Yesterday was a wonderful day for a trip to the Museum of Nature.
After dropping off some books at the downtown library I biked along O’Connor to meet Carla and the kids at the museum. Now O’Connor is a street I would normally avoid as many drivers tend to zip down this one way street or impatiently jostle each other in their rush to get to the Queensway, but there isn’t much Ottawa traffic on Sunday mornings so I wasn’t too worried.
This view down O’Connor makes it appear as if bland mid-rise buildings dominate the street. This Urbsite post describes the boom in Centretown apartment building in the sixties that contributed to this image.
But tucked in in amongst these mid-risers are a number of jewels, such the City of Ottawa Public School Board’s old administrative building at the corner of Gilmour Street. Urbsite once again comes through with this post which not only describes the building, but the two big blue spruce flanking the entrance as well, and how this same entrance was incorporated into a logo used on Ottawa elementary school report cards in the’50’s.
As I closed in on my destination, Pleased with my safe journey along O’Connor, I was shocked to see this smashed up car at the corner of McLeod and O’Connor!
Right beside the faux crash site stand our faithful family of wooly mammoths that have been foraging on the grounds of the museum for as long as I can remember.
On the opposite side of the street sits this great sculpture called Paso Doble by Bruce Garner.
On the east side of the museum there are BIKE RACKS!
They’ve done a great job with the renovations to the museum. Here’s a view looking up from the old space into the new, of the gang looking down from the new into the old.
Rode home safely along Metcalfe and Somerset. A fine outing.
