When I was a kid, we took a family vacation to Florida. We spent a couple days at the beach, playing in the sand and surf, not realizing that we were unaware of what my mother was doing.

When we got home, we watched the home videos she took. There we saw pelicans perched on posts in the water. Pelicans flying toward shore. Pelicans landing on water. Pelicans flapping their wings in front of the sunset. Pelicans, pelicans, pelicans. She’d been a woman obsessed.

In Canada, I traded pelicans for parliament.

 At least half of my pictures from Ottawa are pictures of the Parliament building. I have pictures during the daytime; pictures during the changing of the guards; pictures on Day 1 and more on Day 2; and lots of pictures of the Parliament building at night. That’s when they do Mosaika — a narrated laser-light show that tells the story of Canada’s history. They do it every night at 10pm July-September and it’s completely free. Thousands of people gather on the lawn and ooh and aah over the spectacle of it. I’m not sure everyone took minute-by-minute pictures like I did. But I think everyone enjoyed it.

Unfortunately, my camera didn’t cooperate as fully as I would have liked. But here’s a taste of what we saw. It was fantastic, and ended up being my favorite part of the trip.

What’s your pelican?