Civilization, Leela's Farewell

This morning Leela and I went for a bike ride up to the "hogsback" waterfall.  It was her first time on a bike in many years.

After lunch I returned to the Museum of Civilization, which I expected would be a lot like the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian because it looked like it -- both began with the same architect -- but it's more of an anthropological history museum.  The whole bottom floor is devoted to the First Nations, but the upper two floors are all white history.  In both cases the emphasis is on artifacts, ranging in size from individual beads to entire buildings and boats.  Unlike the American Indian museum, the plaques here were all written by the omnipotent third person, but they were written in English, French, and sometimes Inuit!

I got overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of stuff in the museum, and by the schoolchildren running around doing a scavenger hunt, so I left and went for another, longer bike ride up into Quebec.  The Ottawa metro area claims a larger network of bike paths -- 170 km -- than any other city in North America.  I was glad for a chance to explore.

In the evening, Leela let me tag along to the gathering at her church to mark the end of her internship.  The congregants read poems and sang songs to her and basically testified to how great she's been for them.  I'm pretty sure she's the only intern in her class who's been serenaded on a musical saw!

13.2 mi