Ontario: 2023

It had been too long since our last trip to Canada, and for sure too long to the east, Ontario and Quebec.

We flew in to Toronto and drove to Brighton, where Deb's sister and brother-in-law live (in the summer half of the year). Then to Kingston to meet up with one of Deb's old high school (and Richard's college) buddies. Then to Ottawa to hang out with Richard's brother and niece. Then to Montreal for a lightning visit to his uncle and aunt, and cousins. In between, we saw the sights.

We were treated to some Quebeciana at Susan's: boxes of May West's ('Pepsi and a May West') and Jos Louis cakes, and then Montreal smoked meat for one dinner. They live in walking distance of Presqu'ile Provincial Park. We also popped over to Belleville and walked a stretch of their Bayshore Trail

We took the scenic route to Kingston, not just taking the 2. Sandbanks Dunes are pretty extensive and the Lake on the Mountain gives a great view of the area; followed by the car ferry at Glenora.

John Schreiner had been head of Medical Physics at Queens in Kingston, having retired not long before our visit. And his family was out of town, so he generously showed us the sights of Kingston - a tour of Queens; visit to the Kingston Mills Lock on the Rideau Canal. He also tried to get us on board with poutine - something that hit the scene after we left Quebec in the 1970s. He took us to one of his favourite places ('Soup Chef', oddly named for this purpose) on the lakefront where we had hot dogs and poutine. It was … not bad. We also did some kayaking on the lakefront and Catarqui River - the endpoint of the Rideau Canal (boats from Ahoy Kayaking).

It had been a long time since we'd spent time with John and it was great to catch up. We even were able to have one dinner out with him and one of his daughters, who'd just arrived back in town.

Then we were off to Gananoque, gateway to the 1000 Islands. Formally there are some 1800 islands defined as at least 10 feet across and 1 living tree. We got in a great kayak outing (with Kayak 1000 Islands) amongst the islands and then a 3-hr cruise around a much larger swath of islands.

We were impressed again just how large Lake Ontario is. It could have been a (fresh water) ocean for all we could see from the lakefront at Kingston.

Then we headed up for a couple of days kayaking on the Rideau Canal. About the Rideau Canal. I'd naively thought it was just in Ottawa and that people skated on it in the winter (that all is true). But it actually extends from the Ottawa River to Kingston, some 220 km and 42 locks controlling lakes and rivers on the way. It was built in the 1800s (after the War of 1812) when Canada did not trust the Americans to not block the St Lawrence River between Montreal and Toronto - so they built this back door. It was quite the engineering feat in the day.

We took 2 days to kayak (boats from Rideau Tours) from Locks 42 (Jones Lock) upstream to Chaffey's Lock (37); and from there to Newboro (36). We were on our own, with a big map on Deb's deck. On the 2nd day, we discovered that the islands kinda looked alike and got lost. 'Hang a right here', Deb said to get around Scott Island. I said it’s not a through channel. So we kept going and got lost. In the end, we pulled out Deb's phone and checked Google maps to head back to where Deb had been right. Aside from that, it was a great couple of days paddling. There was a couple who set off from Jones Lock when we did - they were taking 2 weeks to paddle the entire length of the Canal, camping along the way. Good for them.

We then made our way up to Ottawa to reconnect with the family there. Hadn't seen them in a long time either. Eric has a cottage on Lake Gilmore on the Quebec side of the Ottawa River. We spent a day there catching up and seeing for ourselves what the cottage and lake looked like. We brought the May Wests and Jos Louis' to finish off.

Then it was Canada Day. Oddly, we'd never been in Ottawa for Canada Day, so we took a (free for Canada Day!) bus downtown and saw the sights. And weren't alone. Lots of flag-carrying and waving Canadians down by the Parliament Buildings area. They had closed the Alexandra Bridge to car traffic for the day, so we walked across the river there to the Gatineau side.

Back on the Ottawa side, Deb wanted to visit an art gallery - the Gordon Harrison Canadian Landscape Gallery. Then I was reminded that Deb had shared a few classes at McGill University with Gordon; it's not the first time she's popped in to the gallery. He wasn't at the shop, but one of his employees called him to let him know she'd visited.

Finally we made a dash to Montreal to see Richard's uncle Dick and aunt Angie. It was great to see them, and Dick was having a good day. He would pass within a month. We also went out to Ile Perrot for smoked meat with cousin Peter, Agnes and their daughter Ariane (who had spent a week with us in 2012) and her boyfriend Victor. Yummmm.

Then back home.