Miss Hattie's Loop: O Canada, O Canada

We've arrived in Canada! After leaving Cayuga Lake we went back to Baldwinsville to do some more visiting with Sherry and her ex, Dick, and Linda B. Sherry took us all over the place in her little MiniCooper; it was much appreciated. We ate at a town institution, the B-ville Diner, with Linda and had a good visit on the boat. Gary came up from Cayuga to deliver some trout that he had caught, and he and Bob visited the old homestead on Fay Rd.

After all the visiting we reluctantly departed Central NY and cruised up the Oswego Canal to Lake Ontario. We crossed the lake on Bastille Day; it was a bit rocky with 3 footers about 3 points off our port quarter; the wind really picked up during the last 4 miles of the crossing (remember, we only go 8 mph, so that was about a half hr of 4 footers). We ducked in between two of the 'thousand islands' on the St Lawrence and all was good.

We've stayed in Kingston, ON for two days. It's a lovely town of old stone block bldgs and fortifications; it was the first capital of Canada (1841) and Sir John A McDonald, the 1st governor is much celebrated. The batteries were set up to keep those nasty Americans from attacking the Rideau canal.

We're now heading to the Trent-Severn Canal - we'll take a couple of days to get to its beginning and then it will take about 2 weeks to cross over to Georgian Bay. We expect to stop in Petersborough to visit with Hugh and Sheri Grant; they finished their loop about 10 days ago.