My brother was here visiting because we had a funeral to attend in Montreal. While we were out exploring, the first snowfall of the year hit. It was so beautiful and made for a picturesque day. We went to the market and to the Parliament buildings and then checked out the war museum which was the best museum I think I've ever been to. It was built quite recently and they took such care and attention with the architecture and the display. It was fantastic. If ever you're in Ottawa, be sure to check it out!

And now for some pictures:


Joel likes to pretend that he hates kittens, but really he loves them and couldn't put Betty down the whole time he was here. I'm totally busting his image right now.



Here we are outside the US Embassy. Its interesting to compare the US embassy to the Greek embassy for example. The US embassy is a large grey looming structure with a big spiky fence and a concrete barrier beside the road, where the Greek embassy that we saw earlier that day was a converted house. I think they may have had security cameras but I can't be sure.


I'm not sure if you can tell in this picture, but its snowing. It was the first snowfall of the year and we actually enjoyed it. You can see Parliament and the Peace Tower in the background here.


When its open, you can go up the Peace Tower and look out over Ottawa. That's what Joel is doing here.


This is inside the War Museum. Its a very new building, they broke ground on it in 2003 so I don't even think its been open for that long. The architecture is stunning and in this area here it feels like you're in a bunker. They have these massive painting displayed and you lose sense of the scale because everything is so large.


Looking down the barrel of a very big gun.


Me with a big tank!


This tank fell through some ice and landed in a bog in the 1940's. All the passengers were able to escape when it fell. It was preserved inside that bog for decades until they finally pulled it out.


The controls inside a jeep.


This is what the back of the really big tank I'm standing beside looks like. There's a cabinet of sorts and this is the inside of it. I'm guessing they put missiles in it.


Does it look like Top Gun? This is Chris and Joel in front of a big plane.