Ottawa, Canada

We were able to meet up with some good friends that were in the Ottawa area and catch up with them for a few days while sightseeing this beautiful city. Ottawa is a newer city as compared to Montreal and Quebec as it was chosen to be the country capital after the War of 1812 as the other cities were thought to be too risky due to their proximity to the US. We spent our first day touring the government building area and then walking through Gatineau Park where they have giant natural sculptures made up of various types of plants and flowers. We visited the Canadian War Museum for a very interesting start to our second day. It is always enlightening to see the historical perspective of world events and major wars from a view outside of the US. I also did not realize that Japan launched a large number of balloon bombs against Canada and the US. Several hundred of them landed, but did little damage. The museum also has a limo that belonged to Hitler, which was interesting to see.