Nathan's Travel Logs & The Railfan's Girlfriend

Oh, Canada! (Part 4)
17-JUL-2010 to 25-JUL-2010

A trip that my girlfriend, Erin, and I took to Canada to visit her family. We visited Toronto, Ont., Montreal, Qbc., Ottawa, Ont., and Niagara Falls, Ont. This included visiting ExpoRail in the Montreal metro.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

After a very busy day, the day before, I had a good night's sleep. The next morning, we had some local Montreal bagels---they were SO delicious, I'll never be able to even look at another store brand bagel again, let alone eat one. Also, while eating breakfast, I was introduced to milk, not from a carton, nor a milk-jug, but rather a milk bag. Call me weird---okay, I am---but this was very neat and different, but it was very practical.

After waking up and getting ready for another day in Montreal, Erin, Chris and I left to go to Moe's to have some more Montreal smoke meat. And this time, I WAS IN PURE HEAVEN, it is SO good!

After eating lunch, we decided to go over to the mall, to visit Erin's favorite candy store which she can remember visiting when she lived there. After buying about ten pounds of chocolate and other candies, we said goodbye to Chris who would catch a bus at the mall's bus station; we were to begin our trip to Ottawa, Ont.

When driving down the highway, Erin and I came across the sign [BELOW] and I had the laugh, though it is a true known threat which could cause severe damage to a vehicle, if one hits a moose.

We made it fine to Ottawa, Ont. and after passing Erin's Aunt Susan's house about twelve times and passing right by it every time, we were able to relax and enjoy the beautiful weather. Aunt Susan lives in a beautiful house which is about seven blocks from Parliament Hill, in a very beautiful and homey, yet in country's bustling-capitol city.

After having a welcome dinner which Erin's Aunt Susan served, a traditional Canadian meal to welcome us to their home and to Ottawa We have tourtière, home made beans, salad, and desert.

To explain what is tourtière, I again call on Wikipedia to explain:

A tourtière is a meat pie originating from Quebec, usually made with minced pork and/or veal, or beef. It is a traditional part of the Christmas and/or Christmas Eve réveillon and New Year's Eve meal in Quebec, but is also enjoyed and sold in grocery stores all year long. This kind of pie is known as pâté à la viande (literally, meat pie) in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region.

Tourtière is not exclusive to Quebec. Tourtière is a traditional French-Canadian dish served by generations of French-Canadian families throughout Canada and the bordering areas of the United States. In the U.S., namely in the states of Michigan, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Minnesota, and New York, citizens of Quebec ancestry have introduced the recipe. Every family has its own "original" recipe, passed down through the generations. Like the recipe, there is no one correct filling, as the pie meat depends on what is available in regions. In coastal areas, fish such as salmon is commonly used, whereas pork, beef, rabbit, and game are used inland.

The name supposedly comes from a pie-making utensil but by 1611 tourtière more or less referred to the meat pie as we know it today. Historically, the tourtiere was the pie-pan named for the key ingredient: the cooked meat of the once abundant and now extinct passenger pigeon, the "Tourte."

We had coffee on the beautiful covered porch, which overlooked the city street, which always had people walks, running, riding bikes, etc. Ottawa is a very health-conscious city and very proactive with the environment.

After post-dinner coffee, we all headed to bed---I was warn out from all the driving and all of the great food.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

After waking up to a absolutely a beautiful morning, we had breakfast on the covered porch, watching everyone heading to work, school, etc. We tried to get around in time to watch the ceremony with the Royal Canadian Mounties on Parliament Hill, though by the time we were able to get around, we had just missed it.

So Erin's Aunt Susan, decided to take us by with the Governor General lives and where the Prime Minister lives, both of which were very nice and big.

That is when Aunt Susan, dropped us off at the Royal Canadian Mint to take the tour of the mint and walk our way back towards Parliament Hill. While at the mint we were able to see how the designs are made, how the coinage is minted, as well as to have the chance to hold a 12.5 kg (28lbs.) bar of gold, at the time, worth almost $475,500.00 (in US dollars)! The guards were all around this room!

