Ottawa with Mac and Family

As soon as Kristin left us to catch her flight, we left the downtown wall to take our place on the blue line to begin the trek heading down the Ottawa flight of which there are eight locks in total. Getting through these locks is about a 90 minute adventure of enter the lock, grab your cables with your lines, ride the water down, start your engines, exit the lock to the next and repeat. We travelled with three other boats making for tight quarters and little maneuverability by times. Added to this was the entertainment value provided by one crew of a certain age (older) who liked their music loud as they swayed to the rhythm, wearing Speedos and other fashion delights. Given the heat of the day and the stress of ensuring our boats did not crash together, it was a bit overwhelming. As it was the beginning of the annual construction holiday in Quebec, we made the assumption this was their vacation start!

But I digress - looking down (a long way down) to the Ottawa River was nerve wracking, but amazing when we thought about the machinations of the locks and how relatively smooth the trip was! What else was interesting was that we were the 'show'; many voyeurs walking along the sides of the locks were filled with questions and comments, interacting with us to find about where we from and how we came up with the name of our boat. This was a circumstance we encountered in every lock we traversed. We were very happy to expound about the delights of Bedford and the farm!!

Travelling the Ottawa River provided another layer of wonder. I was not aware of how vast and beautiful this river is. We passed the Rideau Falls, and 24 Sussex Drive on our way to Kitchissippi Marina where we spent the night.

The next day, we travelled to one of the highlights of our trip, Chateau Montebello, a jewel in the Fairmont crown. We stayed in the marina with access to all of the hotel amenities. What a magnificent building and surrounding grounds!! One of the first things Mac pointed to was another Bayliner 4788 at this marina! Such is the eye of this six-year old boy!! The resort is apparently close to Mont Tremblant, so certainly worth travelling to at any time of year. The architecture is amazing - and overwhelming - a giant log cabin. See below.

The lobby.

Although much time was spent in the pool (what does one do with a 6-year old for entertainment on a very hot day), we also went biking through the town, hitting the chocolate shop for ice cream. Much of where we cycled was through grounds of historical significance as the ancestral home of Louis Joseph Papineau (https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/louis-joseph-papineau), a prominent figure in Quebec history. We saw a chapel where family figures were buried, as well as his home and a very old oak tree, known to have been preserved by the man himself as his home was built. Mac was more impressed with showing his Papa his cycling skills - going fast and skid-stops to wait for us to catch up. Fun times!! Rest assured, nobody was hurt in this activity!

We left Montebello and set out for Dorval and the St. Lawrence Yacht Club. To get there, we traversed the Ottawa River, passing through two immense locks. One was the Carillon lock, also operated by Parks Canada. It is huge! It helps boats to navigate the huge hydroelectric dam at Carillon, Quebec. We were lowered 66 ft from one portion of the Ottawa River to another. The locking procedures were different here in that we tied off to a floating dock, with the potential for other boats to be tied off to us (rafting). In this way, many boats of all shapes and sizes could be accommodated in one locking event. There were only three boats going through, so not so stressful.

From here, we continued down the Ottawa River, into the Lake of Two-Mountains. We eventually passed through the lock at St. Anne de Bellevue - much the same activity in another huge lock but moving from the Lake of Two-Mountains to the St. Lawrence River.

Here is a photo of the navigation marker outside of the Oka nation on the Ottawa River. We did not stop here, but did reminisce about the history - the confrontation that grabbed Canadian attention when it was occurring.

The Royal St. Lawrence Yacht Club (https://www.rstlyc.qc.ca/index.php/en/), our home for two nights, is next door to the Montreal airport at Dorval, so we watched many airplanes coming and going during our time there. This is a club with much history - founded in 1888 - and apparently hosts a strong sailing contingent. Each day many young people set out to sail on the St. Lawrence River as the winds were very favorable, even in rain. Mac, with a very good eye for all mechanical things was again quick to point out that there was another Bayliner 4788 at this yacht club. He certainly has an eye for boats!

With a 6-year old in tow, what to do? Biking was not a possibility here as we were in a very busy part of the town with no trails, only streets. Instead we travelled to Walmart and the grocery store for provisions, then back to the pool. Thank goodness for swimming pools on hot days!

