Homeward Bound with stopover

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Tamara and I left the hotel at 8:30AM and headed to Ottawa for a stopover at Parliament. Ottawa is only 2 hours from Montreal so it was a relatively short drive. We parked near parliament hill and went to the ticket office for our free tickets. The tickets are free and you are assigned a time for your tour. We went through security which is similar to what you have to go through at the airport. I have been through security like this many times and I sailed through. Strangely enough Tamara was stopped and subject to a secondary search. I think she forgot to take off her watch which set off the metal detector. It was a funny moment though while the security guard use the security wand on her.

The tour of parliament was informative and the library was the most impressive part of the building. We actually asked the security guard what he thought of Justin Trudeau but she advised us she had to take no opinion on him. Probably because she is a government worker and can't take positions like that. We are not allowed in the house of commons but we were allowed in the Senate. I will say you can tell the Senators who work hard from the other ones because their desks were full of briefing notes. We were going to go up the Peace Tower but the lineup was long so we opted not to. After a delicious meal at a seafood restaurant of mussels, scallops and bacon we headed out.

We stopped over at a my cousin's house in Napanee and he is actually the first member of my family to meet Tamara. I have met multiple members of Tamara's family already. After that it was a 4 hour drive to get home. It was really nice to have someone else in the car to keep me company. After I dropped off Tamara off at her house our trip was complete.

So my review. Tamara is an excellent travel companion and we had a wonderful time just the 2 of us. Montreal is a wonderful city to visit at any time of the year but New Years is especially good.

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