Rideau Canal

On Wednesday we said good-bye to Ottawa.  It was time to move on.  The waterway we are traveling is the Rideau Canal, all 125 miles of it.  The Rideau connects Ottawa to Kingston, Ontario.  There are 44 locks, the first 8 being the stair step locks that took us up to Ottawa.  The locks are all hand operated much as they were when the canal was built in 1832.

To open this bridge so we could enter the lock this young man is walking around in circles pushing an iron handle that opens the bridge.  Unbelievable!

Our first stop was Hurst Marina.  I needed to do laundry, we needed water and Ken was hoping to find a service department at the marina that would have the adhesive he needed to fix the dinghy.  One of the pontoons had pulled away and needed to be glued!  SCORE!  The marina had what he needed, pulled the dinghy out of the water for him and he spent the afternoon with glue while I spent the afternoon in the laundry room.  See folks it is not all fun and games on the Loop!  We left the next morning headed for Merrickville.  Our buddy boat, Jackets II had gone ahead when we stopped at the marina.  The weather was perfect and the sights along the way remind us of MN.

Parks Canada that maintains the locks does a wonderful job.  The staff is so helpful and pleasant and the locks clean and beautiful.

More than one house along the canal has a float plane parked at their dock rather or in addition to a boat.  This house had two!

We arrived in Merrickville to find Jackets II docked.  Nice to catch up with them.  We wandered the town and had a wonderful dinner at Elements Bistro.  On our way back to the boat we found these kids jumping off the lock walls into the basin.  If only I had my suit on I might have joined them.  It looked so fun!

We walked around taking more photos before heading back to the boat.  And...of course the sunset!  Enjoy!

Smith Falls was our destination today.  The trip here was beautiful and now we have loons!!  I heard them first and saw mama and her two babies!  We are parked at a wall by the lock.  The weather is hot but there are picnic tables under the trees in the shade where we will have our dinner tonight.  After a walk around the town to check out the sites we pulled out all the charts to see how far we have to go before we are home.  We need to map out our schedule in pencil at least as I have a LOA from work that will expire in August.  Reality is about to hit!  Our goal is to complete the loop and if I have to find Ken a fill in first mate to take the boat back up the Mississippi that will be the plan.  In less than 60 days we have approximately 1300 miles left of the loop and an additional 550 miles or so back up the Mississippi.  We have wonderful places left to see before we end and we are trying to make good use of our time.  We can’t believe that it will soon be July and our journey’s end is approaching. 

We are staying here for the weekend as Sunday is Canada Day!  Everyone says the waterway will be nuts so we will stay tied up safe and sound and watch the fireworks from the boat. 

Still livin’ the dream!  Pat

P.S.   iPhone update - replacement is now in Burnsville!  Will wait until we hit the US to have it sent.  ARGH!

Ottawa!

What a spectacular place to be! We are docked right downtown Ottawa, with the Parliament buildings shown below as a backdrop when we look out the back of the boat.

In 1841, Lower Canada - now Quebec, joined with Upper Canada - now Ontario, to form the Province of Canada. It’s seat of government moved from town to town for many years. In 1857, Queen Victoria chose the rough and tumble lumber town of Ottawa for the Capitol over other more established cities. Ottawa was a political compromise. It sat on the border of Quebec & Ontario, and lay a more secure distance from the American boarder.

The original Parliament buildings were built between 1859 & 1866. Their wood structures were destroyed by fire in 1916.

The new buildings, built with limestone, were completed in 1922, and still stand today.

The main building has what is referred to as the Peace Tower at the entrance. It was built in 1927 to commemorate the 118,000 war deaths from Canada. 

We toured the main Parliament, and were able to go to the top of the Peace Tower.

There is a crypt, and a book with all the names of Canada's war dead. A page is turned in the book daily, so that all names are displayed each year.

The construction of these buildings is absolutely spectacular! I was told by our guide that all the limestone was mined in Manitoba, underwater! Each hand carved detail is a symbolic reference to somewhere in Canada.

The Senate chamber is decorated in red to signify where their Head of State meets Parliament.

The House of Commons chamber is decorated in green in the tradition of the British House of Commons.