We said goodbye to Dorval and made our way back to St. Anne de Bellevue, spending two nights 'on the wall'. Home to Macdonald College (part of McGill University), SAdB is a quaint town with tourism in the summer and students in the winter. We did bring our bikes out and cycle to the college (Mac did very well staying on the side of the street until we got to cycling paths located on college property). Interestingly, this college was a potential choice for degree completion for Greg upon his completion at Nova Scotia Agricultural College. 'In those days' a student completed two years at NSAC and then went on elsewhere in Canada to complete the final two years of the degree requirements for BScAg. He had never visited this campus so was quite interested in seeing it. Along with all of the usual agricultural buildings and herd of cattle to see, we stumbled upon the Montreal Aviation Museum (https://www.mam.quebec) located in an old barn on the college grounds.

What a find! Mac enjoyed the flight simulators; we all enjoyed the many displays of old aircraft used at different eras of Canadian aviation - even a display about the Avro Arrow, a supersonic fighter jet whose development was cancelled by the Diefenbaker government in 1959 due to political pressure (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OXpUyKKtI4).

After dinner on our last evening, we encountered a community salsa dancing event on the waterfront right next to our boat. The music was great - the dancers were very good - even Mac and I joined in!

St. Anne de Bellevue was memorable also for meeting new boating buddies - Mark and Cheryl aboard KEEPER IV Ever. More about them later! We did travel with them through the river locks on our return to Ottawa, a much more crowded adventure given it was a Saturday. Photos of the return Carillon experience below - we were the last boat into the lock on this run!

After an overnight stop at the Montebello Town Marina, we completed our return to Ottawa, in time to meet Sandy, Mary and kids. Some photos from our return on the Ottawa River. Closer to Ottawa, we encountered Jet-ski riders intent on jumping our wake. Although nobody seemed to get hurt, they did come very close to the boat at times - a little nerve wracking!

Our trip up the Ottawa flight into downtown was as eventful as ever, with Greg turning the camera on the voyeurs for a short video clip.

Staying on the wall downtown, we easily met Sandy and Mary as they were staying close to Byward Market. We were able to join up to do the 'tourist' thing - tours of Parliament and the Senate, bike riding en famille, meals together, fireworks, and the Haunted Ottawa tour.

Separately on one day, I took Mac and Clara to the Canadian Museum of Nature (https://nature.ca/en/) and then to dinner, while Greg, Sandy and Alex attended a CFL game, and Mary and Gwen went shopping. Everyone had fun that day!

As Clara also had a sleepover this night, she, Greg and Mac went boating and swimming on Dow's Lake the next day. We had moved there as our stay downtown turned sour when our bikes were stolen from where they were locked on the fence beside our boat. Needless to say their loss has clipped our wings for travelling while on this trip. We are planning to replace them, but it all takes time.

Greg, Mac and I also visited the Canadian Mint and the National Gallery of Canada (https://www.gallery.ca) this week. Our last outing included a very short visit to the Canadian Museum of History (https://www.historymuseum.ca) and fireworks on the grounds of the museum. We were seated riverside for the spectacular second show sponsored by Les Grands Feux du Casino Lac-Leamy (https://feux.qc.ca/en/program-2025/). I have no pictures of the actual show but it was the most spectacular firework display I have ever seen - I was in awe! A great end to our stay in Ottawa!

All in all, our bike misfortune aside, it was wonderful having family in Ottawa to enjoy the city with for the two weeks they were there. We said goodbye to everyone on a sunny Sunday morning - Sandy and Mary had agreed to take Mac home with them. I was certainly in need of hugs from my kids so seeing two of them and four grandchildren was most heartening - I can continue for another two months!

When Mac left, we moved back to the downtown wall to spend another night (nothing left to lose as our bikes were gone).

We met the owners of another Bayliner 4788 - Peter and Rachel - TNT.Kiss. Greg and Peter spent the afternoon talking boat issues specific to 4788's. We also ran into Mark and Cheryl, our new-found friends from the St. Anne de Bellevue lock. Serendipitously, all of us were heading back down the Rideau the next day - my next chapter! Until next time....