What's up y'all?
Thanks for joining the Travel Tales and Talk podcast with Derek and Makayla.
I'm Derek.
I'm Makayla.
Thanks for listening and enjoy the show.
What's up y'all?
We back.
Today with us we have a special guest, our daughter, our oldest child, Aliyahna.
Hey Aliyahna.
Hey.
Hey, what's going on?
Finally got you on the show.
We're going to talk about your trip and your mother's trip and London Rose's trip to Ottawa.
I didn't get to go because I had to work.
I never get to enjoy the fun stuff.
So today we're going to talk about y'all's trip to Ottawa.
And we always start off like this.
Why are we in Ottawa, Makayla?
Because Aliyahna, she loves all things plants.
And she found out about the Tulip Festival that they have there every year.
And so she wanted to go.
She literally got her passport so that she could go to the Tulip Festival.
Sounds like fun.
And you drove.
You guys drove.
There was no flights I heard.
No.
Aliyahna, why didn't we fly to Ottawa?
Because I don't like planes and I'm afraid of heights a little bit.
It'll make the trip so much faster, though, because that's a long drive.
That's 12 and a half hours.
But it was nice seeing the sights.
What is it now?
At night.
At night?
OK, let's talk about these sights at night.
Now keep in mind, from our front door to the hotel in Ottawa should have taken us 12 hours.
It took us about 18.
We drove through the night.
And it happened to be the night.
Do you guys remember when we had the Northern Lights happening over the United States?
Yeah, it was that night.
Because when we left, it was still a little light out.
And as we were driving, we missed seeing the part that shone over our neighborhood.
I got some pictures from some neighbors.
We had some beautiful magenta colored Northern Lights over our house.
You talk about, man, wait a minute now.
I was at home and I missed it.
You could have told me.
I would have took videos.
I didn't know until the next day when in the group chat, they were posting all these pictures.
I was like, are y'all kidding me?
Yeah, look, right over your house.
Wow, thanks.
So I don't know what happened because clearly we drove through Ohio.
We should have seen something, right?
But no, we missed it.
But what I didn't miss was seeing all the deer, all the deer in the road.
And there was one.
And skunks.
We could smell them.
And there was this one instance when I was going down.
I forgot the name of the...
I think you're on 75 North, maybe.
I was headed to Pennsylvania.
And I don't know.
I was doing the speed limit.
I was hitting about 70, 75.
And then at the last minute, I was just having a discussion with Aliyana why...
Were you watching Netflix?
I wasn't watching Netflix.
Stop it.
Get out of here with that.
And I do not watch my cell phone when I drive.
We all know that's not the truth.
Okay, you were driving.
And I was just having a conversation with Aliyana as to why I'm not going to let her
drive.
Because originally, I was like, I'm going to rent this car.
I'm going to put you on it so you can drive so I can sleep, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And then I was like, no, Aliyana, I don't want to risk it.
I'm just going to drive.
And then as soon as I finished my thought, my sentence, I left out of the fast lane and
went into the next lane over, and the moment I moved over, a deer, boom, right through
my headlights.
It's about nowhere.
I passed it.
But the thing is, the deer was just grazing.
He was eating something or sniffing something in that fast lane.
And it was literally the moment that I moved over, it was when my headlights picked up
that deer.
So had I not moved at that exact moment, we would have hit that deer.
And that would have ruined your trip.
It would have ruined our trip.
Because the deer wasn't moving.
It had its head down.
And then there was a deer behind it as well.
And that deer looked up at our car.
And I was like, oh my goodness.
And I had just told Aliyana why I wasn't going to let her drive.
That was crazy.
Wow.
Like literally a second had passed.
But that was that.
So that was, yeah, that was one of the crazy things that happened to us on our ride up
up.
And from that moment, we just pushed on.
Pushed on for about another two hours.
And then we had a little quick break.
Detour.
Detour because the folk in the car, all of a sudden they hungry.
They got to go to the restroom.
One thing about me is when I'm driving, I don't like to stop, period.
I remember when me and London Rose, we were talking.
My mom had her music playing and she was singing and me and London Rose were trying to get
sleep.
And we woke up and London Rose was like, mom, what she say?
Can you please be quiet?
Oh, she was singing.
My mom was singing.
Oh, she loves singing while she drives.
The singing was not good.
Oh, she likes to try to sing.
I'm sorry.
Wow.
It wasn't good.
But you weren't saying words.
You were harmonizing, like making the noise of the music.
Oh, she loves singing.
She loves to try to harmonize with the song on her radio.
I'm like, baby, you sound so good.
No.
And London Rose was like, mom.
Can you be quiet?
I'm trying to sleep.
It was out of nowhere.
Me and London Rose, we were just dying laughing and we couldn't stop.
That's why I wasn't stopping to go to no restroom for y'all.
And we did have to use the restroom.
My mom just kept singing.
Show did.
See, I always do that when we drive.
We're not stopping.
We're just driving right through.
I've been holding this for six hours, woman.
Can I please get a bathroom break?
terrifying movie.
You can hold a seven.
How about that?
Well, they did eventually get their water break, their bathroom break, et cetera.
In the middle at this sketchy gas station next to...
It was in a terrible area.
It was horrible.
See how my mom left the keys in the rental car and I had to go after the car and the
keys were sitting right there in the front seat.
You didn't even tell me that.
Wow.
Somebody could have...
Is this throw my mom onto the bus day?
Somebody could have ran off.
We about to get robbed, I didn't go ahead and no car.
We in the middle of Ohio.
Where were we?
We were somewhere, not Canada.
Because it took us, like I said, 18 hours to get here.
Why did it take 18?
Well, part of the 18 hour trip is because I thought the route that I had to take was
going to take us through Toronto.
But somehow we ended up in New York.
I'm like, wait a minute.
Now we should have went through Detroit at some point.
We didn't.
We ended up in New York and the route that it took us happened to be a route where our
Aunt Betty lives, Watertown.
Watertown, New York.
And I was like, wait a minute.
