Review: Canadian Museum of Nature

R's mom and sister flew into town this afternoon at 5pm. Because R teaches singing lessons until 7:30pm on Thursdays, I picked them up. Since we couldn't come back to the house without disturbing the lessons, I took them out to the Canadian Museum of Nature. It was a great way to spend two hours.

The builidng itself is a castle. It was built in 1905 as a memorial to Queen Victoria, and was to mirror the Centre Block of the parliament buildings. Unfortunately, the ground was unstable and sinkage caused the tower to tilt so far that it had to be removed. It is still a grand structure. That makes good sense, because Queen Victoria was a grand lady.


I knew that the parliament buildings suffered a devastating fire in 1916, but I didn't know that the museum building served for four years as a temporary headquarters for parliament. The Senate occupied the "Hall of Invertebrate Fossils". I bet you didn't know that.

The Museum of Nature used to share the building with some other exhibits, but they have been moved out to their own separate buildings, so now it's being completely renovated. All the displays are brand new and include a lot of computer displays and interactive stuff. It's pretty sweet. They have four floors, one each for dinosaurs, mammals, special exhibits, and birds. The dinosaurs are, of course, the best part.

It's only 5 bucks to get in, and families get in for $13, so it's a screaming deal. It's open until 5pm most days, but Thursdays you can go until 8pm. It was a great way to spend 2 hours, and would be a great place to take some kids. I saw a group of Cub Scouts coming in as we were leaving.

When you do leave, you should go just a little further north on Metcalfe and get yourself some dinner at Colonnade Pizza. The Colonnade Special is our favourite. It has red peppers, ham and broccoli on it. Have you ever had broccoli on your pizza? Have you ever had gravy on your pizza? You can get both in Ottawa.

So what are you waiting for?