Day 8: August 6
The morning of Day 8 saw me horribly hungover. My stomach’s reminder to me that one should not drink 2 rum and cokes, then follow them up with several glasses of wine. Bad idea, mixing grains and grapes.

We loaded up the car and headed west. Once we got into New York a ways, we turned north. Following small backroad highways, leading us ever onward to Watertown. In Watertown, we joined up with 81, which took us to the Thousand Islands Bridge. It was my first time crossing at this border crossing, and I must say it’s quite a bridge. Up and over you go, over the water.

The 401 whisked us off towards Brockville. Then, we headed for Merrickville and Smith Falls where the in-laws live. We arrived in time for a very tasty dinner.

Day 9: August 7
Day 9 was spent blissfully quiet. The only time we ventured out was to get fresh corn on the cob for dinner and to see the alpacas. They looked extremely funny for they had recently been shorn. Their bodies and necks were shaved clean off leaving tuffs of fiber on their legs and heads. Funny.

Day 10: August 8
Day 10 we had plans in Merrickville, which apparently was named Canada’s most beautiful village. On the left, you can see the Merrickville lock station on the Rideau Canal. This is the lock station the husband worked at. The locks are operated manually with big gears and chains. If you enlarge the picture, you can see the gears for this gate.

We were at the lock station to meet up with the Kawartha Voyageur.

The husband worked as a deckhand on this boat. So, he and his family know the captain, and it was arranged for us to meet up with the boat and get on for a ride down to the next lock station where the in-laws would pick us up.

The section of the canal that we went down is called the Kilmarnock Reach. Part of it is a bird sactuary. It is beautiful, simply put. I had forgotten what real green looks like. Living in California, you become used to spending 8-9 months a year surrounded by dull golden brown hills with dark green live oak trees. There’s no variation in shades of green. The northeast has multiple shades of green, dark, light, everything inbetween. I almost missed living out east, just have to keep reminding myself about the snow.

When we got back into Merrickville, I got to go into the store run by the people from the alpaca farm. I found a beautiful woven alpaca/mohair shawl. I also got the only yarn purchased on the whole trip — alpaca, cashmere, and silk — 2 skeins. There was also spinning fiber — alpaca, cashmere, silk, and wool. They raise nice fiber.

A quick spin by the Hersey factory for chocolate covered almonds (I haven’t found any that taste better here), then onto dinner with friends in Brockville.

The next day would see us leaving Canada. But, before we went I did manage to get my first butter tart (although I thought it was wonderful, I’m not sure how is stacks up in available butter tarts as it was from Tim Horton’s… mmm, Tim Horton’s… we don’t have anything comparable here). The only sad part of my Canadian sorjourn was the lack of Canadian beer. So, we hit The Beer Store before we left and picked up a two-four of Upper Canada Lager. Tasty. 🙂