From May 17-20, Elyse and I made a weekend trip to Ottawa. The primary objective was to go and see the Canadian Museum of History in nearby Gatineau, where a Sam and Muffy puppet from Today’s Special were on display as part of a larger exhibit about children’s television in Canada. The exhibit was amazing, with puppets and costumes from all kinds of Canadian-made children’s programming on display. We also explored around Ottawa and Gatineau. The latter was a particularly interesting experience as that was my first time in a place where the predominant language was not English. Ontario is largely English-speaking, and signage is largely bilingual, containing both English and French, but once you cross the border into Quebec, it’s like a whole different world, as everything is in French, and only French, and some people over there do not speak English. It was my first time experiencing a language barrier in a major way, and while I managed, remembering that a large amount of English words are derived from French, it was certainly a challenge nonetheless (but Google Translate helped a lot).
I am planning on doing a larger, more detailed photo set in Life and Times for this trip, so to avoid duplicating efforts, I’m just going to share a few photos here and let that be that for now.
The new HR-V, parked at the entrance to the Ottawa Marriott Hotel, where we stayed during our visit.
Elyse holds up a package of bagged milk at a Loblaws store.
Exit sign at the Gatineau Sports Center, which we wandered into while looking for the transit hub. Note that it says “SORTIE”, i.e. it is only in French, rather than being bilingual or using the running man.
Bilingual version of the classic Edwards pull station at the Gatineau Sports Center. Fire alarms were generally bilingual in both Ontario and Quebec, and I also noticed that Edwards was the most common manufacturer in the area, at least as far as I could see, with some Mircom and Pyrotronics pull stations here and there. Compare to Toronto, where Mircom is most common.
Traffis signals in Quebec. Traffic signals were largely mounted horizontally like this, with double red lights. By comparison, ttraffic signals in Ontario are largely the same as one would find in the USA.
Stop sign in French, reading arrêt. Road signs in Quebec were entirely in French with no English, so as a non-French speaker, I really appreciated the icons and shapes of things.
Price sign at the Walmart in Gatineau. Like in Toronto, the signage is red, but the words at the top of the sign are in French. Like everything in Quebec, the signage inside the Walmart was all in French. Also note that the dollar sign was at the end of the price rather than at the beginning.
A Sam puppet from Today’s Special, on display at the Canadian Museum of History.
A Muffy puppet, on display next to Sam. I appreciated being able to look at Sam and Muffy in great detail for as long as I wanted.
Parliament Hill, viewed from the Canadian Museum of History.
A Hudson’s Bay store at Les Promenades Gatineau. Since I couldn’t go to “The Store” on this trip, this was my visit to a Hudson’s Bay location. This confirmed my findings from when we went to the Pickering location back in 2019, that Hudson’s Bay is basically the Canadian equivalent of Macy’s.
Visiting a Toys “R” Us location for the first time in nearly five years. While Toys “R” Us went extinct in the US in 2018, Toys “R” Us continues to be alive and well in Canada, as that division was sold off when the US company went under.
French-only version of the classic Edwards pull station at the Toys “R” Us in Gatineau. Note that it’s missing the “FIRE ALARM” or “LOCAL ALARM” lettering on the top.
My poutine experience this time around. We got this at Harvey’s in Gatineau, which is a Canadian fast food chain. Ordering was an interesting experience, as the menu was entirely in French, and the lady taking orders did not speak English. I managed to get a burger and some poutine.
A Canadian flag, flying outside Parliament in Ottawa. This was my first time photographing the Canadian flag.
The Centennial Flame, a monument on Parliament Hill commemmorating the 100th anniversary of the Canadian Confederation.
Centre Block of the Canadian Parliament. The building was undergoing major renovations at the time of our visit, which blocked a lot of my photos. That tells me that I have to come back to Ottawa again when renovations are complete so that I can see it like it normally would appear.
OC Transpo bus 4393, a 2005 New Flyer D40i, also known as the “Invero”. OC Transpo is one of only a few operators of this model.
Towards the end of our third day, Elyse found a bowling alley while we were looking for food, and so we played a few games of five-pin bowling. It uses duckpin balls and banded duckpin-style pins. Scoring is very different than regular duckpins, and the rubber bands give the pins a lot of action.
Elyse makes a face as she discovers a payphone in the entrance to the bowling alley, and that it actually works.
On our last day, we went through Gatineau again on our way out, to check out a few places that Elyse found interesting. This place is Réno-Dépôt, which, while superficially looking like Home Depot, actually is the Quebec equivalent of Lowe’s (though Lowe’s no longer operates in Canada, having sold off its Canadian operations).
Canadian Tire in Gatineau.
Trying on a Canada shirt at the duty-free store before going back into the US. I did end up buying this shirt, because why not.
First southbound reassurance shield for I-81, just past the duty-free store. I found it curious that the first southbound reassurance shield for I-81 was in Canada, but it made sense, because by the time you reach this sign, you had passed the point of no return, and were going into the USA.
So that’s a very short summary of our time in Ottawa. There’s lots more to show and lots more to talk about, but that’s for the Life and Times set that I’m working on. Stay tuned…