Ottawa

Our last lock between Ottawa and Montreal was Carillion.  It is the only lock we’ve been through that uses a lifting gate instead of 2 opening doors.  It was quite imposing.

Carillion lock

On our first night in the Ottawa area we were surprised to find a quiet anchorage on the Hull side of the Ottawa River.  By carefully following the chart and slowly making our way in we found a small spot in a side stream that was large enough just for us and the kayakers going by.  Our last spot for peace and quiet for a while.

Our first full day in Ottawa was spent climbing the Rideau Canal flight locks.  It takes almost three hours to get through and is surprisingly tiring.  Luckily, we had help in the form our friend Tonya from University that we haven’t seen in 20 years and her family.  Having so many hands to grab lines and fend off from other boats whose captains didn’t know what they were doing was a real treat. As it was a summer Sunday the locks were lined with onlookers using us as their afternoon entertainment.  I am pleased to report that we performed like champs and didn’t do anything embarrassing.

Flight from the bottom...

... and the top

Once through the locks we went back to Tonya’s house and were treated like royalty with a home cooked meal, free laundry, and – gasp – a bath! Reg brought me a cup of tea while I soaked with a bath bomb the colour of blue Gatorade.  It was a close to heaven as I’m likely to get.

Not me

For the next few days we were serious tourists visiting the National Art Gallery, The Museum of History (formerly the Museum of Civilization, formerly the Museum of Man), and the changing of the guard at Parliament Hill.

In high school Reg worked at the National Art Gallery as a security guard.  Actually, as a guy who told people to back away from the art and where to find the Voice of Fire (more on that in a minute).  Any serious threats would have been taken care of by whoever was at the other end of his radio.

Just like in New York at the Guggenheim I was a fish out of water.  Some of the art I could appreciate.  What Canadian doesn't appreciate the Group of Seven?

Some of the art I didn’t get at all:

"My icons differ from a Byzantine Christ held in majesty.  They are dumb, anonymous and inglorious... My icons do not raise up the blessed savior in elaborate cathedrals. They are constructed concentrations celebrating barren rooms".That is a lot to pack into a white box with an offset fluorescent tube on top.

Lexier's practice explores universal concerns about aging and mortality, measurement and accumulation. This work reflects the artist's interest in comparative relationships.

  

???

Among the art I didn’t get was the aforementioned Voice of Fire.  Anyone who was in Canada in the late 80s must remember this work.  It was incredibly controversial at the time as the gallery spent $1.8 million on it and it was painted by an American!  While doing a little research for the blog I learned that it hung upside down for 3 years before anyone noticed which suggests to me that even the curator didn’t understand it.  The painting’s value is now estimated at $40 million so I guess the gallery shouldn’t have been criticized so much after all.

Worth 1.8 million?

Next up in the tourist tour of Ottawa was the changing of the guard on Parliament Hill.  We wouldn’t have known about this if the new guard hadn’t proceeded down the canal past our boat every morning at precisely 9:45. We went to the hill with our American friends on Darwin.  I imagine they knew Canadians had pretty strong British ties but I’m not sure they really got it until we witnessed this spectacle:

OK, so I had a bunch of better photos of the guards but this puppy was too cute to not include.

The final stop on our tour was the Museum of History, particularly the Franklin Expedition exhibit. The expedition, named for its leader Sir John Franklin, left England with 2 ships in 1845 in search of the North West Passage.  They never returned home.  For 20 years more than 30 expeditions searched for the crew of the 2 ships and, while they were able to trace their route up until they were forced to abandon their ships in 1848 after 18 months stuck in the ice, they found no sign of the vessels. In 2008, Parks Canada began a fresh search for the ships.  HMS Erebus was located in 2014, HMS Terror two years later. Apparently, there is an AMC series about the Terror but since they added a monster to the story I don’t think I’ll be checking it out.

The monster AMC inexplicably added.

We also did a little shopping since we were moored right downtown.  Somehow, I was actually able to resist this:

Fluevog

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