Saturdays with Stella: My Three Favourite Ottawa Museums

Stella is my 10-year-old daughter and on Saturdays, I let her rent this space from me. For the intro to Saturdays with Stella, click here. 

Ottawa is the capital of Canada so it is only natural that we have all the national museums right here. These museums are the best ones in the country and are the big cheeses of all the rest. In this post, I will tell you about my three favourites.

The Canadian Museum of Nature is quite the impressive place. It’s extremely hard to miss, with its intricate stone carvings it looks like a very fancy castle. But this look is disturbed by the huge modern glass extension. The museum is well known for its dinosaur and prehistoric mammal exhibit. You can tell that you are near the museum because of the life-sized mammoth and dinosaur sculptures on the museum’s lawn. The museum carries many permanent exhibits but              they often host traveling ones as well. They have a bird display, a mammal display, a dinosaur display, and many other great areas to explore. The museum also has a theatre and cafeteria, not to mention the gift shop. The admission may be a tad bit pricey but is a great treat for people of all ages.

The Front of the Canadian Museum of Nature (Source)

The Museum of Civilization is not really in Ottawabut is just across the bridge in the province of Quebec. This museum is my favourite museum. It has a stunning collection of first nation artefacts. My personal highlight is the totem poles display. There is a theatre, like in the Canadian Museum of Nature, which shows many documentaries. The Children’s Museum is inside the Museum of Civilization as well. It holds a big bus, a tiny pyramid, a market and many fun things to play in. Like the Museum of Nature, there is also an area to eat and there is a gift shop. They host a lot of traveling exhibits that are very fascinating, such as the Ancient Mayan exhibit.

The Grand Hall is by far my favourite spot in the Museum of Civilization (Source)

The Museum of Science and Technology is an amazing hands-on museum that covers a ton of questions about inventions — anything from telephones to steam engines. My choice area is the tunnel of lights which shows how packets of information travel from device to device without wires. There are a lot of cool things like a giant human-sized hamster wheel. It covers a majority of questions you may have about outer space. It, like the other museums, has a gift shop and a cafeteria to eat in. There is also a theatre and a big working clock that doesn’t have a case so you can see all the working parts whirring.

This exhibit at the Museum of Science and Tech explains Wireless Networks

These museums are just a few of the amazing museums found in Ottawa. Don’t just read my words, get out there and discover your own museums in Ottawa!!!!

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And now for a random dragon cartoon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (excessive use of exclamation marks!)

 I hope you have a great weekend!