May, Museums and Moose

This past weekend we found ourselves in Ottawa for a family thing. Ottawa is such a nice city! We took advantage of being there by visiting a couple museums. The Canadian Museum of Civilization was great. They have an amazing collection of totem poles. They're so tall! My favorite exhibit was the History of Canada hall. The interpretive guide in New France was truly entertaining. We could have stayed there all day and listened to her describe what life was like then, how she'd have put my daughter to work cleaning and cooking and how my son would be going off to work on a ship at age 12, a mere two years away. Here is Ottawa as seen from the side of the museum.



Another highlight was seeing the IMAX movie Sea Monsters. While I thought the sea monsters themselves would be the scariest parts of the movie, it ended up being a rock explosion scene that made me jump out of my seat. Doesn't make sense? Well, just go see it and you'll know what I mean. We also went to the Museum of Science and Technology. While I've seen them before, it never ceases to amaze me how incredibly huge those steamtrain locomotives are. I almost wish they were still in widespread use.

So on our way home we were all tired and eager to get home (not to mention the fact that I was running low on gas) but we were still hoping to see a moose as we drove through Algonquin Park. We drove and drove. We were almost through the park when there it was--no, there they were! Two moose on the side of the road. Can you see both of them here?



Then after we'd watched those moose for awhile we drove on. About a kilometre further we saw yet another moose. This one was in a marsh. My hubby got out of the car and took the still photos you see here. Me, I'm not so brave. While I love to look at them they're really quite big. I prefer to admire them from afar...like from inside my car.



The moose really do blend in with the forest. Plus it was dusk. Here were were staring at these magnificent creatures but still, it's hard to know how to feel when the moose become a veritable roadside attraction. We were the first to spot those two moose and stop, but shortly afterwards one more car and then another and then at least four others stopped. Some people came seriously equipped with their photographer paraphernalia. I'll bet they got some great shots. Almost everyone was snapping pics, obviously myself included. What must the moose think of our odd behaviour? You never know what an animal will do when you start filming it. I had a bit of fun adding embellishments to my footage. Here's my story of my first moose sighting of the year.



Made it home safely even if the car was barely running on fumes. Note to self: if you listen to your hubby as he looks at the gas guage and says "oh, that's plenty of gas" while you pass by the last gas station you can possibly stop at until you're home the resulting stress is NOT worth it.