Smith's Falls to Ottawa and Back

A few days ago I was hell bent on doing a blog entry ranting about those power boaters who don't take responsibility for their destructive wake. But I've calmed down a little, and come to accept that it is part of human nature to destroy the things around us in pursuit of our own wants, whether out of ignorance, or just lack of caring. Serena on the other hand is still pretty pissed, that's why I kept her away from the keyboard. One of the episodes found her down below cutting up cabbage for a coleslaw when we got trashed by one of those destructive humans. Luckily, she still has all of her fingers, and most of the coleslaw was still edible. BTW, to all those power boaters who do watch and control your wake, I commend you, and you have my utmost respect and admiration.

As I mentioned in the last entry, the weather had not been cooperating with us, so we decided to book it to Ottawa, get that part of the trip over with so that we could relax a little on the way back through. I mean really, the entire waterway from Smith's Falls to Ottawa looks like the following picture, and other than looking at the odd cottage, there is nothing to do, or to see.

Ottawa on the other hand is really neat from the boat. We've been there several times by car of course, in fact we lived there for 5 years, but taking our own boat through the waterways of the nations capital city was pretty cool. Docking right down town in the heart of the city. Right directly in front of National Defense Headquarters. The same building that 6 years and 10 days ago I walked into first thing in the morning, handed the security guard my military identification card, giving up a life of servitude for a life of freedom. And not once in those 2200 days since have I regretted that decision. In fact I doubt I ever will.

So what does one do in the nations capital. One does tourist things.

We had lunch down on Sparks street, in an open air cafe.

Two days in a row of course.

We visited and took pictures of the now famous sink hole. By the time we got there they had already dump some 300 truck loads of concrete into it, so it was a little less impressive.

One takes naps in the cockpit, but that happens everywhere.

One plays the guitar in the cockpit. I thought about doing it on the street to make a little change, but the guys that were out doing that didn't look like they were making enough to buy coffee. So I did it for me instead of everybody else.

We walked around the Parliment buildings, and looked at the last 8 locks that we were not going to go thru. It takes 2-4 hours to go down, another 2-4 hours to come up, and the poor lock masters have to do all the cranking by hand. It would be nice to say we did the whole system, but that is just way to cruel to the guys out there in the heat cranking those doors and gates open and closed. So we'll live with the shortcoming. 

And the parliment lawn selfie, no tourist trip to Ottawa would be complete without it. I didn't run into Justin while I was there, apparently he was getting his hair done and wasn't available for coffee.

This little fellow a.almost turned us from cat lovers to dog owners. He was a rescue from the Dominican Republic, and very comfortable on the boat. I was walking back from getting some wifi, and I stopped to pet these three dogs that were running around. Then they followed me back to the boat. I wasn't sure at first if they even had an owner, but after awhile some guy on a cell phone followed along behind. I knock on the hull of the boat and asked Serena if my new three friends could come visit, they followed me home.

Apparently this doesn't happen very often where two boats pass in a flight of locks, us going down, them going up. 

On day two of being downtown we kayaked down the Rideau canal then took this little side creek into a residential area. It was preety cool kayaking downtown, under the bridges; we just had a blast.

We just fit under the Pretoria bridge, I mean just......

Coming into the downtown. So neat bringing our boat into Ottawa.

Let's face it though, we are not really tourists, and being around thousands of people all the time, everyday, is not our cup of tea. I had a hard time watching all the people going to and fro, especially the ones in suits. Thoreau said it best when he said that people are living and dieing in a prison of there own making. It is exactly the type of lifestyle that Serena and I have been trying to avoid, and the city is the poster child for it.

So off we went, back down the system, (see the first picture), to Smith's Falls to load up on provisions and go anchor somewhere quiet.

Showering on the boat. PG rated.

Spending time with other boaters in the locks. You meet some nice ones, and some not so nice ones. We try to be one of the nice ones, but some people make it so hard.

Vita back to one six.