Separating the Commons from the Senate are the Confederation Hall and the Hall of Honor.

At the end of the Hall of Honor is the round Library of Parliament. 

The library has a massive domed ceiling, and three levels of hand carved wooden bookcases. 

I had noticed that the walkway floors for access to the book cases were glass. This lets the natural light from the large windows above flow down over the book shelves. 

On Tuesday morning, we walked over to watch the Changing of the Guard.
We also took a bus tour of the city, and saw some of both the new and old.

This Basilica is known for its hand painted interior. The ceiling has 12,000 stars painted in gold!

We also toured the Mint, where all of Canada's money was made. There is now a new mint in Winnipeg that makes the money, but this mint stays busy making collector and investment coins. It also mints money for many other countries. They would not allow any photos inside, so all we got was Pat with the Royal Canadian Mounted Patrols mascot, and the two of us trying to break the chain holding a gold ingot!

This coming Monday is Canada Day, their equivalent of our 4th of July. We have seen many crews working to ready the City. There will be a Jazz festival, fireworks over Parliament Hill, and many other activities. As we now have a ring side seat, we considered staying. However, we feel we can not spend that much time here, so we will leave tomorrow (Wed.), and continue down the Rideau Canal.

See you all next time!

Captn Ken

Travels to Ottawa!

We left St. Anne De Bellevue on Saturday morning in a crowd.  There were 10 boats in the lock with us, rafted 3 deep!  A mighty tight fit.

It was a beautiful day!  Blue Heron left the day before so it was just Jackets II and the 20BUCK$ heading further on the Ottawa River.  We both had to stop for gas/fuel, water and a pump out before ending for the night at a free dock in Hawkesbury, ON. 

Before we could relax we had one more lock after the St. Anne lock and that was the Carillon lock.  All the guidebooks said it was a busy lock and try not to hit this lock on the weekend.  Well....it was Saturday of a 3 day holiday weekend.  When we arrived at the lock, these boats were waiting for passage.  We rafted next to a couple from Canada on a SeaRay that was tied up for the night.  We didn’t make the first lock so had to wait for the next!  The wait was delightful because of the Canadian couple.  He had been a mechanic so you can imagine the conversation between he and the Captain.  Ken was in heaven visiting with him.  We also figure he saved us some money.  The day before we couldn’t get the dinghy motor started.  Ken tore apart what he could while it was in the water and diagnosed it as a carburetor problem, figuring he would have to take it to a shop to have it worked on.  Dana suggested it was a stuck float and to wrap on it and then try and start it.  It worked!!!!  Thank you Dana!  

 It was finally our turn and the big door opened and we entered.  Again it was a very crowded lock.  The door of this one was the amazing thing.  Talk about the biggest garage door we had ever seen!  It is also the highest lift in Canada locks, raising you 65 feet!

 

It was a long day but we made it safely to our stop for the night!

The next day we traveled 60 miles to Ottawa!  On the way we passed the Chateau Montebello, reported to be the largest log structure in the world!  We had tried to stay there but there was no room at the marina!

Approaching Ottawa we saw the Rideau Falls!  As you can see the clouds were rolling in and the rain was threatening.  Once you reach Ottawa you have a series of 8 step locks that lift you a total of 79 feet, a process that takes 1 1/2 hours.  These locks are very historic having been completed in 1831.  Today they are still operated by hand.  The rains came and we entered the first lock!  Seven more to go!

It was a very interesting and sometimes wet ride up the locks!  The last lock exits under a bridge.  Here you can see Jackets II leaving the lock.  We were the only two in the flight of locks so that was nice.  We have locked through many locks together now and are comfortable with how we fit in a lock.

At the top of the locks is a free wall right in downtown Ottawa, a beautiful city and Canada’s capital!  We were fortunate to get two spots on the wall thanks to another boat that moved back on the wall to make room for us.  $9.80/night and we now have electricity!  What a deal!  We will spend the next few days here seeing the sights before we head down the Rideau Canal that will take us to Kingston on Lake Ontario!  We are inching our way back to good ole MN!  Stay tuned for the sights and sounds of Ottawa!

That’s all for now!  Pat