We're going through Watertown?
Let's see if Aunt Betty's at home.
I haven't seen my Aunt Betty since Ali Yano was six months old.
I asked to go see Auntie.
I said, are we going to go through Watertown?
He was like, no, we're not going to go through there.
We want to go another way.
And then we ended up going.
Yeah.
Because the way through Toronto was a little faster.
But somehow, I don't know, we had divine intervention.
I think what happened was when you click on GPS, you get multiple options.
You may have clicked that second option, which took you through New York.
Yeah.
Because when I saw that we were headed that direction, I was like, oh, wow, wait.
We're going to go past Niagara Falls.
That was another route.
And I was like, hey, Ali Yano, would you like to see the sunrise over Niagara Falls?
And she probably said, I don't know what happened, but we ended up not going there.
And I was like, hey, we can go see Aunt Betty instead.
And so we went and visited Aunt Betty.
It was really, really good seeing her.
And she lived maybe an hour outside of the gate, the border patrol between Canada and
the United States.
So after visiting our aunt, we made it to the border patrol.
And that's where Ali Yano comes in.
Wanted to know about her stamp.
You want to explain about the stamp, Ali Yano?
What did they tell you about the stamp?
That basically they didn't do stamps anymore.
I would only get a stamp if I was basically a criminal or somebody that they needed to
keep track of coming from America into Canada.
Which is crazy, because if you're a criminal, you can't get a passport.
I don't understand that one.
I guess under suspicion, if you were suspicious of something, but not yet enough to call you
a criminal or something like that.
I call cap.
I feel like they could have just gave us our stamp.
But the guy was like, yeah, we only stamp the passports of the people that we need to
watch.
We were like, what?
How you know tracking stamp?
I don't know.
And when we got to the window, I was recording.
I already started recording.
Then my mom asked, hey, can we record you?
And I think the man said no.
He said sure.
And then you put your phone away.
I looked at you like, oh, okay.
Because I had already started recording without his consent.
That's messed up.
You're a criminal.
You should get a stamp.
Right.
You're breaking the law.
That's nuts.
Yeah.
So once again, we were headed to Ottawa, which is in Ontario, Canada.
So once again, I didn't make this trip.
I have a question.
How far is Watertown to Ottawa?
It's about an hour.
Really?
It's like hours and change.
Yeah.
Okay.
So she's literally on the border.
Oh, yeah.
She's very, very close.
Gotcha.
Because the moment we got into Canada, I told my mom, I said, I want to take a picture,
like the sign, you know, like welcome to Tennessee.
Welcome to Missy.
Like one of those signs.
And it was pouring down raining.
And I got out.
And I was like, okay, I'm going to get my jacket.
And I left my jacket in New York at my auntie's house so I didn't have a jacket.
Yeah.
And I was really, really close to turning around and picking up her jacket.
It's like, oh, it's only about 45 minutes and an hour.
I thought about it.
I was like, wait a minute.
We got to make that same trip back.
And we are already in this darn car at that time, about 17 hours.
17 hours.
Yeah.
So I was like, yeah, we'll just have her send it.
So Ottawa is the capital city of Canada.
Fourth largest city.
And it is the fourth largest city.
Fourth largest metro.
Yep.
Fourth largest metro.
So we finally make it to the hotel.
And we-
You do what you do, baby.
Actually, you know, normally I just throw the bags in the hotel and we hit the ground
running.
But after those 18 hours, I didn't have it in me.
I had to take a nap.
That's so unfair.
I know.
You don't do me like that.
Nope.
We got hit the ground running when you-
When I'm with you, you just throw your bags in the hotel and then off to the races.
That's right.
You gave them a break.
That's weak.
And it was raining.
So?
You don't give a fuck when I don't care?
Anyway.
Keep it going.
Yep.
So our first stop was we went downtown to, what's it, Byward?
No, you went to Beaver Tales, is that what you guys told me?
Yeah, it was in Byward Market.
Oh, that's where it is?
Okay.
Yes.
So we went- Because I had to go get one of these beaver tail pastries I've been hearing
about.
So a beaver tail is basically like a flat cinnamon roll or think of like a donut that
wrapped around in the shape like a beaver tail.
I thought it was the way y'all told me.
It sounded like it was bread.
No.
You know what?
If you've ever been to Bucky's, Bucky's sell a beaver tail.
They don't call it a beaver tail.
They call it something else.
Okay.
I can't think of the name of it.
Is it like a donut?
Yeah, it looks like a cinnamon, like a flat cinnamon bun.
It's like pita bread with cinnamon and-
See, I don't like cinnamon buns, so.
No, it's not like a cinnamon bun.
It's like a breakfast pita bread.
You know like pita bread like flat but it's like a little thick.
I don't know.
It remind me of a donut, y'all.
Okay.
Cinnamon stick, soft cinnamon stick wrapped around.
It was good because the one that I got was just a plain beaver tail.
I just had cinnamon sugar on mine.
Alayona, you had one that had- Mine had caramel and Reese's Pieces on it.
What?
Was it good?
Yeah.
What did London Rose have?
She didn't want one.
I can't blame her.
No, she didn't want one.
She wanted a macaron.
Yeah.
And we didn't go because it was like-
So let me ask y'all this.
Is this like a French thing?
Because I know Canada does a lot of French type stuff or is this like truly Canadian
type pastry?
I don't know anywhere else besides Canada and Bucky's, which is a beaver.
Right.
That sell these beaver tail snacks.
Gotcha.
Okay.
So after we got our beaver tails, we went literally across the street to the pizzeria
called the Grand, the Grand Pizzeria.
And it was delicious.
The pizza was really, really good.
And that's when I really had to think about the conversion rate from the American dollar
and the Canadian dollar.
So the exchange rate is only like 73 cents.
So one Canadian dollar is worth 73 cents of ours.
So our money's a little bit stronger.
So I was a little freaked out at first when I saw those prices on there.
Like, man, this is going to be some expensive old pizza.
Yeah, she thought you ended up paying like $100 for pizza.
