Last day in Ottawa.....and lots to see today

Thursday, August 16 was our last full day in Ottawa. We were both tired but we wanted to accomplish several things today. First up was Rideau Hall. This is the working residence of Canada's Governor-General, the queen's representative in Canada. Our current Governor-General is Julie Payette, a former astronaut.

Tours don't start until 10 AM, but we were there just after 9 AM and toured the grounds and watched a changing of the guard at the front gate. We managed to get on the first tour and after a run through security we enjoyed and very informative guided tour to many parts of the official residence (obviously not the private quarters though). This is an absolutely gorgeous building. The original portion was built in about 1835, and since has had numerous additions and upgrades.

Huge trees on the grounds. Many trees have been planted by visiting dignitaries.

Front Gates of Rideau Hall

Beautiful gardens

Changing of the guard.

The front drive toward the Hall. Very pretty.

Rideau Hall

Our tour guide. She was very good.

The Governor General is the Chancellor of the Order of Canada wears this at official ceremonies.

The Tent Room. It started life as a real tarped tent, but was rebuilt as a permanent structure in the design of a tent.

Some of the gardens

Part of the original building

Hand made carpet with the official flowers of the Provinces 

Main Hall. Official functions such as awarding of Orders of Canada and swearing in of the Government take place here.

Sentries on duty at the front door

Fountain outside the Hall

Fountain in the Rose Gardens

Rose gardens. Not many blooming today.

Next we drove out Sussex Drive and towards the Canadian Aviation Museum. This was day three and museum three on our pass. I was here once before about twenty years ago so certainly some exhibits are new. I took lots of pictures and I know Steve (Living the Dream) did a great job on his blog so for more pop over there to see his.

Gates to our Prime Minister's residence at 24 Sussex Drive.

Guard house to the Prime Minister's residence. No, I was not invited in.

National Canadian Aviation Museum

Canadian Snowbirds Tutor jet

Pretty cool seeing it from all angles. The two 'bombs' under it are smoke generators used in aerobatics.

Lots of planes here. Some very old such as this Dart.

Our current Governor General was an astronaut.

She went to space twice.

Likely our most famous astronaut is Chris Hadfield. He commanded the International Space Station for a time.

Aviation has come a long way. This is a very early engine.

Old Russian Space Capsule

The Sputnik. First satellite to orbit the earth.

Meteorite

Model of a Mars Rover.

The mighty 'Lanc'.

Bomb bay of the Lancaster. 

Tail gun

Front guns and bombardier. Pilot and navigator of course are up top.

German ME-109

Harvard trainers from WW2

Hawker Hurricane

Spitfire

Noresman bush plane

Early passenger plane

Beaver

This was the first Beaver bush plane to enter service. They are still flying these in the north.

Douglas DC-3

DC-3 radial engine. I was a passenger in these about forty years ago. We blew a piston on takeoff one day. They just turned around, landed and the mechanic replaced it on the runway. No big deal as each piston has it's one stand-alone cylinder. We took off a few hours later. What a great plane. They still fly these today.

Bombardier CL-604. A very popular private jet. It has been changed many times and is now a popular regional passenger jet.

CF-18. Note the painted area under the nose gear. It looks like a cockpit in flight so the enemy doesn't know if it is flying upside down. Hmm.

Original tilt rotar plane. We see these today as the military Osprey.

Labrador helicopter. Used in search and rescue.

Harrier jet. Canada's military does not have these.

The impressive Canadarm. This one was the first operational arm and was retired from space duty in 2011. Still looks in pretty good shape!

Doesn't this look comfy?

Model of the International Space Station

Julie Payette in space

Not a large front door

Chris Hadfield

Modern Space suit

So this is a space version of the outhouse. Looks pretty complicated to me.

Cordless drill used in space.

Canadarm doing its thing.

Northern lights from the observation portal on the space station. Wow!

The last stop of the day was a trip out near our campground to the small village of Manotick and the old Watson's Mill.

Dickinson House was just across the street. It used to house the mill operator.

Dickinson House built in 1867

A barn raising

This old tube radio was playing a local station.

Watson's Mill. This is the original building built in 1860.

Downstream from the Mill

Upstream toward the Mill

Some of the water is diverted into the mill to turn the mechanicals

The workings of the mill.

Scale to weigh incoming grain.

Conveyor belt with buckets to move the grain vertically.

The grinding wheel (bottom half).

Grinding wheel (top half). The top would lower onto the bottom, then grain was fed into the middle. The flour and grist would come out the sides.

Lots of gears and belts. Quite ingenious how they made it all work.

The generators would sit horizontally and spin with water pressure applied. They turn the vertical shafts to run the mill machinery.

Easy to rebuild the wooden pulleys. Also, there were no sparks that could cause an explosion.

Hard to read. The young bride of one of the owners got her skirt caught in one of the shafts and she was thrown against a beam killing her instantly. Some say the Mill is haunted.

A beautiful spot to spend an afternoon.

The Mill had an 'after hours' event the day we were there. After 5 PM they served craft beer and local wines. So......we had one. Very tasty after another long, hot day.

It was a long day, we were tired but so worth it. We had a great time in Ottawa. We didn't see everything so we gotta come back some day!

....and that was Our View From Here!