Post #15 Oh Canada! Montreal to Ottawa August 16 - August 26

Montreal from bike path

Joel has quite a few family members in Montreal so we didn’t want to miss a chance to see them. The extra special treat was the opportunity to see the family matriarch, Lanscu.

Lanscu, Joel, Sarah & Sinai (age 94), who is living in his own apartment with a wonderful Nepalese man as his care taker

Lanscu lived in Montreal for many many years, but a few years ago she moved to back to Israel to join a long lost love. That story is is another tale, a great love story worthy of novel. But for us, we were just glad she was visiting Montreal while we were coming through. We didn’t see the whole mishpocha but it was great seeing those we did.

Joey, Irving (94), Bobika, Joel, Lanscu, Stanley & Anna. Steve was there too, I missed him somehow.

Sarinka, with Joel's hat, at the Cavendish Mall  (social center for numerous elderly ladies) . She has a very lovely Phillipina  taking good care of her

Brother Nat was waiting for us at the Port Vieux when we returned from dinner in Cote St Luc. We spent the next day wandering Montreal.

Vieux Montreal in the morning with Nat & Joel

We had a great bike trip along the Lachine canal and back along the St. Lawrence shore where we could see the Lachine Rapids, those the canal was built to avoid. Now the canal is strictly for smaller pleasure boats. Parc Canada, again, does a wonderful job making this a very pleasant experience for boaters and bikers alike.

Lachine Canal & bike path

Nat moving the world with a lever. This is lovely sculpture garden at Parc Rene Levesque at the end of the Lachine

We watched surfers in the Lachine rapids, looked dicey to me

Snow Goose is too big for the Lachine, so on leaving Montreal we needed to go where the big shipping boats go, across the river in the canal that makes up the St Lawrence Seaway. There are two locks in this stretch, and pleasure boats are not on their list of priorities (and the lock workers are not nearly as charming). The wait might be as long as three hours to get through. We were lucky and waited only about a half hour, along with a handful of other cruising boats at each lock. Then we were out in the middle of the river, zigzagging across to the north shore and our destination for the day, St Anne de Bellevue.

The wall at St Anne de Bellevue

We docked along the wall which also serves as the town promenade, (included in our seasonal mooring pass) which was lined with open air restaurants, reminiscent of our tie ups in Croatia. Nice town with lots of good places to eat and a grocery store within an easy walk. Again, it was wicked hot, and Nat and I couldn’t help ourselves from taking an outdoor shower off the boat (with bathing suits of course!) We didn’t get too many stares. The town has live free music at one end of the promenade, and there was a nice singer song writer from New Brunswick that we listened to as we ate our pizza at a nearby restaurant.

We had two locks the next day as we started our voyage up the Ottawa River. We were back in the warm and friendly Parcs Canada domain, and these locks have floating docks inside so they are very easy, just tie up and wait. The Carillon Lock was the second, at at 65 feet this is the highest lock in Canada, so very impressive and a major tourist attraction.

Nat, as we go up the Carillion

We stopped at the Golden Anchor Marina in Hawkesburg for the night and ate aboard. A pleasant stop with good showers, working WiFi and a pump out, all the necessities. In the US pump outs are usually free or cheap but in Canada they cost between $15 and $20. Our hypothesis is that Americans need the free incentive to do the right thing, but Canadians would never pump overboard so marinas might as well charge the true cost.

This is just the yacht club at Montebello

We couldn’t pass up Le Chateau Montebello, purportedly the largest log structure in the world and now a fancy Fairmont Hotel and Yacht Club. It was an amazing structure and a great place to bike around, lovely woodland trails and landscaped views, a picturesque woodland chapel and granary.

Part of Montebello structure

We ended up in the town of Montebello, close by, where we had a nice Italian dinner. Nat and I were seduced by the sound of Quebecois music at a nearby pub. Joel headed home, but we stayed until closing. They were fantastic!

Le Diable a 5, Fabulous!

Not a word of English anywhere, but the music was all that was needed. The band members were mostly related each other, including a set of twins, and occasionally members of the older generation in the audience joined in on stage. No CD’s  to be had and I can't find them on social media under this name. They go under another name on Facebook but I lost it, darn it. They are very much in the tradition  of Vent du Nord for those that know this music.

We had planned to make it to the bottom the Ottawa Locks the next day, but in the late afternoon the engine started to overheat. We anchored while Joel descended into the engine room to try to find the raw water intake. He did find it, but couldn’t open it sufficiently, so we pulled into the Kitchissipi Marina for the night. Wonderfully kind and helpful people at the marina, and had we needed professional help for the engine they would have found it for us, even on Sunday morning. Fortunately Joel was able to figure out how to open the drain and clean it of gobs of river mud and shells. It just needed its six month cleaning.

View from the top of the Ottawa Locks

It took us an hour and a half to ascend the eight famous Ottawa Locks. Because was a beautiful Sunday this was a major tourist attraction with lots of questions from kids and adults as we slowly rose to the middle of Ottawa. We tied up along the leafy, lovely wall and after a dock side lunch decided to descend the locks by foot, and catch a water taxi across the river to Hull and the Canadian History Museum.

View from the boat wall, downtown Ottawa

 Who should we meet on the way but friends Betsy and Todd Remage-Healy, formerly of Hallowell, now of Peaks Island.

Betsy and Todd- serendipity!

Betsy and Todd gave Nat a ride to Montreal on Monday morning, and Joel and I stayed on the wall in this most beautiful city.

We had docktails with Leslie and Flint who completed the loop several years ago with a 41’ trawler. These days they live on a 26’ C-Dory, and when its not in the water its behind their truck on a trailer. They go all over the country visiting family and friends. Last summer they did the western National Parks, staying in the boat, at campgrounds, and plopping the boat into water when available - i.e Lake Powell. When they travel they always have network of fellow square dancers to connect with. Leslie has had 2 knee replacements, but she is still dancing at age 70. They spend 6 winter months in Marathon FL, on the boat.

This sculpture is next to the canal, close to the boat. good company

Last 4th of July (this was the week we were back in Maine) we had dinner at Nat & Julie’s and other friends and we spent some time going around the table sharing what the Declaration of Independence meant to us. This was a thoughtful and meaningful exchange. At some point, before we got too serious, Nat made the observation that perhaps it wouldn’t so bad if we had lost to the English, Canada being exhibit A. I must say, there is something to that. This is a very lovely country.

The National Gallery, great exhibits and this is downtown Ottaw

August 26 is our anniversary. We have been married 36 years, and lived together for seven before that. Its been good, and we have so much to be grateful for.