Travelogue: Ottawa (August 2016)

We recently renewed our car lease, upgrading our Mazda CX-9 to the Signature Edition. Our dealer gave us a free two nights stay at a hotel of our choice. We chose to go to Ottawa again. It’s close enough and we enjoyed our stay there in June.

We left the house past noon and arrived at our hotel at 3:30pm.

We stayed at ALT Hotel along Slater Street.

The lobby was so mod. It reminded me of the set in Mad Men TV show.

Since we got a free hotel accommodation, we got a separate room for the boys. It was their first time to have a room all to themselves. They really enjoyed the experience and their independence.

The boys loved this exposed concrete wall feature in their room; it was very grunge.

There was a Sansotei ramen place near our hotel. We had dinner here on Day 1.

Breakfast the following day was at Eggspectation.

Today’s itinerary was Museum of Nature. It was a good walk from our hotel.

Then we saw this cast leg of a Futalognkosaurus, a giant titanosaur that lived 85 million years ago, in what is now in southern Argentina. Just a single leg bone, such as its femur, can measure taller than an adult human being. The entire skeleton of Futalognkosaurus is over 32 meters (105 feet) long.

Goofy Raf, are you as strong as a Hercules Beetle? It can lift 850 times its weight.

We had an enjoyable afternoon at the museum. That evening, we met with Erick and Betty. Erick is Riel’s former colleague at Far East Bank. They are now based in Ottawa.

We had dinner at a Japanese restaurant across our hotel. The waiter led us to a tatami room, the first time for the boys.

The boys ordered Ramuné, also their first time to try this marble soda which they only see from watching Anime.

After dinner, Erick and Betty took us to the Parliament Hill to watch the Northern Lights, a sound and light show.