Day 18 July 5 Ottawa

Today we decided to do a low-key “catch up” day.  With Marti’s help, we washed and vacuumed our van.  Having driven over 3,000 miles so far, it was a bit dirty.  So nice to get things in order and shinned up. Thanks, Marti!  Patti also washed a couple of loads of laundry.  That is also so nice to have all of our clothes clean again.  You end of wearing some things over-and-over on a trip like this, and we also had to have clothes to go from over 100 degrees in heat to a low so far of 40 degrees. We have had great weather so far, with some rain but nothing that really impacted what we could see.  And we expect more rain down the line….hence, we need a lot of different types of clothes.

After another great lunch, the four of us headed off to a special exhibit at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum.  This was The Star Trek Academy Experience.  This was heaven for Trekies.  All four of us knew the Star Trek francize quite well and so realty enjoyed all of the exhibits.  This included lots of artifacts from the TV shows and movies, such as actual phasers and a transporter, as well as uniforms for the captains and first officers.    

The premise of the experience was that we were all recruits looking to find out which type of position within the a star ship we might be best suited for.  There were lots of quizzes and hands on experiences.  We got of create our own alien personas and give a try at using phasers.  We all had a very good time.   

A highlight was getting the chance to sit on the bridge of the Enterprise and try our best to outwit a simulation that all captains had to do as part of their academy training.  We thought we looked like a pretty good Enterprise crew. And we got to go through the experience of being "transported". A great time!

We then had time for about an hour to look at the planes and space exhibits in the main museum.  It was a good collection. There was one area where you could fly a bi-plane on a screen by how you held your arms.  Once you were expected to master the moves, they through you into a dogfight with German planes.  The challenge was to shoot down the other planes before they got you.  Dick and Nigel focused on the different planes in the collection.  Patti and Marti really enjoyed the space exhibits which focused on Canadian astronauts and the space station.  Always fun to learn things like how do astronauts go to the bathroom in space.

A special time was sitting in a reproduction of the observatory section of the International Space Station.  As we sat there watching the world go by, suddenly we were over the Arctic and were seeing the Northern Lights reaching into the heavens.

The evening’s highlight was a special presentation by Nigel of some of his new genealogical work that he has discovered.  He is the primary family historian, and has done amazing work in tracing back Dick’s family to Europe and finding some great stories about a variety of characters.  Great job, Nigel!  We love this information and appreciate how time-consuming the hunt for treasure is.