Mel and Jessica here with our account of our Canadian adventure. On June 29th we decided to book flights to Canada for July 1st-7th to meet up with Jessica’s cousin, alias the skipper.
When booking an international flight a day and a half before you go there really isn’t a whole a lot of planning that goes into it. All we knew was we needed to get to Smiths Falls to get on board Still Waters II. After the flight was booked, we quickly learned we booked our tickets on the worst travel day in Canada. We booked the cheapest flight, which was to the regional airport of Waterloo, thinking it would be a piece of cake to get a rental car and get to the boat. Wrong.
July 1st is Canada Day and nothing is open. Somehow we found a bus to take us from the Waterloo airport to the Toronto airport. From there we were able to get on a train to the Rogers Centre to see the Blue Jays game. We arrived in the 12th inning and got to see the last half of the game that lasted 19 innings and the Indians won. We spent the night in a suite in the Rogers Centre and were able to watch Canada Day fireworks out our window.
On July 2nd we got up, had breakfast, discovered how amazing maple syrup from Canada is, and rented bikes to explore downtown Toronto. We saw Lake Ontario, toured the Steam Whistle Brewery, and then hopped on a 3 hour train to Smiths Falls. We arrived in Smiths Falls on the evening of the 2nd in time to meet David and Claudia for dinner.
The morning of July 3rd we departed from Smiths Falls and headed down the Rideau Canal. Right off the bat, we learned first hand about the lock system. One of us would get at the bow of the boat and the other the stern and we would secure the boat to the cables to make sure the boat didn’t hit the wall or another boat. It was so fascinating to see the boat rise or lower 20 plus feet within minutes. Over our 6 days on the boat we experienced 20-30 locks. On July 4th we docked in Jones Falls in front of Hotel Kenny that was built in 1877. That night we fished but all we caught were small sun fish that weren’t big enough to keep. While fishing we discovered Mel likes to catch fish but she doesn’t want to take them off the hook. Good thing David is a nice guy because Jessica wasn’t gonna let her off the hook that easy
On the 5th we arrived in Kingston, our favorite stop of the trip. This was the first city type town we had seen in 3 days and we were ready to explore. After getting a slurpee and walking around the town for about 30 minutes we decided to stop at Toucans for some wings. While there we ended up getting a free Moosehead beer hat. When we arrived back at the boat in our new hats, Claudia wanted to know how we acquired them. The story goes, while at Toucans we entered a drinking contest. We were told that if we each could drink four 20 oz beers within 90 seconds we would get a free hat and wouldn’t have to pay for the beers. We immediately looked at each other and said “challenge accepted.” Needless to say we were each wearing a hat when we arrived back at the boat. However, we probably should have asked what the hats looked like before we accepted the challenge. We got the ugliest dad-looking trucker hats on the planet. I guess you live and you learn.
As we sit on the plane back to Texas talking and laughing about our amazing week aboard Still Waters II, we want to thank David and Claudia for opening up their home to us. We had great conversations, good food and tons of laughs. And Claudia there is one thing we have to admit, we really didn’t enter a drinking contest 😜. They were giving away free hats at the restaurant and we just thought that story was way cooler than we got a free hat. Cheers to our next adventure eh!
Mel and Jess
Voyaging America's Great Loop Aboard Still Waters II 