Mon Sept 5: Smiths Falls

Any day that involves a late start is a good one, if you ask me! And then Rick made us yummy breakfast sandwiches 🥰. So it was already a tip-top day when we left the boat at 11am. 

The priority for the day was haircuts.  My hairs grows like a Chia Pet, and it has been too long since we gave each other hair cuts in Quebec City.  In spite of it being a holiday, we found the Vintage Barbershop open and willing.  Tomorrow is back-to-school for the kids here, so he had been doing a lot of kid cuts and was happy to have us instead.  He was a little reluctant to do my hair, but once I convinced him I wanted it all shaved except the top he was all in! Now I’ll be good until I get back to my gal in Atlanta (who will be horrified by my new butch look!).

We took the self-guided Heritage Walk around town.  Smiths Falls was one is the few canal towns to prosper because they were making materials for the railroads.  There were a couple of cool old buildings, but I don’t think you need to put it on your Life Bucket List. After Labor Day these small canal towns basically roll up the sidewalks.

The Rideau Canal symbol.

I’m interested to hear that a bong is now a back-to-school necessity.

 

After a quick bite out for lunch, at the most average diner on the planet, we found a few more groceries (and puzzles!) to buy at Walmart and called it a day.

This basin is home to the Le Boat Canadian branch.  Le Boat is a European company that provides canal boats, without requiring experience or licensing. Isn’t that terrifying?! We’ve seen a number of them on the Rideau, and they are good-looking practical boats.  They are wrapped in bumper protection-which is actually something we could have used.

We spent a quiet night planning our final Rideau routes - and the sky, again, gave us a show.

The water tower looks quite nice at dusk!