Jim & Jeanette's Travels: Days 19-21, Saturday through Monday, May 31-June 2, 2014

Peterborough to Ottawa and on to Quebec – Approx 450 miles total

We had a delicious breakfast of farm-fresh eggs, bacon, and toast before leaving John and Catherine’s. We also had a chance to meet Leah and Natalie, their delightful granddaughters, aged six and ten before we started up the road to Ottawa, the capitol of Canada. In Ottawa we would be visiting two more Camino friends, Maggie Henderson-Davis and Don Caldwell.

Maggie and Don live in a beautifully remodeled 60’s modern home not far from downtown Ottawa. Our GPS led us directly to their home, and as we drove into their driveway, we were immediately struck by the exquisite landscaping of their front yard. Entering the house we were greeted with the sound of jazz in the background, and that, combined with their wonderful contemporary furnishings made us feel right at home. The landscaping of their back yard made us wish we lived back in a single-family home with a yard.

After a couple of hours of catching up and Camino talk, they served a wonderful dinner of grilled pork loin and vegetables, followed by a dessert of rhubarb pie and ice cream.

We spent all day Sunday touring Ottawa, starting at the Provincial Experimental Farm, a virtual botanical garden in the city. There were acres of all kinds of flowers, flowering shrubs, and both native and ornamental trees. Jeanette and Maggie were like two peas in a pod as they oohed and aahed over the seemingly hundreds of varieties and colors of flowers everywhere they looked.

From the gardens we toured some of the stately neighborhoods of beautiful, late 19^th and early 20^th century homes, then went downtown to see the parliamentary buildings that make up the heart of the city. Ottawa sits right on the broad river of the same name, and the collection of government buildings which spread across the river into Quebec, which means the capitol is shared by two provinces. We were able to visit the Notre Dame Cathedral in the heart of the government district, where we had a chance meeting with the newly-appointed auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Ottawa. Afterwards, we visited the famous Sainte Laurente Hotel, and then had an afternoon treat of gelato from a gelato shop in the Market District.

Later, we enjoyed an early dinner at the Canal Ritz, where we dined on the patio while we enjoyed the view of the Rideau Canal, a broad waterway which connects Ottawa to Lake Ontario. Built in the 1800s as a shipping canal, it is now used mainly by pleasure craft, and of course by local canoers and kayakers in the summer, and as a miles-long skating rink in the winter. After dinner, we strolled along the canal all the way to downtown and back, a distance of two miles or so each way. Then, since it was Sunday and we hadn’t been to Mass, Don was kind enough to drive us to a church which had a late (8:00pm) Mass, then pick us up afterwards so we wouldn’t have to drive the motorhome through the unfamiliar streets.

This morning we bid farewell to Maggie and Don and continued our journey toward the Maritime Provinces. We skirted around Montreal and crossed to the south side of the St Lawrence River, then continued up through Quebec to this evening’s campsite near the town of Levis, which is situated across the river and just downstream from the city of Quebec. We have a nice view of the St Lawrence River, just a half mile or so down from our campsite.