I was mad.
And she was like, hold up.
Yeah.
I'm trying to be like the sweet parent.
Because this was Mother's Day weekend.
I'm like, dang, how am I spending Mother's Day weekend spending all my money on my kids?
What is this nonsense?
And that's when I, I'm trying to be discreet.
I'm in my phone checking my bank statements.
And that's when I realized, oh yeah, I forgot.
This is not American dollars.
I like this, the aesthetic of the place.
The centerpiece in the middle of the table was the soup can.
They repurposed the soup cans and left the paper on there.
And that's what they had, the like forks, spoons, napkins, straw, like what you need
for your meal inside of those cans.
It was nice looking.
And we sat like right there by the front door so we got to see like people walking by.
People walking by.
You guys didn't take photographs of this?
Actually I really didn't.
I was truly, truly in the moment.
And I just took pictures of us.
Just us being together.
Because this was our first international trip.
Our international girls trip.
That's your MO though.
That's your MO.
Right.
To take pictures.
I didn't even have a picture of the outside of the building.
And it's a shame because the Grand Pizzeria was actually originally in the Grand Hotel.
Like the beautiful Grand Hotel in New York.
So it was one of those there.
And it's one of those where they repurposed the building, right?
They didn't destroy it.
Right.
They were real good about that repurposing buildings.
So you know the Grand Pizzeria opened up in 2009 and is really, really popular there.
So it's a really nice place to go.
How was the pizza though?
It was delicious.
Yeah it was good.
Tastes refreshed.
Yeah it was so good that the next day I actually ordered a pizza for pick up.
So I made, we made a trip.
And we know how much you love pizza.
I love pizza.
I didn't order one from there.
I ordered Little Caesar's because I wanted to taste the difference.
She did.
I thought about that.
Yeah.
And the pizza was like, their Little Caesar's pizza was like smaller.
You know what's so funny?
When we go, when was it Spain London Rose wanted Little Caesar's in Spain?
I'm like, you're not getting those.
No you shouldn't let her get it.
You gotta try, you gotta taste the difference.
They taste way different.
Yeah.
Really?
Like the pizza sauce, it probably wasn't even in the can.
It did take longer for them to make the pizza and like it wasn't like in the little hot
and ready oven.
Do they even have hot and ready?
No they made it fresh.
Everything was fresh.
Like the cheese, the pizza was smaller.
So maybe in America your pie might be 18 inches, but there the pizza was like 15 inches.
But it was, it was fresh.
It was fresher.
So we taste the difference.
Yeah.
I tell anyone that.
If you ever travel to a foreign country, it's okay to try an American restaurant just to
compare the food.
Now that I think about it, it's a franchise.
So they're just by the name and they can do their own thing when it comes to cooking them,
I assume.
But it's nearly a no there.
So after we ate and you know, in the pizza, pizzeria, we walked around Byward Market and
because it's like full of different shops and restaurants and things that it covers
a couple of a couple of city blocks actually.
And it was beautiful because the tulips, they had tulips everywhere.
Just planted behind benches and under trees.
And people's front yards.
Front yards inside of people, business courtyards.
They're just tulips everywhere.
Wow.
So from there y'all went to, what y'all go after this?
Well, is this all the same day or?
This was all the same day because we didn't have a lot of time there.
We were only literally there for the weekend.
So we hit the road Friday night and we returned Monday, Monday.
So we only had a full day and a half because remember we spent longer time driving there.
It's been 18 hours driving.
Yep.
So next we ended up going, you know how I do, I go on Pinterest and I look for places
to go and I saw that they had their Notre Dame Cathedral, Basilica there, just like
Notre Dame in France, right?
So I told Alayana, I said, hey, you know, you should go see this cathedral because you've
never been inside of a cathedral.
And she was fighting it too, boy.
What you tell me Alayana?
I felt as if it was a little disrespectful putting somebody else's religion like on display
if that's not our religion or mine.
So she did not want to go.
I'm like, girl, you need to at least see the inside of this cathedral.
It is beautiful.
And I told her, I said, when you go in, look up at the ceiling, I can guarantee you there
is some ornate design up there.
There's always just beautiful detail up there.
And we get there, I finally get her, you know, to huff and puff her way on to the cathedral
and I be gosh darn it, the one time we choose to go was the one time they weren't accepting
any more visitors.
Right, they were having a private event.
Yeah, they were having a private event in there.
I was like, oh man.
So it worked out in my.
So if you ever are in Ottawa and you want to see the Notre Dame Cathedral Basilica there,
it is free, but they do ask for donations.
Donations are appreciated.
So the Basilica is the oldest and largest church in Ottawa and it is the seat of the
city's Roman Catholic Catholic Catholic Archbishop.
Is this stuff in walking distance or you guys are walking or you still driving?
Yeah, you could actually walk from Byward Market there, but we opted to drive because
it was raining.
Gotcha.
OK.
So it's right across the street from the cathedral is one of the largest art museums in North
America and it was the.
What is the name?
National Gallery of Canada.
Yes, the National Gallery of Canada.
And so I'm ashamed.
I actually didn't go there just to go inside the gallery, because like I said, we had limited
time.
So we went because they had this huge spider sculpture right out front.
That's nuts.
Yeah, you kept sending me those pictures of this massive spider.
I thought it was a joke.
Yeah, yeah, because because let me tell you, because we went to go take pictures like I
stood in front of the National Gallery and I want to take a picture of the cathedral,
which is directly across the street and have that shark that shark have that spider in
my picture.
But there were like two like people.
This is raining now.
This family is a family and these two women.
They would not move.
And when I tell you how we waited for almost 30 minutes, I kid you not.
It was pouring down.
And I'm like, yo, y'all ain't got your shot yet.
No, I don't even think that umbrella.
No, I don't think none of these in the rain.
Because you know, the family had like five, six people and they were, you know, mom and
daughter, mom and son, mom and I was like, oh, my gosh, combinations.
And I'm like, y'all realize it's raining, right?
