OTTAWA VACATION: SATURDAY (the last full day!)

Satuday
Saturday was such a change of pace that it was a bit of a shock. We decided to go to Gatineau Provincial Park, only about half an hour away, and I was a bit apprenhensive, having read about black bears and watersnakes and timber wolves, but my dad insisted, so I had no choice.
On the way in, we saw the biggest turtle I've ever seen in the wild before: it had a super long tail, and the poor guy, when he started crawling off the road and down this embankment, he tripped or something and fell, end over end to the bottom. But, he crawled away afterwards, so I guess he was ok.
After stopping at the visitor's center we went to our first real stop: Mackenzie King's estate, now a national historic site. Now, apart from the fact that King was really weird, and had seances with his dog and stuff, he sure did know how to pick a location. We went inside his first cottage, Kingswood, which was right near little Lake Kingsmere, which he chose because it matched his name. The guy must have spent a lot of time napping, because he had a bed in almost every room! Also, the doors were really low (but then, he was only 5'2", so I guess he didn't need huge arches everywhere).
Then my dad, Paul, and I went down to the boathouse by the lake, because my mom, following her tradition, was still up in one of the guest cottages reading everything. We sat by the lake for a while, talking and watching birds and such, until my mom finally found us, somewhat exasperated that we had just taken off like that. It really showed the difference between my dad and mom's logic: my dad's first instinct would be "Here is a lake. It looks nice. That's probably where they went." My mom's is: "Oh no, they left me behind. They're probably back at the car or at the other cottage (which we would visit later...it was a little way away down a path)."
We hiked up the path to the other cottage, Moorside. It was much larger, painted yellow, and surrounded by immaculate lawns, benches, a tent where a trio was playing classical music, and beautifully manicured gardens. Tea was being served on the porch, but we bought drinks at a scalping from this kid who looked no more than twelve running the snack bar. Sitting on a bench sipping a cold drink, and then strolling among beds of flowers...this was my idea of enjoying nature and Victorian-era luxury. We decided against playing croquet, but it was an option. Instead we decided to look at "the ruins", one of the most interesting aspects of the estate. Mackenzie King had an odd penchant for building his own "ruins" on his land, with material from real ruins he had imported, artifical ones he had had carved, and interesting architectural elements that he had taken from homes or banks when they were being demolished. The three ruins were the Arc de Triomphe, which he took mostly from a bank, the Window to the Forest, where three arches separated by pillars gave a picturesque view of the woods beyond, and the "Abbey Ruins", a group of random unrelated ruins from different parts of Europe stuck in one spot, which King fancied looked like a monastary from far away (though no one else agreed with him).

After that, we got in the car and drove along the side of Lake Meech, where the Meech Lake Accord was formed. Then, after stopping at a look-out point where we saw some great views we went to a picnic area and ate our lunch that we had bought from the deli the day before. My dad suggested we hike down to see this waterful, so once again we did, got more pictures of me standing nervously on a rickety, slippery bridge, then got in the car and drove to yet another park, this time a nice city one where there were no horrible blackflies like the ones that had been swarming us all day. We read for much longer than we had meant to, and then drove through a super-expensive neighbourhood, staring at ambassador's homes and consulates for the Catholic Church and just generally massive houses.


Oh yeah, and then we went back to the hotel where I watched Big Fish for the first time and cried.
The next day, we got up really early (buahahaha yeah right, we got up at like 10), thought we had to check out by 11, rushed around packing, eating breakfast in record time, and then found out that checkout time was 12. Boo. We travelled in the car again, ate lunch/supper at Mongolian Grill, and Paul and I watched Pirates 3 on the portable DVD player, performing all the scenes along with the characters to our parents chagrin, and finally got home. I had a great time in Ottawa, but I wasn't sad to leave. Going on a "restful" vacation can be surprisingly tiring. I'm still recovering.