2026 Ottawa Summer Walks

 Gallery (20 images): 2026 Ottawa Summer Walks

The linked gallery contains photos of a few excursions Emily and I went on in late July and early August. These include a hike to Meech Lake in Gatineau Park, two photos from the patio overlooking some falls on the Mississippi river (not related to the river in the US) at a fantastic Italian restaurant in the small town of Almonte, then a bunch more while hiking around the historic Mackenzie King Estate in Gatineau Park, which include some faux abbey ruins (seen in the headline image above) that Mackenzie King had constructed as a relaxing place to meditate. The components of the ruins were taken from a variety of places, including the former Parliament building that were destroyed by fire in 1916, Mackenzie King’s grandfather’s printing shop, and even pieces of buildings of the British Parliament.

2026 - Dow's Lake Tulip Festival

 Gallery (20 images): 2026 - Dow's Lake Tulip Festival

On a sunny and warm spring weekend, Emily and I visited Dow's Lake in Ottawa for the annual Tulip Festival. It was very busy, but somehow I expected even more crowds than there were. It really didn't take long to get close to each flower bed and take photos of the tulips. There were many vendors set up as well and there was a Dutch pop-up store that sold lovely painted wooden tulips too, seen in the last photo in the gallery.

2026 - Montréal in April

Gallery (40 images): 2026 - Montréal in April

In late April, Emily and I were off to Montréal for her to attend a conference. That gave me the opportunity to wander around the city during a warm spring afternoon taking some photos in and around Old Montréal. I visited the Notre-Dame Basilica but sadly, parts of it were covered in tarps and scaffolding. It was also closed to visitors except on a guided tour. I went to the Port of Montréal docks on the St. Lawrence River and photographed the sights there, including an interesting glass viewing tower (not yet open for the season) as well as catching some views of Habitat 67 (see photo 27), a housing complex seemingly made up of random stacked cubes, built during Montréal's Expo 67 world's fair. I will have to make a point of checking it out in the future, since I suspect it will look far more interesting up close.

2026 - Ottawa Winderlude & Chinatown

Gallery (40 images): 2026 - Ottawa Winterlude & Chinatown

In early February, Emily and I walked over to Confederation Park one evening to view the "Winterlude" festival ice sculpture displays. Many were lit with bright, coloured LED spotlights, however a few were dark, so Emily shone one of my flashlights at those to light up the ice while I took photos, like the Artemis 2 sculpture for example. These photos were all handheld, no tripod, and once again made me very glad I am now shooting a Fujifilm X-E5 with its effective in-body image-stabilization (IBIS), since that helped me keep my ISO down to 400 or less, despite it being fully dark out.

Then, in late February, Emily and I decided to go for a chilly 10km round-trip walk to Ottawa's Chinatown where we found a very nice cupcake bakery called Thimble Bakery, where I had a fantastic Black Forest cupcake! During our walk, we actually came across a real live working phone booth, photo 35 in the gallery. We also went as far as the outskirts of Ottawa's "Little Italy" district, which seems to border on Chinatown. Later that evening we went for some excellent Chinese food in a local restaurant and then walked back home. 

2025 Ottawa - Fall Colours

Gallery (65 images): 2025 Ottawa - Fall Colours

In late October, I had the opportunity to take some photos of early fall colours in and around Ottawa during two different excursions. The first was a weekend day trip to a pair of quaint little towns to the southwest of Ottawa, one Carleton Place and the other Almonte. The other time was on a walk to the Canadian Museum of History where Emily was attending a conference. While she was at the conference, even though it was somewhat overcast, I took the opportunity to wander about and take many shots of the fall colours in the area, and walked quite a ways along the north side of the Ottawa River from the museum.

Later in the day, it cleared up for a time, and I captured some nice shots from the Alexandra Bridge, including numerous stitched panoramic images as well, which I have included below.

2025 - Canadian Museum of History

Gallery (55 images): 2025 - Canadian Museum of History

On a beautiful early fall day, Emily, her friend Emma, and I walked across the Alexandra Bridge over the Ottawa River, to spend a day visiting the wonderful Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec. It was the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and there were some special exhibits and movies being shown in honour of Indigenous peoples, in remembrance of the suffering many underwent during the horrifying time of residential schools in Canada, surely one of the worst blights on Canadian history.

The Canadian Museum of History is an absolutely beautiful building, with stacked floors exhibiting swooping organic curves and an interior that is just as fascinating with a huge variety of beautifully done exhibits. It was designed by an Indigenous architect, Douglas Cardinal and overlooks the Ottawa River, opposite Parliament Hill.

2025 - Ottawa Arrival

Gallery (30 images): 2025 - Ottawa Arrival

At the end of summer, I arrived in Ottawa to finally join my wife Emily there, after a long 4,500km, six day drive across Canada with my 94 year old dad. Emily had started work at the National Gallery of Canada in the conservation department earlier in the year. After a brief visit, my dad flew back home to the West Coast.

While my dad was here (yes, I can say that now!), we took the opportunity to visit the Canadian Heritage Garden on the grounds of Rideau Hall, where the Governor General of Canada resides. Our first visit was just a casual walk around the grounds and above you can see my dad and Emily taking a break. The next day we figured out where the rose garden was and went there so my dad could finally see where his own hybridized rose, Canadian White Star, was planted. There is a plaque mentioning his rose, and that can be seen up close in photo 6 in the gallery.

He was moved at finally seeing his rosed named on the plaque there, although unfortunately last winter was a rough one and many roses in the garden had died. Also, most roses were already bloomed out and the map showing the exact location of the roses was a bit vague too, so we couldn't tell for sure where his roses were actually planted. Hopefully early next summer when the roses are in bloom, I'll go there and be able to positively identify where his roses are.

Canadian White Star was also featured on a Canadian postage stamp included on a souvenir sheet of Canadian bred roses back in 2001, and the official first day cover can be seen on the homepage of my dad's website (hosted on my own) and on his site, there is also an article with the story of the origins of the stamp.

The last two shots in the gallery were much more recent, a filler to make a 30 image gallery. The last shot shows some nice fall colours in the distance and my next gallery, due to be up in the next week or so, will have many more recent photos with many colourful trees!

Ottawa - Early 2025

Gallery (55 images): Ottawa - Early 2025

At the end of January, I helped my wife Emily move to Ottawa, where she was starting a fantastic new job at the National Gallery of Canada's conservation department. It was bitterly cold and I didn't take too many photos, but the first ten in the gallery are from that time.

Then, during the week after Easter in late April, I visited her again. I took one day to wander the city while she was at work and took many shots. Sadly, the Parliament Buildings were undergoing a lot of work and there were many construction cranes, scaffolding and other building materials everywhere, interfering with my photos. The weather was beautiful and quite warm, but nothing was blooming yet. The trees were sadly still bare.

In September I will finally be joining her myself, and I am looking forward to some good weather and green trees to take more photos! For the foreseeable future, you won't be seeing any more new trips to the US Southwest deserts, rather I will be posting new galleries from our new life and travels in eastern Canada! Of course I am very behind with US trip image galleries too, so I will certainly be posting more of those as well. And, I still haven't finished all the galleries from our honeymoon in Hawaii either. Stay tuned!

Lastly, here are two stitched panoramas, one from the Rideau Street bridge overlooking the Rideau Canal, and the second from just north of the Parliament Buildings, a view where the Rideau Canal connects to the Ottawa River. You can see the Alexandra Bridge heading over to Quebec, and the National Gallery of Canada just right of centre. Click on the images to open a larger view in a new window or tab...