautiful scenery. I would
definitely love to visit Ottawa again.
Maybe I would plan it so that I traveled to Sudbury first, then to
Ottawa and then to Toronto, or do that trip in reverse order. In any case, I will return to Ottawa one day
again. Maybe, I’ll even be a teacher-chaperon again on an ACCI field trip.
copyright 2014, Anne Shier. All rights reserved.
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