Ottawa Marriott Hotel

The Ottawa Marriott Hotel has a distinctive design that stands out in the skyline of Ottawa, Canada's capital city. Built in 1972, the rooftop has a huge revolving room that spins at a rate of one revolution every two hours. It is the 8th tallest building in the National Capital Region.

It's a large hotel with 486 guestrooms and all the amenities a downtown hotel should offer.

Ottawa Haunted Walking Tours

Friday evening, we went for a walk in downtown Ottawa.

A haunted walk!

Lady Dive Amphibus Tour - Ottawa

Okay, so this was different!

We've seen these amphibious bus/boat tours in several cities and always thought it would be a neat thing to do. And doing it in Ottawa would be especially neat because some of the views from the Ottawa River are really worthwhile.

Playing tourist in Ottawa, Canada's Capital City

Ottawa is sometimes overlooked because of it's location in between Toronto and Montreal. But it's a really pretty city and well worth a visit so we thought we would wander around the downtown area yesterday and take some photos to show you.

Bungee Jumping Ottawa

This is one of those things that messes with your senses. I don't quite know how to explain it. A part of your brain is filling your system with adrenaline and making you excited about the thrill of bouncing through the air on a ride that is far better than anything you'll find at the county fair.

However another part of your brain is screaming "don't do it!".

Bungee Jumping Today!

By the way, this was Ruth's idea. So when she is standing on the edge hesitating to jump, I shall remind her of that.

You only live once, right? Or more correctly, you only die once! You actually live every single day. Which is what you're supposed to do anyhow. So we're making the most of it, and when the opportunity arose to plunge off a 200 ft high platform attached to a giant rubber band, we signed up.

Yet another new camera!

Well I hope we finally have our camera problems solved. We're going to have a LOT of photos to show you over the next few months with our upcoming travel to Nova Scotia, and New York City, and then of course Southern Africa!

Who won a trip to Australia? (Part 2)

If you missed yesterday's post you're going to want to read it first...

http://www.travelwithkevinandruth.com/2013/10/who-won-trip-to-australia.html

And so today, we continue Denise's trip to Australia. Love your photos Denise!

Who won a trip to Australia?

Many of our regular readers will remember last year when we entered a contest to win a trip to Australia. Due to a lot of effort from our readers, we came in first in our category. But that was not enough to lock in the win.

Coincidentally, the person who won that contest has become a reader of this blog and we asked her to tell us about her trip. Hey, if we couldn't go, at least we can tell you about the person who did.

And so, we introduce you to Denise Perrier who wrote about her 10 week Australia adventure for us. She also supplied some of her beautiful photographs from that trip!

The cheque is in the mail!

I guess these Amex adjusters work on weekends. Had an email from the girl yesterday saying that my claim has been processed and closed and the cheque (check) is in the mail!

Oddly, they don't even want the camera back. This becomes a bit of a bonus for us because we now have a spare battery to bring with us to Africa.

More proof that we are not 25 anymore!

We sure did party like it though.

Late blog post today due to the longer age related recovery period after a night like that...

Good News!

So, it looks like Amex is coming through with the coverage on the camera. So, we learned something new about the benefits of some credit cards. And because this was our first claim and it was for under $500, they were able to process it with less documentation than is normally required. Still waiting to hear back from my last email, but it looks like they simply send us a cheque for the amount of the claim. I don't even think they want the old camera back, which could be a bonus because we will now have a spare battery!

Next week, we'll go back to Future Shop (owned by Best Buy here in Canada) and see if they will match the same price they gave me on the original camera.

We don't seem to have any luck with cameras!

I mentioned last Saturday that when we were out on a hike with friends John and Diane, I dropped our new Nikon P520 camera.

Of course, it landed on a rock.

The Balanced Rocks of Remic Rapids

This is kind of cool, and exactly the type of thing we love to see when we're exploring an area.

Our hometown is Ottawa, the capital city of Canada. Because we grew up here, and we know the city very well, we wanted to find some things to do that we've never seen or done before.

September Expenses

Well, we had a planned budget of $1,300 for the month of September, and we blew it!

Just kidding, but we did exceed our plan a little bit. Total expenses came in at $1,446.