On Monday July 22 we left Cobourg and continued east to Kingston, arriving about noon. We were met by Ryan Brown, husband of Rhonda’s mom’s cousin Dianne, who directed us to a parking spot and then took us to their huge condo apartment overlooking Lake Ontario and the mouth of Cataraqui River (which leads to the start of the Rideau Canal), where we met Dianne. They served us a wonderful lunch, then Ryan took us on a driving tour of town, including the military college, ending at a marina where he keeps his boat. We then had a quick boat cruise in the Cataraqui harbor area before picking up Dianne right below their condo, and continued our cruise west along the lakeshore then east into the St. Lawrence River at the western end of the Thousand Islands. Ryan then dropped us all off near the condo and we had a walking tour of the area, including the City Hall where Sir John A. MacDonald was a councilor before confederation, while Ryan took the boat back to the marina. Then it was back to the condo, where Ryan and I barbequed dinner while watching the girls in the swimming pool, and Rhonda and Dianne visited and prepared the rest of the dinner. After dinner the girls went swimming again, and later we watched some videos of their daughter Janey, who is featured in the theme song for TSN Friday Night Football among other things. We left about 11:00 PM after a great visit, and parked the RV for the night in a parking lot down by the lakeshore. Another hot, sunny day.
Tuesday July 23 was another busy day. I had set my alarm early, and I just started driving as soon as I was dressed, stopping at a Timmy’s on the outskirts of Kingston. We continued north to Perth, with a brief stop at Rideau Ferry to allow everybody else to get dressed and give Salty a walk. We arrived at the home of Elinore Kaarsberg (mother of our good friend Kathleen Kaarsberg from just down the street from our house) just before 10:00. Kathleen and Darryl (Vezina), and their kids Paige (one of Shannon’s best friends) and Spencer were staying there, as part of their annual summer vacation. Shortly after that, all of us except Elinore and Salty got into two vehicles (driven by Darryl and Kathleen) and drove east to Ottawa, across the river to Gatineau, Quebec, and north to Chelsea where Kathleen’s sister Chris has an ice cream shop (La Cigale). We decided to defer having ice cream until later, but waited for Darryl’s friend Chris and his son John to arrive, then drove north to the Lac Philippe area of Gatineau Park, from where we hiked for about an hour and a half to the Lusk Caves, which a creek flows through. All of us except Chris and John, who had to leave, waded through the caves once or twice, and there was one section where we had to swim under a low rock to get from one section of the cave to another. The kids were tired and the sky was turning black, so Darryl and I hustled back to the vehicles and got permission from the park staff to drive through the campsite, which shortened everybody else’s hike by about 1 km. We got to the others just as the rain started, and the deluge continued as we reached the ice cream, but luckily they have a large covered porch where we could get out of the rain. Chris couldn’t be there, but her husband George arrived a short time later (the soccer practice he was supposed to coach having been rained out), and sprung for an ice cream cone for all of us. We then returned to Perth for a Chinese food dinner, and I got to play harmonica along with Darryl’s guitar. We slept in the RV in Elinore’s driveway that night.
The Vezinas had plans for Wednesday and we didn’t want to be in their way, so we had a quick breakfast, said our thank-you’s and good-byes, and headed into Ottawa, with a stop in Carleton Place for some supplies. We followed the signs for the tourist information centre downtown, but the parking for that was in a parkade, which was no good for our RV. We eventually found a place on the edge of the parliamentary precinct where they allowed us to park for the day, and walked along the Ottawa River towards Parliament Hill. Again, Salty had to stay behind in the RV. We had tours of the East Block (several rooms restored to how they were in 1872) and Centre Block of the Parliament Buildings, then walked a few blocks into town to the tourist information centre. I then walked back to get the vehicle, picked the others up at the info. centre, and drove to the Ottawa Municipal Campground in Kanata, where we stayed the night.
We got up early on Thursday July 25 to head back into town to see the Changing of the Guard at parliament hill. I dropped Rhonda and the girls off at the hill and drove to an RV-friendly parking lot that the tourist info. folks had told us about, but I got off course due to some construction and ended up crossing the river into Gatineau and back before finding the lot, and even then it was a challenge parking the motorhome. As such, I missed all but the last five minutes of the ceremony, but they tell me it was good! We then crossed the street to see the war memorial and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and watched some boats transiting the Rideau locks from the level of the Ottawa River up to the level of the Rideau Canal. Next we headed to Rideau Centre mall for lunch and did some shopping, and then drove to Rideau Hall, home of the Governor General, where we had another very interesting tour. We then headed east out of town, past the RCMP stables (where the horses used in the Musical Ride live), and continued east to a campsite at Voyageur Provincial Park on the Ontario/Quebec border, with a stop in Hawkesbury on the way. This was the last of 20 nights in a row that we spent in Ontario – it’s been great, but it’s time to move on to Quebec and points east.
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