We've grown to love the Ottawa area so much and will really miss evenings like this one. A couple weeks ago we went to the inagural event at the recently completed Lebreton Flats near downtown Ottawa. It's a beautiful open grassy area next to the war museum, just west of Parliament Hill, where they set up a big stage and put on great concerts during the summer. The bluesfest had big names like Bob Dylan and the Parliament Funkadelic (appropriately named for the location, though I'm sure George Clinton didn't have this evening in mind 30 years ago). We saw the Symphony Orchestra perform with the Opera Lyra Chorus and a number of incredible soloists. One of our friends from Church, Guy Charbonneau was in the Chorus, and we were very excited to see him. The woman in the second photo is Michaelle Jean, the Governor General of Canada. Since Canada is a constitutional monarchy, Engand's Queen is still the official leader, while the Governor General acts as the Head of State, the official representative of the Queen in Canada. She is an incredibly dignified woman and it's been my pleasure to see her a couple of times, including the equivalent of a bill signing ceremony. For a bill to become law she needs to give a royal nod, which is literally a nod of the head as the name of the bill is read to her.
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