Part-time prevaricator
Thursday we got moving by 11 AM or so. We went to the Canadian Museum of Nature first off, and purchased a museum passport (3 museums, 3 days, 1 price!) which would also allow us access to the War Museum, the Museum of History, and the National Gallery. (Also the Aviation Museum, but that train had sailed.)
We had a lazy morning: breakfast in the room, showers, and so forth. We left the hotel about 11 AM, and drove out to the Aviation Museum, where I got to indulge one flavour of my nerdiness (including wearing a fighter-jet helmet during the ejection seat demonstration). Continue reading “Canadian Aviation Museum / Rideau Hall”
Tuesday, I got up at the crack of 8:10 to go stand in line for Parliament Hill tour tickets. I assumed the office would open at 8:30, but it turned out to be 9 o’clock. I was glad I got there early, though, when I saw how very long the line had gotten behind me. Kathleen joined me with my camera and watch before the office opened.
Monday morning we went downtown and stumbled into the very last Rideau Canal tour of the season (the tours were supposed to end on Sunday, but a group had already booked on Monday’s ride, so they ran it). Since they also offered an Ottawa River tour, with an almost 20% discount on combo tickets, we decided to do both.
We’d travelled to Winnipeg on Saturday, because our Sunday flight was an early one. Got to the YWG airport in plenty of time to go through security (unlike a woman behind us in the security line, who said to the officer, “My flight’s in 15 minutes,” to which he responded, “You should’ve got here sooner then”).
Uneventful flight, or I guess flights: Winnipeg to Toronto, where we changed gates and got on the Toronto-Ottawa flight. Kathleen watched Bon Cop Bad Cop 2 on the flight, and I snoozed and watched the very first Silicon Valley episode.
In Ottawa, we got the rental car, found the hotel, checked in. Then we wandered around the downtown, discovering we were literally three blocks from Parliament Hill. The War Memorial was easy to find, and in our aimless sauntering we also discovered the US Embassy, the Mint, the National Gallery, the Rideau Canal, and Byward Market, among many other points of interest. We paused on the National Gallery’s plaza to admire the silver towers of Notre Dame Cathedral Basilica across the street. Also the giant spider on the plaza was pretty interesting.
We found a Darcy McGee’s, which had been recommended to us, and ate on the patio, then bought tickets next door for Monday evening’s Ghost Walk.
We got back to the hotel about 6:30 and climbed into bed. I read, briefly, then fell asleep before 8 PM, for which Kathleen laughed at me for the next couple days.
Step count: 9526.
Speaking as someone who watched his father slide into dementia, this is very interesting.
To combat [memory loss, researcher Anne-Christine Hertz] built a prototype called BikeAround, which pairs a stationary bike with Google Street View to take dementia patients on a virtual ride down memory lane. Patients input a street address of a place that means something to them—a childhood home[,] for instance—and then use the pedals and handlebars to “bike around” their old neighborhoods.
Meet the researcher using Google Street View to help dementia patients with memory loss—via Google.
Photo by Merlene Goulet on Unsplash
Thanks to Merriam-Webster’s “Time Traveler” feature, I now know that the following words’ and phrases’ first recorded use happened the year I was born:
And dozens of others, too. How about you?
(Maybe later I’ll indulge in a caipirinha.)
Cassini, the little probe that could, has finished its mission in the Saturn system with a suicide dive into the gas giant’s clouds.
It sent back myriad images and countless other data, improving our understanding of the solar system.
Thanks, Cassini. Much obliged.
It was gorgeous out this weekend, simply beautiful. Highs of 29°C Saturday and Sunday. So I washed, like, all the laundry in my house and hung it on the line to dry on Saturday.
My neighbours decided to have themselves a fire in their backyard fire pit, about an hour before I brought my laundry in.
Long story short, every shirt I put on now smells like camping. Not that I’m complaining.