And you know, you know, as I'm standing in the rain waiting for my shot, right?
The nerve of me, right?
But we finally got our you know, I couldn't wait anymore.
So I took my pictures.
So you pushed him out the way.
And then I sent these pictures to Derek and asked him to Photoshop these people out of
my picture.
And he said, why this man trying to Photoshop my spider?
I'm like, yo, I need the spider in the picture that's supposed to be in it.
I thought you wanted the building.
I did.
But the spider too.
It was part of the shot.
And then with the spider, I was thinking like, because you're terrified of spiders.
Every time you see a spider, that's what she imagines.
That's how large a spider is.
And you know, when she sees a spider, we're talking about this massive sculpture.
It has to be about 10, 12 feet tall.
No, it was way more than that.
It was huge.
It was like 20 feet tall.
And that's what your mama sees when she sees a spider.
That's how a spider looks at your mom.
I'm like, kill it with your shoe.
But anyway, I digress.
Yeah, yeah.
I tried to Photoshop the spider out because I didn't know you wanted the spider in it.
So actually, Canada commissioned this spider and they paid $3.2 million for it.
Wow.
Somebody got over.
Somebody got rich.
What's her name?
Louise Bourgeois?
Yeah.
Bourgeois.
I'm sorry if I'm butchering his name, but he made a grip off of that spider.
French American.
Oh.
$3.2 million for that thing.
So after that, we...
Hold up.
Before we change the subject to the next thing, there was a street.
And I told my mom, I said, Mom, the street was called Parent Boulevard or Mother Boulevard.
I think it was Parents.
And I said, Mom, let's stop until you can take a picture.
It was the day before.
I was like, Mom, stop.
Let's take a picture with you under the sign.
She was like, no, I don't want to.
You take a picture in front of the sign.
I was like, no.
I thought it would be a cool picture to have your parent.
It was Parent Street.
And I was like, just take the photo under the sign.
Did I do it?
No, you said no.
It was raining.
Oh, man.
You don't have to turn a photo up.
I'm sorry, Aliyahna.
When we go back, I owe you that picture.
Yeah.
I thought it was cool for the street to be called Parent Boulevard.
It would have been really cool.
It was Mother's Day, so that would have been great.
I must have been half listening, not really processing.
Because it was raining.
And at that point, I was kind of ready to.
We had been driving for 18 hours.
So after we left there, we ended up driving by the Tulip Festival.
Because the Tulip Festival lasts all the way until the night.
So we figured, let's see what they got going on.
And we basically saw a lot of tents, people still walking around.
But it was raining, and we decided not to get out the car.
So we said, you know what?
Let's come back first thing in the morning.
Because I felt bad.
I felt like we kind of robbed Aliyahna of her experience.
I'm sure that you want to get out in the rain, Aliyahna?
I didn't mind.
Your mama did, though.
We had umbrellas.
So we ended up going back to the hotel.
And that's when I learned.
Aliyahna, what did you teach me in the hotel?
What was facing your bed?
Oh, the mirror.
That.
OK.
I don't want to get shamed for this.
The black people, we don't like to sleep.
We're not supposed to sleep with mirrors facing your bed.
Because some people think that it opens portals.
Like while you're asleep, you can see shadows in the mirror or bad luck.
It's just like one of those superstitions.
I don't know.
And so my mom was like, what?
I've never heard of that.
She was like, at the house, we got a mirror in front of the bed, and in our bedroom, the
guest room.
I was like, oh my gosh.
You know, it was crazy.
I didn't think about it.
But a couple of weeks prior, we had stayed at our in-laws house.
And then one of our middle daughters had slept in the guest room before we had gotten there.
She was there like the weekend before we got there.
And when I went into the room, my mother-in-law was like, yeah, Jasmine has the mirror covered
up.
And I was like, oh, that's interesting.
I slept in that room before, and it never covered the mirror.
I never thought about it.
So when Aliyana mentioned it, I was like, oh, that's why Jasmine had the mirror covered.
But you want to know what's crazy?
Before me and my husband moved here, when we finally moved in together, his apartment,
he had his mirror facing the bed.
And I was like, uh-uh, and I put the mirror on the other side of the closet door.
And I said, oh, we just keep it in the closet.
So me and my mom, we took the sheet off the bed, the flat sheet, and we covered it up.
And it was a huge mirror, too.
It was like 10 feet tall mirror.
It was about a good five feet by three feet.
It was a substantial mirror.
It was big.
And so we were up there on tippy toes, and you get this in, and trying to throw this
sheet on here.
It was right in front of my bed.
I said, oh, we were asleep.
You guys should have changed beds then.
It was a whole-
You think she was going to sleep in front of that mirror?
I mean, hey, let me tell y'all this.
She had me so spooked that when I came home from this Canadian trip, I took the mirror
out of our room and put it down behind the dresser.
Like I moved that mirror.
Because I also heard that you shouldn't have mirrors facing each other.
And in our bedroom, where the mirror on the wall facing our bed was, it reflects into
the mirror from the bathroom.
So if you open up the beginning part of our bathroom, those two mirrors show each other.
So I was like, ooh, let's take this down.
And I Googled it just to better prove it.
And she was like, oh, no, we got to cover this up.
So if we have mirrors facing the bed, I like jump into a portal and go back in time.
How does this work?
Oh my goodness.
I don't know.
I'm serious.
How does this work?
I don't know.
It's the spooky things.
And it's time for us to change this up.
Okay.
Let's get back to these two looks, shall we?
Okay.
So day two.
And one thing about Makilah Sellers, she's going to get up and do a sunrise something.
Cracker dawn.
She going to be up.
The night before I was laying in the bed and I double and triple check when is the sunrise
and the location of where I'm at.
And that lets me know how long I can sleep.
So we got up.
Did she wake y'all up?
Yeah.
We got up to do our.
We did.
And we, me and London Rose, more so me, mom was like, go wake London Rose up.
I said, London Rose.
And I was like, doosh, doosh, doosh, doosh, doosh.
