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| One of many cathedrals on the St Lawrence River |
When leaving Quebec City we cruised west on the St.
Lawrence River with our next sightseeing destination of Montreal. We waited three days in Trois Rivieres for
the weather to improve and we were then rewarded with warm sunny weather the rest
of the summer. The satellite map below
shows the route we took - going north from Lake Champlain, turning east on the
St Lawrence River to Quebec City, backtracking west on the St Lawrence to
Montreal, and then west on the Ottawa River to Ottawa, and finally following
the Rideau Canal to Kingston, Ontario.
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| Summer 2016 travel is displayed in purple |
We arrived at Kingston two days before Labor Day and
cruised to a picturesque anchorage for the holiday weekend. We stayed in one of the Canadian Provincial
Parks mooring ball sites and enjoyed watching many boats moving on the St
Lawrence, some east and some west.
Our entry into the Montreal Yacht Club harbor was
somewhat nerve wracking since the approach is famous for the swift
current. We made it with just a little slip
siding, and then we spent time watching other boats crossing the current and
entering the yacht club docking area.
Click on the arrow in the picture to see a boat making its way across the current. Believe it or not, the boat is trying to come straight towards the yellow marks in the front of the picture.
Montreal is an interesting city, with an old section and
a new section. We took a scenic walk through
Old Town, going by many of the historic buildings.
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| Maisonneuve
was the first governor of Montreal. |
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| Interior of Notre Dame Basilica (photo from web) |
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| Notre Dame Basilica |
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| Montreal-Museum-of-Archaeology |
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| Old Montreal Museum |
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| An amazing climbing structure in Old Port Montreal |
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| The clock tower at night |
That evening we walked around the harbor and returned to
the boat in time to watch the international fireworks competition display from
Estonia. Both Montreal and Ottawa have an
annual international pyrotechnique competition.
Each country entered in the competition has one night to put on a
fireworks display which is coordinated with music. The one in Montreal is done over and near the
Jacques Cartier Bridge. It was a
spectacular display with some fireworks which we had not seen before.
Click on the arrows below to see some of the fireworks.
Have you ever seen the “smiley face” fireworks. This is the first time we have seen them.
After leaving old port Montreal, we traveled to one of
the western most suburbs of Montreal, Lachine.
We enjoyed the many parks and waterways in Lachine.
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| An interesting position for canoeing. Is this for speed? |
On our second day we decided to take our dinghy on the
Lachine Canal and go to old port Montreal, a distance of ten miles from our
dock. Intermittent rain showers were
forecast, so we packed our rain coats and headed out in the dinghy. The rain held off until we arrived in old port,
but then it poured just as we were served lunch at the dockside café. Luckily they had tables under a weather proof
roof on their porch. After about an hour
it looked like the rain was over, we started to leave, but a waiter whipped out
his smart phone and told us to wait a few minutes. Within five minutes it started to pour again. This time it only lasted about fifteen
minutes. When we got to the dinghy it
was half full of water and the café workers were amazed that it hadn’t sunk.
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| Start of the Lachine Canal |
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| View from the Lachine Canal |
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| Holding our AGLCA burgee |
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| The Daniel McAllister tug boat docked in the Lachine Canal in downtown Montreal |
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| Atwood Market on the Lachine Canal |
On our way back to the marina we stopped at Atwood Market, a well known
farmer’s market in Montreal. It has been
in existence since 1933 and is a very popular shopping area.
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| A Berry booth |
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| Neatly displayed fruit booth |
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| Bakery display at Atwood Market |
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| A canal boat used as a restaurant. If Atwood Market didn't have a restaurant you liked, this restaurant has a good view |
The highlight of our summer was having our daughters,
son-in-law and grandchildren join us on the boat. They met us near Montreal and stayed with us
for nine days. Planning for their visit
was complicated since we all wanted to travel on the boat and still have some time
to enjoy Ottawa, the capital city of Canada.
We finally decided to stay in Ottawa for two nights and then to make small
boat moves west on the Rideau Canal. We
reserved two hotel rooms each night at different towns along the route that we
would be passing through. Our grandchildren
wanted to sleep on the boat every night so the visiting adults spent the nights
in hotels. This turned out to be a good
way to accommodate all of us.
Finn and Stella, our grandchildren, had never seen our
boat before. They seemed to enjoy life
on a boat and are ready to come aboard whenever possible. They each took time to write about their trip
and even gave us the following blog entry to include in our postings.
To start their blog,
Click on the link below. To return to this posting after reading their blog, press the back arrow and return here.
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