After touring the Royal Canadian Mint, we walked to the National [Art] Gallery of Canada, where we had tickets which were given to us by Erin's Aunt Susan. A lot of beautiful works of art were in the gallery, both Erin and I really enjoyed it. After going through the main galleries, we ate lunch. Then we went to the feature works, which was Pop-Art, some of it was very good, though some was very untasteful--in my opinion--or outright grotesk

After leaving the Gallery, across the street is Cathedral-Bacilica of Notre Dame (Catholic), which was a very beautiful building, inside and outside.

Next, we walked to Parliament Hill, where we would take the tour and see the inside of the parliament chambers of both the House of Commons and the Senate. Parliament Hill is built differently that Capitol Hill, in Washington, D.C., in Ottawa, there is the main Parliament building and then the two buildings for the Members of Parliament (MP's) offices to the east and west.

We then took the tour of the Parliament building, including the House of Commons [FIRST PHOTO BELOW], the beautiful architecture inside the building and their halls [SECOND PHOTO BELOW], the lobby outside the Senate Chambers with a portrait of H.R.M. Queen Elizabeth II [THIRD PHOTO BELOW], and the Senate Chamber [FOURTH PHOTO BELOW].

This was one of the statues which to honor and to tell the story of Canada. The statue of H.R.M. Queen Victoria, who founded Canada [BELOW].

We then went across the street, from Parliament Hill, to pay our respects at The National War Memorial.

The old Ottawa Union Station, which is now a convention center.

The United States Embassy

By this time, it was already the late afternoon, and Aunt Susan, picked us up and we went back to their house to get ready for a dinner over at Erin's Uncle Tom's house. After another great dinner, we went back to Aunt Susan's house and I fell asleep early.

The next day, we were leaving for Toronto again, which was about a six hour drive.

Friday, July 23, 2010

I woke up again, refreshed. Had breakfast with Erin on the porch and was enjoying the quiet morning.

We packed the rental car, and said our good by's and thank you's to everyone and headed south towards Toronto. After about six hours, we made it back to Oakville, where Erin's Aunt Nancy lives. The evening we went by Erin's old house, had icecreme and went to bed early so that we could get to Niagara Falls early to beat the crowds.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Well, we planned to leave early, but it was not to happen. Both Erin and I had a hard time waking up, after running almost nonstop since arriving in Canada. After finally waking up and getting around, we returned the rental vehicle back to Enterprise and then got on the QEW (Queen Elizabeth Way highway) towards Niagara Falls. After driving about an hour-and-a-half, we finally made it to Niagara Falls, Ont. As we got closer to the Falls, we could see the mist above the buildings. After finding a parking space by the power house, upriver of the Horseshoe Falls.

The Horseshoe Falls

The American Falls, with the Madden of the Mist heading towards the Horseshoe Falls

The view of the Horseshoe Falls at Table Rock and the Madden of the Mists entering into the mist of the falls.

After taking some photos at the top of the falls, we went to Behind the Falls to get a close-up look at the falls and to have our first taste of the power and majesty of the falls. It was SO beautiful and it was amazing how much water was actually going over the falls. It was amazing how the water caused the winds to blow hard at the foot of the falls; and we were soaked--and we had ponchos on.

After going through Behind the Falls, we stopped at Tim Hortons to have lunch and a Mocha Iced Cap.

Then we headed towards the Madden of the Mist. Erin's Aunt Nancy decided not to go with us, so Erin and I got into line, while in line, I was finally able to have my cell phone service, so I called my dad on the Gulf Coast and my mom in Kansas City.

After getting our blue ponchos, we were in line to get on the boat, when it started to pour down rain; luckily, already had our ponchos on. We got on the boat and we were in the very front to experience the full effect of the falls.

While inside the Horseshoe Falls, it was amazing, the falls towering over you, water everywhere, my shoes were soaked and everything that wasn't covered by the poncho too. Luckily, I had my digital SLR in a watertight baggy

When we were about to leave falls, I found the inclined railway, which allows people to climb the hill from the falls to the hotels and restaurants that overlook the falls.

