A ride on the Rideau Canal
/by Anna
We decided to have a 'tourist in our own city' day and took a ride on Paul's Boatlines Cruise, of the Rideau Canal. I have lived here (almost) my whole life and I have not been since the mid '80s. Hubby has lived here his whole life and never taken the tour. So that was settled.
We headed downtown to find the ticket booth, which was located right in front of the Conference Center across from the Chateau Laurier. We were happy to see that they took interac as well as most major credit cards because we completely forgot to stop at a bank machine before heading downtown. We thought we picked a perfectly cool day and even brought sweaters for the kids, but Mother Nature has been playing havoc on us this summer and we were melting before we left the docks. After purchasing our tickets we followed the signs that directed us to where the boats are docked beside the Conference Center.
We travel Colonel By Drive all the time, but for this ride we got to see it from the water, so lovely and so green this year.
Our tour guide was funny and resourceful and we met some very nice folks from New York, so it really was like being a tourist in our own city. We passed this beautiful walking bridge and J yelled, "Hey that is where we skate in the Winter!" to which we replied, "we skate down this whole canal." J was so amused and thought it was pretty cool that we were now boating on the same place that we usually only skate.
The cruise down the canal took just over an hour and we were hot and hungry so we had a lovely brunch on the Market.
If you are running out of fun things to do this summer, we recommend taking a cruise, you get to see our wonderful city from a whole different angle.
Anna is a proud stepmom (18yrs) and mom (7 & 3 yrs) and blogs her quest to get to the Beach every year as well as everything in between at Life is Good...At the Beach. Anna is also a photographer, her portfolio can be viewed at Anna Epp Photography, and is often spotted around town with her trusty Nikon by her side.
