Today Kevin took me (or I drug him) to Canada's Museum of Civilization. Before I came up here I told Kevin that I planned to go to museums while he was at work. However, he seemed slightly disappointed that I was going without him. I asked him and he said that he liked museums. So away we went on Monday. The museum is in Gatineau, across the Ottawa River. It was about a mile and a half from the hotel so we took a nice stroll in the beautiful 75 degree weather.
There are paths all over the city that follow the river and the canals.
The museum was four floors and over looked the river.
We took a break half way through and had our picnic next to the river. I told Kevin he was on a traditional Reed outing. You visit a museum (although it wasn't free like most of the ones from my childhood) and have a homemade lunch.
The view from our bench at lunch.
The first floor was all about the aboriginal people of Canada; over 500 people groups.
The second floor was all about postage stamps. The history of the mail in Canada and a special exhibit about postage stamps in England and how it changed in Canada.
The third floor was the most interesting as it gave the history of Canada since the 1700's. I did learn so new things. I had never really thought about those that supported the British rule while America fought for its independence. Apparently, most of them fled to Canada. They were given a tent, a blanket and tin cup for each person, and army food rations for a year. We learned a little about French colonies and British colonies. I still need to do some more reading on the war of 1812 as I am not quite sure how everything played out. I know all the players, just not sure of the second and third act.
If you have ever visited my parents in Sacramento, you were probably taken to the Railroad Museum downtown. So when I saw the exhibits for the Canada Pacific Railroad, I got a little excited. We sat down to watch the documentary and I was making comparisons in my head throughout the film. Poor Kevin had to get up to prevent himself from falling asleep. In the U.S., railroad began in the west and the east and met more or less in the middle. But for Canada, they started in the east and moved west. In fact, Vancouver was founded because it was too dangerous to route the rails to the existing west coast town. The U.S. used a lot of Chinese labor on the rails and I couldn't figure out why the Canadians didn't. Then I realized the Chinese arrived on the west coast, not the east. As the CPR moved toward the west they were able to utilize the cheap labor of the day from the Chinese.
Overall, I enjoyed the day in the museum.
We took a break for our own little photo shoot on the third floor.
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