Because our mom does this thing where she wakes London Rose up in the morning to let
the dogs out or go feed the dogs.
So our mom was banging on London Rose door like the five o.
Like she the police.
And I was like, wow, mom ain't got a bang on the door with London Rose.
So I was like, London Rose.
And I was like, doosh, doosh, doosh, doosh, doosh.
Faking like I was banging on the door.
And London Rose was like.
Like you wake up the SWAT team.
That's how she wakes London Rose up every morning.
Like she the SWAT team.
Doosh, doosh, doosh, doosh, doosh, doosh, doosh.
London Rose open the door.
So, but yeah, we woke up real early so we can get there and get a parking spot.
Because we couldn't find nowhere to park.
We went to scout the area out the day before.
Yeah.
So a little bit about the Tula Festival, you guys.
So the Tula Festival is the world's large.
It's actually the world's.
The Ottawa Tula Festival is the world's largest festival.
It lasts three days and it celebrates the seasonal flowers beauty and its historic ties
to Canada's capital and Holland.
The Netherlands.
Ah, the Netherlands.
So it is held in the commissioners park, right?
Yeah.
So, okay.
So a story behind that.
Actually Derek did a little research on this.
You want to share?
No, no, no, no, you tell it.
You know it more better than I do.
I'll jump in.
It was held.
So you told me that because of World War Two, the Queen of the Netherlands, she was pregnant
during this time and she had a child.
So what happened was in order for her child to maintain her Dutch citizenship, they had
to make Ottawa, was it extra territorial?
Which means that you can have this child in Canada, but you'll still maintain your Dutch
citizenship.
Okay.
So she can be the queen.
Right.
So the queen came over with her two daughters.
She was pregnant and the hospital that they were in, they made that land temporarily part
of the Netherlands.
See, I told you you knew about that.
So that the princess, when she was born, could maintain her Dutch heritage, her Dutch citizenship.
Okay.
So, and she went to Canada for safety because you know, World War Two.
To escape the Nazis.
Right.
Exactly.
So to say thank you, when the Dutch royal family went back to the Netherlands, they
sent over 100,000 tulip bulbs to Ottawa.
Okay.
And so after that, this became a yearly tradition.
Right.
So every year since then, and still to this day, they send tulips.
Now it grows from, there are numbers where they sent 85,000.
There are times when they send 100,000, but some, looking up some data, it says they can
send up to a million tulip bulbs a year.
So every year they send these tulips in gratitude to the Canadians.
Yep.
Ever since then.
And this was in 1943.
1941 is when it started.
When it started.
And so the princess that was born was Princess Marguerite, and in 2022, she actually came
back and spoke at the Tulip Festival, which was pretty cool.
And she's actually, Marguerite is the-
She's the reason.
Right.
She's the only royal family member to ever be born in Canada to this day.
She's the only one.
But to chime in really quick, before we went to the Canada trip, I was actually gifted
two different flowers during two different occasions in time.
I might butcher the name, but a Marylis or a Marylis flower bulb and a daffodil bulb.
And inside of them, they had the actual bulbs that grow underground.
And so that was my first time ever dealing with plants that grew from bulbs.
So I was excited to see and hear that this trip that we were going to go on, they did
bulbs.
They shipped bulbs.
So that was very interesting.
And I was actually looking high and low to find some bulbs to bring back to America.
But we know how border patrol and how you can't bring certain flowers and plants and
food back over.
That way you could have been a criminal.
Oh, you would have got your stamp.
Yeah.
Because they'll tell you, you cannot bring anything that grows.
Yeah.
Or food.
In certain cases, food.
Yeah.
Animals.
So, because Aliana, you asked about bringing the bulbs and they told you, yeah, you can
bring it if-
If it wasn't in dirt.
Yeah.
We were like, wait a minute now.
How am I going to bring it?
If it wasn't in dirt.
That's the seed, right?
Yes.
Because you can't bring soil back either.
But when you go to these box stores, Walmart, Home Depot, and you want to buy the bulbs,
they actually sell the bulbs in the bag.
Just a bag with holes in it for air and no dirt.
But I think they have maybe some kind of moss type something to protect the bulb.
But the bulb doesn't have any dirt.
It's just a bulb in a bag.
So, we were looking to find some, but I think they used all of them for the festival.
Yeah, because they had like black tulips.
That's when we saw so many tulips.
Because we had a full blown photo shoot going.
Like immersion experience.
Yes.
I was wondering why you hadn't bring any tulips back.
Yeah, we could find it.
Because Derrick wanted us to bring back blue and orange, but we couldn't find a single
one to buy.
Right.
That's nuts.
There's something new every day.
So, y'all had the Tula Festival all day or was it just a couple of hours?
Even though the Tula Festival lasted all day, they had different events.
They played movies.
But we ended up wanting to go see other things in Ottawa.
And we found this sightseeing adventure at Canada's Aviation and Space Museum.
They'll take you in the sky on planes for you to tour the city from the air.
So, I wanted to see Parliament from the sky.
And we found this company that gave biplane tours and also tours in Cessna.
And so we did that.
So I was very pleased to hear that Aliyahna, she who was afraid of flying.
Hello, let's stop here.
At first I was supposed to fly anyway.
Yeah.
I think deep down you want to be a pilot.
Because every time we go somewhere we get into a plane or something.
Well, okay.
I love to fly.
However, I did pilot a plane once by myself.
And it was a very stressful experience for me.
It was fun and everything.
But I don't know if I took it too seriously.
Because I got in my head, I was like, oh my goodness, if I mess up, I could kill everyone
in this plane.
I can kill my instructor.
Because at the time I had London Rose in the plane with me because she was learning how
to fly as well.
And she actually did better than me.
She did so well that I ended up giving more than half of my flying time to London Rose.
Gotcha.
And she actually flew us from Lexington all the way to Georgetown.
But it was stressful trying to keep.
Because there's this little round thing.
It's like the thing that tells you which way to go, was it?
The compass.
