Surprise, we're getting on a plane!

So, my mum is the president of the Manitoba Federation of Union Retirees, and occasionally she gets to has to go out of town on business trips.  My son always asks to go with her and the answer is always, "no" because he has school/she has meetings or conferences the whole time/his airfare would be expensive, etc.

Well, this time she was going at the end of November, and I thought - "hey, why not".  It was in between terms at school for my son,  and the stars aligned for the rest of the usual issues and I decided that he and I would go with her to Ottawa, but it would be a surprise!  Neither he nor I have ever been, so I was really excited.

I booked tickets and hotel rooms, coordinated with his teachers and even managed to pack our suitcase without my son having any clue.  I told him he had an orthodontist appointment on the morning of our flight, but we had to leave early so we could take Grammy to the airport.

When we got to the airport, I told him that we were actually there to catch our flight (Grammy was taking a later flight on a different airline) because we were going to Ottawa.  He was very surprised, but just as excited as I was.  I even managed to get him to take a selfie (albeit a kind of reluctant one, lol) at the airport before we boarded our flight.

We had a blast though and we walked sooooo much.  Downtown Ottawa is very walkable.  They're currently building a light rail system (lucky!) though, so I think the construction actually rivalled that in Winnipeg this year, which is a pretty significant accomplishment if you ask me!

Parliament Hill is absolutely stunning and it was incredible to see - something everything Canadian or fan of Canada should have an opportunity to see at least once in their lifetime.  

We ended up trading camera favours with an adorable couple who were also visiting Parliament Hill for the first time.

We're big fans of poutine, so we made it our mission to try a different poutine every day, since we were so close to Quebec.

Really though, the star of the experience was the sightseeing.

The remains of Canada's unknown soldier.

More after the jump...

The Centennial Flame at Centre Block.

This magnificent depiction of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, that I took just for my friend, Sue.

This friendly, but fierce statue of Suffragette, Nellie McClung, reminding us that Women are Persons.

  

All in all, Ottawa was definitely our cup of tea...

You can view the rest of the album here:

Ottawa 2015