AquaFennatic Great Loop Blog: Ottawa Ontario to Burritts Rapids Ontario

Jul 4^th – Happy 4^th of July to all of our American friends! It was a hot and sunny day with low winds … Exxxcellent! We are still at the top of Lock 8 in Ottawa and we’re finding that it’s a perfect place to continue our Ottawa explorations. This morning we walked to ServiceOntario to renew our OHIP to ensure we have continued health care in Ontario. Once that was done we walked to the LCBO to buy some booze and almost had a heart attack after looking at the price as compared to that of the same stuff in the US … Ouch! We then stopped at Metro to get some provisions and brought everything back to the boat. After lunch we went for another walk to visit the Parliament buildings and found out that we can get a free tour, however we must reserve the tour early in the morning since they are available on a first come first serve basis. Afterwards we visited the Bank of Canada Museum and had a guided tour of the Supreme Court of Canada. Then we walked back to the boat since Chris and Ruixi invited us to their place for dinner. Chris picked us up after work and we all enjoyed a great evening together. By the way … it was great to be in a land based home for dinner … the last land based home we visited was in January in Florida!

Jul 5^th – It was a hot and sunny day … two days in a row … Exxxcellent! … however the weather for the weekend isn’t looking so good … I feel bad for the weekend boaters L We are still docked in Ottawa and we are continuing to learn about Canada’s Capital City. We lined up this morning and successfully obtained guided tour tickets for both the East Block and Central Block of the Parliament Buildings. We got to see some interesting places like the first Prime Minister’s office (Sir John A. MacDonald) with a gas chandelier and a pull cord to call his secretary … both thought to be leading edge technologies at the time. We also saw the House of Commons, the Senate, the Library of Parliament, the Peace Tower and many statues/monuments. We found Robert Plunket’s name on the Canadian Police memorial … he’s an acquaintance of ours from the past that was killed in action years ago. We grabbed lunch and then continued on to the Canadian Mint where they produce the investment and collector coins as well as some specialty work such as Olympic medals. It’s changed a lot since I last visited in Grade 8! We spent a lot of time walking, waiting in lines and touring today thus it was soooo nice to get back to the boat to relax!

Jul 6^th – It was a hot and sunny day … Three days in a row … Wow! … but it still looks like we’ll have crappy weather this weekend. We left Ottawa this morning and headed 39 miles and went through 9 locks and tied up to the blue wall of Lock 17 - Burritts Rapids since all of their overnight slips were occupied. After we tied up we sat up in the sun on the front of the boat to catch a few rays.