July 8….breakfast and grocery shopping…we hope this is our last true French encounter…as today we cross out of Quebec province into Ontario… while it hasn’t been bad…it has certainly given personal experience to the phrase “strangers in a foreign land”.  Grocery shopping is our most interesting experience…fruits and veggies are lovely…meats are usually well displayed and labeled in both French and English…the rest is a crap shoot. Floyd says even the photos on the boxes are in French!!! LOL…we’ve decided to do without a few things…but basically we’ve figured it out. Plus we are really liking the exchange rate…80 cents American to the Canadian dollar…we win!!! Though gas sold by the liter at $1.50 takes it all back!!! I’m guessing that we’ll be spending lots of time tied to lock walls as we’ve already bought a seasonal mooring pass for that…and marina’s charge by the foot. And sometimes even at marina’s, there is no electric…I’m just hoping the temps stay cool…that’s why we’re here, of course.

The ride into Ottawa was uneventful and just like we like it…cool and sunny…smooth waters…except for boat wakes. Can I mention the three ferry boats crossing back and forth back and forth…timing on that was a little tricky, but Captain Floyd, once again, proved superior!!! Long pleasant hours of boredom…no moments of excitement or sheer terror!!!

We arrived at the Ottawa lock wall as planned…after closing …so we will spend the night on the blue line at the bottom of the flight of eight…yes, you heard me…eight locks…one leads to the other…up 80 feet into the heart of downtown Ottawa. Lock opens at 9:00 AM and depending on which way goes first…we plan to be on the lock wall at the top by noon. We’ll spend the rest of the day playing tourist then head on toward Kingston on Friday. We walked the lock and picked our mooring spot tonight after supper. All looks good….