Sun Aug 28: Montebello to Hull Marina/Ottawa

Just as an unimportant aside, it was a bad night because, part way through the night, a terrible animal smell wafted over the marina.  Maybe a skunk, but very overwhelming. It was so strong that I started thinking of the Yeates poem about 'what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Bethlehem to be born...." That scared me so much that I couldn't sleep for the rest of the night.  I'm telling you, as my friend Kim says, at night my brain is not my friend.

It was a lovely day on the water, but HOT and perhaps a bit TOO sunny.  We finally got to Ottawa - only three weeks late.  We had hoped to be here with William/Le, but ... things happened.  As they say in the military - we were overcome by events.

The trip from Montebello was uneventful.  Just one ferry crossing outside of Ottawa, that had 4 moving ferries on different trajectories.  That was a little exciting.

You can see 3 crossing behind us - the 4th is just getting ready to shove off!

One of the first rules of the Loop is that you should avoid traveling on the weekend.  Which we somehow forgot.  It was extra busy on the water today, with the Canadians acting like summer mayflies as per usual - it being close to the end of summer, and a major city area.  At one point we counted 40 boats, just in our vicinity, zooming around heedlessly.  (We call these little day-trippers 'mosquitos').  We (the turtle) lumber down the river and they just fly harmlessly around us - dropping their tubing passengers accidentally in our way, dropping their fishing line in our path, waking us from all sides...  It was a boating extravaganza!

Coming into Ottawa, high on the hill, the first sight is the American Embassy.

Next comes the Canadian Prime Minister's house, with the French Embassy to the right.

We were very happy to get to a marina that offered a pump-out, as we were getting a bit FULL.  It you know what I mean.  Once the poop was off-loaded, we tied up, did some laundry (FREE!!) and walked out to get Thai food for dinner.

We are across from Ottawa, in an area called Gatineau.  Still speaking French, over here.

Speaking of French, it has just occurred to me, now that my brain is thinking in French, that the childhood song Alouette, Gentille Alouette, is TERRIBLE.  What the HELL???...  It's a song meant to teach body parts, but really what it is saying is 'dear lark, first I'll pull your head off, then your beak, etc'.  ACK.  It's even more terrible then Ring Around The Rosy....

We were too sun/heat struck to do more than collapse into our bed, with the AC on full.  Whew...

I guess this is what you can enjoy if you don't have to spend money on the traditional offspring?!