July 9….Short night…boaters behind us or someone in the park partied til the wee hours…makes it hard for us old folks to sleep…Cooler temps will make this slow rise more pleasant.

As we peeked out this morning, there came our PRINCE ARTHUR friends…with tips about this flight of eight…so Robbie and Floyd climbed the hill to visit the lockmaster. Stacy, Jazzy, Dakota and I watched another boat arrive…now there are four of us. Once we start, there will be no stopping….they tell us the UP process takes two hours. “Going up” group of four goes first today…we are told to always enter and leave the locks in the same order…we are first and port side…ready, set, go… No relaxing this morning… third cable from the door…fenders at the rub rail…but then fenders constantly need adjustment as often getting to the top of the lock wall leaves only inches of concrete separating us from grass…It is truly a fascinating set of old locks…I’d say there were thousands of tourists along the banks and at the top of the Wellington Street Bridge watching the operation. So today in Ottawa, we were part of the tourist attraction!

Sure enough, two hours later and we are at “our spot” in downtown Ottawa. PRINCE ARTHUR   joined us on the wall and requested some assistance lowering their mast in order to meet clearance requirements on the rest of the canal.   We were also able to share some Skipper Bob notes with them. They don’t plan to stay. We freshened up a bit and headed off in search of lunch and to see Parliament Hill as well as visit the largest open-air market in North America.  Hard boat work and playing tourist required a bit of a nap late afternoon.

We are planning to try the new “meat” tonight…”rosette escalope de boeuf”…looks like steak wrap/ London broil…The pork souvlaki last night was good so we have high hopes for this one as well.

Tomorrow we head west… hard to predict or make plans about how far or how fast we can go…too many locks and low bridges…our original goal was to go 40 miles a day…but who knows???  We do plan to make a stop for gas/pump out tomorrow…but there is no need to rush as the bridges and locks won’t operate before 9 AM.  In many ways, these Parks Canada folks are my kind of people!!!