We then traveled over to the Whirlpool, which is an amazing show of the power of water. If you look closely at the photo [BELOW] you can also see one of the Whirlpool Jet boats entering into the whirlpool and the cabled ganglia which gives the rider a birds-eye-view of the pool.

We then traveled farther north with the river towards Lake Ontario, to Niagara on the Lake, Ont. We also visited Brock's Monument. According to Niagara Parks Canada, the following excerpt explains the memorial.

"Canada and the United States today share the longest peaceful border in the world. Almost two hundred years ago, however, control of the Niagara River section of this international border was in constant dispute. Many decisive battles of the War of 1812 occurred along both sides of the river.

On October 13, 1812, shortly before dawn, American troops crossed the Niagara River and inched their way up to a concealed path on the Niagara escarpment. Their objective was to cut the slender British supply line leading to the west. This they could do by taking Queenston, the northern portage point around Niagara Falls.19th century painting of General Brock's death.

Major-General Isaac Brock, Commander-in-Chief of British forces in Upper Canada was stationed at Fort George in Newark (now Niagara-on-the-Lake). He had just returned from a victory over American forces at Detroit. Now he observed the build-up of troops on the American side of the Niagara River from Buffalo to Youngstown.

On the fateful morning of the battle, Brock raced from Fort George to Queenston. In a valiant effort to retake the Heights of Queenston, he was fatally wounded while leading his troops into battle.

All seemed lost for the British until General Sheaffe, summoned from Fort George, marched with his men of the 41st Regiment, militia and Native forces and gained the rear of the Heights. With one line charge the Americans were routed. This tactical movement ensured a victory for the British and gave the inhabitants of Upper Canada new hope and commitment to the British cause.

Brock's present monument was rebuilt in 1853 after the original monument was bombed by a terrorist in 1840. For transcriptions of the plaques and markers located at this important historic site, read Commemorative Plaques and Markers."

After walking the grounds of Brock's monument, we then went to the small town of Niagara on the Lake. A very nice, but small town, and literally a jewel in the Queen Elizabeth's crown. According to Erin's aunt, the British Monarchy likes to stay in the Price of Wales Hotel, when visiting the area.

And one final stop, before leaving Canada on our world-wind tour of Canada and Erin visiting her family, we stopped at the local Irish pub, The Irish Harp Pub. Erin and I both had sheppard pie and couple of pints Guinness Beer.

After finishing our dinner and our pints of beer, we got in Aunt Nancy's car and headed towards the international border to head to Buffalo where Aunt Nancy would drop us off at the hotel to spend the night and then head to the Buffalo-Niagara International Airport to fly home.

While in line at U.S. Customs, we had some "excitement" as customs officers escorted a number of people from a car to the Customs Office for further investigation. Then it was our turn. We provided our passports to the officer and the officer asked us the typical questions and said "welcome home."

After crossing the border, we traveled to our hotel, said our goodbye's and thank you's to Aunt Nancy and we headed to bed. We would have to get up extra early, the next morning, to make our flight to Baltimore and then home to Kansas City.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Our first morning back in the U.S., we woke up early, took quick showers and took the hotel's shuttle to the airport. We made it fine through security and upon reaching the waiting area of the gate, I was able to look back at all of the things we had done in the past eight days.

We had two uneventful flights between Buffalo-Niagara/Baltimore and Baltimore/Kansas City. We made it home, Erin's mom picked us up at the curb outside baggage claim and we were heading home.

Looking back, this was a very enjoyable trip, and I hope that Erin and I will be able to make the trip again, but this time take more time at each city and spend more time with family. Even today, I look at all the photos I took on this trip--and the photos presented above is a VERY abridged amount of photos---with 716 photos to be exact, I smile and think of the time that I spent with my girlfriend, and her family.

On a side note, about three weeks after returning back from the trip and posting my photos on Facebook, my dad and step mom took a trip to Niagara Falls--guess we made them jealous!

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