You got to keep the compass thing and whatever.
And it was just me constantly looking at the dial, making sure the plane was straight.
I just couldn't do it.
It was too much.
But anyway, y'all drove to Canada.
Then you get to Canada and then you start flying in Canada.
It don't make sense.
But Aliyona, you want to talk about your experience?
So we woke up that morning.
My mom was like, oh, we're going to do this.
We're going to go flying on a tour.
And so my stepdad, Derek, bought tickets for my mom and London Rose to do the tour.
But then I was like, well, I'll give it a shot.
I'll give it a try.
I was going to be scared.
But I was like, I'll at least try for the experience.
So then my mom calls Derek and says, hey, Aliyona wants to go.
She wants to try.
We could try to get her a ticket.
So boom, we got to the Aviation and Space Museum.
And my mom talked to the instructor guy and told him this is what we were going to do.
He proceeds to say, well, we were over like, it's like a weight limit of what, like 250
or something like that.
But me and my mom together, it's more than 250.
Not calling you fat, but we were over 250.
Dog.
So my mom was like, she'll just go on a separate flight.
And then London Rose and my mom's going to go on a different one.
But then we get to the plane.
And my mom was like, oh, that's not the plane that I thought that I was going to drive.
I thought we were going to ride in this specific plane.
It was a plane like the Red Baron and Charlie Brown flew, the one on Bob Plane.
You had a little scarf hanging from the neck with the goggles.
You had a crank up with like a pull cord.
You get what I'm saying, like in my brain, I thought I was going to be flying the Red
Baron plane.
With the one propeller in the frame.
Yeah, because that's what they advertised on the website.
So you know what it is.
They going to show you.
Because I wasn't the only one.
Another family came up, was like, hey, you know, like this false advertisement stuff
is for the birds.
Right.
So basically she was mad.
She was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no.
I don't know.
I didn't, I didn't.
So she was like, well, Alacknna London-Rosa going that way.
So I basically gave Alacknna my Mother's Day present.
That was Derrick's Mother's Day present to me through London-Rosa.
So I was like, this man done told me no.
I'm all in close to tears.
But it was another thing about the money conversion.
Yeah.
She was like, hold up, it's gonna be that much?
And it was like $250.
She was like, oh, that's too much.
But it was actually like the Canadian, the US conversion.
So it ended up being,
cause I was sitting there wallowing in self-pity.
I was really disappointed.
Y'all don't understand.
I love my husband.
A lot of times he is very indulgent,
but when he puts his foot down, I don't know how to act.
And I'll be like, I'll be trying to be a good wife
and be grateful.
But at that particular moment, I was very disappointed.
And so I'm sitting there, you know,
Ollyanna and London Rose are up in the sky
doing their thing.
And I'm on my phone and I look at my bank statements.
Oh, wait a minute.
I forgot.
It's in Canadian dollars.
I can afford this on my own.
I don't need that.
I did say that.
I don't need that.
I know you did.
I can get my own ticket.
And so I ended up booking me a flight and-
I think the times were different.
The time was different.
I was hoping I could have went right up after them,
but they were like, no, you need to come back at 2 p.m.
So we had like hours in between.
So Ollyanna, you want to tell a little bit
about your experience in the sky?
First off, I was too short
to really hop in the plane.
I had to like get on my knees
and like literally crawl into the plane
because it was so high.
They didn't have like a step ladder
for me to like get in there.
So I felt as if I was climbing in my husband's,
his work truck, his little,
what is it called?
Pickup, not pickup.
It's semi.
Eighteen, semi truck.
Yeah.
And I was like, I feel like I'm climbing in a semi truck.
But anyway, I got in the back
and London Rose sat in the front
to even out the weight distribution in the plane.
We took off and I was like so scared and it was loud.
I was like, ooh.
What's the scariest part though?
Is it the taking off or the landing
or just being in the air?
I think both.
Really all of it.
I was very nervous, like very, very nervous in there
and I felt a little lightheaded and stuff.
So he gave me a throw up bag if I needed to throw up.
But tell them about what London Rose did.
We were flying in the sky.
I was just enjoying the sights recording left and right.
And one before we get to London Rose, we hit a rain cloud.
So we were like driving through the rain clouds
and I got to see like the rain and stuff hitting the windows
from up above.
And we saw Parliament from the sky.
I think that was like a Parliament tour.
So we flew over there.
We were turning left and right, doing little stuff.
And I was like, ooh, I'm more nervous.
London Rose, I smelled something.
I was like, I said, ew, what's that smell?
And I see London Rose turning, looking at the window,
covering up her mouth.
See that one go.
You know, like when you know you did something,
but you don't wanna like draw attention.
So London Rose looking at the window.
And I was like, I said, London Rose, did you fart?
And she didn't even say that.
She just shook her head no.
And just was covering up her smile.
Was she nervous?
I think she was.
Cause we were doing like, we weren't doing tricks.
We were doing like little turns and like little fun stuff.
And so I was like, did you fart?
And I said, yeah, you stink.
And I said, we can't even open up the window.
And the man that was driving the plane, he was laughing.
He said, I've smelled worse.
He was like, he was like, he was used to it.
And I'm like, we're in this little plane
that was like a one by one cabin.
I'm like, oh my gosh, London Rose.
And I was a capsule.
That's crazy.
I know when London Rose hopped off the plane,
she ran to me.
She was like, mama, he didn't,
mama, he didn't even let me fly the plane.
She thinks she's supposed to fly
every time she get on the plane.
I said, baby, I'm sorry that you couldn't pilot this time.
We saw a beaver.
You did?
In the air?
In the field next to, like as the plane landed
and was driving back to the terminal,
we saw a beaver in the field.
Oh.
And I was like, is that a beaver?
That is bananas.
So we left there and we went to Parliament
because I wanted to see Parliament from the ground.
And Parliament is beautiful, by the way.
It is, it is a beautiful building.
It is the federal legislature of Canada seat.
It's on Parliament Hill in Ottawa
and it is composed of three parts.
