Home coming in Ottawa 45◦25'.428N 75◦41'.542W

We made it!

It was so exciting to make it to the Ottawa region today. We were held up in Hogsback due to lunch hour traffic. The bridge just before the lock has restriction for opening. They will not open between the hours of 12:30 to 1:15pm, We arrived at 12:15 and thought we had plenty of time, but as the lock master explained, he was having some issues with the valves and thought it best to wait after the heavy lunch hour traffic before locking us through. No biggy, we took the 1hr break and rested a bit. We made it through Dow's lake around 2:30 and were greeted by my brother Gerry waving just as we were coming down the last stretch of canal. It sure was nice.

The Rideau Canal in this area is absolutely magnificent. We crossed a few people in canoes. There was one particular canoe with two girls who obviously had never done this before. Despite our approach, they kept drifting towards the middle of the canal. Jim honked the horn and they were still oblivious to our large presence. Finally he called them on the loud hailer and said "excuse me" They looked up in freight and finally moved over, but it was definitely not the most graceful rowing  I've ever seen.

Gerry got into his car and came down to the upper end of the lock walls to give us a hug. He ended up staying the whole evening.  My sister Marie-Anne and brother in law Danny joined us after work, my brother Al and his two munchkins Émilie and Mateo were next, quickly followed by his wife Natalie. It was a veritable home coming.  We had a lovely visit accompanied by Pizza and wine...what could be better. 

Émilie really enjoyed the bunk beds in the v-bearth, she bounced from one bed to the next with glee.

So now we are making plans for the weekend. Looks like Saturday will be a rainy day, so we will hold the cruise for Sunday afternoon. Tomorrow we catch up on our chores while the other folks go to work and Saturday we will likely go vegetate at Al's for the day. This is such a treat!

I will keep you all posted, but for now, it is sleepy time. Good night all.