Sunday, July 9th (Day 5)

Today we’re starting with a visit to the Royal Canadian Mint. This is where our actual coins are created. The one in Ottawa just makes souvenir coins.

After the mint, we’re going to visit the Canadian Museum of Human Rights. Looks like there’s a lot to this museum.

Tonight, we’ll check out the Forks Market for dinner.

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The Mint was interesting. No one working on the floor today. Saw a new toonie in circulation with a black border mourning the Queen. Learned the loonie should have had a canoe on it and been the same as a 50-cent piece, but someone stole the stamp on-route from Ottawa so they changed the design and colour. They also made 5 million dollar coins that were pure gold…one apparently is in the ROM. This is the second of two mints in Canada. They made it in the centre of the country for easy shipping. The employees at the mint go through metal detectors each day, and they check their bank accounts when they get hired even to ensure they don’t have a need for extra money).

The Canadian Museum for Human Rights was done well. It was only finished in 2014. It’s the first national museum outside of Ottawa (again in the centre of the country. There’s 8 floors that you walk up (and down if you don’t like the glass elevator). The building has a lot of symbolism, e.g., the outside is suppose to be dove wings wrapped around the tower. We didn’t go up the tower at the end (very high). The building only has 30% right angles because people don’t fit in boxes.

Dad was talking to someone in the hotel restaurant and found out there’s about 100 Ukrainian people working at the hotel that came after the war. I was thinking the housekeepers were Ukrainian before he talked to someone even.

Went to the Forks Market. Almost a CNE type of food area. We got the one piece gosh and chips. Came in a newspaper wrap. Was tasty. They even had wine and beer flights in the market, but seeing as I’m taking Claritin and antibiotic for my sinuses I skipped that part lol