You have the King, the Senate, and the House of Commons.
So the King.
Yes.
The way their government is set up,
I think they still use some type of monarchy.
I haven't found out what the King is,
but the Senate, of course, is the Senate
and the House of Commons would be
like a House of Representatives.
Oh, wow.
So that's very interesting that we have that president.
Okay, so we didn't go in, but you could go,
we just didn't have reservations.
We just did not have the time.
And while we were there, they were doing construction on it,
but they also had all the tulips planted out front.
So through some creative photography,
I was able to get a beautiful picture of the Parliament
with tulips coming out the bottom of it.
It was real beautiful.
But while we were there, there was a protest going on.
I think Aliyahna talked with some of the people.
Do you remember?
I do, but I wanna backtrack real quick
about remember when I told you about the pizza there
that we went and ate, Little Caesars?
We also went to McDonald's, was it before?
I think before we went to Parliament.
So we went to McDonald's there.
There at McDonald's.
It's different.
It tastes like real food.
It's different, yeah.
It tastes real.
Their McDonald's was different.
They really didn't have like a cashier.
Like everything was done from the kiosks.
And my mama London Rose got their food
like almost immediately, but my food took 30 minutes.
So I had to scarf down my food.
What'd you get?
I just got a chicken sandwich fries and drink meal,
but it took like 30 minutes because like the kiosk.
So the food most definitely tastes way different
than American food.
Like it almost tasted healthy.
And I was like, wow, I'm eating healthy McDonald's.
So that was that, but to talk about the protest.
Yeah, there was men out there protesting
for us to sign a card.
And so I asked about why am I signing a card?
And he said, a detective was fired.
A woman detective was fired because she was protesting
on behalf of I think four mothers that baby died,
I guess in the care of the hospital
or something along those lines.
And the government turned a blind eye to it
when the detective wanted to look into the cases more.
But the government was basically,
it's not like just stay out of it, whatever, however,
but the woman didn't wanna let it go.
She wanted to seek justice for those mothers.
So she was fired and she's going to court
and these men were out there trying to get petition signed,
Mother's Day cards for the lady
and just best wishes for her in her, I guess, fight
versus the-
So the protest was your job back pretty much, right?
Yeah, pretty much.
So yeah, because the man had a stroller
and I'm like, this man has a stroller,
they have cards and send best wishes and all that.
It's symbolic.
Yeah, yeah, so they literally had like baby gear
to like better support the protest.
And he talked to us, asked us where we were from.
I was hesitant.
You know, I'm from out of the country.
I'm like, I ain't gonna tell you where I'm from
so you can come kidnap me.
But he was very, I felt he was very genuine
and we told him we were from Kentucky.
I don't think we told him where exactly.
Yeah.
Getting to get to where we live.
So I was like, uh-uh, he finna,
what's that movie about the man?
Taken, yeah, that's a movie Taken.
I'm gonna have to come find y'all.
I will find you.
And I will get you.
So, yeah, so that was a nice experience.
And I also left a best wishes card
and they wanted me to sign where I was from.
And I didn't sign my name, once again, Taken Things.
I was like, um, so I just said,
from your friend from America.
Gotcha.
So.
It's so silly.
Okay, so after I got my daughter
out of that sticky situation,
we ended up going back to the Aviation and Space Museum
and so I can do my flight tour in my one propeller plane.
And so it was just like Charlie Brown's Red Baron.
There's no cap over it.
So all you have is a big like windshield.
So you had a chance to get on the biplane.
Yeah, I did.
I was on a biplane.
With London Rose.
And London Rose rode with me.
So we got the goggles, like the classic flight goggles.
I didn't have a scarf though, but.
Amelia Earhart.
Basically, yeah.
And it was windy.
It was loud.
And, you know, all I remember the guy was like,
don't hold your phone now, the wind will take it away.
You know?
So I'm sitting there holding my phone with two hands.
I knew you was gonna do it.
You're so hard.
But real quick, London Rose had to go with my mom at first
because the man was like,
oh, you have to have two people.
So that's why she was acting mad.
She was mad again.
She was like, I got to pay for another person to go.
I just want to go by myself.
London Rose already went.
So London Rose went on.
But the pilot was so, he was rude.
I felt like he was so rude.
And I was trying to take pictures, you know,
film and record my mom.
But I was like, he seemed, like his energy seemed.
Like he was angry and mad.
And he was like, well don't put your phone.
Like before my mom then left the house,
he was like, don't put your phone at the window.
It's gonna go by.
But my mom was like, hmm.
So I looked at my mom and I was like,
I bet she thinking like, okay,
so how can I record my journey?
So I found a way.
Oh, I got my shot.
I got my shots.
I got to see Parliament.
I got shots of that.
It was a really, really nice experience.
I was very, very glad that I did that.
I don't know.
I couldn't smell it.
All I was worried about was a bird coming through
and hitting our windshield.
That's all I was caring about.
So after we finished our flight,
we decided to go back to the hotel
because we had to get on the road and go back home.
And instead of us going again through that Toronto tour,
I chose to go the route to go see Niagara Falls
because Aliyahna's never been.
And I thought it would be a great experience for her
to see the sunrise over Niagara Falls.
So Niagara was about a five and a half hours away
from Ottawa.
Sunrise was at 5.38.
Hey, Em.
So we had to leave around midnight.
So we had to get back home,
well, back from the hotel from our flight.
And I went straight to bed.
See, I left the hotel at midnight.
We did.
We made it to Horseshoe Bend just in time.
Like we had enough time to maybe spend like 20 minutes
finding a place to park to see the sunrise.
And Aliyahna, what did you think of the sunrise
over the Niagara Falls?
I thought it was nice.
That's all I can really, really pretty much say.
I like to look at the falls,
saw the water and the seagulls.
I don't know.
I felt like I was more interested in watching the seagulls
than the waterfall.
I guess because, you know, being from Memphis,
we don't see seagulls in Memphis.
That's like a beach thing.
