Dow's Lake Marina, Ottawa

Big display set up by the locks to celebrate the war of 1812.

The flight of 8 stair locks to get from the Ottawa River to the Rideau Canal. You can just see the Chateau Laurier on the left.

The falls where the Rideau River meets the Ottawa

Left Montebello this morning, heading up the Ottawa River. Cloudy this morning, but calm, 40% chance of rain, but rain held off and sun came out this afternoon. As we travelled toward Ottawa, we were suddenly surrounded by go fast boats screaming past us, going the other way. We assume some sort of race or poker run. Lots of wakes as they went past, then that group was followed by several other smaller boats. Water was very busy today.
Got to the stair locks in Ottawa by 2:30, they were just bringing a boat down, so we waited about 1.5 hours, then it was our turn. Works really well with Eddie and I doing ropes, we are falling into a routine, much more relaxed doing locks and docking with the extra hands aboard. Lots of tourists watching the boats going through the locks, fun to visit with them as we locked up. Coming up those locks and then cruising slowly through the city on the canal is just amazing. It is so beautiful, very peaceful, lots of green space.
At Dow's Lake marina tonight, we went up to the Mexican restaurant here for dinner, very good. We are docked right under the patio, so we may have musical entertainment for a good part of the night.

Police boat just sitting in the Ottawa River, we later decided they were probably there to keep track of the go fast boats.

Just a few of the go fast boats swarming toward us.

Rockland ferries going almost continuously, two would cross, then as they docked 2 more would cross, made it tricky choosing our time to get by them

At dinner on the patio overlooking Dow's Lake

Several groups were having wedding pictures taken around the locks. This group needed to move so they could open the gate they were standing on to let us into the next lock

My station while we were in the locks, holding the bow rope. This lock had a lot of water coming over the gates, so I had some mist, felt really good. You can see the water bubbling into the lock from below in front of the boat.

This dog was on the boat next to us at Montebello, sat resting its head on the chain
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