Panoramic Parliament

 One highlight of Parliament Hill for me was the visit of the interior. Since it was summer and the royals were in town there was no danger of anything being closed off to us as all the politicians were on break. All the pictures below are panoramic and can be clicked to enlarge.

The House of Commons has a green motif, likely as a throwback to the times when people would meet in the village square. At the back is a viewing gallery where the public and press can sit and watch when the house is in session. This is where our elected representatives endlessly butt heads.

 Below is the library with its huge selection of books. Each shelf has a provincial crest on it, and there's a statue of Queen Victoria in the middle since she was monarch at the time the library was constructed and since people seem to like wedging her likeness into pretty much everywhere. The most expensive book in there is apparently one of Audobons books of birds with original paintings.

 The senate is more regal and red than the house of commons and the walls are decorated with paintings commemorating the First World War. Again there is a viewing gallery at the back. The senate is appointed rather than elected and seems to primarily maintain the status quo to stop whatever party is in power from changing things too much and to take on real issues.

The Gargoyles of Parliament Hill

 Like any good gothic structure, the buildings on Parliament Hill are quite covered in gargoyles and grotesques of all sorts, both inside and out. The sunlight was more ideal than the dim interior lighting (I am pretty sure Harper would be destroyed by direct sunlight anyways) so they're all exterior pieces below but the inside stuff was very nice too. If you look at our previous post you can just make out 4 of these guys at each corner of the top of the Peace Tower.

 Not every piece is an 8-foot protruding epic either, this little dog/fish was only a few feet across with a little dragon opposite him by some of the archways at the ground level. Most of the smaller pieces were unique and unrepeated as well, making the hunt for their various faces all the more enjoyable.

 The crest of Canada was done up at the front gate with the lion on the left and the unicorn below on the right. I particularly like its dropped jaw and protruding tongue. Infact, looking at this image and the one above makes me think that most of the gargoyles posing for the building are actually just teenagers feel awkward about having their photos taken.

Parliament Hill

 Canada may not have many castles (as we have already lamented) but we have some pretty spectacular parliament buildings all across the country, and the gothic ones in Ottawa are no exception. Most of the original parliament buildings were actually destroyed in a fire in 1916 and had to be rebuilt.

 The main surviving structure from the original parliament buildings was the library, which was saved from the fire by a particularly quick librarian that managed to close some enormous doors and keep the worst of the fire from spreading to there. As any librarians will no doubt appreciate, fire is bad in a room full of books.

 The Peace Tower is the central tower at the front of the building and is worthy of a closer look. While the outside is dotted with gothic gargoyles of all types, just below the clock you can see a row of windows. There is an interior tour available that takes you to an observation deck above the bells. This includes a chance to see the Memorial Chamber which contains books listing all the names of soliders killed in Canadas wars since the First World War. Every day one of the guards turns the pages in each book so that every soldiers name has one day a year facing up to be remembered.

Forgetting anything?

Since we were spending over a month away this summer in Piedmont/Quebec City/Ottawa we had to pack quite a few things and started on it early to be sure we didn't get halfway to the airport and then realize we didn't pack any pants. The downside of starting early is that you are essentially building a box full of soft things for any domesticated mooches in your home.

 I came home from work a few days before we set out to find Kathryn in tears because Kodiak had arranged himself in the luggage. If you're willing to anthropomorphize your pets a little bit then you start thinking that maybe they understand you're leaving and want to be sure that they are prepared too. I personally believe he was just finding a new cozy spot, but its entirely possible that he's an even more manipulative git then I would give him credit for.

 Regardless of his motives and our abandoning him, he's always very affectionate for the few days after we get back from any adventure and is very good about forgiving us for leaving him and making friends again.

Hopefully he doesn't catch wind of our next trip TOO early ;)

Walruses

 We enjoy aquariums wherever we go and Quebec City happens to have one that boasts walruses, a creature neither of us had seen and both of us really wanted to. There are two subspecies: the Atlantic and Pacific. Though both breeds were on display there, I would honestly be hard-pressed to tell them apart.

 Not only were they visible in their tank, but there was a pretty fun walrus show to be seen as well. Since walruses are largely blobs with flippers, their trainers communicate encouragement and praise to them through high fives, which I found delightful. Aside from just being neat to see out of the water, the show had them rolling on their backs and sides and blowing kisses which let us see a pretty full range of motion.

 As any Jurassic Park fan knows, the T-Rex in the film was part walrus call and the show featured a selection of walrus vocalizations including that trademark roar.

As keen-eyed readers may have noticed, these walruses lack tusks. Since they are mostly used to forage in the mud and haul out on ice, neither of which are done in aquariums, their tusks had been removed a few years ago to prevent injuries between the animals and reduce damage to their enclosure. They also all had red eyes as the chlorine in the water irritates them and people have yet to find a balance between comfort and cleanliness in their tanks.

Scuba Skills

We have talked about doing Scuba diving for ages and a few months back there was a groupon for a discounted first lesson at a centre near us. We figured if we didn't do it when it was on sale, we'd just talk about it forever but never get around to it, so we seized the chance and signed on. There are 5 evenings of classes split between indoor quizzes and underwater skills with home study inbetween, so we've had a class every 2 weeks or so ever since and last night was our last confined water dive.

 We had started out not being able to tell our BCD from our ABT but after a few classes and doing our homework it has come together pretty nicely. We can setup a proper rig in a few minutes and know all the signals and practices to get started. Our first few times in the water Kathryn was nervous to get her face under and here she is neutrally buoyant and upside-down.

 Not that I was any sort of super-star. It certainly takes awhile to get used to breathing underwater and some of the skills you have to learn like mask removal are not much fun in practice, but will no doubt be lifesavers when we're out in the ocean for real.

We have had a total blast with scuba so far and if anyone else out there is considering it or has been meaning to try it, I would very heartily recommend it. It may be awhile before we have too many pictures as our camera is only designed to be 30 feet deep, but we'll see how quickly we take to it and if we invest in a proper underwater housing of some sort.