So yeah, I was just more interested in the birds
and the water, but I like this look at the falls.
But there was a lot of seagulls,
like woman's standing right next to us
as we're trying to take a picture.
It didn't move.
I'm just like.
Take your lunch, cause that's what they do.
They take your meal from you while you're not watching.
Well, I'm glad we didn't have a meal.
Yeah, so it was raining when we went.
So this may be one of the first trips
where the weather didn't cover it.
No, the first time London Rose and I went to Niagara,
it rained.
It actually rained.
Like we had to have a,
like it was blowing our umbrellas and everything.
And she was not having it.
She was like, she had on her rain shoes, a raincoat.
She was ready to go.
So some regrets, cause then we drove home.
The ride home was pretty easy.
It was just an additional eight hours.
And my in-car companions were very generous.
They didn't ask to stop and eat, but once.
But once.
One time.
And I let them do that.
But we got home and it was great.
So, but some regrets that I have
is that we did not go to Gatineau.
So Gatineau is the town, the city,
that is directly across the river from parliament.
Like from Ottawa.
And Gatineau is another French speaking city.
Cause how we heard about Gatineau
was the attendant that helped us on the planes.
She was a black woman with an accent.
I was like, oh, you know, where are you from?
Well, she told me, she says French is my first language.
And I was like, oh, where are you from?
She was like, I'm from here.
Well, she says, I live in Gatineau.
I was like, huh?
Right.
Cause I don't think she's gonna say, you know.
Ottawa.
You know, or like Africa somewhere.
Cause she was clearly African.
And she was like, no, I'm born here in Gatineau.
She says she liked our accent.
She's like, I really like y'all's,
like when we were talking, like she would,
this was what she wanted to hear, just us talking.
And I'm like, we like to hear yours.
Right, right, you talk.
Yeah.
So, and then she was like, oh, it's just right here.
She's like, I live in Gatineau and I drive here every day.
I was like, man, I've never heard of Gatineau.
And sure enough, it was literally right across the bridge.
Like right across the bridge.
Cause all you hear about is Montreal, Montreal, Montreal.
I think Montreal was like an hour ride.
Cause I was considering going to Montreal, you know,
that day.
And, you know, we, you know, decided not to.
I was like, man, gotta know.
I gotta put that on the list.
So that is a regret of mine.
Aliyah, do you have any regrets?
Anything you regret not doing while in Canada?
Nope, I got me a shot glass.
Cause I like to collect shot glasses from the states
that I go to.
But even though it was Canada, I was like,
still need to get one.
So.
You got one with Ottawa on it?
Yep, it's like a frosted shot glass
got from some little tourist shop in a mall.
I don't remember the name of the mall.
I just Googled shot glass and near me,
I told my mom where to go.
She literally dropped me off, told me to get out
and kept driving.
Dang.
Like she kept driving.
I was like, I'm not gonna find a place to park.
I'm just gonna drive around until you're ready.
When she kicked you out, did she even stop?
She just kept rolling.
Cause she was like, we gotta hurry up
cause I'm gonna miss my tour for the airplane.
She was worried about the airplane.
Get out.
She didn't tell me to get out.
Hey.
But that's what I felt like.
Oh, and you know what?
Back to the airplane.
That's when we realized,
that's when I had an aha moment that,
you know how we get fascinated when we see foreign currency?
That was my first time speaking with someone
that was fascinated with our currency.
Cause in the gift shop of the airplane museum,
the guy was like, hey yeah, you can pay.
We accept American dollars.
And however, there is no change.
So we recommend you paying with a card.
I was like, oh no change.
Then it hit me.
He was like, yeah, because you're gonna give us
your American dollars.
We ain't gonna have your change for a minute.
Then he started talking about the money that he saw
and then we started talking about the $100 bills
and I was hit.
Then I was like, oh I have some money on me.
Then I started pulling out my money
and they were like so amazed at our money.
Like wow, you know?
And I was like, all our money is the same color
and we just started really adding color to our money
in the past few decades, you know?
And things like that, it was really interesting.
And they have a black lady on one of the bills.
It's on my phone, but they have a black lady
on one of the pieces of money.
And I was like, wow, we don't have that in America.
No.
Wow.
Yep.
A black woman.
You didn't tell me that.
Yeah, I meant to do some research on it
and I just forgot about it until Aliyana mentioned it
right now, but he talked about her.
Like I was like, wow, you know?
Like they know, like it was, you know,
very prideful speech.
I was like, man.
We went to Canada, Canadian Dollar Tree,
in Canadian Walmart.
Because I was like focused on like, okay,
I want to go to American type stores
to see like what it looks like.
And where did your sister beg to go?
Where did she beg to go?
Are you serious?
I forgot.
All she talked about was going to Ikea.
I went with the Canadian Ikea.
Why does this 11 year old have a fascination with Ikea?
She wanted their hot dogs.
Did she get a hot dog?
She got some out of the cafeteria.
She didn't go there for the first.
She didn't eat.
You ate.
I ate.
She just wanted to walk around Ikea.
And they had French, like they had American
and they had French.
So everything was like an American.
And French.
English and French.
I said American.
Why is she fascinated by Ikea?
I have no idea, but she kept begging the whole time.
All day.
The whole time.
Ikea, Ikea, Ikea.
I'm like, what?
She's been to Ikea several times.
Man, but she really wanted to go.
Like that was her one.
And she was like, mom, you guys go everywhere you want to go,
but no one's taking me to Ikea.
I looked at her like, we ain't finna burn up our time
in Ottawa to go to no ding dang Ikea.
But we went.
And then we enjoyed ourselves.
When we left, she says, mom, aren't you glad
you went to Ikea?
I'm like, girl.
Get outta here.
All right, so that is the trip to Ottawa.
And we'll see y'all next time.
Ooh, if you made it this far, you are the true champion.
You could have been anywhere, doing anything,
but you instead chose to spend your time with us.
And for that, we say thank you.
Thank you.
I'm Derek.
I'm Akilah.
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Do good, be good.
Until next time.