Monkey and Daddy's Day Out downtown

With Big C in preschool for the day and mommy at home still feeling unwell I thought that it would be a great day to go through my list of things that I'd like to do this summer with just Monkey. At the top of that list was going to the mint. What better way to spend some time with a kid than showing him where they make money? He was really stoked for it.
We took the bus downtown and loaded ourselves with snacks for the day. We missed our connection to the mint, so we decided to do a little walking. We took a good little detour and found ourselves at the locks. Monkey was enthralled by the engineering of it all. We walked across and went to the far side where we could see all the action. Mother Nature provided some badgers for us, one brown and one black, to take it in with. After the excitement wained, we were off to find the mint.
We took a brief moment to look at the spot where mommy and daddy met and where daddy proposed to mommy. It was pretty cool to have him there this many years later. Wow.
Then Monkey saw it.
The enormous spider in front of the Art Gallery.
It was just too cool.
Here's my favourite shot from it.
Next, we could see the mint. We paid our admission for the tour, 5$ for adults in case you're wondering and totally worth it. No cameras were allowed inside, so we got some good photos outside. Here's Monkey getting ready to go in.
Here he is as each of the 3 mascots for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver:
Miga
Quatchiand Sumi
Ottawa does all of the coins for collectors, so it was really cool to see the gold and silver getting ready to go, as well as the mold for the $1 000 000 penny (of which only 5 were made - 4 of which are owned by private collectors). It was awesome!
On the way out we saw the Mountie/Moose, so we had to grab a photo.
We had a little time left, so we decided to see if we could go up to the Peace Tower. Monkey wanted to go and check it out, so if the line wasn't too bad I was in.
There was practically no line, so we were good to go.
Big C would have lost it were he on this trip, evidenced by the huge crane truck working on the tower itself.
Monkey was a real ham talking with the people on the elevator and the security. He was also totally in awe of the clock - this was my favourite photo from the day. It's him looking up from the observation deck to see that the clock that he saw from the ground was right above his head. The whole gang in the Peace Tower had a big smile when they saw and heard his excitement.
To wrap things up we took the bus home.
Of course, not just any bus - a double decker bus. I didn't even know Ottawa had them!
We'll have to find out the routes for this bad boy and get Big C on it soon.
Phew! What a day.
We'll both certainly sleep well tonight!