After spending a couple of nice family days in Toronto for Sarah’s family event, Simon’s Bar Mitzvah, we went on a nice road trip to Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec. The following post will just be about the road trip section of our vacation.

Ariela loves to fly! So the whole airport experience is probably always the highlight of Ariela’s trip.

Considering it takes forever to get Ariela out of the house, by 8:30 am we were packed and on the way to Ottawa. We said our goodbyes to Sarah’s family who we stayed with and Ariela’s favorite the dog Joey, and endured the Toronto weekday morning rush hour traffic on the way out of the city.

Our first stop was the Big Apple, which is about 1:40 hrs from Toronto.  a world-class tourist trap selling all kinds of apple products and other crap (the fruit, not the phone).

They have the bakery there with all glass windows which is neat to see.

We got an apple pie with vanilla ice cream to share and was OK-ish, later we learned that apple bread is the specialty here, oh well…

After visiting the big apple itself, and chasing Ariela all over the place, we finally got back on the road for the next stop which took another 1:30 hrs … Kingston.

Growing European exploration in the 17th century, and the desire for the Europeans to establish a presence close to local Native occupants to control trade, led to the founding of a French trading post and military fort at a site known as “Cataraqui” in 1673. This outpost, called Fort Cataraqui, and later Fort Frontenac, became a focus for settlement. Since 1760, the site of Kingston, Ontario, was in effective British possession.

Cataraqui would be renamed Kingston after the British took possession of the fort, and Loyalists began settling the region in the 1780s.

We walked a little bit around the city. They have some beautiful brick buildings and old historical monuments. We stopped at the nice steam train display which really excited Ariela (she really is into trains).

We walked along the river where we saw the old fortification towers that used to protect the river from…..

Kingston was named the first capital of the United Province of Canada on February 10, 1841. While its time as a capital city was short (ending in 1844), the community has remained an important military installation.

We had lunch at a great place in the main downtown. The food was delicious and affordable, especially because of the currency exchange rate at that time (1 CAD = 0.75 USD).

We were back on the road all the way to Ottawa on a 2-hour drive. Unfortunately, we hit rush hour entering the city so it took a little longer. We met with our Airbnb host in our great apartment for the next 2 days.

We walked to Bayward market area that was located only 15 min away. The weather was beautiful but unfortunately it was already past 6 so many shops were closed.

Established by Lt-Col. John By in 1826, the ByWard Market is one of Canada’s oldest and largest public markets. The legendary builder of the Rideau Canal, Colonel By himself laid out the street plan of the Market, designating George Street and York Street to be extra wide to accommodate the creation of a public market and gathering place.

Outdoor vendors are an integral part of the ByWard Market experience.

We continued walking all the way to the Chateau Laurier, which is a historical hotel.

Ariela spent an hour just going up and down the stairs.

We wanted to keep walking towards the downtown area, but we were going to do that the next day.

We stopped at the bridge crossing the Ottawa locks. The Ottawa Locks, with its flight of eight locks is more than just an item of passing historic interest. These locks represent an amazing engineering achievement in the middle of the Canadian wilderness of the early 19th century and became the focus around which the city of Ottawa grew. The locks connect the channel of the Rideau Canal in Ottawa to the Ottawa River, almost 80 ft. (24.4 m) below.

We continued walking to the park behind called Major’s Hill Park.

The park stands above the Rideau Canal at the point where it enters the Ottawa River. The parliament buildings can be seen across the canal to the west, to the north of the park is the National Gallery of Canada, and to the east are the United States embassy and the Byward Market. To the south is the Chateau Laurier hotel, built on land that was once part of the park.

Unfortunately, we had to succumb to some screen time for Ariela as it was getting late and she was a little cranky.

We walked outside the national art gallery with its famous huge spider sculpture.

We stopped for a quick photo at the Reconciliation: The Peacekeeping Monument, commemorating Canada’s role in international peacekeeping and the soldiers who have participated and are currently participating, both living and dead.

We walked back to find a nice restaurant to have dinner and settled with an interesting taco place. We got some chorizo taco, pork belly pastor, and a Japanese eggplant taco. Really good place with unique tacos that we have never seen before. Not the cuisine we expected to have in Ottawa!

We got many weird looks from people for having Ariela with us at 10:00 pm at night, so we moved back to the hotel to put her/us to sleep. The next day would be a full Ottawa sightseeing day.

Bonus pic of the day:

Every spring for over 70 years, tulips take over the National Capital Region. This tradition dates back to the Second World War, when the Netherlands gave 100,000 tulip bulbs as a postwar gift to Canada for our role in that country’s liberation. Tulips are a symbol of lasting friendship between Canada and the Netherlands.