It was another early morning and we had another big list of locations we wanted to tackle! In the end, we only made it out to two places and most of our time was spent at just one of those locations. But, it was a great day!
Yesterday, we had driven out to the Canadian Museum of Science and Technology on St Laurent Blvd in the east end. They were giving tours of their storage facilities. This is pretty interesting considering that only 1.8% of their collection is actually displayed in the museum. I've always loved that museum and have many wonderful memories of eating lunch outside next to the big train with my best friend and her Mom or walking through Gargamel's crazy/crooked kitchen. We weren't able to get in on a tour Saturday afternoon, so my Mom and I decided to head out there first thing the next morning to sign up for both tours.
We got there early and were able to get into the Transportation building almost right away. It was really fascinating to see so many trains, cars and bicycles. I took a few pictures with my blackberry since I hadn't brought my camera with me.
After the first tour was finished, we had a short wait until we were going to a tour in another building. As opposed to the Transportation Building this was the "Miscellaneous" Building. hehe
We went on a tour with one of the curators which was very interesting. We saw many old household appliances, musical instruments, industrial equipment and many signs including an old VIA Rail schedule from 1982.
After this tour was over, my Mom and I started talking to a guy who works there. After chatting for about 20 minutes, he offered to take us on another tour...but just with him. He was so nice! He spent about 2 hours with us showing us everything we wanted to see and giving us lots of interesting information. He took us under the ropes which kept tour groups out and was lifting plastic and blankets to give us a closer look at whatever we wanted to see. It turns out he is responsible for taking care of the entire collection in that building. We ended up spending about 5 hours altogether in the storage areas and the time just flew by!
We decided to cut a few things out of our day but we didn't mind. We were sure we could either see them another time or next year.
In the afternoon, we went to the Ottawa Citizen building where they gave us a tour of the newsroom and the printing press rooms. The guy who gave us the tour was great as was the reporter who talked to us about the exciting job he has. I snapped a picture of the printing presses with my blackberry. It's hard to tell but they are actually three stories high and there are several machines. The room was very inky and smelled like newsprint. It was pretty neat to see the process. Of course, the machines weren't running. They run at 11pm every night and apparently the building has measures to keep the noise and vibration to a minimum and withing the room.
By the time we left the Citizen building we were both pretty tired from the day and the weekend in general so we decided to call it quits around 3:30 (Doors Open ran from 10 - 4 each day).
And now, I will start to get ready for the week and get to bed early! I'm looking forward to getting some rest!
LJ
I had a dentist appointment tonight and, when I walked to the office, it was bright, sunny and hot outside. I was in the dentist office for maybe 30 minutes. When I left, the receptionist said "I hope you brought your umbrella because it's pouring outside!"
